Record readers first met Doug Lackie in the April issue as he was anticipating his work as an Ecumenical Accompanier serving on the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). The following are excerpts from his reports during his time in Israel this Spring. The opinions expressed are Mr. Lackie's.
The first 10 days have been filled with training by the permanent staff of EAPPI and the departing EAs from whom we take over. I am joined with five other EAs from South Africa, Sweden, Norway and Scotland.
Our tasks require us to monitor activities at four checkpoints at the separation wall. EAs monitor the delays that Palestinians experience at crossings, a common occurrence, and try to assist Palestinians who may be having difficulties with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). For example, a West Bank Palestinian might be in need of medical care but not have a pass to enter Jerusalem. In the event the person is being transported in an ambulance, we would discuss the medical need with soldiers to let them pass because of humanitarian reasons, which may or may not guarantee passage. Women have been known to give birth at checkpoints.
Twice weekly we go to Hebron in the bus that picks up patients and brings them to the hospital. It is important to understand that as a result of the fighting and the wall, Palestinians are enclosed by the wall and do not have free movement within their own territory.
We are active in two refugee camps, working in the schools in various roles, including working with students to improve their English, plus recreational activities. Shuafat Camp was built in 1967 to accommodate people dispossessed from homes in Jerusalem during the Seven Day War. Originally designed for 20,000, people today there are an estimated 30,000 people crammed into one square kilometre. I can only describe it as a slum: there is a 60 to 70 per cent unemployment rate, and much suffering from the crime that poverty generates.
The Israeli people I encountered vary greatly from the leftists who are opposed to the occupation of the West Bank, and support withdrawal from the West Bank of the Israeli Defense Force. Many of these people are very active within a variety of peace organizations. Conversely the right wing Zionists would like to drive the 3.5 million Palestinians from the West Bank. Most Israelis are somewhere between these two poles.
The bad joke going around is that Jesus would return to Israel but would not be able to get a visa from the government.
Every Friday for the past five years, the villagers of Bil'ln have been demonstrating against the fence that now separates them from 60 per cent of their farmland. As quickly as they arrive, the IDF responds with tear gas, stun grenades and a water cannon. Bil'In, a small village of 1,200 people, is 12 kilometres from Ramallah, the Palestinian city that sits right next to Jerusalem. The villagers claim their land has been fraudulently taken. Police are investigating but the villagers don't expect redress.
Along with four other EAs, I attend a two-day conference on “work site of shame—the apartheid wall.” Speakers include an Israeli Knesset member and Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Irish Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
Also with us are some members of SABEEL, a Palestinian Christian organization, which is funded by our church through the ecumenical group KAIROS.
Two hundred people, mostly internationals, joined the villagers in the protest. We walked to the fence a kilometre away to have a press conference with the international press, but we did not get to the fence as the IDF greeted us with tear gas. It was windy, so the tear gas was ineffective and we were able to dodge the clouds with only slight discomfort. One woman was slightly injured by a rubber bullet.
Nancy is seven years old and her sister Jane is six. Their parents are Israeli. They are separated and their father has custody after many complications in court. In a matter of a few months, the girls' dad found he could not cope with the children on his own. Arrangements were made to give legal custody to Sister Maria, a young, warm, loving nun in her 30s who runs a 12-bed boarding and day school operated by the Russian Orthodox Church for children in Bethany, which is about to become a West Bank town separated from Jerusalem by the wall.
The construction of the wall is catching up to Nancy and Jane. As Israelis, they have an official status that necessitates them to live within Israel. The court officials say they cannot continue to live with Sister Maria in her boarding school. Maria told me of the difficult adjustment these two small girls experienced when they arrived in her care two years ago. Nancy and Jane now feel at home and are happy. The girls' relationship to Maria is like that of parent and child. As we spoke, Nancy clung to Maria.
In the long term, Nancy and Jane will benefit by being on the Israeli side of the wall. They will go to school or university and will not have to wait in line and suffer the indignity and delays as border police check their baggage and ID. Their education will not be hampered as it is for the children of my friend Dr. Salim, a family doctor living in Shufat Camp, whose daughter Nada attends university and experiences frequent closings at the Shuafat Checkpoint crossing.
Six Ecumenical Accompaniers took the bus to Umm Tuba (Mother of Heaven), a Palestinian village in the southeast corner of Jerusalem. We were dropped off at a road leading to the town garbage dump. We walked over a rain-soaked mud road for 40 minutes before we reached the small village of Al Nu'Aman. Public school children take this road every day.
Israel wants this village, and I can understand why, as I surveyed the farmland below. To the north is the Israeli settlement Har Homa, a concrete eyesore built on a nature preserve completed in 2000. Considerable pressure to leave has been put on the Palestinian villagers. Once, all the men were rounded up from the 25 families at midnight, taken to a checkpoint and told they should leave. The house next to Miriam and her husband Joseph was bulldozed on the premise that it did not have a building permit—but the owners still have to pay a monthly tax on their demolished home.
For the first time in my life I was given sheep's milk to drink. This all came about when Miriam milked her ewe as we watched, and then boiled the milk. Actually, I must say it was very pleasant.
A few weeks later we accompanied the male members of the village to the Israeli Supreme Court where a judgment was given to the government to either give the residents Jerusalem I.D. or move the fence to contain the village within the West Bank.
People traveling from Ramallah to Jerusalem have to pass the Qalandiya checkpoint. A woman from Gaza who had been in Ramallah for a heart operation was not allowed to cross because her visitor's pass was expired, since the hospital had kept her an extra day and had not discharged her as originally planned. The appropriate IDF department was contacted but, as frequently happens, did not respond to this special request—even though its office closes at noon for Shabbat and does not reopen until Monday.
The woman had no relatives or friends she could stay with until Monday. A taxi driver picked her up, planning to drive over roads that would avoid checkpoints—a dangerous thing to do. If caught, they could both be arrested. I do not know if he was successful but I suspect he knew what he was doing.
Shortly after this event, six EAs—three from Bethlehem and three of our team in Jerusalem—joined in a bicycle fun race from Ramallah to Jericho, a distance of about 50 kilometres. They did not get far; at about five kilometres the border police set up a flying checkpoint and stopped the whole event on the grounds of security. The group was mainly made up of Palestinians along with some Israelis and internationals. They argued and pleaded; one international was arrested and later released, but no bike race.
Qalandiya. Friday, 10 a.m. A West Bank ambulance pulls up with a wheelchair patient. For some reason, this ambulance is not allowed to drive through to Jerusalem. The patient is transferred to another ambulance.
I photograph the patient transfer and am immediately approached by a policeman with two soldiers. I am told to stop photographing and to move from the parking lot to the sidewalk. I respond that taking a picture is not illegal. The policeman answers that I may photograph, but from the sidewalk, because he is responsible for my safety. I walk to the sidewalk, he says: “Have a good day,” and I continue to take pictures.
2 p.m. A sermon is being broadcast from a mosque a kilometre away. Six Palestinians—three men and three women—start to pray in the parking lot. They are not facing east as I would expect, but west towards Jerusalem. Press and TV reporters are present and a photo-op is underway. On completion of their prayers the press deserts them, so I approach and ask what they prayed to God for. One of the women spoke some English. Her reply was militant: “We are not afraid of these people, I want to go to Jerusalem as I wish.”
2.30 p.m. Five teenage boys appear, their heads popping up and down over the crest of a hill not 50 yards away. I am standing close to an Israeli armoured vehicle; a piece of cement block lands close by. It is time to move to safety, where the press are. More young men appear and throw rocks at the additional military vehicles that have appeared. No reaction from the Israeli soldiers as they sit in their vehicles.
Enough is enough: out of the vehicles the soldiers appear, poised for action. These Palestinian boys know when to attack and when to retreat. After many rubber bullets are fired and tear gas bombs explode, the boys run away. No one is hurt on either side and the skirmish is over until next Friday after prayers.
There are two situations addressing the occupation, one of prayer and one of violence. Prayer may bring about peace in God's good time but violence feeds the hate; it also destroys the soul.
Assalaamu alaykum.
Shalom.
