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October 31 - November 12, 2005 Report Five: Palestine and Israel: November 9 & 10 Driving the 28 miles south from Jerusalem to Hebron on a warm and sunny day, we passed beautifully terraced hills that bear witness to generations of careful tilling. Vineyards, orchards and irrigated fields of vegetables all reflect the challenge of wresting a living from austere, rock-laden hills that drop off towards the Dead Sea in the East and the Mediterranean in the West. Inside Hebron, the city was bustling. The loosening of restrictions on movement into and out of this large and historically prosperous community – the second largest of the Palestinian cities on the West Bank – has enabled it to regain a semblance of its earlier role as a center of wholesale trade. As in Ramallah, we saw considerable new construction of houses and commercial buildings. Time spent with Rich Meyer and Mary Lawrence of the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) in Hebron told another side of the story. Imposed directly into the heart of this largely conservative Muslim city is a small group of Israeli settlers, who are arguably among the strongest and most aggressive proponents of a Zionist and religious-nationalistic vision for the Land of Israel. The settlers started with a few buildings, a synagogue, a school – a clinic – on sites where Jews have had a historical presence. Gradually they have expanded their area of dominance.
For the time being, there is more freedom of movement in other parts of Hebron – those (theoretically) under Palestinian control. However, even the size of this area is always contracting because of the constant expansion of the Israeli settlements in and around Hebron. There is only one road which cars and trucks can use to enter and leave Hebron – all other roads have been blocked by the Israeli army with giant mountains of dirt and rocks or huge cement blocks. At one entrance, the Israelis are constructing a guard tower and check point which will enable them to control all vehicular traffic to and from the city. The same is true of every other Palestinian city in the West Bank. There is relative freedom of movement within the areas of Palestinian Authority, but the boundaries are staunchly controlled, and the area of freedom is always dwindling as the settlements on the West Bank take over more and more land. The parting message from our CPT friends was clear and strong. “This is not fundamentally a religious conflict,” they said. “It is essentially a conflict between war-makers and peace-makers. War-makers on both sides believe that keeping the conflict alive is the most likely way of achieving the future they want. Peacemakers on both sides see the conflict differently. We must stand with the peacemakers.” The next day – the final day for the group in Palestine/Israel – we had a visit with Jonathan Kuttab, a board member of Sabeel, a Palestinian Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem. As Jonathan explained, Sabeel reflects an ecumenical attempt to give meaning to the good news of the Christian gopel for Palestinians living under occupation. Kuttab, and Sabeel as a whole, is resolutely wedded to nonviolent approaches to resolve the conflict. He reflected on the fact that “most thinking people” around the world strongly support the idea of two states, living in peace side by side. Yet the expansion of the settlements, the Separation Wall and its associated discriminatory road system, checkpoints and curfews, all grow and become more entrenched in ways that make such an outcome increasingly less viable. Decisions of the International Court of Justice, a succession of United Nations resolutions, the official position (until recently) of the U. S. government and the European Union, have all appeared to have little effect in slowing the momentum of such destructive policies. In that context, Kuttab warmly welcomed the decisions of some U.S. churches, (initially the Presbyterian Church-USA), to begin a process of progressive engagement, leading in some cases to shareholder resolutions and perhaps to divestment of shares in selected companies which benefit from the Occupation. In view of the continuing growth of major settlement blocks and their associated infrastructure in the West Bank, Kuttab was asked about a possible one-state solution, with Palestinians and Jews co-existing within a single country. He responded that a successful outcome along those lines would require coming to terms with Zionism, with racism, and the acute challenge of reaching full equality for all in one unified state. In his view, that would be even more difficult to achieve than two viable states living in peace side by side, along the green line border. * * * Our time together has almost ended. We are returning to our homes more impressed than ever by the many people on all sides of this conflict who are fully committed to using nonviolent approaches to achieve outcomes that will provide peace with justice. The potentially explosive injustice of the current situation is clear to us all. The issues are complex and we have not reached clarity of vision in any of our minds – much less as a group – as to “the right” solution. Yet the characteristics of that outcome are clear. It is the vision of the prophets of old, who said: They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat of their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat. And no one will make them afraid. This is a vision that applies to all people everywhere, Palestinians as well as Israelis. Even if the way is not clear, may we never lose sight of that vision. -- Don and Carol Mead for the delegation. ___________________________________________________________________ Other Reports from this delegation Report 1 - Report 2 - Report 3 - Report 4 - Report 5
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Rich Meyer recounted one experience of a Palestinian market area at the edge of a settler enclave. Settler women began entering the market on a regular basis, throwing things off the tables and challenging those living there. The Palestinian shopkeepers were angry and responded defensively. The Israeli army moved in for crowd control and, not being permitted by Israeli law to arrest settlers, they closed the market instead. The Palestinians were forced to leave. After a month of regular confrontations, the army permanently forbade Palestinians from entering the area, closing the market. Shops and nearby homes owned by Palestinians remain inaccessible to them. 