| Mideast Update:
Jerusalem Bishop Details
Horrors of Current Situation in West Bank EDITOR’S NOTE: Today (4-23-02) we received the following letter from
Episcopal Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal of the Diocese of Jerusalem, with an
update on conditions in the West Bank.
April 23, 2002
Dear Friends,
Salaam and grace in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and blessed greetings
from Jerusalem,
I want to thank you all for your continued support, your messages, and all
your thoughts and prayers at this time. As we continue our ministry in this
land, we continue to witness the attack on the entire people in Palestine,
and the impact of it all on our work and our ministry of reconciliation. I
am sending this letter on my return from Nazareth to Jerusalem. I left
Nazareth early enough this morning to be able to attend the Heads of
Churches Meeting in Jerusalem at 10.00am in the morning. However, there were
14 checkpoints on the Jordan Valley way, I was stopped at several of them.
At the 4th checkpoint, a soldier said: "You do not look happy," to which I
replied: "Only abnormal people would look happy in this abnormal situation."
The drive was scary with hardly any movement, except for settlers, who
looked at me with suspicion, not to mention also the many army vehicles with
many soldiers carrying death in their hands, inflicting terror upon us all.
The scene and the experience reminded me of the song that the Rev. Garth
Hewitt wrote:
"What's this war against the Children?
Against Women, too?
What does it make to your soul, soldier?
Power only makes you weak!!
You have become what the gun has made you.
You are the terror on the street."
Antonela Notari, spokeswoman for the
International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, stated in an article in
the Guardian on 17 April, 2002, that "it is the responsibility of those
fighting a war to look after the well being of civilians … Israel has failed
on this count on a massive scale in the West Bank as a whole. Nineteen days
of curfew and siege have deprived two million Palestinians of access to
medical care, food and drinking water. Israeli tanks trundled over water
mains and cars, and ploughed through electricity and telephone wires,
depriving most neighbourhoods of basic services …The bodies had been left to
rot in homes and streets for days, and the wounded to bleed to death,
because the Israeli army banned ambulances from entering the battle zones …
The army regularly seized male civilians of all ages from their homes and
used them as human shields
This gives a good overview of the dire
humanitarian needs of the communities at this time. Many families of our
Churches have lost their professions, as a result of the destruction of
their shops, offices, or clinics. They all have to start from scratch, and
they are people who had nothing to do with any armed activity. The story of
the camp in Jenin will become a paradigm for Palestinian struggle and
survival and the basis on which they will continue to voice their history
and their right of their own state. Amnesty International report about Jenin
states that it is "one of the worst scenes of devastation they have ever
witnessed. It is almost impossible to conceive that what was once a town is
now a lunar landscape. Who knows? Who cares? This may be the beginning of a
Palestinian Holocaust However, it added that "If this was an earthquake the
international community would be asked for and give urgent help. It is
shocking that the authorities have not asked for help and that the
international community is not offering it. Let this be the wake up call
that help is needed now to save what life there is left".
We have been receiving many letters of support
that do not only speak of the thoughts and prayers of many, much as this is
important, but also of the need for action. It is the wake up call for all
of us. It is incumbent upon us all to rise and voice the need for Justice,
for those who have no hope. A poignant statement from Dante says: "The
hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral
crisis, maintain their neutrality." This comes to complement what Edmund
Burke also says: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for
good men to do nothing." There is an urgent need to work to influence public
opinion and to provide the atmosphere that might influence the decisions
that are being made. Many are writing to their MPs and others seeking to
force their governments to pressure their decisions, to see a different
reality, and work for justice in the Middle East. The media does not always
provide the picture that reflects the reality as well as the sufferings of
many in this land.
Keep up your prayers, for they are very
important. We may at times feel helpless, and we do. But we offer all our
helplessness to God in prayer, always hoping to meet him in the future, not
only in the past, as he appears to us risen from the dead, proclaiming Peace
among his disciples, and all his followers, but also showing his wounded
hands and side, and manifesting forth that there can be, and there is
another way for the world, other than that of power, and retaliation.
May God bless you all, and know that this comes with my prayers and best
wishes,
In Christ,
+Riah Abu El-Assal. |
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