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September
19, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 16Oakland,
CA
O’Dowd teacher helps diffuse tension in West Bank
As the world
watched Israeli settlers preparing to leave their Gaza homes this summer,
Lorin Peters and members of his ecumenical team in Hebron kept a wary
eye out for trouble between settlers and Palestinians in that tense West
Bank city.
The disengagement from Gaza “was in the back of our minds all the
time,” said Peters, a member of St. Leander Parish in San Leandro
and a teacher at Bishop O’Dowd High School. The scheduled evictions
overshadowed his second six-week stay in Hebron with Christian Peacemaker
Teams.
“There was a lot of speculation that settlers would use that Gaza
focus to try to pull off a massacre somewhere else,” he said. “There
was a strong fear of another Goldstein massacre.” Peters was referring
to Baruch Goldstein, a settler who opened fire in a Hebron mosque in 1994,
killing 29 and wounding dozens more.
The CPT group made a special effort to visit Palestinian homes near a
hilltop settlement in Hebron “so the settlers there and soldiers
would see us every day and know us in case of an emergency.” They
chose the site, known as Tel Rumeida, “because that’s where
the most aggressive settlers are.”
His group of four or five peacemakers feared that some of the most zealous
Hebron settlers had gone to protest in Gaza and would be returning eager
to take action and that Gaza settlers might be relocated in Hebron.
As it happened, the Gaza pullout was quieter than expected, and the settlers
there left without the violence that had been feared.
Peters suspects that a change in their attitude toward settlers among
soldiers and other Israelis may have been the cause.
He was aware of this change because CPT members make an effort to talk
to settlers, soldiers and Palestinians, trying to defuse hostility and
prevent violence. While the settlers often respond with curses or worse,
the soldiers, Peters said, have been receptive.
“Most of them are sympathetic and open to us,” he said. Even
with limited English they would struggle to communicate, and this year
he noticed a change in their attitude toward the settlers, the people
they have been sent to protect.
“I am seeing the soldiers much more as allies than enemies,”
Peters said. “I hope to help the soldiers see what’s going
on” so they can “carry that back with them to educate the
people.”
Settlers have assaulted soldiers, he said, and the troops have witnessed
their abuse of the Palestinians and their efforts to drive them from Hebron
through intimidation and harassment.
After serving in the defense force in Hebron, several Israeli soldiers
have created an exhibit called “Breaking the Silence,” which
documents the treatment of Palestinians.
Others have recently distanced themselves from the settlers, threatening
to punish settler children who attack Palestinians and staking lookouts
for militant settlers.
“My impression,” Peters said, “was that most soldiers
are not pro-settlers and are not very happy about being stuck out there
when they see what the settlers do sometimes.” He believes that
Gaza settlers were aware of this change in sentiment and feared they would
lose what support remains if they shot at their own soldiers.
At the same time, he said, the Gaza settlers were treated delicately compared
with Palestinians. “The contrast between removing Palestinian and
Israeli families is night and day,” Peters said. The settlers receive
warnings well in advance and are also paid for their loss, between $150,000
and $300,000.
“The Palestinians receive no compensation, nothing,” he said,
when their homes are demolished by Israeli soldiers. “Knowing that
history, that reality and then watching on television, it has the element
of Israel putting on a show.”
Meanwhile in Hebron, the settlements remain and although the soldiers
may be growing weary of settler behavior, the squeeze on Palestinian life
continues. For this reason,
Peters plans to return to the city, joining the CPT group once again in
its patient efforts to foster a nonviolent solution.
As The Voice went to press, Sept. 14, tensions in the Gaza area had increased
after Egyptian troops allowed Palestinians to flood across the Gaza-Egypt
border for two days, raising concern from Israeli officials that the crossing
would become more porous and allow weapons to make their way to militants.
Egypt had agreed to deploy hundreds of troops to guard the border and
prevent smuggling into Gaza after Israeli forces withdrew from the border
on Sept. 12.
But thousands of Palestinians clambered over the border walls and continued
to move back and forth. Egyptian forces said they were temporarily opening
the frontier to allow the Palestinians to celebrate the Israeli withdrawal
and reunite with relatives.
Palestinian and Egyptian commanders had agreed to start closing the crossing
on Sept. 14.
(Lorin Peters is available to speak to parishes or other organizations
about his work in Hebron. He can be reached by calling (925) 299-1631
or writing him at lorinpeters@yahoo.com.)
A Palestinian
woman confronts an Israeli soldier as she tries to pass through an iron
gate in Hebron. Israel recently installed iron gates at entrances to the
Old City of Hebron, allowing defense forces to close off traffic quickly.
CPT PHOTO
