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November 2, 2000
Dear Friends and Relations,
The events of the last month here in the Holy Land have prompted
me to write this newsletter, particularly as I begin preparations
to leave for a three-month interpretation assignment in the United
States. Scenes of mass demonstrations, extreme violence and bloodshed
have been broadcast around the world and into the living rooms
of your own homes. Most of you have been following these events
in your own newspapers, as well as on the major television networks.
And many of you have written to express your concern and to offer
your prayers for me and for the peoples of this region.
For those of us who have been closer to the conflict and have
witnessed much of the violence up close, the realities have played
themselves out in a manner that has become predictable. However,
the Israeli response to stone-throwing youths has not been predictable,
but rather excessive, brutal and disproportionate. The use of
rubber-coated metal bullets, tear gas and live ammunition against
crowds of young demonstrators has been inhumane, not to mention
lethal! And what civilized country in the world deploys snipers
to shoot at demonstrators as a form of riot control? Snipers are
deployed for one reason—to assassinate!
The current toll stands at 147 Palestinians dead, with thousands
of others wounded, many of whom will suffer lifetime disabilities.
The Israeli death toll stands at 13. What was the cause of this
latest round of Middle East violence?
Many nights over the last few weeks, I have sat in my mostly
dark apartment in Bethlehem with only a few lit candles, as Israeli
helicopter gunships, hovering just outside of my living room window,
have bombarded the predominantly Christian villages of Beit Jala
and Beit Sahour (the Shepherd’s Fields) with machinegun fire,
rockets and missiles. I have had adequate time to reflect on the
events of the past month, which have come to be known as the "Al
Aqsa Intifada." The visit on September 28 to the Haram Al-
Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) by the right-wing Likud leader Ariel
Sharon, whose own bloody history of massacres and murders of Palestinian
civilians speaks for itself, was simply too much for Palestinians
to endure.
For seven years Palestinians have sat at the negotiating table
with Israel while Israel has continued to aggressively pursue
policies that have eroded the remaining 22 percent of historical
Palestine. Israel has continued to confiscate Palestinian land,
destroy Palestinian homes (under the pre-text that they were built
"illegally"), deny freedom of movement to most Palestinians
(including free access to Jerusalem), and continued to settle
its own civilian population in areas (the West Bank and Gaza Strip)
under military occupation, which is illegal under international
law.
For five of these seven years, I have been residing here in the
Holy Land, witnessing first-hand the inhumanity, degradation and
oppression meted out against Palestinians on a daily basis, all
the while trying to articulate to the outside world the hopes
and aspirations of both peoples of this land. I’ve hoped
and prayed that someone, somewhere out there was listening and
has heard.
Today Palestinians are observing a general strike. In addition
to burying the victims of yesterday’s violence, they are
commemorating the 83rd anniversary of the Balfour Declaration
of 1917, which decreed British acceptance of the creation of a
national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. The declaration
stated that it was "clearly understood that nothing shall
be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of
existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine…." Clearly,
this has not been the case over the last 52 years since the founding
of the state of Israel.
While Palestinian youth are dying in the streets of Palestine,
the "evangelical" televangelists in the United States
have been at work trying to persuade millions of well-meaning
Christians that we are living in the "end times" and
peace in the Middle East is an illusive dream, achievable only
when Christ returns. Such thinking makes a mockery of mainline
Christian theology. Christ will come again in his own good time!
And Christ is also already present today—in the suffering
of people everywhere. Christ is crucified again and again when
people suffer under oppression and ultimately death. In our time,
people of faith, conscience and good will have work to do. In
the words of the late Pope Paul VI, "if you want peace, work
for justice."
I believe we are called to work diligently and unceasingly to
create the kind of world we want to live in. And the Middle East
should not be viewed as somehow an exception to that rule! Peace
for Israel will only be realized when Palestinians are finally
living at peace. Security for Israel will only be realized when
Palestinians finally feel secure in their own houses and on their
own land in a country called Palestine. For both peoples of this
not-so-holy Holy Land, destined to live together in this small
corner of the world, I am convinced that there is no other way
forward.
In Peace,
Douglas Dicks
The 2000 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 139
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