December 11, 2006VOL. 44, NO. 22Oakland, CA

COMMENTARY

•Separation wall is causing extreme hardship in Holy Land

•Christians demoralized by Israelis continue to leave Bethlehem area

•Poverty never takes a holiday, neither can our commitment

Separation wall is causing extreme hardship
in Holy Land

By Bernard Sabella

In the land where Jesus once walked, Palestinian Christians face extinction. With nearly 500,000 Palestinian Christians worldwide, only 170,000 remain in the Holy Land. They belong to 15 different churches, some still using Aramaic, the language Christ spoke.

But the traditions of service and continuity of Christian communities in the very birthplace of Christianity may soon disappear.

With its establishment in 1948, Israel drove nearly 750,000 Palestinians from their homes, among them 50,000 to 60,000 Christians. Some neighborhoods in Jerusalem where mostly Palestinian Christians lived, such as Qatamon, emptied overnight and were seized by Israel for newly-arrived Jewish immigrants.

As a child, I heard my parents speak of their home in Qatamon. Though painful, the conversations were always infused with hopes of return. Their generation died holding onto those cherished memories. Nevertheless, they never lost hope for a solution and were always willing to compromise to resolve their people’s tragedy.

Yet the tragedy of 1948 continues today with the emigration of our youth. An unbearable political and economic situation, exacerbated by Israel’s separation wall, is literally pushing us out of our homeland.

In Jerusalem, which I represent in the Palestinian Legislative Council, we must prove to Israeli authorities that Jerusalem is our “center of life,” or risk losing our residency rights. Yet, the wall has cut thousands of Palestinians off from Jerusalem.

Palestinians climb up a ladder placed on the Israeli separation barrier as they try to bypass the Aram checkpoint on the edge of Jerusalem, Oct. 20. Israel has maintained that it needs the wall for security, but Palestinians have said that the wall creates hardships for them.
CNS PHOTO/ELIANA APONTE/REUTERS

Movement into the city is restricted, limiting our youth’s educational and employment prospects. My constituents are routinely denied building permits to accommodate their growing families. Despite Israel’s claims, Israeli human rights group B’Tselem terms these policies which have no security rationale, a “quiet deportation.”

In Bethlehem, the town of the Nativity, conversations dwell on the economic and social hardships caused by the wall. Bethlehem and Jerusalem, seven miles apart, were twin cities, particularly in tourism and Christian pilgrimage. But the wall has severed connections between the two.

Bethlehem residents cannot go to Jerusalem to attend church or family weddings, baptisms and funerals without permits from Israeli authorities. These are nearly impossible to obtain. Sick people need a permit as well to receive medical care in an Israeli hospital just three or four miles
away.

If the hermetic closure of Bethlehem and Israel’s draconian measures of control continue, new waves of emigration by our Christian Palestinian youth are inevitable.

Our experience as Palestinian Christians is closely linked to that of the Palestinian people as a whole.
Historically, Christian-Muslim relations in Palestine have been based on what we call “the dialogue of life” as we work together, our children go to school together and we share the same bitter and sweet conditions of life.

We are proud, as Palestinian Christians, to have contributed such leaders as the late intellectual Edward Said, spokesperson Hanan Ashrawi, and current PLO envoy to the U.S. Afif Safieh. We work with our Muslim compatriots to end Israel’s military occupation and establish a viable, geographically-contiguous, democratic and secular Palestinian state at peace with itself and with its neighbors.

In fact, according to a recent poll conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, only three percent of Palestinians support Islamic rule. The vast majority supports secular nationalism.

Our relations are periodically tested by outside developments such as the Pope’s recent comments on Islam. Acts of church vandalism in the West Bank and Gaza followed, and troubled us all, Christians and Muslims, particularly in light of centuries of Muslim respect for Christian and Jewish communities, both here and elsewhere in the Middle East.

We were supported by our Muslim neighbors, religious leaders and the Palestinian National Authority in condemning these acts and promising to pursue the perpetrators. Muslims sat side by side with Christians in churches that were vandalized.

Christians and others in America who have our true interests at heart would help us most by urging even-handed U.S. policies. The blockade of the Palestinian government that began in March must end. A cease-fire must be observed by both sides, not only by Palestinians. Negotiations must be based on international law and human rights, and if conditions are imposed for talks, they must be reciprocal on both parties.

This land belongs to no single people. Peace will come when no group dominates and excludes others. Christ’s message of love and tolerance will be heard in the Holy Land when the equality of all God’s children is again respected.

The vital bridge that Palestinian Christians constitute between the West and the Arab world would then be preserved for the benefit of future generations.

(Bernard Sabella, a Roman Catholic, is the Christian representative of Jerusalem to the Palestinian Legislative Council. An expert on Christians in the Holy Land, he is currently touring the United States.)

Christians demoralized by Israelis
continue to leave Bethlehem area

By Lorin Peters

Zoughbi Zoughbi is famous around Bethlehem for his skill and wisdom and compassion in resolving domestic violence. But the first thing he told us was, “Domestic violence in Palestine is increasing dramatically. It is increasing because we have become profoundly demoralized.”
I asked, “Is that because of the wall?” The Israeli-built wall has already cut Bethlehem off from Jerusalem and the rest of the world.

He answered, “It is not just the wall, but also Israel’s confiscation of 60 percent of Bethlehem’s farmland. It is the 76 percent of Bethlehem families who are living on less than $2 per day. It is the daily humiliation and harassment at checkpoints. It is not being able to go five miles to visit relatives in Jerusalem.

“It is the separation of families; Israel still forces my wife, who is American, after 15 years of
marriage and three children, to leave our children and me every 90 days. It is not being allowed access to the top universities and hospitals. It is telling tourists and spouses they cannot go to Bethlehem. It is parents not being able to feed their children. It is uncertainty about the future growing more uncertain 40 years in a row. It is overwhelming hopelessness.”

I asked him how many Christians are left in Bethlehem.

“In 2000 there were 30,000 Christians in Bethlehem, including Beit Jala and Beit Sahour. Now there are 11,000,” he replied. The total population is about 60,000.
I asked, “Why?”

“We fear the future. We have less hope than ever before.”

Three days earlier, after a leisurely dinner in a beautiful restaurant in Ramallah, I and my Arabic language classmates asked a shopkeeper for directions back to our hotel. He volunteered to drive us.

His family is Palestinian Christian. More than 40 members of his family have immigrated to the U.S. He is the last one in his family still in Palestine. In fact, he just took his wife and children to the U.S. for a three-year stay, so they can begin their citizenship process. He is already a U.S. citizen.

He said, “In 2000 there were 45,000 Christians in Ramallah. Then the Muslims started blaming Christians for the troubles in the Middle East.”

I asked, “You mean the U.S. invasion of Iraq?”

He answered, “No, the invasion of Afghanistan… Now there are 1,500 Christians -- 1,800 at most -- left in Ramallah.”

The next morning at breakfast, I sat opposite Mary, our guide’s wife from Bethlehem. I asked her about Christians in Bethlehem.

She said, “Most of the Christians in Bethlehem and Beit Jala left.” Many of these families worked in tourism – in the hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops, and carving olive wood. Because of Israel’s wall and checkpoints, however, tourism has essentially died and families have been forced to leave in order to survive.

“But most of the Christians in Beit Sahour (Shepherd’s Field) have not left,” she said. In 1989, when Israel began levying huge taxes throughout Palestine, Beit Sahour was the one village that decided to resist nonviolently. After two months of total siege and massive confiscations and beatings of the people, the international community came to their defense.

Because many of the families in Beit Sahour grow and press olives, they have again turned to the international community. They have been able to send their olive oil to many parishes and churches throughout America. “So Beit Sahour is still 80 percent Christian.”

She told me that after the second Intifada began, the U.S. Embassy started giving immediate immigration visas to every Christian Palestinian who applied. “Finally, after most of the Christians left, one of the Patriarchs – I don’t remember if it was the Orthodox or the Latin Patriarch – went to the Embassy and asked them to stop issuing visas, which they agreed to do,” she said.

He was no doubt concerned that his flock in Palestine was disappearing before his eyes.

(Lorin Peters spent six weeks this summer in Palestine, working with Christian Peacemaker Teams in Hebron and studying Arabic in Bethlehem. He is a teacher at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland. He was in Bethlehem, studying Arabic, and in Hebron, working with Christian Peacemaker Teams.)

Poverty never takes a holiday, neither can our commitment

By Father Larry Snyder

The holiday season is a time for celebration, for reflection, and for giving help to those who are poor and vulnerable.

Christmas is filled with traditions and symbols that remind of the need to care for the less fortunate, starting with the birth of Jesus in a stable away from the inn. Poor shepherds were the first to celebrate the birth of the Christ child, and the wise men came later with gifts.
St. Nicholas is another symbol of the season, a symbol of kindness, of humility and of charity. St. Nicholas spent his life taking care of those in need – orphans, widows, and people who were persecuted – often in secret without expecting anything in return.

His work is a reminder of the critical need for an ongoing commitment and ongoing action to help those who are poor and vulnerable.

As we enter the holiday season, a recent survey of Catholic Charities agencies across the country shows that poverty never takes a holiday.

Agencies continue to see an increase in the number of working poor families and other vulnerable populations seeking just the basic needs – financial assistance to pay utilities, housing, and food.

Sadly, nearly half of Catholic Charities agencies (48 percent) said it would be harder this holiday season to meet the needs of the people they serve. More than three out of four (76 percent) of Catholic Charities agencies cite the growing number of requests for services as the biggest reason that it will be harder to meet the needs of those they serve this holiday season.

I don’t want to leave the impression that everything is bad, as many Catholic Charities agencies around the country have much to be thankful for this holiday season. The generous and giving spirit of Americans has continued this year following the outpouring of support for last year’s hurricane victims.

We’re grateful for that support, but more is needed.

Catholic Charities agencies across the nation are working hard to give hope this holiday season, but the recent survey shows that they are worried this Christmas about whether their contributions will keep pace with the increase in requests and whether they’ll have enough food, volunteers, and toys.

The challenges of the working poor – those who have jobs but still lack the money to make ends meet – are a growing issue for Catholic Charities and the nation. The fact is that nearly two of three families with incomes below the poverty line include at least one worker, and our survey found that 81 percent of Catholic Charities agencies reported more requests for help from the working poor.

One agency said: “We are seeing more of the working poor, many families with one or both parents employed at low income jobs and who are unable to feed and house their families on their earnings. The impact of no medical insurance associated with these low-wage jobs also has an enormous impact on family stability, as just one illness requiring an emergency room visit can cause a marginal family to lose their housing.”

Local Catholic Charities agencies are being asked to help more and more poor people, but faith-based groups simply do not have the resources to take on responsibilities that used to be undertaken by government. That’s why Catholic Charities USA is launching a campaign to show why government policies and laws must be changed.

But the immediate challenge is providing help to those who need it most this holiday season, as the survey reminds us of the need for donations to enable Catholic Charities to serve the poor and vulnerable among us.

I invite you to remember the poor this holiday season and throughout the New Year. Pray for relief of the poor; give your time and talents; and share your treasure with your local Catholic Charities.

(Father Snyder is the president of Catholic Charities USA. To learn more about CCUSA’s poverty campaign, visit http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/poverty.)

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