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February 2002
Dear All:
Greetings from Bethlehem! We have all arrived safely, although
it wasn’t so easy for us.
When we were in Santa Fe, New Mexico, attending missionary orientation,
we received an e-mail from Hala’s brother saying that a new
law had been passed by the Israeli government forbidding all Palestinians
from entering the Holy Land, or leaving, through the Tel Aviv
airport. This obviously caused a good amount of grief, because
we were due to fly out the following week and all had our tickets.
After trying to deal with this, we finally heard that the Israelis
had granted Hala permission to enter.
When we got to the airport and went to check in, the airline
saw Hala’s passport and told us that she was not allowed
to get on the plane. No Palestinians were allowed to fly into
Tel Aviv, they said. If the airline allowed her, the airline itself
would have to pay a fine of $11,000 to the Israeli government,
and Hala would be put on the next flight back to New York. After
a lot of running around to find a different flight for Hala to
no avail, Hala returned to upstate New York with my parents. Myself,
Nadiim, Adeeb and Scooby, our basset hound, boarded the plane
after a lot of tears. Even the women working for Swiss Air at
the check-in booths were in tears.
On arriving in Tel Aviv the Israelis to let the boys in because
they’re Palestinian. It didn’t seem to matter to them
that they are only 5 and 4 years old and carrying U.S. passports.
The law is the law. According to them, I could pass with Scooby,
but the boys were a different story. Two hours later, after I
got as rude with them as they were with us, they finally agreed
to let the boys through, but told me it would not be allowed again.
They then led us through the airport to collect all of our belongings.
They opened every piece of luggage—we had eight large suitcases—and
turned everything inside out. This took another three hours. Finally,
at about 7:40 p.m. (the plane landed at 2:30 p.m.) we entered
the greeting area to find a good friend of the family still waiting
for us to take us to Bethlehem. I can tell you that I have never
been happier to see a familiar face.
Once we arrived in Bethlehem, we were greeted by family that
we hadn’t seen in a year. There were many happy tears, but
there was also a lot of cursing going on due to what had happened
at the airport.
That night we spoke with Hala in New York. She had been in touch
with the offices in Louisville and had explained what happened.
With their help, Hala booked a flight to fly into Jordan in two
days. She arrived safely in Jordan and spent a couple of days
with her sister who lives in Amman. She arrived here six days
after myself, the boys and Scooby did, safely and with a new haircut
that her sister talked her into getting.
Things have changed and have not changed in the year we have
been gone. People are happy to see us, but many cannot understand
why we returned. After explaining to them that this is obviously
what God wants, they nod their heads in understanding. The economic
situation is beyond grim, with unemployment reaching close to
65 percent in the West Bank and Gaza. Many people are surviving
on close to nothing—it is a good thing that food is relatively
cheap here. Many diets have become rice everyday with some type
of vegetable; meat is rarely on the tables. I spoke with a butcher
that I know, and he told me that they have been selling about
30 percent of what they had been before the second Intifada began.
Prices for vegetables has dropped, or else they simply would not
be sold. You don’t see things like sweets and imports from
the U.S. because there’s no market for them. Our niece who
was making about $500 per month lost her job and was fortunate
enough to find a job making about $170 per month. She is a bookkeeper
with a degree from the university.
The stories of hardship could go on and on. This is without getting
into speaking about families who have lost their houses due to
Israeli shelling, children who are afraid to close their eyes
at night for fear of shelling, or the levels of education dropping
through the floor due to the loss of initiative of teachers to
teach and students to study. And where does the U.S. policy fit
into all of this?
The Bush Administration has over and over again given the green
light to the Sharon government to do as they please. All of this
in the name of fighting terrorism. On several occasions, I have
been asked by friends and colleagues about those terrible Palestinian
terrorists who blow themselves up killing and wounding civilians
on the streets in Israel. How can we, as U.S. citizens, support
terrorism, especially after 9/11? My reply is always the same;
if your house was torn down by a bulldozer because the Israeli
settlers wanted your land, or if your school was tear-gassed for
no discernible reason by a passing Israeli jeep (something I have
witnessed on several occasions) or if you were stopped from feeding
your family or stopped from having adequate water facilities because
your neighbor in the nearby Jewish settlement needs to water their
lawn or fill their swimming pool, or if your mother is taken out
of bed at three o’clock in the morning and taken to the Jordanian
border never to return or if your father or child is killed in
front of you, what would be your reaction? I know the frustration
and anger of not having permission for my wife to fly into Tel
Aviv simply because she was born in Bethlehem. And this is nothing
in comparison to what is happening to the civilian population
of Palestinians. My guess is that you would do the same thing
that the "terrorists" are doing, fighting back in the
only way they can. There have been Martin Luther Kings here, they’ve
been deported and exiled before too many listen.
In closing this epistle, I want to tell you of the example I
heard by one of the Palestinian negotiators. He said, "If
a thief comes into your house and kicks you out, and then comes
back 45 years later and says that he will give you 65 percent
of your house back, what will you say? We are not asking for one
hundred percent of our house back, we want the pre-1967 boundaries.
This may be unrealistic, but it is our right to live in freedom
just as much as any people."
This is a very long story, I know that most of you receiving
this are already aware of the issues happening here. However,
I still must emphasize all to read and learn the true history
of the Holy Land, to write your government officials and to voice
your opinions. Why should an entire population of people suffer
at the whim of another, based simply on where they were born and
when. This is a very complicated history, but one which desperately
needs to get out into the main stream. Hopefully together, we
will be able to do just that.
Love and Blessings,
Chris, Hala, Nadiim, Adeeb
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