Link Tour

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="057285a1erlcgo.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFCC66" FACE="Arial" ><B>TurnTheTide</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TurnTheTide"><U><B>home</B></U></A><B>   </B></div> <div> <A HREF="id89.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Americas Unique Opportunity 1"><U><B>America's Unique Opportunity 1</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id67.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Americas Unique Opportunity Documents"><U><B>America's Unique Opportunity Documents</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id37.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Peace plan"><U><B>Peace plan</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Voices of Peacemakers: stumbling blocks,"><U><B>Voices of Peacemakers: stumbling blocks, etc. </B></U></A><B>   |   </B><B>Link Tour</B><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links of Hope"><U><B>Links of Hope</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="More Links"><U><B>More Links</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id38.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Breakthrough Story Documents"><U><B>"Breakthrough Story" Documents</B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="056d2c00dkelyh.png"> <div> <B> </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="index_site_map.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TurnTheTide"><U><B>LINK TO SITE MAP</B></U></A></FONT></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I><B><U>QUOTES</U></B></I></div> <div> <I><B><U>from the first three stops on the Links Guided Tour:</U></B></I></div> <bR> <div> <B>"He was screaming. He kept trying to stop me, but I couldn't stop. It was all I could do. And the fact that he didn't want to hear, it was the only indication that maybe somewhere deep inside there is a piece of humanity still in tack in this boy."</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>"We are in a position of power. We couldn't stay silent. We have to tell the world. This power was brought by our disaster."</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>"The U.S. is reluctant and bored with the situation. And the rest of the world is going on as if blood has never been shed."</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>"A nation that cannot draw the line is doomed to eventually apply unethical measures against its own people. The worst in my mind is not what has already happened but what I am sure one day will."</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>"These children lost their lives because we, the adults, were not willing to work hard enough for peace." </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>"I spoke to him three of four times today. One time he said, 'I am talking to you from the floor because a tank is going by.' I listened to him and sometimes I cried. I told him, for me these soldiers who threaten your life now are helpless children. These are children who just finished school and should be involved in their first love affairs and not in killing."</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>"No one can tell me I don't know what's happening on the other side, because I talk to Palestinians every day, from the highest level of the leadership down to people in refugee camps. Every day. And I've been doing it, in the frameword of the Center for 14 years."</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>"Dear Friends: Yesterday our friend and colleague Isaac Saada from Bethlehem was killed by an Israeli missle fired from a helicopter... Issaac was a teacher involved in the IPCRI's Peace Education Project. The target of the missile was Omar Saada, Isaac's brother who the Israelis calim was a Hamas terrorist... Issac ran out of his house when he heard the explosions in his brother's yard and was then killed by a third missle fired to make sure the first two "did the job."</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>"Suddenly, after decades in the peace movement and hundreds of demonstrations under our belts, we discovered how little we know of the occupation and of the people living under it."</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>"When I arrived on the scene and managed to pass through the dozens of soldiers to reach the house, I found Salim lying beaten on the ground and his wife being carried unconscious to the hospital. Both had resisted the attempt to demolish their home, and both had been violently ejected from the house. The terrified children had scattered and were no t to be found."</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>"A month after the demolition of the Shawamreh home, ICAHD brought hundreds of Israelis to join local Palestinians in rebuilding the house. It was promptly demolished a second time by Israeli bulldozers, but we all decided to rebuild it yet again as a political act of resistance. When we all had finished the home for the third time, Salim said: "Together with Israelis who seek a just peace, we have built here a House of Peace." </B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>"House demolitions have become the hallmark of the Occupation... Since, 1967, Israel has demolished almost 9,000 Palestinian homes... The Right to a Home and a Homeland, www. rebuildinghomes.org, is a coordinated global campaign to rebuild demolished Palestinian homes as a means of building trust among two groups of people typically sworn off as "enemies." </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>"Welcome to our concentration camp. What the Germans did to us, we will do to you. What we went through, you will go through. Then you can find yourselves another nation to abuse, the way we are going to abuse you."</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>"At some deep psychological level I feel as if I personally came out from the place of Nazi destruction where I had personally cried out for help to an unseeing, unhearing, uncaring world... Every day I am the recipient of such desperate messages... I am in regular Internet communication with Palestinians and Israelis on the ground who describe in horrifying detail the wanton cruelty and deliberate destruction by Israeli forces of Palestinian life and civil instructions throughout the West Bank. And the accompanying message is always the same: "Tell the world what is happening here!"</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> </B></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Link Tour</I></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><U> <A NAME="introduction_to_links"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></U></B></div> <div> <B><U>INTRODUCTION TO LINKS TOURS</U></B></div> <div> <B>The "Links" were the main inspiration for the TurnTheTide web site. </B></div> <div> The Link documents present the "case for peace" primarily from the perspective of Israeli peacemakers. Additional documents come from Palestinian Muslims and Christians, American Jewish and Christian peace groups, and international observers. </div> <div> The case for war already has been widely advertised. There are many Internet web sites in Israel and the United States that list the reasons why peace between Israel and Palestine is impossible. Some of these lists will resemble the list we refer to as "Myths" on this web site. </div> <div> Who is right? What is real, and what is not? Is it all in the eye of the beholder? </div> <div> <B>We recommend that visitors to TurnTheTide also visit web sites that "behold" a different reality.</B></div> <div>  Check out sites that support Israel's occupation of Palestine and the Israeli settlements. Their position is that the Arab world is out to destroy the state of Israel, so Israelis have no choice but to continue the war. A good place to begin is the web site for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee:<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B> www.aipac.org</B></FONT>. That site will recommend additional sites. One recommended sites is: <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>www.israelinsider.com</B></FONT>. This site includes a map updated every day to show the location of Israeli and Palestinian military action with a list of victims. It will provide a tally of dead on both sides. (This will be the Israeli "count.") </div> <div> <B>Web sites that have been recommended to us for their balanced reporting on conflicting versions of the "war of terror" in the Holy Land include:</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> (1) "The Middle East Media Research Institute" which provides translations of current reports in Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew news media: <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>www.memri.org</B></FONT>. (2) the most independent Israeli daily newspaper "Ha'aretz": <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>www.haaretzdaily.com</B></FONT>. (3) the monthly "Jerusalem Report:" <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>www.jrep.com.</B></FONT> (4) the "Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information" which involves Israeli and Palestinian scholars in research and peace education projects: <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>www.ipcri.org.</B></FONT>  </div> <div> Documents in the Link Library will include dozens of additional web sites that have been valuable in developing TurnTheTide. Some of those are listed in the column on the left.</div> <div> <B><U>******************************************************</U></B><B><U> <A NAME="guided_tour_"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></U></B></div> <div> <I><B><U> <A NAME="the_guided_tour_includes_three_island"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></U></B></I><I><B><U>THE GUIDED TOUR includes three "Island Stops" and the following Links</U></B></I></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="#island__1_is_there_a_piece_of_humanity_1" TITLE="Link Tour"><U><B>Island #1</B></U></A><A HREF="#island__1_is_there_a_piece_of_humanity_1" TITLE="Link Tour"><U><B>:</B></U></A><B> Is there a piece of humanity still intact?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Neta Golan confronts the killer of her Palestinian retarded friend.</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">"Our daughter was killed by a suicide bomber."</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">"My son Arik was not murdered because he was Jewish but because he is part of the nation that occupies the territory of another."</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">"We talked about what happens to these soldiers when they come back to this society, and what sort of creatures they become."</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Israel's reverse lottery Palestinians don't want to win: HOUSE DEMOLITIONS.</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Ordinary people with an extraordinary vision: REBUILD THEIR HOUSES</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">"Welcome to our concentration camp" an Israeli-American love story: a Palestinian Human Rights worker will marry his Jewish defense attorney. </B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Combatants Letter: </B><I><B>COURAGE TO REFUSE</B></I><B> & Faculty Support Letter</B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="#island__2" TITLE="Link Tour"><U><B>Island #2</B></U></A><B>:</B><B> Waking up in America: we're asking for an accounting</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">"My universe is totally divided into those who know and those who don't"</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Israelis owe me a hearing on this: the hostage question</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Tikkun Community to oppose de facto alliance that keeps the war going. </B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">A New American Jewish Alliance Opposes Israel's War on Moral and Political Grounds.</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Break the Silence: a call for action by the United States signed by 35 American Rabbis</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Boycott of Israel goods having an affect.</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">New York Times Op-ed warning: "Israel embraces a fictional plot."</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">"Jew to Jew:" an alternative to the deceptive plot line...the case for Opposing the Occupation</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">An Israeli "think-tank" assessment: settlers hold 5 million Israelis hostage while Palestine is winning the war.</B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="#island__3" TITLE="Link Tour"><U><B>Island # 3</B></U></A><B>: The Accounting -- Here are your dividends America</B></div> <div> <I><B> </B></I></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">"Someone Even Managed to Defecate into the Photocopier,"....</B><I><B>Haaretz,</B></I><B>article 5/6/02</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">When the bomb dropped, 11 children died and the pilot felt nothing--"but a bump"</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">From Inside Jenin: bullets purchased by US taxpayers fired on refugees burying their dead.</B> </div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">A rock-throwing attack: Israeli settler women turn on peacemakers</B></div> <div> <I><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Welcome to and Israeli settlement: she doused us with her chocolate milk. </B></I></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Bethlehem 2001: I want to bear witness today to what I have seen this week</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Oh Little Town of Bethlehem 2002: Christmas cancelled</B></div> <div> <B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Symb075c00b700f0cc000000.png" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">War Crimes manual issued to Israeli soldiers as last resort by Gush Shalom</B></div> <bR> <div> <B><U>You can begin tour now, or you can go to Breakthrough #1.</U></B></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000CC" FACE="Arial" ><B>  </B></FONT><A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Link Tour"><U><B>Click here for Guided Tour</B></U></A><B>        </B><A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Breakthrough Story 3"><U><B>Click here to go to Breakthrough</B></U></A><B> #1</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="564" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFF99 > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 62 ><NOBR><div>  <A NAME="island__1_is_there_a_piece_of_humanity_1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Island #1: Is there a piece of humanity still intact?</B></div> <bR> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>Neta Golan confronts the killer of her friend. </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>(A Report from </B></I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B><U>www.batshalom.org)</U></B></FONT></div> <div>  </div> <div> <B>Dear Bat Shalom Friends and Allies- </B></div> <div> <B>We are sending you a report from activist Neta Golan. It is as harsh as only truth can be, and it is revelatory. It is why we do the resistance work that we do, thousands of Israeli women who continue to assert our uncompromising truth that occupation is wrong, occupation is terror, occupation must end. </B></div> <div> <B>Terry</B></div> <div> <B>REPOR</B><B>T FROM NETA:</B></div> <div> I had spent the day with the villagers of Deir Istiya in which we planted trees on land coveted by the settlement of Yakir. I was on my way home.</div> <div> Two soldiers recognized me and asked in Hebrew:" Neta how are you?"</div> <div> To them I was a novelty. "You know who I'm talking to?" One of them told a friend that phoned his cell phone "Neta from Peace Now" ( I am not from Peace Now but that's as far left as they could fathom).</div> <div> We talked. At one point one of the soldiers told me: "when I see a terrorist laying on the ground in his own blood it gives me an appetite". </div> <div> He hesitated before continuing. He wanted to reveal to me something he was proud of. </div> <div> "There was a time when someone in Hares village picked up a huge bolder to throw at me. Do you know what I did?" He asked.</div> <div> I knew. "You killed him." </div> <div> "That's right" he smiled, self-satisfied.</div> <div> I know the two children and the young father who were murdered in Hares in the last fifteen months by Israeli soldiers so I asked him when it happened,  On what day? </div> <div> By his answer, I realized the soldier in front of me was the murderer of my friend Muhammad Daud.</div> <div> "Let me tell you who you killed" I said.</div> <div> "I don't care."</div> <div> "I know you don't but I want you to know who you killed. His name was Muhammad Dud and he was fifteen years old. He was retarded and I loved him very much..."</div> <div> I told him every thing I could think of about Mohammed and about his family. He didn't want to hear it.</div> <div>  "I know where he was standing" I said. </div> <div> "I saw his blood on the ground. There is no way he could have thrown a stone at you from so far away, let alone a boulder."</div> <div> "You weren't there." </div> <div> He was screaming now.</div> <div> "OK. You were there. So you tell me. How far do you think he could have thrown that "boulder"? Three meters? Ten meters? Lets just imagine that it was humanly possible to throw it a hundred meters. You were over three hundred meters away.</div> <div> " You weren't there. "</div> <div> "That's right, I wasn't there. You were there. So you tell me, how far away were you when you murdered him?"</div> <div> He kept trying to stop me, but I wouldn't stop. It was all I could do. And the fact that he didn't want to hear, it was the only indication that  maybe somewhere deep inside there is a piece of humanity still intact in this boy.</div> <div> After they walked away I was lucky to have friends with me who held me as I wept. Meeting his killer reopened the wound of losing my friend, a wound that never healed. </div> <div> I realized that if any man was evil, the soldier I just spoke to was, and yet he was a boy, an ignorant and stupid boy who never should have been given any power. Who never should have stepped foot in any village. Who never should have had a gun.</div> <div> Young Soldiers, many of them like Muhammad's Killer, control every aspect of the lives of millions of Palestinians in the occupied territories. Ignorant youth like these have the power of life and death over Palestinian elders and children alike.</div> <div> This cannot continue. To stop this injustice we need help.</div> <div> Help us.</div> <div> In solidarity,</div> <div> <I><B>Neta Golan</B></I></div> <bR> <div> Bat Shalom is a feminist peace organization working toward a just peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Bat Shalom, together  with The Jerusalem Center for Women, a Palestinian women's peace organization, comprise The Jerusalem Link. Visit our web site for more information and our latest activities:</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><B><U>http://www.batshalom.org</U></B></FONT></div> <div> We gratefully accept contributions to help support our work. Checks in any currency can be mailed to Bat Shalom, POB 8083, Jerusalem  91080, Israel. Tel: +972-2-563 1477; Fax: +972-2-561 7983.</div> <div> See our web site for information about tax-deductible contributions or bank transfers. To subscribe to Bat Shalom's newsletter, please reply by e-mail with the word "Subscribe" in the subject line. To unsubscribe, please write "Unsubscribe" in the subject line. </div> <bR> <div> <B>If reviewing web site drafts, click 3 Breakthroughs in blue </B></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>"Our daughter was killed by a suicide bomber"</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>By Alexandra Williams -- in Jerusalem </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>The Mirror (London) June 25, 2002</B></I></div> <bR> <div> A BIG red "Free Palestine" sticker has a prominent place on the Elhanan family's front door.</div> <div> But this is not a Palestinian house in the occupied territories. Remarkably, this home is in an affluent Jewish area in Jerusalem and belongs to a couple whose daughter Smadar, 14, was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber.</div> <div> Rather than being motivated by revenge and hatred, Nurit Elhanan and her husband Rami, both 52, are fighting for peace. They are campaigning for an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, calling it a cancer that is feeding terror. Nurit, a doctor of language at Israel's Hebrew University, said: "No real mother would ever think of consoling herself with the killing of another mother's child.</div> <div> "Israel is becoming a graveyard of children. The Holy Land is being turned into a wasteland."</div> <div> Graphic designer Rami agrees: "If an Israeli child is killed and the next day a Palestinian child is killed, it's no solution. "Our daughter was killed because of the terror of Israeli occupation. Every innocent victim from both sides is a victim of the occupation. The occupation is the cancer feeding Palestinian terror."</div> <div> Last week, following two suicide bombs and a shooting which killed 30 Israelis, Israel hardened its military tactics. This resulted in the deaths of innocent Palestinians - five children on Friday alone. Rami said: "I was devastated when the Palestinian children were killed in Jenin, like I was the day before when a suicide bomber killed Israelis. Palestinians grieve and cry exactly the same way as Israelis do. We all have the same blood."</div> <div> Some brand the couple apologists for suicide bombers. At a peace rally, an Israeli called them "Leftie traitors" and shouted, "Pity you weren't blown up with your daughter."</div> <div> Smadar was killed in a double Palestinian suicide bombing in Jerusalem in September 1997.</div> <div> It was 3pm and the first day back at school. She was buying books with two of her closest friends.</div> <div> As terrified shoppers tried to escape the first bomb, they fled into the path of the second terrorist, who unleashed his lethal device Smadar was killed instantly with one of her friends. The other was in a coma for six months.</div> <div> Five years on, the pain is still too intense for the family to talk of it.</div> <div> RAMI, whose father survived Auschwitz and whose grandparents, aunts and uncles died in the Holocaust, said: "The pain of losing our beautiful daughter is unbearable, but our house is not a house of hate.</div> <div> "You can sink in your misery and just wait for death or you can try to do something meaningful.</div> <div> "We started to look for contact with people like us from the other side. We now have many Palestinian friends, parents who have lost children too.</div> <div> "We are in a position of power. We couldn't stay silent. We have to tell the world. This power was brought to us by our disaster. Some people say we use it cynically."</div> <div> Some argue that ending the occupation would fail to halt the suicide bombers. Groups behind the killings, like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have vowed to continue the campaign until the Jews are expelled from Israel.</div> <div> But Rami and Nurit said terror organizations drew their strength from a persecuted people.</div> <div> Nurit said: "Hamas take power from the anger of people. If you restored people's dignity, honour and prosperity by ending occupation, Hamas would lose power."</div> <div> Rami added: "If a man who has cancer in his leg goes to the doctor and asks if it is amputated will he be well, no doctor in the world would say, yes, you'll be fine, but no doctor would say don't amputate.</div> <div> "Getting out of Gaza and the West Bank will serve the good of both Israelis and Palestinians."</div> <div> The couple have three sons - Elik, 25, Guy, 23, and Yigal, 10. Elik and Guy, who now study in Paris, were conscripts in the Israeli army. They fought in the troubles on the Lebanese border.</div> <div> Nurit and Rami believe that if their sons were called up today, they would refuse to serve in the Palestinian territories. Rami, a veteran of the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, said: "The refuseniks are the heroes."</div> <div> The anger of Rami and his wife is vented on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and America, rather than the bomber who killed their daughter.</div> <div> Nurit, whose father General Matti Peled spoke out for a two-state solution, said: "The war is not between the Israeli people and Palestinian people, but these life-destroying men who call themselves leaders.</div> <div> "The US is reluctant and bored with the situation. And the rest of the world is going on as if blood has never been shed."</div> <div> The couple founded the Bereaved Family Forum with Palestinian Izzat Ghazzawi, whose son Ramy, 16, was killed by Israeli troops.</div> <div> Last December, Nurit and Izzat were given the European Parliament's freedom of speech award, The Sakharov Prize.</div> <div> Nurit said: "I have been asked many times if I feel any need to avenge the murder of my little girl, who was killed just because she was born Israeli, by a young man who felt hopeless to the point of murder and suicide, just because he was born Palestinian.</div> <div> "I quote Hebrew poet Bialik who said, 'Satan has not yet created a vengeance for the blood of a small child'."</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <I><B>The ethics of revenge</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <B>This is a speech made by Yitzhak Frankenthal, Chairman of the Families Forum, at a peace rally in Jerusalem on Saturday, July 27, 2002, outside the Prime Minister's residence.</B> </div> <bR> <div> My beloved son Arik, my own flesh and blood, was murdered by Palestinians. My tall blue-eyed golden-haired son who was always smiling with the innocence of a child and the understanding of an adult. My son. If to hit his killers, innocent Palestinian children and other civilians would have to be killed, I would ask the security forces to wait for another opportunity. If the security forces were to kill innocent Palestinians as well, I would tell them they were no better than my son's killers.</div> <bR> <div> My beloved son Arik was murdered by a Palestinian. Should the security forces have information of this murderer's whereabouts, and should it turn out that he was surrounded by innocent children  and other Palestinian civilians, then - even if the security forces knew that the killer was planning another murderous attack that was  to be launched within hours and they now had the choice of curbing a terror attack that would kill innocent Israeli civilians but at the cost of hitting innocent Palestinians, I would tell the security forces not to  seek revenge but to try to avoid and prevent the death of innocent civilians, be they Israelis or Palestinians.</div> <bR> <div> I would rather have the finger that pushes the trigger or the button that drops the bomb tremble before it kills my son's murderer, than for innocent civilians to be killed. I would say to the security forces: do not kill the killer. Rather, bring him before an Israeli court. You are not the judiciary. Your only motivation should not be vengeance, but the prevention of any injury to innocent civilians.</div> <bR> <div> Ethics are not black and white - they are all white. Ethics have to be free of vengefulness and rashness. Every act must be carefully weighed before a decision is made to see whether it meets the strict ethical criteria. Ethics cannot be left to the discretion of anyone who is frivolous or trigger-happy. Our ethics are hanging by a thread, at the mercy of every soldier and politician. I am not at all sure that I am willing to delegate my ethics to them.</div> <bR> <div> It is unethical to kill innocent Israeli or Palestinian women and children. It is also unethical to control another nation and to lead it to lose its humaneness. It is patently unethical to drop a bomb that kills innocent Palestinians. It is blatantly unethical to wreak vengeance upon innocent bystanders. It is, on the other hand, supremely ethical to prevent the death of any human being. But if such prevention causes the futile death of others, the ethical foundation for such prevention is lost.</div> <bR> <div> A nation that cannot draw the line is doomed to eventually apply unethical measures against its own people. The worst in my mind is not what has already happened but what I am sure one day will. And it will - because ethics are now being twisted and the political and military leadership does not even have the most basic integrity to say: "we are sorry".</div> <bR> <div> We lost sight of our ethics long before the suicide bombings. The breaking point was when we started to control another nation. My son Arik was born into a democracy with a chance for a decent, settled life. Arik's killer was born into an appalling occupation, into an ethical chaos. Had my son been born in his stead, he may have  ended up doing the same. Had I myself been born into the political and ethical chaos that is the Palestinians' daily reality, I would  certainly have tried to kill and hurt the occupier; had I not, I would have betrayed my essence as a free man. Let all the self-righteous who speak of ruthless Palestinian murderers take a hard look in the mirror and ask themselves what they would have done had they been the ones living under occupation. I can say for myself that I, Yitzhak Frankenthal, would have undoubtedly become a freedom fighter and would have killed as many on the other side as I possibly could. It is this depraved hypocrisy that pushes the Palestinians to fight us relentlessly. Our double standard that allows us to boast the highest military ethics, while the same military slays innocent children. This lack of ethics is bound to corrupt us.</div> <bR> <div> My son Arik was murdered when he was a soldier by Palestinian fighters who believed in the ethical basis of their struggle against the occupation. My son Arik was not murdered because he was Jewish but because he is part of the nation that occupies the territory of another.</div> <bR> <div> I know these are concepts that are unpalatable, but I must voice them loud and clear, because they come from my heart - the heart of a father whose son did not get to live because his people were blinded with power. As much as I would like to do so, I cannot say that the Palestinians are to blame for my son's death. That would be the easy way out, but it is we, Israelis, who are to blame because of the occupation. Anyone who refuses to heed this awful truth will eventually lead to our destruction.</div> <bR> <div> The Palestinians cannot drive us away - they have long acknowledged our existence. They have been ready to make peace with us; it is we who are unwilling to make peace with them. It is we who insist on maintaining our control over them; it is we who escalate the situation in the region and feed the cycle of bloodshed. I regret to say it, but the blame is entirely ours.</div> <bR> <div> I do not mean to absolve the Palestinians and by no means justify attacks against Israeli civilians. No attack against civilians can be condoned. But as an occupation force it is we who trample over human dignity, it is we who crush the liberty of Palestinians and it is we who push an entire nation to crazy acts of despair. Finally, I call on my brothers and sisters in the settlements - see what we have come to.</div> <bR> <div> <B><U>STOP & CHOOSE:</U></B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#0000CC" FACE="Arial" ><B>Continue Tour or:</B></FONT><B>   </B><A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Breakthrough Story 3"><U><B>Click here to go to Breakthrough #1</B></U></A></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B>"It is not the leaders who will bring peace, </B></div> <div> <B>but ordinary people like us." </B></div> <div> <B><U>Report from a Parents Circle</U></B></div> <div> <I><B>Beit Ummar Update May 8 - May 12, 2002</B></I></div> <div> In the morning the CPTers learned that there had been a suicide bombing near Tel Aviv. Fifteen Israelis were killed and over forty injured. Later in the day there was another, with no fatalities or injuries.</div> <div> In the afternoon CPTers Mary Lawrence and JoAnne Lingle attended a meeting of Israelis and Palestinians from the Parents' Circle. These are parents of young people who have been killed in the violence in Israel and Palestine. About twenty-five Israelis came to the meeting. There was about the same number of Palestinians. Each person told his or her story of having lost a loved one to violence. Most of them had lost sons. </div> <div> Yitzhak Frankenthal, the organizer of Parents' Circle, said that since he lost his son eight years ago, he has been working night and day for peace. He stated, "It is not the leaders who will bring peace, but ordinary people like us." </div> <div> One of the Israeli parents said, "These children lost their lives because we, the adults, were not willing to work hard enough for peace." A Palestinian who lost a brother in 2000 said, "When I heard that my brother had been killed, I was very sad and decided that I never wanted to see or to speak to an Israeli again. When the anger left, I realized that I could not judge all Israelis by one Israeli soldier who killed my brother. The main thing is that we must talk together to reach a peace agreement for future generations."</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B><U>WHAT CREATURES WE MAKE OF OUR CHILDREN</U></B></div> <div> <I><B>Arab-Jewish peace project braces as barrage comes from both sides</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <B>By Michael Matza</B></div> <div> <B>Inquirer Staff Writer</B></div> <div> <I><B>The Philadelphia Inquirer</B></I></div> <div> <B>April 10, 2002</B></div> <div>  </div> <div> JERUSALEM - After almost two weeks of the most brutal fighting in 19 months of conflict, Israelis and Palestinians working on a joint Arab-Jewish education project are struggling to support each other across a divide that has never seemed deeper. </div> <div> "Some of the people we work with are facing difficult circumstances. We show them a lot of solidarity. We talk to them a lot. The situation is very hard," Zakaria al Qaq said yesterday of the Education for Peace program. </div> <div> Qaq, 47, is Palestinian codirector of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, a think tank founded in 1988 and the sponsor of Education for Peace. </div> <div> The six-year-old program's curriculum is used in scores of Israeli and Palestinian schools, where its goal is to turn 10th-grade classrooms into "vehicles for rapprochement." Now, with battles raging all around them, those who staff the program are drawing harsh criticism from family, friends and critics who accuse them of naivety, or worse. </div> <div> "Most of the detractors on the Israeli side and the Palestinian side are responding out of emotion, out of fear and anger, which breeds hatred," said Gershon Baskin, 46, the center's Israeli codirector. </div> <div> But with suicide bombers killing Jews by the score, and Israeli soldiers laying waste to Palestinian cities and refugee camps, the importance of contacts between the two peoples has never been higher, the participants say. </div> <div> Yesterday, as Anat Reisman-Levy, 46, the program's Israeli administrator, drove back to Tel Aviv from a training session for teachers in the northern Israeli city of Nazareth, she used her cell phone to call Nedal Jayousi, her Palestinian counterpart. </div> <div> Jayousi, 42, was stranded in Ramallah, with seven Israeli tanks ringing his house. </div> <div> "I spoke with him three or four times today," said Reisman-Levy. "One time he said, 'I am talking to you from the floor because there is a tank going by and it is shooting.' </div> <div> "I said, 'I'm sorry.' I listened to him. And sometimes I cried." </div> <div> But at the same time, Reisman-Levy said, she expressed her own pain to her friend. </div> <div> "For me, these soldiers who threaten your life now are also helpless children," she said she told him. "These are children who just finished school and should be involved in their first love affairs and not in killing." </div> <div> <B>The conversation continued. "We talked about what happens to these soldiers when they come back to this society, and what sort of creatures they become." </B></div> <div> Jayousi said yesterday that he felt the strain of his contacts with Israelis most severely not during the current siege but last month, on a retreat in Istanbul, Turkey, with more than 80 Palestinian and Israeli teachers recently trained in the Education for Peace curriculum. </div> <div> While there, he received a phone call from his wife in Ramallah. His 17-year-old sister-in-law had died from complications of childbirth on a mountain road near the town of Tulkarm while trying to get to a hospital. Israeli soldiers had refused to let her pass a checkpoint on the most direct route. </div> <div> Jayousi immediately called his parents in Tulkarm, but his father was seething with anger at the Israelis - and at his son for interacting with them - and wouldn't come to the phone. </div> <div> Jayousi cut short his stay in Istanbul to attend the funeral, and he and his father have reconciled. But supporting peace in the current climate hasn't gotten any easier, he said yesterday. </div> <div> Monday, when Israeli soldiers briefly lifted the curfew in Ramallah so trapped residents could replenish their food supplies, Jayousi ran into a militant opponent of Israel in the local grocery store. </div> <div> Israeli tanks had littered Ramallah with crushed automobiles. Street lamps were upended. Machine gun-bullets left pockmarks everywhere. </div> <div> "Oh, so you still believe in normalization with Israel? Look at what all your work has brought us," the militant said. </div> <div> "It's not the result of my work," Jayousi retorted, summoning up some courage. "It's the result of your work, actually." </div> <div> The center's codirector Baskin said his years of peace work had done nothing to compromise his devotion to Israel. </div> <div> "My military service is that I am a lecturer in the college for the education of officers," he said yesterday. "I'm not neutral. I'm an Israeli and when I lecture there my position as an Israeli comes across very strongly: what's best for Israel. </div> <div> "But I think that I get the response that I do because I have the facts at my fingertips. No one can tell me that I don't know what I am talking about. . . . No one can tell me that I don't know what's happening on the other side, because I talk to Palestinians every day, from the highest levels of the leadership down to people in refugee camps. Every day. </div> <div> "And I've been doing it, in the framework of [the center], for 14 years." </div> <bR> <div> <B>One of Nedal Jayousi's "Teachers of Peace" Killed by Israeli Missile</B></div> <div>  From: Gershon Baskin, Ph.D. <<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="mailto:gershon@ipcri.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:gershon@ipcri.org"><U><U>gershon@ipcri.org</U></U></A></FONT>></div> <div> Dear Friends</div> <div> Yesterday our friend and colleague Isaac Saada from Bethlehem was killed by an Israeli missile fired from a helicopter. The target of the missile was Omar Saada, Isaac's brother who the Israelis claim was a Hamas terrorist. Omar Saada was killed together with two others on the impact of two rockets fired from the helicopter. Isaac ran out of his house when he heard the explosions in his bother's yard and was then killed by a third missile fired to make sure that the first two “did the job”.  Isaac left 11 children orphaned.</div> <div> Why am I telling you this story? It happens almost every day? Isaac Saada was a teacher involved in IPCRI's Peace Education Project. Just one day before being killed, Isaac spoke to Nedal Jayousi, the Palestinian Co-Director of the Peace Education Project. Isaac asked Nedal how he could be more involved. Today at the same hour that he is being buried, Isaac was supposed to be at IPCRI participating in a joint seminar with Israeli teachers. Isaac had just completed with his Israeli and Palestinian colleagues work on a new Peace Education Curriculum on conflict resolution and negotiations for Israeli and Palestinian 11th grade classes.  In fact, I have a check on my desk for him for the work he had done.</div> <div> I remember sitting with Isaac over lunch at a joint teachers seminar that took place after the Intifada began. Isaac was telling me the troubles he was having trying to teach his own children to love and want peace. He talked about the terrible things that his children had witnessed over the past months and some of them questioned how their father could still work with the Israelis.  He told me that he was very firm with them, telling them that we had to believe in peace and that peace would eventually come. He told them that the worst thing that could happen to them and to the Palestinian people would be if they filled their hearts with hatred.</div> <div> <B>Isaac has been presented in the Israeli and International media reports as one of four Hamas terrorists killed</B>. </div> <div> I am very angry at this lie. I have attempted to correct this falsehood with my media contacts. There was one short sentence in the report by Amira Haas in Haaretz today stating that Isaac was involved in meetings with Israeli teachers.  Israeli TV News Channel One's correspondent Oded Granot also indicated that Isaac was involved with the Israeli-Palestine Center in peace education activities. We want the entire world to know that Isaac was not a terrorist, he was a man of peace. I only hope and pray that his 11 children will not learn the lesson of revenge which is all too easy to understand. We expect and demand that the Government of Israel issue an apology to Isaac's family and a recognition of the tragic error that was committed and that the Government of Israel recognize and acknowledge that Isaac was a man of peace.</div> <div> Isaac was from a poor family. He lived in a poor neighborhood of Bethlehem.  He supported his wife and 11 children on the salary of a teacher in the Terra Sancta School in Bethlehem. Today there is no one to provide the few sheckels that he brought home each month.</div> <div> <B>Gershon Baskin, Ph.D.</B></div> <div> <B>Co-Director</B></div> <div> <B>Home Page: </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.ipcri.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.ipcri.org"><U><B>http://www.ipcri.org</B></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <B>IPCRI General Email: </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="mailto:ipcri@ipcri.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:ipcri@ipcri.org"><U><B>ipcri@ipcri.org</B></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <B>Gershon Baskin: gershon @ipcri.org</B></div> <div> <B>Zakaria al Qaq: </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="mailto:law@ipcri.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:law@ipcri.org"><U><B>law@ipcri.org</B></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <B>Environment and Water Program: </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="mailto:environment@ipcri.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:environment@ipcri.org"><U><B>environment@ipcri.org</B></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <B>Peace Education Project: </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="mailto:peace_education@ipcri.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:peace_education@ipcri.org"><U><B>peaceeducation@ipcri.org</B></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <B>Marwan Darweish: </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="mailto:marwan@ipcri.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:marwan@ipcri.org"><U><B>marwan@ipcri.org</B></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <B>Nedal Jayousi: </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="mailto:nedal@ipcri.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:nedal@ipcri.org"><U><B>nedal@ipcri.org</B></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <B>Anat Reisman-Levy: </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="mailto:anat@ipcri.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:anat@ipcri.org"><U><B>anat@ipcri.org</B></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <B>Robin Twite: </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="mailto:robin@ipcri.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:robin@ipcri.org"><U><B>robin@ipcri.org</B></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <B>Amjad Jaouni: </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="mailto:amjad@ipcri.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:amjad@ipcri.org"><U><B>amjad@ipcri.org</B></U></A></FONT></div> <div> <B>JEMS: </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="mailto:jems@ipcri.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:jems@ipcri.org"><U><B>jems@ipcri.org</B></U></A></FONT></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div>  <A NAME="return_to_tour"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B>I witnessed a unique experience for an Israeli...</B></div> <div> <B>...watching through the eyes of a Palestinian as his house was </B></div> <div> <B>systematically destroyed and all the fruit trees of his garden uprooted.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>By Jeff Halper, icahd@zahav.net.il</B></div> <div> <B>Jeff Halper is professor of anthropology at Israel's Ben Gurion University and Coordinator of The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. </B></div> <div> <B>     </B></div> <div> Back in early 1997, when Bibi Netanyahu was prime minister and we were supposedly in the midst of a “peace process,” his government would often demolish 20-30 Palestinian homes a week. Demolishing houses is one of the most cruel and oppressive aspects of the occupation (even though Israel has been systematically demolishing homes and whole villages since 1948). Since the start of the occupation in 1967, 9,000 Palestinian homes have been destroyed, some 2,000 since the outbreak of the second intifada, leaving more than 50,000 Palestinians homeless, destitute, and living in fear and trauma. </div> <div> The motivation for demolishing these homes is purely political. Although Israel tries to lend its actions a legal facade through an elaborate system of planning regulations, laws and procedures-we are, after all, the “only democracy in the Middle East”---the practice of house demolitions violates international law and fundamental human rights. The purpose is to confine the three and a half million residents of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza to small, overcrowded, impoverished and disconnected enclaves, thereby foreclosing any viable Palestinian entity and ensuring Israeli control even if Palestinians achieve some nominal form of independence. </div> <div> The renewal of massive house demolitions by Netanyahu in 1997 sparked the founding of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), of which I am the coordinator. </div> <div> ICAHD began as a non-violent, direct-action group composed of representatives of diverse Israeli peace and human rights organizations: Bat Shalom, Rabbis for Human Rights, Yesh Gvul, the Public Committee Against Torture, Palestinians and Israelis for Human Rights, Netivot Shalom, parts of Meretz and Peace Now. Having become somewhat dormant during the years of Rabin and Peres, when many of us believed that “peace” was painfully being achieved, we all felt that now something must be done to resist the increasing oppressive occupation. We chose to focus on house demolitions because it lay at the juncture between a political policy crucial for perpetuating the occupation and the human suffering it engendered. We had little appreciation, however, of how that decision would change our lives and the style of our work… </div> <bR> <div> <B>Our position as Peace Activists was challenged</B></div> <div> For the first few months of our work, as we got to know the workings of the occupation and developed relations of trust with Palestinian organizations and families, we began to visit some of the thousands of families threatened with demolition orders. Here, too, our position as Israeli peace activists was challenged. The Israeli peace movement traditionally engaged in protest. It never promised to effect any concrete changes in Israeli government policy, and was never called upon to “deliver”-which is why Palestinians had little faith in many of our activities. The Palestinian families we met would have nothing of protest or mere solidarity. They wanted to know if we could prevent the demolition, if we could help them get a permit, if we could arrange legal protection, if we could use our political influence. What would we do, they wanted to know, when the army and bulldozers arrived. Would we stand and resist together with them? And if the house was demolished, they wanted to know what would we offer: To rebuild? To help finance alternative quarters? To secure them a permit? </div> <div> Suddenly, after decades in the peace movement and hundreds of demonstrations under our belts, we discovered how little we knew of the occupation and of the people living under it. Who issues demolition orders? The army? The Civil Administration? The police? Another government body? [Answer: the Civil Administration in the West Bank and Gaza, though the army also has the authority if “security” is involved; both the Municipality and the Ministry of Interior in East Jerusalem.] We had heard vaguely of the Civil Administration, but where was it located? [In the Beit El settlement northeast of Ramallah.] And who exactly is responsible for issuing demolition orders? Could we obtain building permits, and how? What is the government's demolition policy and what numbers are we talking about? And we realized how little we actually knew about the workings of the occupation we had protested for so many years. When a family contacted us from the town of Anata, part of which lies within the Jerusalem municipal boundary, none of us knew where it was or how to get there. </div> <bR> <div> <B>A reverse lottery you do not want to win</B></div> <div> In fact, none of us had ever seen a demolition. Normally they are carried out at dawn, after the men have left for work and only the women and children remain at home. And they are randomized so as to diffuse the fear and uncertainty, to deter people from building at all. Once a demolition order is confirmed by the court, the bulldozers could arrive the next morning, or next week, or next year-or never. It is like a reverse lottery you do not want to “win.” In the end the policy of house demolitions makes life so unbearable that those who have the means (especially the educated middle classes so critical for Palestinian society) are driven from the country altogether. </div> <div> A major change in our work occurred on July 9, 1998. At one o'clock in the afternoon, as members of ICAHD, the Land Defense Committee, and LAW were preparing a demonstration opposite the Civil Administration in Beit El (30 houses had been demolished the previous week), we received word that the house of Salim Shawamreh was being demolished in the nearby village of Anata. It was the fifth house being demolished that day, and the Civil Administration had apparently gotten greedy, thinking that because of the lack of resistance it would keep demolishing throughout the day. </div> <div> Salim Shawamreh, his wife Arabia, and their six children were one of the families we had met earlier. Their village of Anata, with a population of some 12,000, is a microcosm of the occupation. It is divided between Jerusalem and the West Bank. Almost all the village's lands have been expropriated to build Israeli settlements, leaving the residents crowded into a small “core.” Twenty-three demolition orders had been served on Anata residents by the Jerusalem municipality, the Ministry of Interior and the Civil Administration. </div> <div> The Shawamreh house fell into Area C of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli control. After several unsuccessful attempts to obtain a permit, Salim, having nowhere else to live, built on his own private land. He promptly received a demolition order, but managed to live in his home undisturbed for four years. One fine day in July, as he was having lunch with his wife and six children, he heard a knock on the door. When he opened it, he found himself confronted by dozens of soldiers. Their leader, a field inspector of the Civil Administration named Micha, asked Salim: “Is this your house?” “Yes, this is my house,” answered Salim. “No, it isn't,” Micha replied. “This is now our house. You have fifteen minutes to remove your belongings before we destroy it.” </div> <bR> <div> <B>I sat down in front of the bulldozer (a Palestinian would have been shot.) </B></div> <div> When I arrived on the scene and managed to pass through the dozens of soldiers to reach the house, I found Salim lying beaten on the ground and his wife being carried unconscious to the hospital. Both had resisted the attempt to demolish their home, and both had been violently ejected from the house. The terrified children had scattered and were not to be found. </div> <div> Together with Salim and his neighbors, I resisted the army's attempts to drive us away so that the bulldozer could begin its work. I sat in front of the bulldozer (something that would have gotten a Palestinian shot) and was pushed down the hill by the soldiers. Finally, lying with Salim and the others in the dirt, I witnessed a unique experience for an Israeli-watching through the eyes of a Palestinian as his house was systematically destroyed and all the fruit trees of his garden uprooted. </div> <div> Demolition is a different experience for men, women and children. Men probably are the most humiliated, since the inability to provide a home for their families and to protect them destroys their very position as head of the family. The loss of one's home means loss of one's connection to the land, the family's patrimony. The message of demolitions is clear: there is no place for you here; there is no place for a Palestinian on the face of the earth. </div> <div> Men often cry at demolitions, but they also are angered and swear revenge, or plan to build again. </div> <div> For women the loss of the home is the loss of one's identity as a woman, wife and mother. For Palestinian women, most of whom do not work outside the home, the house is their entire world. In fact, they lose twice. They lose their own home in a traumatic act of violence-their most personal belongings thrown unceremoniously outside in the dirt-and they must go to live in the home of another woman (a mother- or sister-in-law), thereby losing their status as the head of the domestic household and even as mother. Palestinian women tend to sink into mourning, their behavior-crying, wailing, and then depression-very much like those of people who have lost loved ones...  </div> <div> For children the act of demolition-and the months and years leading up to it-is a time of trauma. To witness the fear and powerlessness of your parents, to feel constantly afraid and insecure, to see loved ones beaten, to experience the harassment of Civil Administration field supervisors-and then to endure the noise and violence and displacement and destruction of your home, your world, your toys-these things mark children for life. </div> <div> The signs of trauma and stress among children are many: bed-wetting, nightmares, fear to leave home lest one “abandon” parents and children to the army, dramatic drops in grades and school attendance, exposure to domestic violence that occasionally follows impoverishment, displacement and humiliation. One day recently, Israeli tanks appeared before the windows of the Shawamreh's rented apartment, and their 11-year-old daughter Wafa went blind for two hours. Her mind simply shut down under the weight of successive traumas. </div> <div> A month after the demolition of the Shawamreh home, ICAHD brought hundreds of Israelis to join local Palestinians in rebuilding the house. It was promptly demolished a second time by Israeli bulldozers, but we all decided to rebuild it yet again as a political act of resistance. When we all had finished the home for the third time, Salim said: “Together with Israelis who seek a just peace, we have built here a House of Peace.” In April 2001, the Shawamreh house was demolished yet again. We are now planning to rebuild it for the fourth time. We refuse to let the occupation win. </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U>The vision of ordinary people leading ordinary lives:</U></B></div> <div> <B>Rebuilding Palestinian Homes Together</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Date sent:     Tue, 25 Jun 2002 12:05:44 +0200</B></div> <div> <B>From:          JeffandZiad@Rebuildinghomes.org</B></div> <bR> <div> Dear Friend, </div> <div> Given the tragic destruction and violence of the past few months, it is extremely important that we - Israelis, Palestinians, and global citizens who stand for justice - make loud and clear our determination to build rather than destroy, to defy policies that inspire hatred, and to support grassroots efforts that pave a path towards a just peace. </div> <div> What action can overcome the rule of tanks, house demolitions, and the suicide bomb? Is there any language besides the language of demonization and blame? Is there any vision besides the empty formulas of elected officials? We know there is!<B> It is the vision of ordinary people leading ordinary lives.</B> It is the language of compassion and mutual respect. It is the voice of justice challenging ideology and power. It begins by rebuilding homes. </div> <div> The Right to a Home and a Homeland, www.rebuildinghomes.org, is a coordinated global campaign to rebuild demolished Palestinian homes as a means of building trust among two groups of people typically sworn off as "enemies." It is a project of two groups, one Israeli and one Palestinian - The Israeli Committee Against Home Demolition (ICAHD) and The Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights (JCSER) - who have joined forces in a constructive act of resistance to the injustices of the Israeli Occupation. Together, we are rebuilding homes, building trust, and forging a just peace. </div> <div> House demolitions have become the hallmark of the Occupation, as the wanton destruction of the Jenin refugee camp shows. Since 1967 Israel has demolished almost 9000 Palestinian homes, leaving some 50,000 traumatized and homeless. We need to protect human rights and confront the injustice of the Occupation so that Palestinians, Israelis, and the world community will eventually enjoy the fruits of a just peace. </div> <div> We start by rebuilding 20-30 homes throughout the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, each new house representing another form of hope, solidarity, and peaceful protest. We cannot build enough houses to truly relieve the suffering of thousands of victims. But we can make our voices heard. In the words of Salim Shawamreh, whose home was demolished three times by the Israeli authorities: "Palestinians need to live like anyone else -- in a home!" </div> <div> We need your help. Only you, members of the international civil society, standing with like-minded Palestinians and Israelis, can provide the crucial support we need to make our voices heard. </div> <div> Please support our global campaign by hosting a House Party to Rebuild a Home. Our website has tips on how to invite 20 of your friends to a fundraising gathering at your home and we will help you every step of the way, giving advice by phone and email; providing a video and educational materials for your event. Your fundraiser will pay for building materials and enable Palestinians, Israelis, and international volunteers to work together to rebuild Palestinian homes. </div> <div> Visit our website www.rebuildinghomes.org to register to hold a House Party to Rebuild a Home. Join us in this constructive way to re-build homes, build trust, and forge peace. Please forward this email to your friends and colleagues - together we will make a difference. </div> <div> Thank you,</div> <div> Jeff Halper, Coordinator, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions</div> <div> Ziad Hamouri, Director, Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights          <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000CC" FACE="Arial" ><B>                          </B></FONT></div> <div> <B>                      Right to a Home and a Homeland </B></div> <div> <B>               P.O. Box 610061, Redwood City, CA 94061 USA </B></div> <div> <B>USA: 01 415 820-3204, Israel: 972-(0)56-875-893, Palestine: 972-2-627-5335 / 6 </B></div> <div> <B>                     email: info@rebuildinghomes.org </B></div> <div> <B>                          www.rebuildinghomes.org </B></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B>A marriage made in prison</B></div> <div> <I><B>www.haaretz.daily.com</B></I></div> <div> Friday Magazine, </div> <div> 31 May 20, 2002</div> <div> <B>By Gideon Levy</B></div> <bR> <div> Abed al-Ahmar, a four-time administrative detainee, was released straight into the arms of his Jewish-American fiancee. A story with a happy ending - for now</div> <div> So American, so Israeli. She offered to give us a tour of their new home. We moved from room to room - this will be the kids' room, </div> <div> "insh'Allah" (God willing). Here is the work room, this is the balcony with a view and here is the bedroom. The cat lives here. And this is the new kitchen that was built by a young carpenter, Mohammed Daramah, who shortly after completing the job, turned himself into a human bomb in the ultra-Orthodox Beit Yisrael neighborhood in Jerusalem, killing 10 Israelis and wounding about 50.</div> <div> A man and a woman are setting up house. He is the son of Palestinian refugees, she is an American Jew - a new immigrant. Exactly a year ago, she tried on a wedding gown in New York, he bought cupboards in Deheisheh - and was arrested that same afternoon. He had gone to Jerusalem, was caught without a permit, and returned home a year later. </div> <div> That was the fourth administrative detention (arrest without trial) slapped on Abed al-Ahmar, a human rights activist and a field-worker for the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, who has also worked for the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem. According to the Israeli defense establishment, he is suspected of being an activist in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.</div> <div> Sated with arrests and interrogations, his body broken from the torture he underwent at the hands of his interrogators years ago, he is now planning to marry his fiancee, Allegra Pacheco, an Israeli-American lawyer who is also involved in human rights activities - in fact, she met her husband-to-be when she defended him as a lawyer. They were engaged in Meggido Prison and will live on the edge of the Deheisheh refugee camp, itself a kind of prison. Yet despite everything, there is a sliver of light in the darkness. This is a story with a happy ending.</div> <div> Ahmar returned home last weekend after spending a year in administrative detention. He is 43 and has spend almost 10 years in prison, most of the time without first being tried. Last Thursday, he was one of a group of about 15 Palestinian detainees who were released at the Qalandiyah checkpoint. The Border Policemen who were their escorts removed their blindfolds, but did not open their plastic handcuffs. After 12 consecutive hours of bound hands, without having eaten, and after a year of imprisonment without a trial, the detainees alighted from the bus in a disoriented state and looked around for someone to free their hands. </div> <div> An elderly Palestinian night watchman from a nearby brick factory eventually brought a screwdriver and undid the cuffs. Ahmar is keeping his handcuffs as a souvenir and runs them over his fingers like prayer beads.</div> <div> Border Police spokeswoman Liat Perl says in response that the Border Police have no connection with escorts inside buses, and that its policemen do not have anything to do with the entire "procedural process" that concerns the prisoners: "The Israel Defense Forces is the one that takes care of them and handcuffs them."</div> <div> The soldier at the checkpoint did not let them proceed home. It was evening, Ahmar had just been freed from a year in detention, but he had no chance of getting to his home on the edge of Deheisheh refugee camp, which is just outside Bethlehem. His request for a transit permit from the authorities at Ofer detention facility, his last place of incarceration, had been turned down. So he stood by the checkpoint, at first bound, then freed, and didn't know what to do. He walked to the nearby village of Bir Naballah, knocked on the door of a distant acquaintance, and spent his first night of freedom in his house.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Arrest after arrest</B></div> <div> On the morning of the day of his release, Ahmar and some other detainees were made to sit on the gravel outside the prison offices, their hands bound, their eyes covered, under a blazing sun. They sat like that the whole day. He asked if he could have something to lean on, to relieve his chronic back pain, which he has suffered from since his interrogation by the Shin Bet security service in 1995, but that request was denied, too. The men were given water three times during the day. </div> <div> Around dusk, he was taken to a Shin Bet security services interrogator who showed him a computer image of his brothers and asked him to identify them by name, to ensure that the right prisoner was being released and not, heaven forbid, someone else. (It wouldn't have been the first time.)</div> <div> Just to be on the safe side, Ahmar was also asked for the name of his maternal grandmother. The physician asked if he had any special problems "but only ones that stated here, at Ofer" - and Ahmar asked for a painkiller because of his aching back, but his request was rejected. At last the men were placed aboard a bus. Attorney Allegra Pacheco was waiting at the Bethlehem checkpoint, totally distraught. No one knew whether her fiance was being released or not. By the time she finally learned where he was, in the late evening, the Bethlehem checkpoint was closed to her and she had to get to Bir Naballah by stealth, under cover of dark, for their first night together in a year.</div> <div> Pacheco, who has both an American and an Israeli passport, has been living for the past year in their future home in Bethlehem, as it has been constructed, one floor above the home of the parents and brothers of her fiance, in the stone building that faces the Deheisheh refugee camp, where he was born. The next morning, last Friday, the couple set off for home. The policemen at the surprise checkpoint next to Ma'aleh Adumim, just outside Jerusalem, stopped their taxi. Bingo. Ahmar's name still appeared on the computer lists as a wanted individual and the policemen wanted to arrest him. A copy of the court decision to release him that he carried with him finally convinced them to let him go.</div> <div> Exactly a year ago to the day, Ahmar went to Jerusalem after ordering the cupboards for their new home, in order to meet a small group of communist activists - new immigrants from Russia. He says that they wanted to visit Deheisheh, but he thought that would be too dangerous for them and suggested that he come to them instead. Policemen suddenly showed up, for no apparent reason, at the apartment in the Malha neighborhood where the meeting took place. They asked for papers and Ahmar, who of course did not have a permit to enter Jerusalem, was immediately arrested.</div> <div> He spent 39 days in solitary confinement in the prison facility in the Russian Compound in Jerusalem, though he was questioned only on seven days - mainly, he says, about the relations between the Sunnis and the Shi'ites and the prevalent norms in the Palestinian society before and after the intifada. It was a quasi-intellectual sort of conversation. He says he told his interrogators that if they wanted to save their souls, they should undergo vocational retraining as human rights activists. </div> <div> They told him, he says, that the human rights activists in Israel are a marginal group, people without a profession who are unable to find any other work. He said they would one day meet in the international court at The Hague.</div> <div> The transcript of the interrogation states that the subject replied with chutzpah. The interrogators' code names were Dekel and Nir. They told him, he recalls, "You are going to get administrative detention and then another administrative detention, and when you get out, on the way home, be careful not to get into a car because you will get a missile." This time he was not tortured as in the past, apart from being tied to a chair for a lengthy period.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Two `A's and a Heart</B></div> <div> I saw al-Ahmar in the Supreme Court last June, when he appealed his detention. He showed the court faint signs that the handcuffs left on his wrists. His face was ashen and he had to leave the courtroom in order to throw up in the midst of the hearing. During the past year, he spent time at the prison facilities in Megiddo, Ketziot (in the Gaza Strip) and Ofer. In Ofer, he hung the frozen schnitzels that the army gives its prisoners for lunch on the barbed wire to thaw them out. When he got to Ofer, four days before his release ("The four days at Ofer were harder than a year at Megiddo"), he was bound and made to sit on the floor for 16 consecutive hours, his eyes covered, before being taken to his tent. The officer Sergei asked if any of the detainees knows Hebrew. Al-Ahmar volunteered immediately, knowing this was the only way he would be able to get up for a few minutes and relieve the burning ache in his back.</div> <div> <B>Al-Ahmar recalls that Sergei said: "Welcome to our concentration camp. What the Germans did to us, we will do to you. What we went through, you will go through. Then you can find yourselves another nation to abuse, the way we are going to abuse you."</B></div> <div> (The IDF Spokesman, in response: "The claims made with respect to the IDF officer who compared the Ofer detention facility to a concentration camp have been investigated and found to be untrue. In any case, the IDF views with great seriousness and condemns expressions of this sort, which are not proper for soldiers in the IDF to say.")</div> <div> On Saturday, al-Ahmar went with Pacheco to see the devastated headquarters of Yasser Arafat in Bethlehem and the swath of destruction in the streets around the Church of the Nativity. The two had met in 1996 in the detention cells of the Russian Compound - a superb setting for meeting singles and arranging marriages - when he was an administrative detainee and she was his lawyer. Pacheco immigrated to Israel two years earlier, in 1994, believing that she would devote most of her work to joint Israeli-Palestinian projects, since peace was apparently at hand, and that she would spend only one more year representing Palestinian prisoners.</div> <div> Following the abuse and vilification that was heaped on the family of the pro-Palestinian Jewish activist Adam Shapiro, Pacheco's mother asked her not to disclose her exact place of residence on the East Coast; she is afraid. Pacheco also has a large family in Israel, not all of whom know about her plans. Last January, during one of the hearings on extending al-Ahmar's detention, the two of them adjourned to a side room, with the permission of the court, where Pacheco produced two gold rings and a box of borekas, and they became engaged. They also offered borekas and Coke to the soldiers and the judge and the Shin Bet agents.</div> <div> The rings that the two wear are inscribed with two "A"s, standing for their first names, Allegra and Abed, with a heart between them. A photograph of the couple is stuck on the door of their new Amcor refrigerator with a magnet. A neighbor installed a special wooden ladder for the cat to use to get from the balcony to the yard and back up. The kids in Deheisheh already know the cat. Allegra and Abed say that their children will speak Arabic and English. In the meantime, they themselves converse in Hebrew, which is the second language of both of them.</div> <div> <B>When the Israeli army occupied Bethlehem and she was unable to leave the house, Allegra joined her future mother-in-law and together they planted green beans and tomatoes between the olive trees. That was very nice, she says. On Saturday, a few hours after we said good-bye, the army entered Bethlehem again and placed the city under curfew.</B></div> <div> <B>By Gideon Levy, levy@haaretz.co.il></B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B><U>COMBATANTS' LETTER</U></B></div> <div> <I><B>COURAGE TO REFUSE </B></I></div> <bR> <div> <B>www.seruv.org</B></div> <div> See this web site for names and rank and some personal stories of Israeli soldiers and officers who refuse to serve in the Occupied territory.</div> <div> >We reserve combat officers and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, who were raised upon the principles of Zionism, sacrifice and giving to the people of Israel and the State of Israel, who have always served in the front lines, and who were the first to carry out any mission, light or heavy, in order to protect the State of Israel and strengthen it.</div> <div> >We, combat officers and soldiers who have served the State of Israel for long weeks every year, in spite of the clear cost to our personal lives, have been on reserve duty all over the Occupied Territories, and were issued commands and directives that had nothing to do with the security of our country, and that had the sole purpose of perpetuating our control over the Palestinian people. We, whose eyes have seen the bloody toll this Occupation exacts from both sides. </div> <div> > We, who sensed how the commands issued to us in the Territories destroy all the values we had absorbed while growing up in this country.</div> <div> >We, who understand now that the price of Occupation is the loss of IDF's human character and the corruption of the entire Israeli society.</div> <div> >We, who know that the Territories are not Israel, and that all settlements are bound to be evacuated in the end.</div> <div> > We hereby declare that we shall not continue to fight this War of the Settlements. </div> <div> >We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve, and humiliate an entire people.</div> <div> > We hereby declare we shall continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel's defense. </div> <div> > The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose -- and we shall take no part in them. </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><U>"We express our appreciation and support..."</U></B></div> <div> <I><B>More than 300 faculty members publicly support students and lecturers who "refuse to serve." They represent Tel-Aviv Univesity, Hebrew University, Ben-Gurion University, Haifa University, Open University, Bezalel Academy, Weizman Institute, Interdisciplinary Center, Sapir College, Technion, Tel-Hail Academic College, Academic College/Gel-Aviv-Jaffa, Kaye College of Education. To see the complete list of faculty members go to "</B></I><B>www.seruv.org"</B></div> <bR> <div> We, faculty members from a number of Israeli universities, wish to express our appreciation and support for those of our students and lecturers who refuse to serve as soldiers in the occupied territories. Such service too often involves carrying out orders that have no place in a democratic society founded on the sanctity of human life.</div> <div> For thirty five years an entire people, some three and a half million in number, have been held without basic human rights. The occupation and oppression of another people have brought the State of Israel to where it is today.</div> <div> Without an Israeli declaration of an end to the occupation, accompanied by appropriate action--unilateral, if necessary--the present war is not being fought for our home but for the settlements beyond the green line and for the continued oppression of another people.</div> <div> We hereby express our readiness to do our best to help students who encounter academic, administrative or economic difficulties as a result of their refusal to serve in the territories. We call on the University community at large to support them.</div> <div> <B>Faculty members who wish to join are welcome to contact Anat Biletzki (anatbi@post.tau.ac.il). </B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I><B>This letter is being updated. As of October 2002, 319 faculty members have signed it. </B></I></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="508" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFF99 > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 96 WIDTH="496"><div>  <A NAME="island__2"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>2. Waking up in America: we're asking for an accounting</B></div> <div> <A HREF="#guided_tour" TITLE="Link Tour"><U><B>Click to return to Index</B></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>"My universe is totally divided</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>into those who know and those who don't"</B></I></div> <div> <B>By Hilda Bernstein Silverman</B></div> <div> I am 63 years old. I have been a political activist for most of my adult life-the past two decades primarily dealing with the conflict over Israel/Palestine. My deepest emotional connection to the triumph and the tragedy in that embattled land is to the desperate survivors of the Shoah whose illegal journey to escape the ravages of war-torn Europe for the hope and promise of a new home was chronicled so magnificently by I.F. Stone in Underground to Palestine.</div> <div> In the Passover Haggadah we read that it is as if we personally came out of Egypt. At some deep psychological level I feel as if I personally came out from the place of Nazi destruction where I had personally cried out for help to an unseeing, unhearing, uncaring world.</div> <div> Surely that is part of the reason why recent weeks have been so painful for me. Every day I am the recipient of such desperate messages-coming in a different time, from a different place and about different circumstances--but with profound urgency, nonetheless. As with many in the Jewish left, and especially in the feminist left, I am in regular internet communication with Palestinians and Israelis on the ground who describe in horrifying detail the wanton cruelty and deliberate destruction by Israeli forces of Palestinian life and civil institutions throughout the West Bank. And the accompanying message is always the same: "Tell the world what is happening here!"</div> <div> My responses always feel too little, too late, too ineffective, but at least I am not alone. Others are having the same experience. Particularly in the period before U.S. mainstream media finally decide to pay a modicum of attention to the carnage being unleashed on Palestinians, <B>my universe is totally divided into those who know and those who don't</B> (or who have access to some of the information but refuse to absorb or deal with it). </div> <div> Some days I think I cannot breathe. I look out and wonder why the sun is shining, why the flowers are blooming. <B>My interior world and my exterior world don't match.</B></div> <div> I struggle with the fact that at the height of a major crisis for the people of Israel-and to a lesser extent for Jews worldwide-I am empathizing more and more with "the other side." My thoghts turn to a passage from The Seventh Day: Soldiers' Talk about the Six-Day War. Kibbutznik Menachem: "If I had any clear awareness of the World War years and the fate of European Jewry it was once when I was going up the Jericho road and the refugees were going down it. I identified directly with them. When I saw parents dragging their children along by the hand, I actually almost saw myself being dragged along by my own father."</div> <div> I attend the magnificent Workmen's Circle commemoration of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. People are singing their hearts out, but this year I find the words jarring. There are songs of pride about Jewish honor being upheld by fighters armed only with stones and rifles against the Nazi tanks. I start to cry. I cry through the entire second act. One of my friends in the chorus later confesses only half facetiously that she got through the experience by pretending she is a Palestinian.</div> <div> Days later I read of Palestinian pride that in the ferocious battle of the Jenin refugee camp a 13 year old boy threw stones at Israeli soldiers after he had run out of ammunition. Stories of such heroism are circulating widely among this devastated but still-proud people. Members of the Workmen's Circle Yiddish chorus participate in the City of Cambridge Holocaust Memorial event that I help organize. They sing a beautiful song about Vilna. I think about the rich Jewish cultural life that was destroyed in Vilna, as well as the hideous loss of life among the city's population, and I cry again. I find myself humming the melody for days afterwards.</div> <div> On Monday, April 15, thousands of Jews from around the country travel to Washington to "Stand with Israel" and against terrorism. I am not among them. </div> <div> I choose instead to send the $225 I would have spent on round trip air fare to my sisters and brothers in the Israeli movements for a just peace who recognize that Palestinians as well as Jews have eyes and tears and minds and hearts-that they love their families and struggle and bleed and yearn to breathe free just as we do-and that as a people they have done nothing to deserve the immense suffering that the Sharon government is unleashing upon them with massive lethal weaponry and tacit approval provided by the United States.</div> <div> Only two days before the Washington rally thousands of Israeli citizens-Jews and Palestinians acting together-accompany a convoy of 31 truckloads of supplies for the beleaguered residents of the <B>Jenin refugee camp</B>-water, most of all, for people who had been without water for eleven days. The splendid <B>Coalition of Women for a Just Peace</B> had even managed to obtain an emergency grant to purchase sanitary napkins, diapers and wet-naps especially for the women and children of the camp.</div> <div> When the convoy of trucks is safely through the requisite check-point, the Israeli activists return home-satisfied that their mission has been accomplished. They learn only later that 25 of the trucks have been held up by Israeli authorities and are not then being allowed into the camp.</div> <div> Attempts by UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency) to provide humanitarian assistance have also been turned back.</div> <div> Throughout this crisis there have been credible reports both of Israeli assaults on medical personnel and institutions and of denial of access to medical care-with Palestinians routinely being left to bleed to death in the street. In addition, the obscene destruction of every aspect of Palestinian civilian infrastructure-educational records, medical equipment, cultural artifacts-and widespread looting and vandalism give lie to the claim that this is simply a fight to "root out terrorism." </div> <div> <B>Perhaps the most cynical indication of the contempt some Israeli soldiers hold for Palestinians trapped in their homes with many small children was their use of a captured Palestinian cable TV station to show hard core pornographic movies!</B></div> <div> Although Israel's onslaught on the West Bank is presented as a "response" to horrifying Palestinian attacks against defenseless Israeli civilians, there is considerable documentation that plans were made long before the recent spate of suicide bombings. Right wing Israeli political figure Yossi Olmert presented the idea quite matter-of-factly at a meeting hosted by the local Jewish Community Relations Council almost five weeks before the hideous March 27 "Passover massacre." As I sat there incredulous I heard him propose the massive use of force as a way to bring Palestinians to their knees and turn them toward peace. </div> <div> What is presented as a way to save Jewish lives can only have the opposite effect. Surely Jews in Israel and elsewhere are less safe now than at any time in recent memory. What would it take for U.S. Jews to travel to Washington with a different message--to heed the cry of Israeli peace and justice activists: <B>"The Occupation is killing us all!"</B>--before there is still more bloodshed and devastation on both sides? </div> <div> <B>Now that's a rally I could wholeheartedly participate in! </B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B><U>Israelis at least owe me a hearing on this:</U></B></div> <div> <B>Israel is holding the world's Jews hostage</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Sunday June 2, 2002. </B></div> <div> <B>This op-ed written by a Jewish American appeared in today's Ha'aretz paper.</B></div> <div> <B>w w w . h a a r e t z d a i l y . c o m </B></div> <div> <B>Payback time</B></div> <div> <B>by Alec Durbo</B></div> <bR> <div> For the past 55 years, or to put it another way, for my entire life, Israel has asked me and other American Jews for one thing: help. I think it's time Israel realized that it might owe a debt to the 60 percent of Jews who choose not to live there.</div> <div> That's right, I want help from Israel, a big favor. I'm asking you to remove the settlements from the West Bank, Gaza and Golan. And try - as hard as you've worked to build Israel's military power - to come to a workable peace with your neighbors.</div> <div> I realize you're in trouble right now and it's a lot to ask, but then you've asked a lot of us. Although it's hard to get accurate statistics on this, it seems the U.S. sends about $10 billion a year in public and private aid and donations each year. Over the years, that amount may have been less, but comprised a larger share of Israel's GDP. It's hard to see how we contributed less than half a trillion to Israel.</div> <div> Israelis at least owe me a hearing on this. When I was young, my father worked for United Jewish Appeal and then for Bonds for Israel. We didn't see too much of him because his work was important. As I got older, I donated money and purchased trees for plantation. To be honest, at a certain point, I ceased to support Israel, largely out of disaffection for Israeli policies, and because Israel became wealthy. But in the last half century, the relationship has been entirely one-sided: You asked, we responded.</div> <div> Now, I'm asking. Your insistence on maintaining gated suburban communities in the West Bank and Gaza, and the conflict that flows from this policy, is endangering Jews who live throughout the world. The current spate of attacks in Europe and elsewhere is directly tied to the occupation. I don't need any lectures about the durability of anti-Semitism throughout the world. I've been subject to it and lived with it. But until the last few years, anti-Semitism had grown increasingly marginalized in the developed world. The fight over the West Bank has breathed new life into a moribund, although not dead, ideology.</div> <div> From my perspective, <B>Israel is holding the world's Jews hostage</B> to the principle of greater Judea or greater Samaria or whatever you're calling it these days. So that 200,000 Jews can live in defiant comfort in the West Bank, Gaza and Golan, the rest of us see deteriorating relations with our neighbors and an increasing sense of danger.</div> <div> As far as I'm concerned, the flawed idealism of Zionism has run up against a wall. Even if I accepted the biblical premise that Jews are entitled to that piece of Levantine real estate - and I don't - the political reality is that you cannot find peace by pursuing your current objectives. And you threaten more than yourselves and your immediate neighbors; you are threatening those of us who contributed so heavily to your existence.</div> <div> So I ask you again to have some concern for the world's Jews, for the supporters of Jews, and for peace in general. If you fail to relinquish your semimilitary communities, there will be only war and division. And, as you further endanger those of us outside Israel, you risk losing your base of support.</div> <div> In fact, if Israel insists on maintaining the occupation, I will take action. I will demand my trees back. You owe me.</div> <div> <B>Alec Dubro is a freelance writer in Washington D.C.</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> <B> <A NAME="wake_up_call_to_am__jews"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>Tikkun Community to Oppose De Facto Alliance Between </B></div> <div> <B>Israel's War Party and Islamic Fundamentalists to Prevent Peace.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>NEWS FROM THE NEW “TIKKUN COMMUNITY”</B></div> <div> <B>June 24, 2002.</B> Rabbi Michael Lerner and the Tikkun Community are creating a new social movement that is both Pro-Israel and Pro-Palestine. An article in Tikkun, launched a petition campaign to win U.S. support to overcome what Lerner sees as the chief obstacle to peace. </div> <div> The chief obstacle is a “de facto alliance” between Israel's militant leaders and Palestine's Islamic fundamentalists to prevent peace. Israel's leaders are intent on holding on to the occupied territory. Many religious Zionists believe to withdraw would be in violation of God's will. </div> <div> Islamic fundamentalists prefer occupation to a secular state that would give hope to Palestinians and lesson the appeal of the fundamentalists. Lerner wrote:</div> <div> “so both have entered into a de facto alliance to prevent any such development. Ariel Sharon says that he will not reward terror by allowing any substantial steps toward withdrawal from the West bank and Gaza as long as Israelis face terror. Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad understand the covert invitation, and respond by acts of terror against Israel, particularly when the Palestinian Authority seems to be moving toward accommodation with whatever is the latest American or Israeli demand. Instead of responding by attacking Hamas, Hezboliah or Islamic Jihad, Sharon respond by repressive measures against the Palestinian Authority and the entire Palestinian people. Those measures increase despair, generate new recruits for the terrorists, and demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the Palestinian Authority. A perfect reward for the terrorists --- exactly what they are seeking…”</div> <div> For information on the Tikkun Community campaign to launch a broad new social movement, training progrmas, and petitions to Congress supporting Tikkun's peace proposal for Israel and Palestine, go to <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Key Resources"><U>Key Resource documents</U></A>. Also go to <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>www.</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Tikkun.org web site</B></FONT><B>.</B> </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B><U>A New American Jewish Alliance Opposes </U></B></div> <div> <B><U>Israel's War Policy on Moral and Political Grounds</U></B></div> <bR> <div> <B>NEWS FROM THE NEW “BRIT TZEDEK v'SHALOM”</B></div> <div> <B>May 9, 2002:</B><B> From Donna Spiegleman (founding member)</B></div> <div> “I have just returned from the founding conference of Brit Tzedek v'Shalom: Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace. This is a Pro-Israel, anti-Occupation group of people who will create an alternative voice within the American Jewish community that is at once concerned for the security and long term well-being of the state of Israel and in disagreement (both moral and political) with the policies and actions of its current government. </div> <div> “We believe that of the six million Jews in the United States, only a minority truly agree with the organized Jewish community's Likud-dominated message, which is following the Israeli government's line almost in lockstep… It is to this newly mobilizing majority that we wish to appeal by creating a safe and supportive environment of this voice of American Jewry.” </div> <div> The “Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace” was founded on seven principles. Included are an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and removal of the settlements.</div> <div> For more information on the Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace membership program and the seven principles it proposes as essential to a just peace between Israel and Palestine, go to Key Resource documents. Also got to <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>www.BritZedek.org</B></FONT> web site. </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <U> </U><B><U>BREAK THE SILENCE:</U></B><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> <B>A call on the United States for action signed by 35 American Rabbis</B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>. </B></FONT></div> <bR> <div>  <A NAME="am_kolel_social_acation_committee"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <B>Dear Friends, </B></div> <div> <B>We are sending you an inter-religious call for US action to help make peace in the Middle East.  We seek to publish this statement in a leading American newspaper. So please use the coupon at the end of this post to add your name and support.</B><B><U> Am Kolel Social Action Committee</U></B><B>, the recipient, is a tax-exempt Jewish religious organization, so contributions are tax-deductible. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Thanks, and blessings of shalom. </B></div> <bR> <div> STATEMENT: </div> <div> <I><B><U>IN THE NAME OF GOD, </U></B></I></div> <div> <I><B><U>SEEK PEACE AND PURSUE IT</U></B></I> </div> <bR> <div> <B>The destruction of lives and communities and Human dignity now happening in the Middle East besmirches the very Name of God and endangers the peace of the world.</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <bR> <div> We condemn the deliberate targeting of civilians through suicide bombings. We condemn the totally foreseeable and inevitable deaths of civilians through the shelling and bombing of their neighborhoods. We condemn the use of violence to pursue political ends. </div> <bR> <div> Whether these various acts of violence are "morally equivalent" or not means little to the dead, the maimed, and their suffering survivors. What matters is to end this violence. The Israeli and Palestinian peoples seem unable to do so because they are caught up in the fear and rage that has spiraled out of control. For the sake of human decency and for the sake of the peace of the world as a whole, <B>we call on the United States to act. </B></div> <bR> <div> The immediate present and the future are intertwined so tightly that action by the United States must address both: On the one hand, the immediate violence cannot be ended without swift motion to achieve a solution in which a secure State of Israel and a viable State of Palestine live side by side in peace. On the other hand, that goal cannot be achieved without ending the present violence. Both hands are necessary. </div> <bR> <div> <B>We therefore call on the United States to take two actions at once, and simultaneously: </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   1  Bring about the creation of an international force to protect both Israelis and Palestinians from violence.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>   2  Call a regional peace conference including Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and all the Arab states, and peace- committed religious leaders and leaders of civil society in the region, to take up at once the Saudi proposals for regional peace endorsed by the Beirut Conference and the peace proposals that came close to agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority at Taba late in 2000. </B></div> <bR> <div> The United States should bend every effort to secure agreement on the emergence of a viable Palestine and a secure Israel, based on the 1967 boundaries with adjustments that the two parties mutually agree on, and on commitments to meet the moral and material needs of the region's refugees while preserving Israel's character as an expression of Jewish peoplehood and Palestine's ability to meet the deep needs of the Palestinian people wherever they live. </div> <bR> <div> Today all the holy places in the Middle East are being desecrated by violence, whether they are under direct attack or not. Only in such a settlement can the holiness of those places be affirmed. Today the Image of God in every human being is being desecrated. Only through such a settlement can the greatness of God be affirmed. </div> <bR> <div> <B>In the Name of God Who is compassionate and just, in the Name of God Who suffers in the suffering of human beings, in the Name of God Who demands that we pursue justice through just means and seek peace by actively pursuing it, we call on the United States to act at once. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Rabbi Rebecca Alpert </B></div> <div> <B>*Associate Professor of Religion and </B></div> <div> <B>  Women's Studies, Temple University </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak </B></div> <div> <B>* Coalition for Justice in Hawaiian Gardens and Jerusalem </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Lewis Bogage </B></div> <div> <B>* DePauw University, Greencastle, IN </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Stephen Booth, </B></div> <div> <B>*Denver, CO </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Marcelo Bronstein </B></div> <div> <B>* B'nai Jeshurun, NYC </B></div> <div> <B>Cherie Brown </B></div> <div> <B>*Break the Silence </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Michael M. Cohen </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Emeritus, Israel Congregation, Manchester Center, VT </B></div> <div> <B>*Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener </B></div> <div> <B>West Hartford, CT </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Hillel Cohn </B></div> <div> <B>*San Bernardino, CA </B></div> <div> <B>Jeffrey Dekro </B></div> <div> <B>* The Shefa Fund </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb </B></div> <div> <B>* Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Cong., Bethesda, MD </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Amy Eilberg </B></div> <div> <B>*Palo Alto, CA </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Sue Fendrick </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Everett Gendler </B></div> <div> <B>*Massachusetts </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Jonathan H. Gerard </B></div> <div> <B>* Temple Covenant of Peace, Easton, PA </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Dan Goldblatt </B></div> <div> <B>* Beth Chaim Congregation, Danville, CA </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Roberto D. Graetz </B></div> <div> <B>* Temple Isaiah, Lafayette, CA </B></div> <div> <B>Professor Susannah Heschel </B></div> <div> <B>* Dartmouth College </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Margaret Holub </B></div> <div> <B>* Mendocino Coast Jewish Community </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Shaya Isenberg, Chair, </B></div> <div> <B>*Department of Religion, University of Florida </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs </B></div> <div> <B>* Kol Tikvah, CA </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Douglas E. Krantz </B></div> <div> <B>* Congregation B'nai Yisrael, Armonk, NY </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Mordechai Liebling </B></div> <div> <B>*Break the Silence </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Rebecca Lillian </B></div> <div> <B>Jewish Peace Forum </B></div> <div> <B>*Brit Tzedek V'Shalom </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Jeffrey Marker </B></div> <div> <B>* St. Vincent's Catholic Medical Center, NYC </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Rolando Matalon </B></div> <div> <B>*B'nai Jeshurun, NYC </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi David Mivasair </B></div> <div> <B>*(US citizen resident in Vancouver, BC) </B></div> <div> <B>Marge Piercy, poet, novelist, memoirist </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Barry L. Schwartz </B></div> <div> <B>*Cherry Hill, NJ </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Sid Schwarz </B></div> <div> <B>*Rockville, MD </B></div> <div> <B>Mark Seal </B></div> <div> <B>*Break the Silence </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Gerry Serotta </B></div> <div> <B>*Chevy Chase, MD </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Judy Shanks </B></div> <div> <B>* Temple Isaiah, Lafayette, CA </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi David Shneyer </B></div> <div> <B>* Am Kolel Social Action Committee. </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Toba Spitzer </B></div> <div> <B>* Congregation Dorshei Tzedek, Newton, MA </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Brian Walt </B></div> <div> <B>* Mishkan Shalom, Philadelphia, PA </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Arthur Waskow </B></div> <div> <B>"Break the Silence </B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Sheila Weinberg </B></div> <div> <B>* Jewish Community of Amherst </B></div> <div> <B>____________ </B></div> <div> <B>* Organization noted for identification only </B></div> <div> <B>------------------------------------------------------------- </B></div> <div> <B>We seek to publish this statement in a leading American newspaper. Please PRINT or copy this coupon to add your support. The recipient is a tax-exempt Jewish religious organization, so contributions are tax-deductible . Please make out the check to "Break the Silence" and send it with the coupon to:</B></div> <div> <B> </B></div> <div> <B>Am Kolel Social Action Committee </B></div> <div> <B>15 W. Montgomery Ave. </B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Rockville, MD 20850 </B></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <I><B>This document was fowarded to TurnTheTide by an American Jewish colleague:</B></I></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div>  <A NAME="boycott_israeli_goods_org_on_right"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <B><U>"BOYCOTT ISRAELI GOODS.ORG ON RIGHT TRACK"</U></B></div> <div> <I><B>See the "Plea from Israel merchants for mail order sales" </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>that came attached to this e-mail:</B></I></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U>From: Mazin Qumsiyeh</U></B></div> <div> <B><U>http://www.BoycottIsraeliGoods.org</U></B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The item below illustrates clearly that we in Boycott Israeli Goods.org are on the right track.  </B></div> <div> Our parallel strategy (by groups like Al-Awda, Citizens for Fair Legislation, Palestine Media Watch etc.) to educate the US public and develop grassroots support will eventually prevent the back door salvaging of Israeli apartheid by US tax payers. Even with $3 billion dollars per year in our money, it is difficult to keep a system going that spends so much on military, propaganda, graft (to collaborators and proxy militias), on fences, walls, other "security", and so on.</div> <div> Boycott all Israeli products and services (and academic/research collaborations). </div> <div> Boycott all American companies supporting Israeli aggression (STARBUCKS, TIMBERLAND, CATERPILLAR etc.). Encourage others to do so too and write to media telling them why you are taking such actions. </div> <div> Visit BoycottIsraeliGoods.org regularly and spread the word.</div> <div> Keep up the good work.</div> <div>                <I><B> Mazin Qumsiyeh</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <B>ATTACHED: Plea from Israel Merchants for mail order sales</B></div> <div> <B>-------- Original Message --------</B></div> <div> <B>Subject: An Easy Way To Help Israel Now</B></div> <div> <B>Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 12:52:05 -0400</B></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000CC" FACE="Arial" ><B>From: Dovid Ben Chaim </B></FONT><B><</B><B><U>dovidbc@onebox.com</U></B><B>></B></div> <div> <B>Below is an e-mail just received from the group headed by the great</B></div> <div> <B>Rabbi Avi Weiss. Please help and forward.]</B></div> <bR> <div> Hello there,</div> <bR> <div> As we are all aware, the situation Israel has been facing is a gravely dangerous one. Every Israeli has been a victim of terror, either directly or indirectly. As if this is not bad enough, the Israeli economy has taken a huge hit resulting in terrible losses. Companies, businesses, and stores (large and small) are unable to move their goods due to a nonexistent tourism industry. </div> <div> <B>In addition, the boycott of Israel by the EU has resulted in the loss of an entire market for the Israelis.</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> <div> It is the typical chain effect and everyone from the manufacturers down to the store owners are in horrible financial trouble. Store owners are unable to pay their rents, pay for their inventory, replenish inventory sold, support their families or pay their bills. Our fear is that these shops will start to close leaving every Kikar in Israel deserted. We can help in a very real and direct way. </div> <div> We have store owners in Israel that are willing to travel with some of their inventory. What happens is, they come with enough inventory...sell off what they brought, and then take orders that are filled upon their return to Israel. </div> <div> For example, at KJ in Manhattan on Mother's Day....people were buying up a storm and once everything was sold, people had no problem with seeing a sample of the item, paying for it, all with the understanding that once the vendor returns to Israel..it will be shipped. Think of all the Ben Yehuda stores.  Art work, photographs, prints and posters, jewelry, trinkets, ceramics, judaica, t-shirts...these are just some examples of the merchandise sold in the stores there. With the same assortment of vendors brought here, there will be something for everyone. </div> <div> We are coordinating these events for a number of communities throughout North America --the first to be held in Westchester and we need your help. We are desperately trying to defray our travel costs. We need to fly these vendors in at our expense. Two airlines have agreed to allow people with frequent flyer miles to purchase round trip tickets from Israel in other people's names (the vendor's names). Delta and Continental. </div> <div> Also, it might be possible to utilize American Express points/miles to purchase tickets. We are asking for people to donate frequent flyer miles so that we can directly help these Israelis. If given the chance to come here to our communities, they will return to Israel with the funds to pay their bills and support their families. In turn, the manufacturers also benefit because inventory is being moved, paid for and replenished. We need to act quickly and because of this, we are looking to start bringing vendors in for June. </div> <div> We are asking you to donate your miles/points and to let us know if you are able to do so as soon as possible. Our communities will be joining together to assist these Israelis. We are in need of your help to make this possible and to see it through to fruition. We are all one people...we are all family.  They need our help desperately and we need yours.</div> <div> We are available for any questions you might have. Feel free to contact us at anytime.</div> <div> With much appreciation,</div> <div> Meredith Weiss                             </div> <div> National Director,                         </div> <div> Coalition for Jewish Concerns              </div> <div> mw812@aol.com<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >                          </FONT></div> <div> (office) (718) 796-4730                         </div> <bR> <div> <I><B>Dovid Ben Chaim </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Blessed are You, G-d, who gives Your People Israel a mighty arm and the will to use it. Be strong! Be strong! May we all be strengthened! </B></I></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I><B>TAKE IT ALL BACK AND KEEP IT!</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>Israel embraces a fictional plot</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <B>DAVID GROSSMAN'S WARNING</B></div> <div> <B>NEWS FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES</B></div> <div> October 1, 2002, an op-ed article written by David Grossman warned that Israeli society has "superimposed" a "deception and dangerous plot line" on the story it tells itself. </div> <div> Grossman wrote that many Israelis believe the wave of Palestinian terrorism over the last two years provides Israel "absolution for its problematic past." </div> <div> Grossman reminded Israelis that their problematic past included "years of repression, occupation and humiliation imposed on the West Bank and Gaza between 1967 and 2000." Both sides contributed their share of blood and folly. </div> <div> Even so, the story that leaders of Israel, its media, and most citizens choose to tell themselves is, according to Grossman, "astoundingly obtuse and superficial."</div> <div> <B>He points out that the story obliterates "33 years of roadblocks, thousands of prisoners, deportations, and killings of innocent people. It's as though there were never long months of closures in cities and villages, as if there had been no humiliations, no incessant harassment, no searches of houses, no bulldozing of hundreds of homes, no uprooting of vineyards and olive groves, no filling up of wells and, especially, no construction of tens of thousands of housing units in settlements and large-scale confiscation of land, in violation of international law."</B></div> <div> The "deceptive and dangerous plot line" justifies the present use of massive and unrelenting military force against the Palestinians. It dismisses as insufficient any "reason for a popular uprising by a subjugated and despairing people."</div> <div> Because the story line so many Israelis tell themselves is so unrealistic, Grossman writes, "it is fraught with danger." He concludes, "If we do not replant the recent Intifada in its historical context, no chance of any minimal mutual understanding will sprout. And without context, we will never be truly cured." </div> <div> <I><B>(To read the article, refer to New York Times Op-ed, Oct. 1, 2002. Grossman's most recent book, "Be My Knife," is a novel translated from Hebrew by Haim Watsman.)</B></I>  </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B>From Jew to Jew: An Alternative to the Deceptive Plot Line--</B></div> <div> <B>A Case History for Opposing the Occupation</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>FROM “A JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE”</B></div> <div> <B>(This is an Introduction to a longer document in the Key Resources.)</B></div> <div> <B>“A Jewish Voice for Peace” </B>was one of the first American Jewish groups to join the Israeli peace movement. It is now producing carefully researched historical material that newcomers to the movement can use to “catch up,” and to present an informed, factual case for their Pro-Israel peace agenda. One of the latest and best if an 8-page case history titled, “From Jews to Jew: Why We Should Oppose the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.” </div> <div> The document is available from A Jewish Voice for Peace, PO Box 13286, Berkley, CA 94712. It can be downloaded from the internet at the web site: JewishVoiceForPeace.org. </div> <div> The Introduction begins: </div> <div> “A Jewish Voice for Peace is one of a growing number of Jewish groups who are convinced that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory must end. There are two compelling reasons for this: </div> <div> “First, we wish to preserve the best part of our Jewish heritage---a deeply ingrained sense of morality---and pass it on to the next generation, unsullied by the mistreatment of anther people. We were brought up to believe that, as Jews, we are obligated to always take the moral high road and we can't imagine letting this proud ethical tradition die now.</div> <div> “Second, as we will show in this paper, we are convinced that the only way to ensure the security of the people of Israel is for their government to conclude a just peace with the Palestinians. Without some reasonable version of justice being done, there never will be peace, and so we oppose any Israeli government policy that denies the Palestinians their legitimate rights. What those are will be examined shortly….”</div> <div> For a complete copy of "Jew to Jew: Why We Should Oppose the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza" go to <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Key Resources"><U>Key Resource documents.</U></A> Also go to JewishVoiceForPeace.org web site. </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U>MIDTERM ASSESSMENT </U></B></div> <div> <B>Israel winning the battles. Palestine winning the war</B></div> <div> <B>By Gershon Baskin, Ph.D. Israeli Director, </B></div> <div> <B>The Israel/Palestine Research & Information Center (ipric.org)</B></div> <bR> <div> It seems to me that now is the time is right to offer a midterm assessment of the Palestinian Intifada and the Israeli war against it. In my view we have crossed the mid-point, not necessarily in terms of time, but in terms of the final outcomes.</div> <div> At this point in time, I would conclude that Israel is winning the battle but losing the war and conversely, the Palestinians are losing the battle but they now know that they will win the war. Those of us who had questions about the lack of a coherent Palestinian strategy should now be able to say that they do, and despite the almost unbearable costs, from their perspective, the strategy is working.</div> <div> When analyzing the current situation from within the internal understandings of both sides, it is possible to find clear logical and coherent thinking. The problem is that when analyzing the situation from outside the internal logic of each side, the situation appears to be one of two societies which have gone insane.  But there is clear sanity from within the internal understandings and it is necessary to conduct the assessment of the midterm after first understanding the internal thinking of both sides.</div> <div> Israel bases its strategy on the belief that the Palestinians view the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon as a military defeat of the mighty and powerful IDF by a small group of guerilla fighters with determined motivation. Israel believes that the Palestinians learned from the Lebanon experience that if they (the Palestinians) hit the Israeli army, the settlers and the general public, causing a high number of casualties, they will successfully reduce the resolve of the military and at the same time cause deep rifts within Israeli public opinion. </div> <div> Israel believes that we are engaged in a war of attrition and as such, it is a zero-sum game. There can only be one winner and one loser. Within this thinking, there can be no Palestinian victories, militarily or politically. As in the well known game of “chicken” the first to blink is the loser. So the Israeli strategy is first to say “no” to any Palestinian political initiative, such as international observers, and to systematically hit the Palestinians in the aim of causing so much pain and anguish that they will be the ones to surrender, not Israel.</div> <div> The Palestinians know that they are much weaker militarily than Israel and there is no possibility to defeat the Israeli army on the battle front. They believe, however that they are much stronger than Israel politically and morally. They believe that justice is on their side and that history sides with them as well. They say that Israel is the last occupying power left in the world and that the success of the Palestinian struggle for freedom from the occupation is inevitable. </div> <div> They also believe that Hizballah type tactics will work and that the great losses that are inflicted upon them serve to strengthen their resolve at the same time that it is constructing the most important chapter in the Palestinian narrative.  This chapter is one of heroism and struggle that will end with the glorious victory of liberation and freedom. Based on their negative experiences of the Oslo process, the Palestinian believe that they could not have extracted from Israel the total withdrawal from the occupied territories through negotiations. They believe that they will achieve this goal through their struggle.</div> <div> In my assessment of the situation at this point in time, the Palestinians are winning the war. They will achieve their goals. Israel will withdraw from more than 96% of the occupied territories. Israel will also agree to compensate the Palestinians for territories annexed to it from lands within Israel proper. Jerusalem will become the capital of two States. Israeli society is beginning to “crack”. </div> <div> <B>More and more Israelis are beginning to believe that some 250,000 settlers are holding more than 5 million other Israelis hostage</B>. While the Israeli desire and resolve to make the Palestinian feel the pain of their war against Israel has not been reduced, more and more Israelis are understanding that their strategy is not working. Palestinian resolve is not on the decline, in fact everything that Israel has done during the past 1 ½ years has only strengthened their determination and their support for their leader. Arafat's symbolic importance as the father of the Palestinian nation and the eventual founder of the Palestinian State has significantly increased as the Israeli determination to weaken him and humiliate him has increased. </div> <div> In my assessment, it seems now that it is mostly a matter of time and a question of how many Palestinians and Israelis will lose their lives before the end of this war is in clear view. Perhaps the main problem that we face is the lack of leadership, in Israel, Palestine and internationally, that can draw the conclusions now and put an end to the bloodshed.<B> </B></div> <div> <B>If we had real leaders in our midst, they would stand up now and put the deal on the table - the end of the occupation, a sovereign Palestinian State next to Israel based on the June 4, 1967 borders, a fair solution of the refugees' suffering mainly through a Palestinian Law of Return to the State of Palestine with significant international and Israeli financial assistance, a shared capital city in Jerusalem, and international guarantees and involvement. </B></div> <div> There must be a mechanism designed for both sides to declare victory at the same time. The Palestinian victory will achieved as the end of the occupation through their heroic struggle for Statehood. The latest chapter of their narrative should be able to aid them in closing the chapter of 1948.  If this hypothesis is correct, then Israel should be able to claim victory by stating that the main purpose of the war was to end the Palestinian claim for the right of return. If this occurs, then the basis for agreements moves away from the existential conflict of 1948 and becomes a manageable resolution to the final end of the1967 war. This will enable the two sides to build their future understandings while each side being able to hold onto to their honor and dignity. </div> <div> It is also essential to understand that peace agreements might now be more within reach (even though at this point in time it seems to be far fetched) but, the possibilities for real reconciliation between the two peoples has never been further away. The pain and suffering of the past 1 ½ years will remain an engraved memory in the consciousness of both peoples for many years to come, perhaps for generations. The best way to overcome the scars lefts behind is to engage on the people-to-people level. The struggle for peace must now become a joint struggle of Israelis and Palestinians working together. The establishment of a joint Israeli-Palestinian peace coalition, still in its infant stage, is an important benchmark in this process. </div> <div> <B>The leaders of the peace coalition must understand the tremendous responsibility that they have taken upon themselves. They must first understand the urgency of being open and inclusive.  I note this because at the present time it seems that they seek to be monopolistic, elitist and exclusive.</B> </div> <div> If they do not succeed in enlarging their ranks, they will be responsible for a gross loss of opportunities and will probably cause damage to our goals. </div> <div> This past weekend more than 50 Israeli and Palestinian activists from organizations and institutions that initiated People-to-People projects over the past years met under the umbrella of the Norwegian organization Fafo for four days in Istanbul. </div> <div> <B>During the bloodiest days of the past 1 ½ years these people (IPCRI amongst them) reached understandings and voiced a loud willingness and desire to re-launch a public peace process based on people-to-people contacts.  This is a very positive development. </B></div> <div> In conclusion, the somewhat optimistic analysis written above should not allow us to realize that there are no signs of any kind of de-escalation on the horizons. The Palestinian military campaign and the use of terrorism will continue.  The Israeli response, the military reoccupation of the territories, the massive use of the IDF's fire power will continue. The suffering, the bloodshed and the mutual destruction will not end in the near future. The Zinni, Cheney and other's visits to the region may create a temporary reduction in violence, but it will not hold. There will be future escalations. This could be termed “more of the same”, but “more of the same” only really means escalation because each side's pain is increased and the responses and calls for revenge match the suffering inflicted. </div> <div> Yesterday I received an email from a friend that said “The Government(s) have decided to save electricity -from now on the light at the end of the tunnel has been shut”, but<B> for the first time since September 2000, I am beginning to see a small flickering of that light. </B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="508" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFF99 > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 99 WIDTH="496"><div>  <A NAME="island__3"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>3. The Accounting -- Here are your dividends America</B></div> <div> <A HREF="#guided_tour" TITLE="Link Tour"><U><B>Click to return to Index</B></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>"Nobody Should Preach to Us Ethics, Nobody!"</B></div> <div> <B>Israel, a Light unto Nations?</B></div> <div> <B>By Kathleen Christison</B></div> <div> <B>Former CIA political analyst</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>"Someone Even Managed to Defecate into the Photocopier,"....</B><I><B>Haaretz, </B></I></div> <div> <B>article by Amira Hass, May 6, 2002</B></div> <bR> <div> In the never-ending propaganda show designed to depict Israel as a moral nation victimized by immoral terrorists and anti-Semites, CNN recently ran a film clip of the late Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin declaiming, as only he could, "Nobody should preach to us ethics, nobody!"</div> <div> And, of course, few do.</div> <div> It's the general assumption among the vast majority of Americans that no one can preach ethics to Israel, that light unto nations. No nation is more ethical or more innocent--or so we are told.</div> <div> But I can't get something I recently saw off my mind. Every so often in the midst of a deluge of information something leaps out at you as unique--utterly electrifying, utterly horrifying, almost mind-altering in a way. One's senses become dulled after months, years, of reading about and seeing images on television of innocents dead from Palestinian terrorist attacks, of other innocents dead from Israeli tank or sniper fire, of cities and refugee camps devastated, in recent weeks of the entire civilian infrastructure of Palestinian society destroyed. But one searing article leapt out the other day that has stuck in my craw, and I cannot let go of it.</div> <div> <B>In an article in the May 6 issue of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz entitled "Someone Even Managed to Defecate into the Photocopier," Amira Hass--an honest, courageous Israeli woman who has spent years living among Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza--described the scenes of destruction at the Palestinian Ministry of Culture left behind after Israeli military forces lifted their siege of the towns of Ramallah and its suburb al-Birah, where the ministry is located.</B></div> <div> Entering the building after its month-long occupation by an Israeli military unit, ministry officials, foreign cultural attaches, and reporters found a scene of grotesque vandalism. Equipment from the local radio and television station had been hurled from windows in the multi-story building, electronic equipment was destroyed or had been stolen, furniture was broken and piled up on heaps of papers, books, computer disks, and broken glass. Children's paintings had been destroyed.</div> <div> And then there was this, as described by Hass: "There are two toilets on every floor, but the soldiers urinated and defecated everywhere else in the building, in several rooms of which they had lived for about a month. They did their business on the floors, in emptied flowerpots, even in drawers they had pulled out of desks. They defecated into plastic bags, and these were scattered in several places. Some of them had burst. Someone even managed to defecate into a photocopier. The soldiers urinated into empty mineral water bottles. These were scattered by the dozen in all the rooms of the building, in cardboard boxes, among the piles of rubbish and rubble, on desks, under desks, next to the furniture the soldiers had smashed, among the children's books that had been thrown down. Some of the bottles had opened and the yellow liquid had spilled and left its stain.</div> <div> "It was especially difficult to enter two floors of the building because of the pungent stench of feces and urine. Soiled toilet paper was also scattered everywhere. In some of the rooms, not far from the heaps of feces and the toilet paper, remains of rotting food were scattered. In one corner, in the room in which someone had defecated into a drawer, full cartons of fruits and vegetables had been left behind. The toilets were left overflowing with bottles filled with urine, feces and toilet paper. Relative to other places, the soldiers did not leave behind them many sayings scrawled on the walls.</div> <div> Here and there were the candelabrum symbols of Israel, stars of David, praises for the Jerusalem Betar soccer team."</div> <div> <B>This is not a tale we are ever likely to see in the American press, so the vast majority of Americans who think with Menachem Begin that nobody can preach to Israel about ethics, that Israel's army is the only moral army in the world and always employs the doctrine of "purity of arms," will go on thinking that way.</B></div> <div> But I cannot.</div> <div> I am forced to ask some questions that that American majority will no doubt never hear: Can it, for instance, be called terrorism if an entire unit of the Israeli army forsakes purity of arms and spends a month crapping on floors, on piles of children's artwork, in desk drawers, on photocopiers?</div> <div> Is this self-defense, or "rooting out the terrorist infrastructure"?</div> <div> Is it anti-Semitic to wonder what happened to the moral compass of a society that spawns a group of young men who will intermingle their own religious and national symbols with feces and urine, as if the drawings and the excrement both constitute valued autographs?</div> <div> Do they think Israeli shit is cleaner, holier than anyone else's?</div> <div> <B>Why are my taxes paying for this army?</B></div> <div> How can Palestinians ever make peace in the face of filth and disrespect like this?</div> <div> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------</div> <div> <B>Kathleen Christison worked for 16 years as a political analyst with the CIA, dealing first with Vietnam and then with the Middle East for her last seven years with the Agency before resigning in 1979. Since leaving the CIA, she has been a free-lance writer, dealing primarily with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Her book, "Perceptions of Palestine: Their Influence on U.S. Middle East Policy," was published by the University of California Press and reissued in paperback with an update in October 2001. A second book, "The Wound of Dispossession: Telling the Palestinian Story," was published in March 2002. Both Kathy and her husband Bill, also a former CIA analyst, are regular contributors to the CounterPunch website.</B></div> <div> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</div> <div> <B><U>RePortersNoteBook.com</U></B></div> <div> <B>New York City   Available for Talk-Radio interviews 24hours 212-787-7891</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <I><B><U>"When the bomb dropped, 11 children died</U></B></I></div> <div> <I><B><U>and the pilot felt nothing--but a bump"</U></B></I></div> <bR> <div> <B>Letter to a Pilot</B></div> <div> <B>By Uri Avnery</B><B> - </B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000CC" FACE="Arial" ><B>August 24, 2002</B></FONT></div> <div>  </div> <div>       I have read the interview given by your commander, Major General Dan Halutz,  and, like many others in Israel and abroad, I was shocked.</div> <div>       On July 23, one of your comrades (or perhaps you yourself?) dropped a one-ton bomb on a house in a dense residential  neighborhood in Gaza. The aim was to execute, without trial,  Salah Shehadeh, a Hamas activist. Apart from him, 16 neighbors,  including 11 children, were killed. Tens of other men, women and children were wounded.</div> <div>       In school you certainly learned the words of the famous poem  by Bialik, the national poet, <B>"Even Satan has not invented the revenge of a little child."</B> I assumed that you are torn by doubt  after this act, that you look at your children and tell yourself:  "Children are children. How are their children responsible for the  situation?"</div> <div>        And here comes your commander and says that you have no pangs of conscience, none whatsoever. I don't know whether he is telling the truth or slandering  you. </div> <div>       The general says that he told you: <B>"Your execution was perfect...You did  exactly what you were told to do...</B>You did not  deviate one inch left or right...You have no problem."</div> <div>       Those who do have problems with this action and protest against it (like myself) are called by the general "bleeding  hearts...a insignificant and vociferous minority..." He accuses us of "daring to use methods of mafia-style blackmail against fighters...treason is forbidden...a paragraph must be found in the  law in order to put </div> <div> them to trial in Israel...(this) reminds me of dark time of the Jewish people, when a minority amongst us informed against other Jews." He also condemns "the obsession of some journalists...they are bored...so they jump..."</div> <div>       These extreme utterances do not testify to the mental  tranquility of the general, who says that he has "a deep feeling of  justice and morality." I would say that on the head of the general, the blue cap is burning.<B>*</B> Each word betrays hysteria. </div> <div>       But the style must cause deep anxiety. The words would have sounded natural if uttered by a general in Argentina or Chile during the military dictatorship, or by a Turkish officer about to topple the civilian government. When an Israeli general uses such  words against the media and civil society, a red light is turned on. The more </div> <div> so since he was not summarily dismissed but, on the contrary, publicly lauded. <B>Israeli democracy is losing height.</B></div> <div>       But I do not want to speak with you about Dan Halutz, but about yourself.</div> <div>       Who are you? What are you?</div> <div>       One of the pilots explained to the interviewer, Vered Levy- Barzilai: "(That) is the uniqueness and the beauty of the world of  the pilot. You sit up above, quietly, with your wide space. There are no noises, no booms, no shouts of people. You are totally focused on the target, you don't have the dirt and the horror of the battlefield. </div> <div> You do your thing and head home." </div> <div>        Dan Halutz, too, describes his feelings thus: "If you really want  to know what I feel when I release a bomb, I will tell you:<B> I feel a slight bump</B> to the plane as a result of the bomb's release. A  second later it's gone, and <B>that's all.</B> That's what I feel."</div> <div>       "That's all." Down below horrible things happen, mutilated  bodies fly in the air,  wounded human beings writhe in pain,  people buried under the debris utter their last groan, women scream over the bodies of their children, a scene of hell, not  different from the scene of a suicide bombing - and "that's all". A slight bump to the plane, and then home, to a warm shower and bed.</div> <div>       I must confess that it is hard for me to imagine this experience. I did my combat service in the infantry, I saw who I was shooting at and who was shooting at me; I could at any moment have been wounded (as I was) and killed. It is difficult for me to imagine the experience of a person up in the sky, sowing death and destruction without being in any danger himself.</div> <div>        Is this pilot - you! - afflicted by doubt? Does he sometimes  torment himself? Does he ask himself if a certain action is permitted, moral, right? Or does he - you! - become a robot, a "professional" who is proud of his perfect control over the awesome machine-of-death entrusted to him and of the "exact" execution of his orders?</div> <div>       I know that not all pilots are robots. I still see before my eyes Colonel Yig'al Shohat reading from his paper, with a voice trembling with emotion, his historic appeal to his fellow-pilots and pupils in the Air Force to refuse manifestly illegal orders, such as precisely this action in Gaza. Shohat, a war-hero who was shot  down over Egypt and whose leg was amputated by an Egyptian surgeon, is the exact opposite of Halutz.</div> <div>       <B> You must decide - to be a human being like Shohat, sensitive  to the suffering of others, or a robot like Halutz, who feels a slight  bump while he kills dozens of human beings.</B></div> <div>        The Rules of War were born after the Thirty Years War, one of the most horrible in the annals of Europe, a holocaust in which a third of the German nation was wiped out and two thirds of Germany laid waste. The international conventions are based on the conviction that even in a hard war, when each side is fighting for existence, the commandments of human morality must be kept.</div> <div>        Don't make it easy for yourself by adopting the primitive slogans of Halutz, who justifies everything by saying that Shehadeh was "evil incarnate", words which betray his ultra-rightist world-view. Shehadeh was not put on trial. None of his alleged acts were proven. He certainly believed that he was serving his people, as you believe that you are serving yours. But even if it were proven that he was a dangerous enemy, this does not justify in any way the killing of his neighbors. The argument  that this wholesale killing prevented the killing of Jews is not  valid. When the pilot released his bomb he knew for certain that he was killing many people, while Shehadeh's ability to kill us was only an assumption. On the other hand, it was certain that this killing would lead to acts of revenge, and that much Jewish flood  would flow because of it. Furthermore, there is a hell of a difference between a guerilla group and a mighty army acting on  behalf of a state.</div> <div>        Under these circumstances, would you have told your  commander: "I refuse to fulfill this order, because it is manifestly  illegal?" Israeli law and human morality oblige you to do so. But Dan Halutz says: "Refusal to perform a sortie is not part of the rules of my game."</div> <div> <B>      What about the rules of </B><B><U>y o u r</U></B><B> game?</B></div> <div>  </div> <div> <I><B>*An allusion to the Jewish adage: "On the head of the thief, the hat is burning," </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>meaning that his behavior discloses his guilt.</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>_______________________________________________</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>If you got this forwarded and you want to subscribe, send mail to </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>gush-shalom-intl-request@mailman.gush-shalom.org</B></I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000CC" FACE="Arial" ><I><B> </B></I></FONT></div> <div> <I><B>and write "subscribe" in the subject line.</B></I></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B>Searching for the truth in Jenin</B></div> <div> <B>By Kathy Kelly (with Jeff Guntzel)</B>  </div> <bR> <div> <I><B>Mac: Kathy Kelly is a good friend of mine. She regularly takes food and medical supplies to Iraq. But now she is in Jenin. Here is her eyewitness account.</B></I><I><B>   </B></I><B>Doug Wingeier</B></div> <div>  </div> <div> <I><B>(</B></I><I><B>Kathy Kelly and Jeff Guntzel</B></I><I><B> are presently in East Jerusalem, after spending four days in Jenin with the besieged refugees in the camp, bearing witness to the destruction caused by the IDF. They are two of a very small number to have entered without consent of the IDF. They are available for interviews at 011-972-56-621-829 or 011-972-56-529-966. </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>For more information, contact MikiLu at </B></I><I><B>Voices in the Wilderness</B></I><I><B>. ph. 773-784-8065, or </B></I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><I><B>info@vitw.org</B></I></FONT><I><B>)</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <B>By Kathy Kelly (with Jeff Guntzel)  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>On April 17: </B> We entered the Jenin camp for a third time, accompanied by Thawra.</div> <div> We had met Thawra the night we first entered Jenin. She came into the crowded, makeshift clinic organized by Palestinian Medical Relief Committee workers, cradling Ziad, an18 day old infant born on the first night of the attack against Jenin. Like most of the young Palestinian workers volunteering with the Medical Relief Committee, she wore ahijab and blue jeans. She had slept very little in the past ten days, working constantly to assist refugees from the camp. Her fiancée, Mustafa, was missing. Many people  whispered to us that they were sure he was killed inside  the Jenin camp, but that Thawra still hoped he was alive. </div> <div> Today wasThawra's first chance to find out what had happened to her home. She and her family lived on the first floor of a three story building. Mustafa lived on the third floor.</div> <div> Entering the camp, we noticed spray painted images that Israeli soldiers must have made the night before. On the entrance gate to one building, in blue paint, was a stick figure image of a little girl holding the Israeli flag... Next to it was a star of David with an exclamation point inside the star.</div> <div> We passed Israeli soldiers preparing to leave the house they had occupied. Five soldiers and an Armoured Personnel Carrier positioned themselves to protect a soldier as he walked out of the house carrying the garbage. “Five soldiers and an APC to take out the trash," said Jeff. "That's a sure sign that something is radically wrong." </div> <div> Most of the homes at the edge of the camp are somewhat intact, although doors, windows and walls are badly damaged by tank shells and Apache bullets. Each home that we entered was ransacked. Drawers, desks and closets were emptied. Refrigerators were turned over, light fixtures pulled out of the walls, clothing torn. </div> <div> I thought of the stories women told me, earlier that morning, about Israeli soldiers entering their homes with large dogs that sniffed at the children as neighbors fled from explosions, snipers, fires and  the nightmare chases of bulldozers. </div> <div> Recovery will take a very long time.</div> <div> As we climbed higher, entering the demolished center of the camp where close to 100 housing units have been flattened by Israeli Defense Forces, we heard snipers shooting at a small group of men who had come to pull bodies from the rubble. Covered with dust and sweat, and seemingly oblivious to the gunshots, the men, all residents from the camp, pursued the grim task. With pickaxes and shovels, they dug a mass grave. They pulled four bodies out of the rubble, including that of a small child. Little boys stood still, silently watching.  </div> <div> One of the many soldiers who stopped us as we walked into Jenin City, several days earlier, told us there were no children in the camp during the attack. That was a lie.  But now I wonder if it may have become a strange truth. The concerned frowns on the little boy's faces belonged to hardened men.</div> <div> <B>An older boy, perhaps 10 or 11 years old, helped carry his father's corpse to the mass grave. </B></div> <div> Jeff sat down on a rock and shook his head. “After September 11, I drove toward New York City, and all along the highway carloads of volunteer firemen sped past me, coming from all over the country, to help at Ground Zero.<B> </B></div> <div> <B>Here, bullets paid for by US taxpayers are being fired on people simply trying to bury their dead.”</B> </div> <div> A family trudged single file, silently, uphill through the debris, carrying their belongings on their heads. Their faces were wracked with grief. One woman carried an infant in her arms. No one spoke as they approached the hilltop. At the top of the hill, in front of a house that was still somewhat intact, a large family was seated as though posed for a family photograph, surrounded by devastation.  </div> <div> Thawra led us to what was once her home. The house is still standing, but every other house in the area is completely demolished. She quickly collected some clothes, then went to the third floor and returned holding Mustafa's blue jeans in her arms. Her eyes welled with tears. We began to wonder if she had lost all hope of finding Mustafa.</div> <div> Outside her home, we met 8 year old Ahmad. He had found six shiny, small bullets which he showed to his neighbor, Mohammed Abdul Khalil. Mohammed is a 42 year old mason, also trained as an accountant. Having worked in Brazil and Jordan, he now speaks four languages. In Spanish, he told me that he built many kitchens in this area. Mohammed nodded kindly at Ahmad.  </div> <div> A few feet away, Hitan, age 20, and Noor, age 16, dug through the debris with their bare hands to retrieve some few belongings. Hitan found a favorite jacket, torn and covered with dust. She fingered the pockets, then set it aside. Noor laughed as she unearthed a matching pair of shoes. Then Hitan saw the edge of a textbook and the sisters began vigorously digging and tugging until they pulled out five battered and unusable books.  Noor held up her public health textbook. Hitan clutched The History of Islamic Civilization.</div> <div> “You see these girls, they are laughing and seem playful,” said, Mohammed, again speaking in Spanish.  “It is, you know, a coping mechanism. How else can they manage what they feel?”<B> </B>Hitan stood and pointed emphatically at the small hole she and Noor had dug. </div> <div> “You know,” she exclaims, “underneath here, there are four televisions and two computers! All gone.  Finished.”  </div> <div> Thawra stared sadly, then persisted with her search for information about Mustafa.  </div> <div> I asked Mohammed if he knew a man sorting through a huge mound of rubble next to where we stood. 'He is my cousin. That was our home. He wants to find his passport or his children's documents."  Mohammed's cousin then sat down on top of the heap that was once his home, holding his head in his hands.</div> <div> An army surveillance plane flew overhead.</div> <div> “We are clear,” said Mohammed. “We are not animals.  We are people with hearts and blood, just like you. I love my son.  I want the life for my family. What force do we have here? Is this a force?” He pointed to the wreckage all around us. “Do we have the atomic bomb?” “Do we have anthrax?”</div> <div> As we walked away, Jeff pointed at another bone sticking out of the debris. We stepped gingerly</div> <div> around it. Thawra dipped down to pick up a veil lying on the ground, then paused a moment and placed it over the bone.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B><U>A ROCK-THROWING ATTACK</U></B></div> <div> <I><B>Israeli settler women turn on peacemakers</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>E-Mail Report from the Christian Peacemaker Team, Hebron July 30, 2002</B></I></div> <div> <B>By Jerry Levin</B></div> <div> HEBRON WEST BANK  Several young Israeli settler women and youths invaded Hebron's Old Market area twice Tuesday, July 30, assaulting Palestinian shopkeepers and members of the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT), who were trying to intervene and document the incident.</div> <div> The first disturbance began at about 9:15 in the morning below the CPT  apartment. Four settler boys started throwing stones and rocks over the barricade separating the Palestinian market from Shuhada Street. CPTers phoned the police and alerted soldiers stationed on a roof across the street to the attack.</div> <div> As CPTers Jerry Levin, LeAnne Clausen, and Janet Shoemaker reached the street to investigate, two young settler women came through the barricade and began throwing stones at an elderly Palestinian man nearby. Clausen left the doorway to protect the man from the settlers.</div> <div> A settler woman demanded Levin's camera and tried to grab it. Levin, who was blocking entry to the building, passed the camera to Shoemaker who was standing inside behind him..</div> <div> When the settler women noticed Clausen photographing them trying to get past Levin, one moved towards her, trying to grab the camera. Clausen, trying to shield the camera with her body, was knocked down by one of the women who then bent her fingers back and struck her repeatedly with her fists. Meanwhile, a second woman hit her with stones, and a third began kicking her in the back of the head. Levin, trying to block the settlers' blows, got down and covered Clausen with his body to protect her and the camera.</div> <div> Three IDF soldiers came through the barricade. The settler boys stopped throwing stones, but a woman standing no more than three feet away from Clausen threw a chunk of asphalt in her face.</div> <div> The women then began moving further into the market. A few minutes later a patrol of about ten Israeli soldiers entered the market through the barricade, and gently escorted the women out of the area.</div> <div> At 12:45 pm, the young settler women again charged through the barricade and attacked the poultry store next to the CPT apartment, taunting and hitting the owner, his sons, and breaking several dozen eggs. Still screaming they stormed further into the market area.</div> <div> Calls for help from CPT brought an Israeli Police van. Once again the policemen stood watching from the safety of Shuhada Street. After several minutes, a contingent of about ten soldiers arrived, headed into the market and a few minutes later escorted the settler women out. The soldiers made no attempt to restrain or arrest any of them.</div> <div> Palestinian shopkeepers expressed their anger to CPTers about the indifference of the police and the soldiers' solicitous treatment of the settler women. One angry elderly Palestinian man, yelled at the soldiers. </div> <div> "Our God is watching this. And he will not let this happen." An IDF soldier hearing him stopped, turned, and said very slowly, "He is our God. And he has saved us."</div> <div> ---------------------------------</div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000CC" FACE="Arial" ><I><B>Christian Peacemaker Team's work to reduce violence includes using human rights accompaniment, nonviolent direct action and intervention, and communicating stories via an e-mail network and newsletter. CPT's work is supported by Mennonite and Church of the Brethren congregations and Friends United Meetings, as well as many other Christian denominations. For more information, contact CPT at PO Box 6508; Chicago, IL 60680; 312-455-1199 or </B></I></FONT><I><B>cpt@igc.org</B></I><I><B>.</B></I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000CC" FACE="Arial" ><I><B> </B></I></FONT></div> <div> <I><B>Webpage: </B></I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><I><B>www.prairienet.org/cpt/</B></I></FONT><I><B> For photos, please see </B></I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><I><B>www.clubphoto.com</B></I><I><B>; login as "cpt"</B></I></FONT><I><B>.</B></I><I><B> cpthebron-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com</B></I></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Welcome to an Israeli Settlement</B></div> <div> <B>The third girl nonchalantly veered in our direction. Without warning she doused us with the contents of her chocolate milk carton.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>by Ken Sehested, </B></div> <div> <B>Executive director Baptist Peace Fellowship</B></div> <div> <B>April 18, 2002, on tour with the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) in Hebron</B></div> <bR> <div> Tuesday evening our leaders got word of a planned vigil in an East Jerusalem (Arab) neighborhood where a Palestinian family was scheduled for eviction. The Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions was seeking assistance in bolstering their opposing presence.</div> <div> "The police probably won't arrive until 8 a.m., but we need to be ready," was the message from Jeff Halper, co-founder of the Committee. It was agreed that supporters would gather at 6:45 at a familiar location near the affected house and walk together. Which meant our group was up before dawn for the half-hour hike.</div> <div> Legal wrangling, involving 500-year-old deeds, had come to a head, and the tenants were to be removed: one more small act in the larger drama of Israeli annexation….</div> <div> There were a dozen of us initially, some prepared to risk arrest. Then another dozen drifted in, and another, until the street was clogged and the press hovered. Police arrived a little after 8 a.m., surveyed the crowd, then left. No one knew when, or if, they would return. By mid-morning our group decided our presence was no longer needed, and we agreed to continue our journey to Hebron. </div> <div> Under normal circumstances the 40-kilometer drive would take 35 minutes. But nothing is normal here. We encountered the first military check-point within minutes.</div> <div> No, we were told, we could not continue on this highway. Why? Security threats. Terrorism. No such threats applied to vehicles with Israeli tags and Jewish drivers, which breezed through the road block. This particular road is not among the growing network of Jews-only highways, but the effect is the same. </div> <div> Our taxi, a boxy-shaped Ford van, turned around and took back roads winding through the countryside and several tiny villages, a scenic but rugged trip over broken, sometimes precipitously narrow pavement along the edges of steep cliffs. Meeting an oncoming vehicle was always a carefully orchestrated maneuver. </div> <div> After more than an hour the road came to an unnatural end. Massive cubic-yard concrete barricades forced our halt. We would continue on foot. After a quarter of a mile there were more barriers and beyond them more taxis waiting to resume the trip. Thousands of Palestinian workers and merchants endure this daily travail. Whole trucks are unloaded at one barrier, carried by hand or push-cart to the other, then reloaded onto different trucks. </div> <div> Finally, we disembark in a bustling market in downtown Hebron and begin the half-mile walk to the CPT office in the town's Old City. The hike involves crossing a line from one area controlled by the Palestinian Authority to another controlled by the Israeli military. The latter was under curfew, meaning all citizens are confined to their homes. Such lock-downs are randomly--called and can last for days. It's quite possible for a family to run out of food during such curfews. "Internationals," like ourselves, are exempt from this form of collective house-arrest, as are members of Jewish settlements. </div> <div> Crossing from one zone to the other felt like entry into some twilight zone; from the crowded, noisy streets to a ghost town where nothing moved except the occasional cat, the wind-generated flapping of tarps stretched across market stall entrances, and the occasional Israeli Defense Force patrol. For three more blocks we walked along the narrow, abandoned streets, some cave-like, with housing built above, past padlocked shop doors spray-painted with a Star of David and epitaphs like "Arabs are filthy pigs," or merely "This is Israeli land." </div> <div> That afternoon we began our "patrol," one of the more common tactics in CPT's mission of offering public presence and being available to intervene in potentially provocative encounters involving soldiers/settlers and Palestinians. </div> <div> As we made our way along one major road, eerily deserted, devoid of traffic, a rock thrown from behind skipped along the pavement near our feet. I turned to see a young boy, no older than ten years, scurrying to find another stone to toss. Then another, and another… his sinister grin and apparent delight in this mischief froze me in my tracks. Seconds later one of his “insults” was coming straight at my head, so I instinctively raised my arm, which absorbed the impact. The collision of stone with flesh is an ancient animus in this part of the world, where rocks are more commonplace than dirt. </div> <div> A few minutes later, our unwanted and un-welcomed presence was reinforced again by settler children. As the six of us continued our stroll, two preadolescent girls, followed by a slightly older third, were approaching. The two in front bore facial expressions suggesting intrigue and curiosity, maybe even a cautious smile. But as our paths converged, ours on the sidewalk, theirs a few feet out in the empty roadway, the third girl nonchalantly veered in our direction. Without warning she doused us with the contents of her chocolate milk carton. I recall hearing giggles from the other two, very much like I remember from my own daughters' pajama parties of years past. </div> <div> Physically we were unscathed, but I was left emotionally trembling. There is something especially poignant and frightening about the petty violence of children. </div> <div> Dodging bullets would have been easier. </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>"Johnny gently lay the baby down on the stones of Manger Square and then fell over dead."</B></I></div> <div> <B><U>BETHLEHEM 2001: A MATTER OF RECORD</U></B></div> <div> <B>Saturday, October 27, 2001</B></div> <div> <B>Bethlehem, Palestine</B></div> <div> <B>By Robin Wainwright,</B></div> <div> <B>Robin Wainwright is President of Holy Land Trust, USA, a nonprofit humanitarian organization established in 1998 to aid communities in distress in the Middle East. He is Director of the Catlin Foundation in Miami, Florida. He has spent more than 20 years developing and implementing programs for a variety of humanitarian organizations involved in outreach work in the US, overseas and particularly in the Middle East.</B></div> <bR> <div> Jesus taught his followers that they were to be "salt" and "light" in the world (Matthew 5.13,14). How do we do this today? One way to be faithful to our calling is to be witnesses for truth, and witnesses against wrong and injustice. In this way we contribute toward the justice and healing required for the preservation of life and the holding back of evil and death.</div> <div> <B>I want to bear witness today to what I have seen in Bethlehem this week.</B> <B>What I am reporting to you is not more political propaganda to trump one cause over another. It is simply a record of a few of the events taking place this week. It is up to you to make sense of them and explain them to yourselves and others.</B></div> <div> At least 22 people from Bethlehem have died in the past 10 days. The current cycle of killings began on October 18th with the assassinations of three young men who were on Israel's "wanted" list. Any death is tragic, but those of us who live elsewhere are usually able to read about such deaths from the newspaper over our breakfast and shrug them off as the unfortunate but unavoidable price of conflict.</div> <div> However, the stories of the 19 others who died this week, and the events surrounding them, are deeply disturbing, and force us to look deeper into the reality of the Palestinian experience under occupation. I can tell you a few of these stories first hand.. </div> <div> On Friday, October 19th, Musa George Abu Aid , 19 years old, was shot in his living room standing next to his father, and collapsed dead as his father stood helplessly. An Israeli sniper could evidently see shadows through the living room window curtains. Identities were not important to the shooters. </div> <div> On this same day a young mother in a village just south of Bethlehem had gone into labor and was experiencing complications. Her husband put her in the car and tried to rush her to the hospital in Jerusalem. He was blocked by Israeli soldiers at the checkpoint near Rachel's tomb in Bethlehem and refused permission to pass. Despite all his desperate pleadings they maintained their refusal as precious time slipped away. His wife, Marian Suboh, 28, and her unborn child died waiting for hope. </div> <div> On Saturday, October 20, a young 17-year-old boy named Johnny Thaljiah was walking across Manger Square at noon. If any of you have come to the Church of the Nativity as a pilgrim in the past three years, you may have met Johnny. He would often sit at the entrance to the Church and hand out scarves or other covering for those who wished to enter the Church but were inappropriately attired. An Orthodox Christian, on this day he had just been at worship with his family in Nativity Church. He was carrying the baby of one of his cousins, trying to make the baby laugh. </div> <div> Less than 100 feet from Nativity Church, he was shot by an Israeli sniper from a hill nearly a mile away. Johnny gently lay the baby down on the stones of Manger Square and then fell over dead. Johnny was not on anyone's "wanted" list. He was a Christian worshipping with his family in the oldest Christian church in the world.</div> <div> We do not know why Johnny was chosen as a human target. But the snipers are very good. And their equipment was the very newest and best sniper rifles U.S. tax dollars could buy. They had good success.</div> <div> Later that day Rania Elias Kharofah, a 22 years old Orthodox Christian and a mother of two young children, convinced her husband that she should drive to get food because it might not be safe for a man. While on her way to the store she was shot in the arm by sniper fire. She got out of her car and took refuge in a shop. An Israeli tank approached the shop and all the people in the shop ran out into the street. Rania, wounded and unable to run, tried to crouch back in a corner and hide. The tank shelled the shop and covered it with machine gun fire. Rania was later found dead with multiple bullet wounds.</div> <div> Also on Saturday Eisha Abu Ada, 39, and a mother of 8 children, left her family in Jerusalem to go to Bethlehem and visit her parents to see if they were safe and to seek to provide anything they might need under the siege. This brave, devoted daughter was shot by a sniper bullet in her parents' yard. </div> <div> On Sunday, October 21st, Muhammad Baraga, 30, a deaf person, was shot by Israeli soldiers in front of his home because he could not hear their orders to him. </div> <div> On Tuesday, October 23rd, Christian leaders in Jerusalem organized a march to pass through the checkpoint at Rachel's tomb to break the siege. Television cameras joined the procession. When they arrived at the checkpoint the blockade had been lifted and tanks mysteriously disappeared throughout Bethlehem. For two hours no sniper fire was heard as the Christian procession made its way to the Nativity Church at Manger Square and held a worship service to pray for the people of Bethlehem.</div> <div> By early afternoon the Christian protesters were gone and the tanks were back. That night and for the next two nights wide destruction was visited on Manger Street beginning one block from our office building. As I walked up the street on Thursday, I counted at least 21 shops on the west side of the street that were completely demolished and their contents destroyed. Israeli tanks had simply driven into the shops, crushing walls, doors, and goods inside. In some shops they fired shells so that they were also set on fire. Some of these ruined buildings included the humble one or two-room homes of the shopkeepers. </div> <div> The tanks had also driven down a narrow back alley behind these shops, shelling the crowded, meager homes there, strafing families' windows with machine gun fire, and dislodging foundations, walls and balconies with the tank tracks and cannon barrels. The whole scene was like some bizarre video game was being played out on the streets of Bethlehem. </div> <div> On the east side of the street nine other shops had been destroyed in the same manner. Six of these shops were at the street level of the Paradise Hotel, owned by the Abu Aitah family, Orthodox Christians from Beit Sahour (Shepherds Field). Fires broke out from the destruction of the shops and caught an overhead canopy on fire. </div> <div> The Palestinian fire department tried to arrive on the scene to save the six-story hotel above the shops, but they were denied access for hours by the Israeli tanks and soldiers. Sami Awad and I stood by helplessly one block away (we could not get closer because of menacing tank guns) and watched as the flames went higher and the rest of the hotel was gutted by fire.   </div> <div> Throughout the middle of the week, much similar wanton destruction was done in other parts of the city that we were unable to see first hand for several days because it was dangerous to move about due to sniper fire. The multi-storied, modern Kar'aa Shopping Center building was shelled and burned. Shells were fired upon Bethlehem University. The maternity hospital of St. Joseph's was partially destroyed and infants had to be evacuated under fire. Bullets strafed the main hospital in Bethlehem several times. </div> <div> Constant shelling destroyed numerous homes in the Aida and Azza refugee camps. Most of you would not even call many of the structures of these camps homes. Refugee families have been living in pitiful, tin roofed cement brick cubicles since 1948. By now the number of people, or even families, per room is unthinkable by our standards. But these poor buildings were their home. They have tried to make improvements and take pride in their camp quarters. At least they provided some kind of shelter from the winter cold. These are the poorest of the poor in Bethlehem. Nonetheless, their "homes" were believed worthy of concentrated destruction. Shelling on these refugee camps is still going on this very day.</div> <div> At first we heard all these reports in disbelief, but by Friday were able to drive around Bethlehem and see much of this damage with our own eyes. And the killings continued. On Wednesday, October 24th, Issa Jalil el-Ali, a 55-year-old Catholic Christian who was the father of five, was hit by a sniper bullet bringing food home to his family. His wife was in the car beside him but could do nothing as he died. Sami Awad and I attended his funeral at the Church of the Nativity on Thursday. During this day, 39-year-old Salama al-Dibis, the father of nine children, was killed by sniper bullets at the front of his house. On the afternoon of Friday, October 26th, 28-year-old Faras Salahat was joyfully running last minute errands in preparation for his wedding that very night. He was shot by sniper fire and the families gathered for the wedding feast attended his funeral the following day. </div> <div> The stories go on like this but I can't bear any more and I am sure you can't either. All of the events I am describing to you have been senseless acts of murder and destruction. No military objectives were achieved, except to give the message to the people of Bethlehem that the Israeli army and government could do anything they wanted at any time to anyone and no one in the world would be able to stop them. </div> <div> The officially designated name given by the Israeli military for this operation in Bethlehem was called <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#BF0000" FACE="Arial" ><B>"Knife through Butter"</B></FONT><B>.</B> They knew it would be easy and that little resistance could be given to the most heinous acts. They must also know that such an operation can only create deeper despair and greater fury among the population of Bethlehem, historically one of the more peaceful towns in the West Bank. Why?</div> <div> The senseless destruction of what will surely be millions of dollars of property will significantly damage the economies of Bethlehem and Palestine as a whole, economies already collapsing from 13 months of siege. For individual shopkeepers and property owners it will mean their complete ruin. Many believe that the best hope to end what Israel is labeling "terrorism" is to create a viable State and economy in the West Bank and Gaza that will give the Palestinians secure land and homes and with them new hope and purpose. Why then is the Israeli army, which declares that it is "only seeking to secure the safety of our Jewish citizens", engaging in acts that will unquestionably lead to deeper hatred and strongly encourage many more young men to take up arms to defend their families and their families' honor? Why? </div> <div> One last story. Today, Saturday, October 27th, Sami Awad and I went to visit the father of Johnny Thaljiah, the young boy killed in Manger Square one week ago. After sharing his grief for a time, he asked us to go with him to attend another memorial service taking place in Manger Square for several other young men killed during the week. More than 100 people had gathered in the Square, representing many families from Bethlehem, to express their grief and share their condolences with the families of the dead. As the service was in progress, suddenly five or six shots whistled over our heads across the Square. People began running for cover in various directions, mindful that Johnny had been killed in the Square in just this way. </div> <div> Sami and I began walking across the Square with Johnny's father, heading back to his home. When we got near the spot where Johnny was killed another volley of shots was fired over the Square. Then Sami pointed to one of the crosses on top of the Church of the Nativity. This time their target was a lighted Orthodox cross on the roof of the Church. From a mile away, and at the angle they were shooting, this was an extremely difficult target. But the expert snipers managed to hit the center of the cross with several shots. The sacred grief of the gathered mourners had been disrupted by the desire of the Israeli snipers to send us a message. And the message was?</div> <div> <B>If such an act had been committed in the U.S. against a Church or Synagogue, those committing the act would be hunted down and subjected to very severe penalties of laws that address "hate crimes" (acts committed as expressions of hatred toward any religious or ethnic group). In the occupied territories of Palestine, such acts are sponsored by the military of Israel and supported by U.S. tax dollars. </B></div> <div> Why was a cross used as target practice?  Why are innocent civilians being terrorized in their homes and murdered in the streets? Why is property being senselessly destroyed? Why? Why? Why?</div> <div> <B>And who will stop any of these things from happening again tomorrow? </B></div> <div> <B>Israel is very confident that no one will. Who would dare? </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Bearing witness from Bethlehem,</B></div> <div> <B>Robin Wainwright</B><B>, Holy Land Trust USA </B></div> <div> <B>Sami Awad, Holy Land Trust Palestine</B></div> <div> <B>For more information please contact:</B></div> <div> <B><U>www.holylandtrust.org</U></B></div> <div> <B><U>hlt@palnet.com</U></B><B> (email for Awad)</B></div> <div> <B>#205, Middle East Building, Manger Street</B></div> <div> <B>Bethlehem, Palestine</B></div> <div> <B>Tel: +972-2-276-5930     Fax: +972-276-5931 </B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B>Oh Little Town of Bethlehem 2002: </B></div> <div> <B>Christmas cancelled </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Awakened by a tank driving up in front</B></div> <div> <B>From: Rev. Wes Rehberg,  Humanrights@spanweb.org</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>E-mail, Dec. 14, 2002:</B> The following comments were from Habib Awad, a Palestinian Christian who is the advisor to international students at Hope College (Michigan).  Habib is a recently naturalized US citizen, an MA graduate of Western Theological Seminary, and the son of a Presbyterian minister in Bethlehem. </div> <div> Last Friday morning his aunt and family in Bethlehem were awakened by a tank driving up in front of their two-story house and Israeli soldiers knocking on their door. The soldiers came in and politely went about taking video of all of their belongings in the house, apparently looking for anything suspicious. They finished, finding nothing of concern, and then asked the family, and the family which lived on the second floor, to leave the house. The soldiers then used machine guns and destroyed everything in the home with thousands of rounds: furniture, walls, beds, floors, carpets, closets, clothes, shoes, kitchen, etc. </div> <div> <B>As they left one of the soldiers said that the family didn't deserve such a nice house. He said they should be living in a tent.</B></div> <div> Habib commented that the Christian presence in Bethlehem, and in all the Palestinian territories in the West Bank, is fast being eliminated, as the Christian people who can leave are leaving to escape persecution and death. </div> <div> <B>All of this represents our tax dollars, our influence, our support and our endorsement at work. </B></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>Read on for the current situation in Bethlehem from Sandy Olewine, United Methodist liaison in Jerusalem whose home is in the Beit Jala village of Bethlehem, in the area of the Lutheran Church and Hope Secondary School.</B></I><I><B> </B></I></div> <div> <I><B><U>Curfew - house arrest - none of these words really describe the reality</U></B></I></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>From:</B></I><I><B> Sandra Olewine <mailto:SOlewine@annadwa.org>  </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Sent:</B></I><I><B> Thursday, November 28, 2002 5:30 AM</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Subject:</B></I><I><B> </B></I><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000099" FACE="Arial" ><I><B>Day 7 - House Arrest Continues for hundreds of thousands</B></I></FONT></div> <div> Dear Friends,</div> <div> On this day, people in the US are celebrating Thanksgiving.  One of my favorites hymns on this day is, "We Gather Together to Ask the Lord's Blessing."  As we begin day 7 of the curfew in the Bethlehem area, those words have poignant meaning as we are not able to gather together!  </div> <div> Last night around 10 pm an announcement appeared on local TV stations saying that curfew would be lifted today from 1:00 - 5:00 pm for people to be able to restock food.  However, by 9:00 am this morning that word had been revoked.  Curfew would continue today unabated.  For Bethlehem area residents, it is day 7, for Hebronites it is day 11, for those in Nablus it is day 8.  Hundreds of thousands of regular folks are locked into their homes, unable to get to doctors, to schools, to work, to shops, to worship.</div> <div> As I made my way through the empty streets towards the office, though this morning, I noticed that one pharmacy and two grocery stores had cracked their doors.  A few minutes later one truck loaded with produce appeared.  Those close enough to get safely to the truck and stores are able to get a few things.  But, for those in neighborhoods were tanks, APCs and jeeps are present, such movement is not possible.  After seven days without being able to shop, everyone is running out of everything.</div> <div> The young man who runs the store where I go told me that his family is going to open everyday from 9 - 3 regardless of what the army says.  "People have to eat.  Our dairy products will go bad.  So, we're going to keep opening no matter what the curfew situation is until there is no more food available on our shelves."  He turned from me and began to call customers to let them know he would be there today and that they should come.  Out came their little account book as one person with no money came to get food - "Don't worry, pay later."  Khader explained, writing down the family name and the amount owed.</div> <div> Curfew - house arrest - none of these words really describe the reality of 24-hours/day day upon day of everyone being closed in their houses.  One man was shot and killed near Bethlehem yesterday as he was riding in a car, breaking curfew.  Another woman, prohibited from going to the baby hospital in Bethlehem, lost her baby.  The daily lives of people are completely arrested.  And that is just here in our locality.  The stories multiply countless times across the West Bank and Gaza.</div> <div> Yet, even in these situations, I still give thanks to God.  Even under curfew, people do gather together to help each other.  So, today I lift up people like Khader who are willing to risk their own safety to allow others to get food.  I give thanks for doctors who risk getting to their patients when their patients can't get to them.  I give thanks for truck drivers who risk being shot to bring necessary produce to people under siege.  I give thanks to neighbors who come by my house with fresh fruit from their gardens, because they are afraid I don't have any.</div> <div> Today the only Thanksgiving parade I may see will be armored vehicles.  But, the spirit of God is greater than these things and so able still to rejoice, I wish you and yours a blessed Thanksgiving!</div> <div> <I><B>Salaam - Peace - Shalom,</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Sandra</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Rev. Sandra Olewine</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>United Methodist Liaison - Jerusalem</B></I></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I><B><U>PLENTY OF ROOM IN THE INN</U></B></I></div> <div> <I><B><U>But there is no way Mary and Joseph could get there…</U></B></I></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>Meditation by Father Rob Waller, Bethlehem University,</B></I></div> <div> <B>Forwarded by Wisam Salsaa wisamts@Yayhoo.com </B></div> <div> In a couple of weeks we will remember that Mary wrapped Jesus in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. </div> <div> If Mary and Joseph were carrying the pre-born Jesus to Bethlehem today, they would find that there would be plenty of room in the inn, but they wouldn't be able to get into Bethlehem, because it would be under military closure and curfew. And if, by good luck and sheer determination, they were able to skirt around the military checkpoints and roadblocks by climbing over hills and through fields, they would find the inn closed - not full, but closed for lack of visitors.</div> <div> Christmas Eve will be a silent night, but not a holy night. All is not calm; all is not bright in the not-so-little town of Bethlehem. It hasn't been for a couple of years. The city of the birth of the Prince of Peace is abandoned and tense. War and violence hover over the Church of the Nativity and the Shepherd's Field like the heavenly host of angels once did.</div> <div> May the Prince of Peace, himself born in the town when it was under military occupation, be born anew in Bethlehem at Christmas, so that his presence - along with our concern for the believers and our efforts on their behalf - will bring peace through justice in the land where Jesus first cried, where the angels first sang, where the shepherds were first struck with greatfear, and where Christians first believed.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><U>An Island of Stability in a Sea of Turmoil</U></B></div> <div> <I><B>Report by Sue Plater on talk given in London, England, by Brother Vincent Malcolm, Principal of Bethlehem University.</B></I><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><I><B> </B></I></FONT></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >Although it has been declared that </FONT><B>Christmas (2002) has been cancelled</B>,<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > the Franciscans have responded to say that festivities may have been cancelled but the spiritual meaning of Christmas will still be remembered, and cannot be removed even by the Israeli army.</FONT></div> <div> During this time of curfew, we strive to maintain some academic life. We are changing the way we teach from the more traditional methods of lectures and seminars, to a system that supports students working at home.  When the curfew is lifted for five hours we usually get notice the day before and we announce on TV and in the papers what academic timetable we will run, and allowing for one hour¹s traveling through checkpoints each way for all students and teachers we cram in three hours of work. </div> <div> It is so important for the students to meet together - the social value is as important as the academic learning, and both are targeted by preventing the students from reaching University. The staff and students are all heroic and courageous to continue coming through checkpoints, with all the humiliation that can entail, to try to keep Palestinian education going. We tell them that the Israeli Government wants them to remain ignorant, and understanding that encourages them to keep going. When they do arrive, there is a feeling that the University (which is the biggest employer in Bethlehem) is an island of stability in a sea of turmoil.</div> <div> The Israeli Government is sensitive to media opinion in the West (although it sees that it is getting away with so much without criticism), so we ask for support in highlighting our plight.  We ask you to help us provide some hope to our Palestinian students (who are both Muslim and Christian - around 68% Muslim and 32% Christian in this traditionally Christian area of the West Bank), by showing your solidarity with us in our suffering.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <I><B>"Oh Little Town of Bethlehem"</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Consider using these alternative words as a meditation on the plight of the community of Bethlehem and all the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza before singing the traditional carol:</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <B>by Don Hinchey, Littleton, Colorado. November 2000</B></div> <div> <B>Adapted by Garth Hewitt, November 2002.</B></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie;</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Above thy deep and restless sleep, a missile glideth by.</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>And over dark streets soundeth the mortar's deadly roar,</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>While children weep in shallow sleep for friends who are no more.</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>How silently, how silently their hope has gone away.</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>No laughter rings; no choir sings in shepherds' fields this day.</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>The angels in the heavens are hushed in sad lament.</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Back in exile - the Holy Child - finds Herod won¹t relent.</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>O Holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray.</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Your love bring down on David's town, drive fear and hate away.</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Awake the ire of nations, let justice be restored.</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Rebuild the peace in silent streets where once Your love was born</B></I><I><B>.</B></I></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="83" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" BGCOLOR=#FFFFCC > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="71"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="71" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B><U>WAR CRIMES MANUAL ISSUED TO ISRAELIS</U></B></div> <div> <I><B>"Protect yourself against indictment abroad!"</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>By Uri Avnery, </B></I></div> <div> My colleagues at home called to tell me about an exciting development: that morning, “Haaretz” had published on its front-page a hair-raising sensation: “Gush Shalom has threatened officers: We collect material against you for The Hague”. (This is the original headline in Hebrew. In the English edition of Haaretz, it was slightly toned down.)</div> <div> Following the news item, I was told, the Prime Minister has ordered his obedient servant, the Attorney General, to start criminal proceedings against us. The Minister of Justice, Me'ir Shitreet, a third-rate politician, declared that we were a “fifth column”. The Minister for Communication, Rubi Rivlin, considered by many to be a clown, solemnly asserted that “This is Treason!” </div> <div> Any number of politicians and commentators started a lynch campaign. Expressions like "traitors", “informers”, “Capo” (the Jewish “camp police”, which served the Nazis in the concentration camps), “Judenrat” (the Jewish committees appointed by the Nazis in the ghettos) were freely bandied about.</div> <div> There was, indeed, good reason for all this commotion.</div> <div> At the beginning of the year, the Gush Shalom peace movement, like many people in Israel and abroad, decided that it could no longer ignore the fact that in the course of the IDF operations in the occupied territories terrible acts, violating both Israeli and international law, were being committed. Some of these appeared to be war crimes. We in the Gush decided that it was our duty, as Israeli citizens who bear responsibility for the acts of our government and our army, to raise our voice and deliver a stringent warning.</div> <div> On January 9 we convened a conference on war crimes in a big hall in Tel-Aviv. Several professors of international law and two senior (retired) army officers were on the panel. One of the speakers was a war hero, air force Colonel Yig'al Shohat, who had been shot down over Egypt and lost a leg. In a voice trembling with emotion, he called upon his comrades, the combat pilots, to refuse to obey illegal orders, such as bombarding civilian neighborhoods. </div> <div> All the TV and radio stations and the two major newspapers ignored the conference, to which they were invited. It was clear that all of the enlisted media had decided to suppress the issue of war crimes.</div> <div> That became quite clear when we submitted to Kol Israel, the state-run radio network, a paid ad, informing soldiers about their duty to refuse “manifestly illegal orders” - literally repeating the wording of the judgment of the military court following the Kafr Kassem massacre of 1956. Kol Israel refused to broadcast it. We asked the Supreme Court to order the Broadcasting Authority to air the ad, but the court decided that it was unable to do so.</div> <div> So we decided to take direct action. We distributed among the soldiers a pocket manual, setting out the prohibitions of the Geneva Convention, which was signed by Israel. Among them: Executions without trial (called “liquidations”), shooting of unarmed civilians, torture, prevention of medical treatment, killing the wounded (called “verification of death”), starvation, deportation.</div> <div> “Protect yourself against indictment abroad!” the manual said, “As a soldier in an occupation army, you are particularly exposed to indictment for war crimes. Strict adherence to this manual will protect you from arrest and indictment abroad!”</div> <div> The manual concluded: “Soldier, remember! During your military service, whether on regular or reserve duty, you must refuse manifestly illegal orders. If you have witnessed a war crime, you are duty-bound to report it!”</div> <div> At the same time we sent individual letters to certain commanders and warned them that their actions might lead in future to their indictment in an Israeli or international court. (There is no statute of limitation on war crimes.) In the letters, we relied solely on material published in the media, especially on boasts made by the officers themselves, who practically incriminated themselves. </div> <div> Copies were sent to the media, all of whom suppressed the information, as well as to the chief legal officer of the army, who did not take any action.</div> <div> We warned these senior officers that the material collected by us would be put at the disposal of an Israeli court, if, at any time in the future, the courts start to fulfill their duty, or - as a last resort - to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.</div> <div> One may assume that it was one of these officers who gave the sensational news to the military correspondent of Haaretz. The liberal newspaper, which, until that day, had ignored all the information about our action (as, indeed, about almost all the activities of the peace movements) did publish this story as the main sensation on its front page.</div> <div> The result was a deluge of defamation. The telephone lines of Gush Shalom activists were inundated with curses and death threats. The radio talk shows competed with each other over who would bring the most fanatical extremists to the microphone, with the hosts egging them on and openly supporting them. Gush activists were suddenly invited to TV and radio interviews, where they were faced with interviewers who behaved like interrogators of prisoners in some Shin-Beth cellar.</div> <div> Of all the curses thrown at us, the most instructive was “informers”. It belongs to the ghetto vocabulary. When Jews were a defenseless community, helplessly exposed to the cruelty of Gentile authorities, a Jew who denounced another Jew to the Goyim was considered the vilest of the vile. The fact that this word is used today, after 54 years of having our state, when we have one of the most powerful armies in the world, shows that many in our country still live in the world of the ghetto. Verily, it seems that it is easier to get the Jews out of the ghetto than to get the ghetto out of some Jews. The judges of the International Criminal Court look to them like a mob of drunken Cossacks intent on carrying out a pogrom. </div> <div> Our aim is, of course, prevention. We wanted to raise awareness of this subject among the officers and soldiers. We hoped they and their colleagues would take the war crimes issue into consideration  while making their plans, supplying perhaps the feather that would turn the scales at the moment of decision. We were resolved to turn this subject into a public issue, so as to put pressure on the political and military leadership.</div> <div> Actually, the campaign of incitement unleashed against us did serve this very purpose. For a week now, war crimes have become a central subject of the public discourse in Israel. No officer or soldier could avoid giving serious consideration to his deeds or defaults in the occupied territories. Many of them for the first time became aware of what war crimes are and how they might affect their own lives. </div> <div> From now on, this subject will not disappear from the agenda.</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="id23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links of Hope"><U><B>Click here to read more Links</B></U></A><B>                  </B><A HREF="id19.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Breakthrough Story 3"><U><B>Click here go to four Breakthroughs</B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>