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February 1999
Dear Friends and Relations,
Easter 1998 dawned bright and clear in Jerusalem. The English-speaking
congregation of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer, of which
I am a member, held its annual sunrise service on the Mount of
Olives, overlooking the Jordan Valley. A picture-perfect morning
was the setting of this multi-denominational gathering, as we
rejoiced that the previous crisis in the Gulf region had been
averted only weeks prior to Easter's arrival. For the first time
in many years, the Israeli government granted permits to Palestinian
Christians from West Bank towns and villages such as Bethlehem,
Beit Jala, and Beit Sahour so that they might enter Jerusalem
in order to celebrate both Palm Sunday and Easter. A Palestinian
Christian friend of mine from the town of Beit Jala accompanied
me to Jerusalem on Easter morning. Though of Catholic persuasion,
he appreciated the opportunity to worship with Christians of various
denominations and especially treasured the ability to do so in
Jerusalem.
On April 29, and in accordance with the Hebrew calendar, Israel
marked its fifty-year celebrations. There were heated debates
in Israeli society about exactly where and when the celebrations
would take place. In the spring, a 22-part series on Israeli TV
entitled, "Tkuma," Hebrew for "Rebirth," unleashed
controversy and debate throughout Israel. For the first time on
Israeli TV, Israelis witnessed scenes taken from historical archives
of thousands of Palestinians being forced out and driven from
their homes in 1948 from what is today Israel proper. Most Western
Christians know of the horrors of the Holocaust and the atrocities
committed against Jews by Nazi Germany. However, few know of the
injustices perpetrated against Palestinians in those years following
in the end of World War II. Today, the Palestinians remain a scattered,
uprooted people. The estimated 760,000 Palestinians displaced
in 1948 have now swelled to over 3,300,000 persons. Over one million
Palestinians remain in UN-administered refugee camps, scattered
through the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon.
Palestinian refugees in Gaza marked the occasion of Israel's
50th anniversary on May 14. Undertaking a "March of the Million,"
this event was to be a peaceful demonstration to remind the world
of the Palestinians' dispossession in 1948, known in Arabic as
"Al Nakba" or "the Catastrophe." What began
as a peaceful march soon reverted to bloodshed, however. Israeli
snipers were deployed to shoot at demonstrators, and shoot they
did. Clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian civilians
left eight Palestinians dead, and more than 300 injured. The tragic
history and reality for Jews and Palestinians remain intertwined
in this land today, even as the Oslo process breathes its last
breath. Sadly, real peace in this place called holy remains as
illusive as ever.
In early May, my family bade "farewell" to my grandmother
Henry at the age of ninety. While I was not present for her funeral,
I sent my own words and thoughts of condolences to family and
friends at her passing. Though her absence is our loss, we rejoice
in the many years of her life that we were privileged to share.
In mid-May, and at the invitation of President Yasser Arafat,
I attended the Bethlehem 2000 Participants' Conference, hosted
by the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium. This gathering
of internationals as well as local Christian leaders from the
Holy Land met at the Palais de ‘Egmont, in order to set the
stage and draw the world's attention to the religious celebrations
as well as infrastructure and restoration projects planned for
the year 2000 in Bethlehem. At Ben Gurion Airport, everyone presented
their official letters of invitation from President Yasser Arafat
to Israeli security agents. What a strange sight, and an even
stranger afterthought—that a letter of invitation from Yasser
Arafat shown to Israeli security agents would speed us through
the security process with little or no problems!
The conference opened on May 11 with a welcome from His Excellency,
Jacques Santer, President of the European Commission. His welcome
was followed by the keynote address given by President Yasser
Arafat, who expressed his "deep appreciation and gratitude"
to everyone who had come forward to give their support to the
Bethlehem 2000 project. "Our region has been war-torn because
of the continued denial for more than fifty years of the Palestinian
people to a dignified life," Arafat said. "We see in
these celebrations an opportunity to sow the seeds of change in
various aspects of life."
In early June, I attended an international conference in Jerusalem
entitled, "Fifty Years of Human Rights Violations—Palestinians
Dispossessed." The conference theme centered around the concept
that Israel was founded on the dispossession of an entire people,
and that with the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 followed
fifty years of human rights violations. My attendance at this
conference was beneficial, as it helped to set the stage for my
summer travels.
In July, I traveled to the States to attend the Presbyterian
Peacemaking Conference at the University of California-Los Angeles.
Under the theme "Life in All its Fullness: A Human Rights
Mandate" Presbyterians from across the United States attended
this conference. Workshops and seminars were held, including three
separate seminars on how to lead "responsible" tours
to the Holy Land—tours that focus more on people than on
places.
From Los Angeles, it was on to San Francisco, where I attended
the screening of "Al Nakba" at the 18th Annual Jewish
Film Festival at the Castro Theater. This brave film reveals some
hard truths concerning the population transfer and expulsion of
Palestinians from parts of historical Palestine during the 1948
Arab-Israeli War. I was both pleased and impressed with how the
audience, many of them American Jews, responded to and received
this film. It was one of the many highlights of my stateside visit.
The final weeks of my stateside visit were spent with family
and friends in Virginia. A summer that began with rolling hills
and fields of lush greenery indicative of the Virginia countryside
soon gave way to meadows of parched brown, as the East Coast of
the United States experienced one of the hottest and driest summers
on record. In early September, I returned to Bethlehem, only to
learn that the Holy Land had also experienced one of its hottest
summers. Severe water shortages were encountered all summer long,
and many families in villages and towns in the West Bank went
for days without any water provided to them by local municipalities.
Within days of my return, I turned on the faucet in my bathroom
sink one morning only to discover that I, too, was completely
without water. It was at that moment that I suddenly realized
I must be back in the Middle East!
Best Regards,
Douglas Dicks
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