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BOYCOTT ISRAEL CAMPAIGN

 

'Apartheid' for Palestinians, says Christian delegation

by Pat Ashworth
Church Times
30 March 2001

A HIGH-PROFILE inter-Church delegation has brought back from the Middle East reports of “indescribable suffering” among Palestinians.

A HIGH-PROFILE inter-Church delegation has brought back from the Middle East first-hand reports of “indescribable suffering” among Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. It wants the Churches to become advocates on their behalf.

Since the group’s return last weekend, further violence has broken out. Two bombs exploded in Jerusalem, killing the bomber and injuring 30 others. The Israeli Prime Minister said that the attacks were carried out by Palestinian forces.

They followed the killing on Monday of a ten-month-old Israeli baby, Shalhevet Hass, in a Jewish settlement in Hebron, allegedly by Palestian gunfire. An 11-year-old Palestinian boy died in clashes on the West Bank on Tuesday.

The 12-strong delegation from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland met government and diplomatic representatives, church leaders, civil-society organisations, and ordinary citizens. It split into groups to visit Palestinian refugee camps, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Jordan.

 

"Forty-two per cent of the land had been expropriated for the 3000 Israeli settlers, guarded by 6000 troops. “The occupants of the settlements pay no taxes to the Palestinian authorities; there is water for their swimming pools, while many Palestinians are without adequate supplies for drinking and sanitation."

Bishop of Exeter

The delegation has concluded that Palestinians are suffering under a form of apartheid. Churches throughout the Middle East feel “invisible to and neglected by their fellow Christians in the West”. Churches in the West need to help reverse the “catastrophic” reduction in pilgrimages. British and American governments need to re-examine their Middle East policies.

The Bishop of Exeter, the Rt Revd Michael Langrish, was making his sixth visit to the Middle East, but was deeply shocked by what he saw of the increased sufferings of the 1.2 million Palestinians in the 365 square kilometres of the Gaza Strip.

Forty-two per cent of the land had been expropriated for the 3000 Israeli settlers, guarded by 6000 troops. “The occupants of the settlements pay no taxes to the Palestinian authorities; there is water for their swimming pools, while many Palestinians are without adequate supplies for drinking and sanitation,” he said.

The Bishop, who says that the future for the Middle East is a strong and secure Israel and an independent Palestine, came back convinced that the same broad coalition which produced the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa must now come into play over the Middle East. Palestinians saw double standards in the application of UN resolutions to Iraq, but not to Israel, he said on Wednesday.

“There is also a very strong memory that when Israel briefly occupied the Gaza Strip in 1956, Eisenhower threatened Israel with economic sanctions and they withdrew in 48 hours. There is no doubt at all that if Western governments used their muscle, Israel would respond,” he said. “There is a strong perception in the Israeli government that the West is not going to interfere and that the new Bush administration will not allow others to be involved.”

To understand what was happening, it was essential for Christians visiting the Holy Land on pilgrimage to meet living Christians, said the Bishop. The delegation had met “enormous gratitude” for McCabe Travel’s Living Stones pilgrimages and that company’s muscle had already brought an increase in the number of registered Christian guides.

The delegation called strongly for groups in Britain to resume pilgrimages in order to support the Christian community. “The average pilgrimage is not going to be at risk. They will not allow groups to go to Hebron and Gaza; but both sides have a vested interest in ensuring tourists do not get hurt,” said Bishop Langrish. “We want to encourage people to go, but on the kind of pilgrimage where they do meet the ‘living stones.’”


 

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