March 11, 2002

Dear Friends,

The following message came to me today from my good friend Marina Barham, from Beit Jala. Marina is the director of the Innad Theatre in Beit Jala and was a former International Peacemaker with the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program. She describes vividly and candidly the scene in the Bethlehem region. I share it with you today and ask for your prayers and concerns

for the innocent victims of Israeli violence perpetrated against Palestinian refugees and civilians.

Douglas Dicks

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Liaison

Jerusalem

The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 143

11 March 2002

Dear Friends,

I have tried so hard the last four days to write to tell you what is happening, but I felt there is no use. You only would listen, and respond. Whoever is in power will not blink. The last four days of the third invasion on the Bethlehem area and the three refugee camps is one thing, and what happened this morning is another.

All last night, 10 March 2002, Deheisheh refugee camp was under attack by Israeli tanks, F-16 planes, helicopters, and troops. The result was, this morning, the arrest of hundreds of young men who were chased like sheep to slaughter. This morning hundreds of young men were gathered near the camp in a stone factory that was taken over by the Israeli soldiers. The men were asked to take off their top clothes, then they were searched, their hands were tied with plastic ropes, their eyes were covered with a white piece of material prepared especially for hundreds of them. Then the soldiers pushed them into another part of the factory. A cameraman was able to show this on a local TV station.

I woke up this morning after a long night of sounds of missiles, bombs, and helicopters to see many of the people I know in Deheisheh camp on TV, led to the slaughter house. I felt my head would explode. I am so angry, so furious for the inhumane treatment my friends are going through. I still do not know what will happen to them. I feel so helpless seeing the tanks surrounding them and not able to do anything to help them. Maybe I cannot help, but I know that many of you can. Please scream, shout, demonstrate, do anything to help stop this injustice. Stop all this brutal treatment of people. The Israelis are doing to us what the Nazis did to them.

How long can we handle this? I do not know. But believe me, people will explode. Instead of one suicide bomber, we will have hundreds! We cannot see our relatives and friends treated like this and watch.

It is not normal for children to wake up to sounds of missiles, bombs, and tanks. It is not normal for babies to die with their mothers, because they have not been allowed to get to hospital. It is not normal for children to die on their way to school, and for fathers and brothers to get killed on their way to work.

Please do not tell me to hold on, and to be hopeful. I do not think I can any longer. We are in war, whether we believe it or not. Several buildings of Bethlehem University were bombed. The Dar Al-Kalima School was taken over by Israeli tanks, Ibdaa Children’s Centre in Deheisheh camp and many houses were taken over too. Houses in Aida camp, Beit Jala, Bethlehem, Al-Khader village, Al-Dohah were hit by missiles and tanks. In four days more than 70 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. What next? God only knows what the Israelis have prepared for us!

Love to all those who still care about humanity.

Marina Barham