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The morning of March 18, 2006, day eight
of my third journey to Israel and Palestine began with a tour of
the Old City of Jerusalem.
A sacred hush filled the cypress canopied
stone streets of The Noble Sanctuary that lead us to the Dome of
The Rock, the site where Abraham offered to sacrifice his first
born son Ishmael and where it is reported Mohammed ascended to
heaven. We all remove our shoes and all the women cover their hair
with scarves, then we silently tread the crimson carpet inside the
Mosque. I am awed by the domed mosaic ceiling, geometric designed
stained glass and massive crystal chandeliers above my head and
silence is the only sound I hear although the mosque is filled with
people.
Our group is split into two: some take the
basic tour but a few Dutch, Japanese, Canadians, two Brits and I go
the political route. Our guide is Mahmoud whose father was from
Chad, his mother is Palestinian and he was born in Jerusalem.
Mahmoud tells us with a smile, "I was at
the Ambassador Hotel for the public meeting the other day and was
arrested and detained for eight hours. The Israelis will not allow
Hamas and the PFLP to have public meetings at all. At that same
time they claim this is a democracy, but how can that be if they do
not allow political groups to meet and discuss the situation and
search for solutions?
"When I was nineteen I was arrested for
being a member of the PFLP/Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine and spent the next 17 years in jail. I was nervous when I
got there and tortured for months. Then a strange thing happened
they gave me a shower, clean clothes, put me in a clean room and
spoke to me like a human being. Then the French Ambassador came in
and told me he could get me out because my father had French
citizenship. He asked me where did I want to go and I answered;
Jerusalem! He said it was impossible, I was not allowed. I told him
I would rather remain in prison if I could not go home and so I
spent 17 years and that is where I learned there is no
justification for anyone to take another life. Those who kill are
not true Muslims.
"I was an eyewitness on October 8, 1990
when a group came to put a cornerstone where they want to rebuild
the Temple. The Dome of The Rock is also what the Israelis call The
Temple Mount, [the site where Abraham went to sacrifice his second
born son, Issac]. They want to destroy our Holy site but no
archeologist has been able to say exactly where The Temple had
originally been and they have been digging for seventy years.
"On that day they came I heard women
shouting and crying, they were fainting from the tear gas! People
got angry and threw stones at the soldiers and guards. Then
hundreds of guards came onto The Noble Sanctuary and started
shooting and 17 people were killed and 1,500 injured. They claimed
we were throwing stones at the Wailing Wall but a Rabbi who had
been over there said it wasn't true at all."
We walked the narrow stone streets that
wind around and into an alley and come to a site known as the
"Little Western Wall", which is in the heart of the Muslim quarter.
Construction has begun for a synagogue for women that will also
prevent access in and out of the inner area, which is an apartment
building where two or three Muslim families share one toilet.
Throughout the tour of the Muslim quarter
Mahmoud points out the many cameras on the ancient stone walls and
where the colonists/settlers have illegally confiscated Palestinian
homes. "Within the Muslim and Christian quarters there are 70
locations where 1,000 Jews now live. We are under occupation and
trying to have a better life and we have had some success. Before
1967 we had no universities and now we have twelve in the West
Bank. I am a citizen of the Universe, but I live in Jerusalem."
We climb to the roof of Al Quds University
in Jerusalem where short courses in Arabic are taught. The ancient
stone buildings are marred by satellite dishes and lookout
towers.
In the afternoon of the eighth day of our
Reality Tour, sixty international ecumenical Christians were
introduced to Sabeel's Contemporary Way of Cross. The Sabeel way,
transforms the traditional Christian tradition of meditating upon
the journey that Christ took after his condemnation as he carried
his cross to where he was crucified with an updated meditation on
empire and occupation.
In Jerusalem there are fourteen plaques
along The Via Delorosa hanging on the walls of buildings depicting
where Christ may have fallen three times, meets his mother, is
stripped, nailed and dies.
The Contemporary Way suggests fourteen
reflections beginning with 1948, The Nabka: The Catastrophe which
followed the failure of the UN partition plan of '47 when the
Irgun and Stern Gang [Zionist terrorist groups] depopulated 400
villages and forced 726,000 Palestinians to flee to Lebanon, Syria,
Jordan, and Egypt.
Station Two reflects on those refugees and
the 460,000 more that fled during the War of 1967. Currently there
are 675,670 registered refugees in the West Bank, 938,531 in Gaza
and over two million in Arab countries who have never received
compensation and have been denied the right to return as guaranteed
in Articles 13 and 15 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights*
and in UN Resolution 194.
I was astounded to learn that in Natna,
the Jerusalem refugee camp has The Wall butted up to the boy's
high school. The 'playground' where 780 adolescents gather is in
reality a cement ground about the square footage of a basket ball
court. There is no view as it is walled in on all four sides by the
high school, The Concrete Wall and two smaller cement walls.
A refugee informed our group that on a
daily basis, "The Israeli Occupation Forces show up when the
children gather in the morning or after classes. They throw
percussion bombs or gas bombs into the school nearly every day! The
world is sleeping; the world is hibernating and is allowing this
misery to continue."
I wander around taking photos and am
warmly greeted by a teenage boy who asks my name and where I am
from. I cringe when I say America, for I am ashamed that over one
billion USA dollars since 1948 has supported violence and helped
build The Wall which has been deemed illegal by the International
Court of Justice, for it does not follow the Green Line.
A few miles from the refugee camp, is the
green grounds of the Jewish settlement of Pizgatzeev. I was sick at
heart and in my gut when we drove less than a mile into the colony
and in less than a miles drive; I counted three playgrounds and a
swimming pool. I wonder how many USA tax dollars helped to build
them, and why the same was not done for the refugees.
As our group is praying a gun shot issues
from the Natna refugee camp, then another and another in rapid
succession. I am told that the Israeli Defense Force is showering
the refugees with gun fire and terror, which is a normal daily
occurrence. I loose it completely then, and sob uncontrollably and
feel like the Magdalena when she could not find her Lord. Then I
think of Jesus, and how he cried over Jerusalem.
I am inflamed at what I have witnessed and
I curse the empire that condones the violent terrorizing of
innocent people just because they are Palestinian. I wonder when
all the Israelis will wake up and see they too are victims of the
occupation for many have lost their humanity.
I pray the Jewish state would indeed be a
democracy, but if they want to be a theocracy, fine with me if they
would only just follow Micah 6:8: "What does the Lord require? Do
justice, be merciful and walk humbly with your God."
When Israel became a state in 1948, it was
contingent upon upholding the UN Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. Article 13 affirms: (1) Everyone has the right to freedom
of movement and residence within the borders of each state. (2)
Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and
to return to his country
Imagine what a world it could be when
every democracy honored the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and International Law.
About the Author
Eileen is a retired RN, activist, author,
poet, reporter and editor for the WAWA Blog:
http://www.wearewideawake.org She returns to the West Bank in
November 2006 and will be reporting on WAWA.
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