Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 2001, pages 89-94

Waging Peace

Arab-Christian Suffering in the Holy Land

The Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF) devoted a weekend of discussion to the suffering of Christians in Israel and the occupied territories. In the span of two days, Oct. 19 and 20, over a dozen individuals from America and the Middle East came together to enlighten the public on Arab-Christian suffering in the Holy Land, and the consequent rapid decline of Christian devotees in the region.

The Washington, DC conference, entitled “The Forgotten Faithful: Arab-Christian Suffering in the Holy Land,” was opened by HCEF president Rateb Rabie, who emphasized the indispensable role of Christians in bringing peace to the Holy Land. Describing Christians there as “an important bridge between East and West,” Rabie called for a reunification of Christians world-wide, a unity reflective of the original brotherhood of Christianity. A unified body in Christ, he said, would allow the Christian community to focus its efforts on preserving, upholding and furthering the Christian faith in the Holy Land. “Our mother needs our help,” Rabie told his audience.

Duane Burchick, director of the HCEF Child Sponsorship Program, added a tone of urgency to this plea for help. In May of 2001, Burchick participated in an HCEF Fact Finding Mission to the Holy Land. He conveyed in words, and portrayed through photos, the extent of suffering that has befallen Arab Christians. “Things are much worse than we expected,” he said.

It has been reported that many Palestinians are unemployed and suffering from food shortages. According to Burchick, this is an understatement. He found that the majority of Palestinians are unemployed, and food is not just short, but scarce to the point of wide-ranging malnutrition among Palestinians. Beyond their economic distress, Palestinians are denied fundamental human rights enjoyed by their Israeli counterparts such as the right to a home (the demolition of Palestinian homes has become common practice), religious freedom (there is an inevitable discrimination against those Palestinians living within the Jewish state), and the right to life (more than 700 Palestinians have died since the beginning of the al-Aqsa intifada, while the Israeli death toll stands at less than 200).

The current conflict, Burchick stated, is produced and propagated by the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. “Decades of oppressive occupation, and the seizure of property for new settlements has given rise to an Arab outcry,” he said.

Burchick focused his discussion on Bethlehem, which he described as a holy city disrupted by the unholy acts of oppression. On Aug. 28, he noted, Israeli tanks invaded Bethlehem. “Every house in Bethlehem is in the direct line of sight of an Israeli big gun,” Burchick said. Once the seizure of Bethlehem began, he said, these guns methodically targeted homes. “Many hundreds have been hit in Bethlehem alone,” he said, adding that the Israeli policy seems to be, “leave or die.”

While the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have killed hundreds of Palestinians in Bethlehem, Burchick said that Palestinian Christians are now being targeted. On Aug. 14 and Aug. 27, he said, “the IDF moved into Beit Jala, into homes and churches.” On Aug. 28, Israeli soldiers occupied the Evangelical Lutheran Church there. The church served as a home to 50 orphaned children, who were held for two days without food or water. “Is that military courage?” he asked.

Arab Christians, Burchick argued, are suffering the same fate as Arab Muslims. The IDF uses military might to expel all those who inhibit Zionist pursuits, whether Muslim or Christian, he said. Grounded in the idea that the Holy Land belongs to the Jewish people alone, Burchick said, Zionism calls upon all Jews to re-inhabit their promised land. Thus, he noted, it requires the displacement of all non-Jews from the Holy Land. As a result, he said, the IDF destroys Palestinian homes as well as churches which provide protection, both physically and mentally, to dispossesed Palestinians.

“What would Jesus do?” Burchick asked. Following the example of the shepherds in antiquity, He said, “Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened.” We must not flee, He proclaimed. Rather, “we must muster the courage to stand with them.”

If the Church of the Holy Land is to survive, Burchick advised church leaders to demand political change in order to move toward a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Furthermore, he said, Christians must recognize that denominational differences do not undermine Christian unity. “The body is one with many members, but the many members make up one body,” he pointed out. “We must act in unity by supporting the decisions made by Palestinian church leaders.”

Finally, Burchick called for American Christians to “consider the ways in which they can participate and contribute to the peace efforts.” He suggested educating fellow Americans about the atrocities that have befallen Christians in the Holy Land, and explaining what is a just peace plan and what is not. When a just peace plan is presented, he said, Christians should support the American initiative to implement the plan. Only 2 percent of Palestinians in the occupied territories are Christians, Burchick said, and, unless Christians in America act now, this number will decline even further.

—Kristel Halter

Episcopal Bishops Protest Israeli Invasion

Christian leaders from around Massachusetts added their voices to those of Episcopal Bishops Roy F. Cederholm Jr., Barbara C. Harris and M. Thomas Shaw, who on Oct. 30 outside the Israeli consulate in Boston called for greater concern for Palestinian rights.

Following the dramatic local expression of Christian concern over the conduct of the Israeli government, Christians and Jews said they were worried that a growing divide over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict might endanger a relationship Christians and Jews have worked hard to forge since World War II.

Christian anger over Israeli conduct increased sharply after Israel invaded Bethlehem and a young Palestinian was shot in Manger Square by the Israel Defense Forces. “There is brokenheartedness for everyone who gets killed in the Middle East,” Rev. Nancy S. Taylor, the top minister of the Massachusetts conference of the United Church of Christ, told the Boston Globe. “We have to cry as many tears over Jewish deaths as Palestinian deaths.”

Taylor was among the Christian leaders who said they were worried about Palestinians since Israel invaded several West Bank towns.“The bishops did a provocative thing because they were trying to get people to take seriously the urgent situation there,” she said, “and while I’m sure it was difficult to do what they did, I think they’ve called attention to a very deep problem, and that is that there needs to be a Palestinian state within Palestine as well as a state of Israel.”

Bishop Margaret G. Payne, top official of the New England synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, agreed. “We certainly have sympathy with the Israeli victims of the suicide bombers who seem adamantly opposed to seeking peace,” Payne said. “But recently there’s been so much additional destruction of Palestinian homes and property, and we’re seeking for the media to tell the whole story. It’s true Israeli folks are getting killed by suicide bombers, but Palestinian children are being shot almost every day, and the story of all the oppression that the Palestinians are under doesn’t get told.”

The Rev. William G. Sinkford, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, told the Boston Globe, “I am increasingly concerned and convinced that moving toward real justice in that part of the world is going to require the United States to understand that there is more than one image of justice in that part of the world, and to understand that we have been participating in the creation of a world where the violence of Sept. 11 is imaginable, and part of that is our support of Israel.”

Metropolitan Methodios, the presiding hierarch of the Greek Orthodox Diocese of Boston, was one of many clerics who said the need for a Palestinian state is becoming more urgent. “I personally believe that unless a Palestinian state is founded or established very soon, that part of the world will have no peace,” Methodios said. “While I’m very supportive of the Jewish state, I believe Palestinians have to have a land of their own and a country of their own, or there’ll never be peace.”

—Delinda C. Hanley

McKinney Invites Uri Avnery, Jewish Peace Groups to Capitol Hill

Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) called a press conference Oct. 25 at the House Triangle to welcome to Capitol Hill Uri and Rachel Avnery, along with a coalition of American Jewish peace organizations. McKinney said she supported recent statements by President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell backing a viable Palestinian state. The Jewish peace activists visiting Capitol Hill, she added, “represent a new and vital voice that must be heard. I am pleased to stand with them today for peace and security for all in the Middle East.”

McKinney introduced one of Israel’s most celebrated peace activists, Uri Avnery, who has challenged Israeli assumptions about the Arab-Israel conflict for over half a century. In 1993 Avnery founded Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc), an Israeli organization dedicated to a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Jews United for a Just Peace (Junity) activist Charles Lenchner, Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel (JPPI) executive director Joshua Ruebner, and Not in My Name spokesman Steven Feuerstein each took the opportunity to address the Anti-Defamation League’s harsh attack on McKinney. The ADL had criticized the congresswoman for her Oct. 12 letter apologizing to Prince AlWaleed bin Talal, whose generous donation to New York City was returned by Mayor Rudolph Guiliani.

Ruebner also had words of praise for the Avnerys. During the past year, he noted, “some Israeli peace organizations have become silent and ineffective. Not so with Gush Shalom, which has been steadfast in its words and actions and has not wavered in its principled commitment to the cause of attaining a just peace for both Palestine and Israel.”

“Along with Gush Shalom,” Ruebner added, “JPPI and Junity are extremely concerned about the latest Israeli re-occupation of Palestinian cities, a flagrant violation of previously signed agreements which has led to the death of dozens of Palestinian civilians over the past few days. We call upon the government of the United States, both the Bush administration and Congress, to exercise its influence with Israel to end this latest round of aggression and to bring the parties back to the negotiating table.”

Susan Jacoby and Donna Spiegelman spoke on behalf of Boston Women in Black, who stand each month in a silent vigil on a crowded street corner in Boston to express their sorrow for the loss of life in Israel and Palestinian territories.

Jewish Women for Justice in Israel and Palestine talked about the enthusiastic welcome Uri Avnery received in synagogues and campuses during his U.S. tour.

Heidi Altman, speaking for Jews Against the Occupation-New York City, said she stood “with other progressive Jewish organizations as proof that the Jewish community does not have one monolithic voice of unconditional support for the Israeli government. Rather,” she said, “there is a growing national movement of American Jews who oppose the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and support the creation of a viable independent Palestinian state.”

Altman went on to suggest a suspension of U.S. military aid until Israel’s military withdraws from occupied territories, dismantles Jewish settlements and recognizes the Palestinian right of return.

The activists said they hoped to encourage the Jewish peace movement in the U.S. and Israeli peace activists to join forces. They reminded the media that when Americans call for a just peace they are not working against the Jewish community or the state of Israel.

“Those who love and support Israel have a duty to tell Israel what it’s doing is right or wrong,” Avnery concluded. “Daily bloodletting in occupied Palestine creates a terrible anger and rage. The U.S. has a vital interest in solving the bloodletting. It is ineffective to bomb Afghanistan and pursue Osama bin Laden just as things are happening in Israel to create a new breeding ground for hatred and terrorism.”

Lincoln Shlensky, from a Jewish Voice for Peace, said, “The U.S. must give the two sides incentive to return to peaceful negotiation, and threaten sanctions if they do not.”

—Delinda C. Hanley

Alternative Nobel Prize for Gush Shalom, Uri and Rachel Avnery

On Oct. 4 the jury for “The Right Livelihood Award,” more popularly known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” announced that among this year’s award recipients are Gush Shalom and Uri and Rachel Avnery. The presentation ceremony will take place Dec. 7 at the Swedish parliament in Stockholm, where, a day later, the official Nobel Prizes will be awarded.

In its award announcement the jury said that “Gush Shalom and its co-founders Uri and Rachel Avnery…have shown the way to peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and worked for several decades with courage and dedication to promote its acceptance and implementation.”

The jury commended “the Avnerys and all Gush Shalom activists for their unwavering conviction in the most difficult and dangerous circumstances that peace and an end to terrorism can only be achieved through justice and reconciliation.”

The Alternative Nobel Prize was founded in 1980 “to honor and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today.” Jacob von Uexkull, a Swedish-German philatelic expert, sold his valuable postage stamps to provide the original endowment. Von Uexkull felt that the more institutionalized Nobel Prize ignores much work and knowledge vital to the future of humankind.

As is the case every year, four recipients will receive the award. The three other laureates are the British anti-nuclear organization Trident Ploughshares; Leonardo Boff, Brazil, one of the founders of liberation theology in Latin America; and José Antonio Abreu, the founder of Venezuela’s system of children’s orchestras. For information about Gush Shalom visit its Website: <http://www.gush-shalom.org/>, which contains the Boycott List of Products of Settlements and also details debunking the myth of “Barak’s Generous Offers” in Hebrew and English, with maps.

—Courtesy Gush Shalom

2001 Aga Khan Award for Architecture

After considering 427 projects, a distinguished jury recently selected 10 winners of the 2001 Agha Khan Award. The 49th hereditary imam of the Shi’a Imami Ismaili Muslims established the Agha Khan Award for Architecture in 1977. Each architectural design tries to enhance living conditions or productivity in diverse communities around the world in order to reverse the flow of migration or the deterioration of the environment.

The recipients of the 2001 Agha Khan Award for architecture are:

•New Life for Old Structures produced 30 urban revitalization and development initiatives in 21 cities throughout Iran. Historicial buildings were acquired, restored and turned into public facilities to benefit local communities.

•Iktel improved living conditions, social services and infrastructure in Abadou, a rural community in Morocco.

•The philosphy of Barefoot Architects in Tilonia, India is based on the belief that village communities develop and maintain a vast store of knowledge that has been devalued and is even dying in recent times as people migrate to cities for jobs. To counter this, Bunker Roy developed a program to train people in their local skills at Barefoot College in the rural Indian state of Rajasthan.

•Kahere Eila Poultry Farming School in Koliagbe, Guinea houses classrooms, dormitories and teachers’ residences set in a rural environment.

•The Nubian Museum celebrates and preserves the Nubian culture and includes display areas, educational and training faclities, and outdoor spaces for community events in the city of Aswan in Egypt.

•The SOS Children’s Village complex features clusters of individual houses built with traditional materials set in a compound with play areas and other communal facilites in Aqaba, Jordan.

•The Olbia Social Center is a complex for students and teachers, with spaces open for public use to bind together the Akdeniz University campus in Antalya, Turkey.

•Bag-e-Ferdowsi is a park set in the foothills of the Alborz Mountains outside Tehran, Iran and features paths and areas for picnicking and entertainment.

•The Datai Hotel is surrounded by beach, an untouched rain forest, swamps, stream and wildlife in Pulau Langkawi, Malaysia.

•The Chairman’s Award celebrates the lifetime works of Geoffrey Bawa, who for more than 40 years subtly blended modernity and tradition, East and West, formal and picturesque as he designed houses, schools, hotels and public buildings around the world.

—Delinda C. Hanley 

U.S. Mideast Policy Sparks Another Demonstration

Carrying signs exhorting the U.S. to end its brutal Middle East policies, end the war against Afghanistan, and stop racist infringements on civil liberties at home, a crowd of some 200 protesters outside The Washington Post offices swelled to almost 1,000 during a march through the streets of the nation’s capital. International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) chose the Post offices in protest of the slanted media coverage of U.S. Middle East policy as well as the almost non-existent coverage of a rapidly growing anti-war movement in the U.S.

From the Post, demonstrators marched as close to the White House as new regulations would permit. After speeches pointing out the injustice of this curtailment of free speech and freedom of assembly, marchers continued on to FBI headquarters and the Justice Department, located across the street from each other. More speeches protested both the war in Afghanistan and infringements on civil rights before the crowd moved on to the First Congregational United Church of Christ for a teach-in.

Sarah Sloan of International ANSWER introduced the program with a report on the plight of Afghan children, citing UNICEF’s prediction that 100,000 will die in the upcoming winter as a result of the U.S. bombing campaign. Other speakers included attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, who addressed the issue of the recently passed “USA PATRIOT Act,” which permits serious inroads into the civil liberties of all Americans in the name of fighting terrorism; Kikuchi Sadanori of the Japanese Council against Hydrogen and Atomic Bombs who, with his colleagues, journeyed from Japan to stand in solidarity with the anti-war movement in the U.S.; Damu Smith of Black Voices for Peace, who said that peace with justice must include justice for all in the region, but must specifically include peace and justice for Palestinians; and this reporter, who spoke on U.S. aid to Israel.

Brian Becker of International ANSWER launched the “Pledge for Peace” program, which asks Americans against U.S. policy in the Middle East to sign a pledge for peace to be sent to the U.S. government. This pledge may be signed online at <http://www.internationalanswer.org/pledge.html>.

—Sara Powell

Salman Abu Sitta Presents Plan for Refugees’ Return

Dr. Salman Abu Sitta, an internationally renowned researcher on Palestinian refugees, presented a plan for the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes on Sept. 26 in Westminster Hall, London before an audience of MPs, diplomats, journalists and non-governmental organization representatives interested in the Middle East. The plan, if implemented, should bring an end to the 53-year-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Supported by two dozen maps and tables, Abu Sitta showed that 90 percent of the depopulated Palestinian villages could be repopulated without the slightest effect on Israeli Jews. Of the remaining 10 percent, 7 percent can return with some adjustment and 3 percent will have some difficulty in returning.

He presented figures showing that all the refugees in Gaza, Syria and Lebanon, who experience the greatest hardship, are equal in number to the Russian immigrants admitted to Israel in the 1990s, more than half of whom are not Jews. The return of Palestinian refugees will hardly be felt in Tel Aviv, he said.

Abu Sitta’s plan is divided into seven phases which would take from 8 to 10 years to implement. Refugees themselves, he pointed out, can provide the labor and technical skills to reconstruct their demolished homes.

He displayed a series of maps detailing the past, present and future locations of 530 towns and villages from which Israel expelled the refugees in 1948, and also included urban plans of the 14 Palestinian cities that now are in Israel.

Abu Sitta demolished Israel’s rejection of the Right of Return as false, alarmist or simply inapplicable. Instead he proposed a simple procedure to implement the Palestinian return, which includes:

• forming a Palestinian Land Commission to receive the transfer documents of Palestinian land from the Israel Land Administration.

• U.N. Security Council reaffirmation of Resolution 194 calling for the return of the refugees.

• reactivation of the Conciliation Commission on Palestine.

• the undertaking by UNRWA of repatriation operations.

Having demonstrated that there is no legal, demographic, geographic, economic, or logistical reason to deny the return of the refugees, Abu Sitta said the only remaining obstacle is Israel’s racist policies which are embodied in 24 laws condemned by U.N. agencies.

The event was organized by the London office of the Arab League, the Council for the Advancement of Arab British Understanding and the Palestinian Return Center.