A `new apartheid'

Christian Century, Dec 20, 2000

AN ECUMENICAL delegation of U.S. church leaders concluded six-day visit to Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza by calling for "immediate international protection for Palestinian people" and declaring that peace will be attained only if Israel returns to its pre-1967 borders.

The two dozen visitors, who talked to Palestinian church figures and met with PLO leader Yasir Arafat, issued a statement December 12 after meeting with the mayor of Jerusalem and officials at the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.

Former presiding bishops of the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, together with clergy of several other denominations, asked in their statement that "all parties heed the moral imperative to do justice." They said they had "heard the terror in the voices of Israeli Jews and Palestinian Christians and Muslims alike." Their sympathies were primarily with Palestinians, however, and they asked other nations to "condemn this new apartheid that oppresses the Palestinian people."

Episcopal Bishop Vincent Warner of Olympia, Washington, said that his encounter with a nine-year-old girl in the area south of Gaza City where the Israelis had bulldozed an orchard put a "human face on the suffering." And that is why "the statement is passionate and urgent," Warner said, according to the delegation's press officer Jim Solheim.

A grim-faced Arafat told the visiting delegation, "We are facing a disaster." He indicated that a nonmilitary solution must be found. "All of our cities and towns are under siege," Arafat said. "What they are doing in Bethlehem, Belt Jala and Belt Sahour is unbelievable, a big crime." The economic issues are critical, he added, saying that 340,000 laborers have lost their jobs.

Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, in welcoming the delegation to the council room at City Hall, said that "not a single city in the world hosts more churches," adding that it was his responsibility to protect religious freedom. Olmert contended that Ariel Sharon's controversial visit to the Temple Mount area last September, an area dominated by two of Islam's holiest sites, was an exercise of his religious freedom. "If Jews can't visit Temple Mount, then what's the meaning of religious freedom?" He said that "nothing was desecrated, not one stone was moved." The visit may have been a mistake, said Olmert, but shooting is no answer to it.

He added, "In the middle of war, there will be some problems ... some provocations," but that everything must be seen in context. "We make mistakes," the mayor said. "We are under pressure. We are encircled by many whose tolerance is in doubt. It leads us to wrong reactions."

Ariel Kenneth of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, when asked about complaints by resident Christians on access to religious sites and a perception that they are second-class citizens, said, "Israel doesn't want to cause any harm to the Christian population," but it must apply some restrictions because of the war mentality. "There is no freedom in the land when there is war," he said. "We hold Arafat responsible for turning back to violence." He added: "You are talking about difficulty of movement during a time of war. Of course there are limitations, but without exception it is because of the need for security." That is why, for example, only Muslims over the age of 45 are allowed to pray at the Dome of the Bock and al Aqsa in the Old City.

Earlier, Armenian Patriarch Torkom II told the delegation that the number of Christians in Palestine "is dwindling so much that the situation is becoming dangerous." Only 160,000 to 170,000 Christians remain among 7 million people living in the Israeli and Palestinian areas, Franciscan Peter Vasko told the visitors.

Some members of the delegation expressed anger over U.S. military support to Israel. "It is chilling to see the label of our country on the shells used to destroy homes," said Donna Clemens of the Mennonite Central Executive Committee. Edmond Browning, former presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, said on the final day of the trip that members plan to contact members of Congress and "tell the story of what we have witnessed."

Coincidentally, a five-member U.S. fact-finding committee headed by former Senator George J. Mitchell of Maine arrived in Jerusalem on December 11, met separately with Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, then departed after spending barely a day there. President Clinton had urged the committee's formation, but several Palestinian human rights groups declined to participate because the agreement fell far short of an international probe.