 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
 |
||||||||
J/P Alert is the newsletter of the Justice and Peace office of CMSM. It is intended to inform and stimulate discussion and involvement among the members. Its contents do not necessarily represent official positions of CMSM.
“Something there is that
doesn't love a wall” (Robert Frost)
Palestinian Christians and the Israeli “Separation Barrier.”
“Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country." [Universal Declaration of Human Rights, #13.]
“Every human being has the right to freedom of movement and of residence within the confines of his own country. When there are just reasons in favor of it, he must be permitted to migrate to other countries and to take up residence there. The fact that he is a citizen of a particular state does not deprive him of membership to the human family, nor of citizenship in the universal society, the common, world-wide fellowship of men." [John Paul II, in an address to the New World Congress on the Pastoral Care of Immigrants in 1985.]
“The effective recognition of the right to freedom of conscience and religious freedom is one of the highest goals and one of the most serious duties of every people that truly wishes to ensure the good of the individual and of society." [Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, #553.]
[The following article by Brother Jack Curran, FSC, Vice President for Development of Bethlehem University, was provided by Brother Dan Casey, FSC, Vice Chancellor of the University and former vice-president of CMSM.]
Bethlehem University, 17 April 2006: It has been widely reported across the international media that thousands of pilgrims from around the world flocked to Jerusalem for this year's Holy Week and Easter celebrations. While this unique graced opportunity must have been wonderful for them, Christians living only five miles away in Bethlehem were denied this opportunity to practice their faith by the Israeli military authorities.
Anticipating the opportunity to bring Christian university students from Bethlehem to Jerusalem (only 5 miles away) for Easter, Father Jamal and other Bethlehem University faculty members prepared two projects for two groups of Christian students.
First, as part of their academic course on Judaism, a “Jewish weekend" was planned for one group. This was to include a Sabbath prayer in a Synagogue, a meeting with students of the Hebrew University, a presentation by a Jew about his faith (something we can not do at Bethlehem because the Israeli authorities do not permit Israeli Jews to come to Bethlehem), a visit to Yad Vashem [Israel's Holocaust Museum], and to conclude with the Christian Palm Sunday procession. Permission for the week-end was denied.
The second group was students majoring in Religious Studies at Bethlehem University and those involved in the Christian Youth Group (Al-Shabibeh). For this group, a pilgrimage and retreat to the Galilee was planned since most of the Bethlehem University students have never been to Nazareth or other Holy Places in the Galilee region. Permission for the pilgrimage was also denied. Father Jamal requested permits for 65 students and received permits for only 6 students, for only one day, and the wrong day at that. No reasons were given for the denial of the 59 other applications for permits.
It was a wonderful Holy Week and Easter celebration in Jerusalem for thousands of pilgrims from around the world who gathered in the town next door to Bethlehem, except for the Christians of Bethlehem. For them, suffering due to the Israeli military occupation continues to be a daily experience. Since “permission" for Bethlehem Christians to practice their faith in Jerusalem was denied, the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus were commemorated here in Bethlehem.
When asked if this was the first time that Bethlehem Christians were prevented from practicing their religion by the Israeli authorities, Father Jamal told of the three times during the Fall 2005 academic semester when requests from Bethlehem University students for permission to go to the Galilee for a pilgrimage retreat were denied by the Israeli authorities – with no explanation.
The travel permission application is an involved and time-consuming process whereby Father Jamal gathers student names, ID numbers, letters of recommendation from the University or from the Latin Patriarch (Roman Catholic Diocesan Bishop) – in addition to making plans for the retreat program and reservations for the pilgrim housing. Each time that permits are requested, there is a time of waiting and great uncertainty involved. Sometimes a reply is not given until the last minute. In June 2005, for instance, a pilgrimage retreat for the high school religion teachers completing their two-year teacher upgrading program was planned. While the permission to travel was granted, it was granted at 8 am on the very day of the pilgrimage retreat – but only for two-thirds of the students – and the permits were only for one day, not for the three days requested and planned.
After praying for peace in Iraq during his Easter homily in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI continued, ''I also pray sincerely that those caught up in the conflict in the Holy Land may find peace, and I invite all to patient and persevering dialogue, so as to remove both ancient and new obstacles. May the international community, which reaffirms Israel's just right to exist in peace, assist the Palestinian people to overcome the precarious conditions in which they live and to build their future, moving toward the constitution of a state which is truly their own."
Reflecting on the reality of suffering, death and injustice in the Holy Land, in his Easter message, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah said, “We must believe in our capacity to love, all of us, Israelis and Palestinians. We are capable of loving and of making justice for ourselves and for others. We need a new beginning based on new principles and a new perspective on life in this Holy Land. We are capable of freeing ourselves from the death that has been imposed on us until now. We, Israelis and Palestinians, are capable of freeing ourselves from the fear that comes from violence and terrorism, from the occupation imposed by the law of the strongest, and by the logic of death and hate."
Many say that the whole issue of seeking permits is absurd. Christians from Bethlehem need permits from the Israeli military authorities in order to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or to visit the Holy Sites in the Galilee. Most students graduate from Bethlehem University without ever visiting Jerusalem or Nazareth because they do not receive “permission" from the Israeli authorities. The Christian students who are majoring in Religious Studies at Bethlehem University take a course about the Holy Land without visiting the Holy Land beyond Bethlehem. They have a course about Judaism without meeting any Jew (other than soldiers and settlers), because of the Israeli travel restrictions and the on-going occupation.
In his Easter message to the friends of Bethlehem
University, Brother Daniel Casey, Vice Chancellor, reminded us that “many
of our crosses are opportunities to be sources of hope, of joy, of discovery,
of healing, of life—for ourselves and others. The challenge Jesus
calls us to take up is to transform our crosses, as he did. These crosses,
when taken up in a spirit of humble compassion with which Jesus took up
his, are the first light of Easter dawn."
Church Leaders' urgent appeal to Bush, Abbas and Olmert: prevent humanitarian crisis and restore hope for a two-state solution.
(WASHINGTON, May 2, 2006)
Major Christian Leaders in the United States have appealed to President George Bush, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel's Prime Minister-elect Ehud Olmert to take immediate actions to restore hope for peace. In a May 2 letter, the heads of twenty denominations, churches, archdioceses and organizations from Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant traditions raised concerns with the political leaders about the pending humanitarian crisis, the threat of violence, the establishment of a mutually negotiated border and the status of Jerusalem.
“We affirm President Bush's vision of a two-state solution that provides for a viable Palestinian state living in peace alongside a secure Israel. But we are concerned that Hamas' rejectionist rhetoric and Israel's actions on the ground are making that goal seem impossible" said Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson. He noted that the separation barrier, where it extends beyond the Green Line, “is having a tremendously negative impact, both psychologically and economically, on the potential for a viable Palestinian state."
Rev. Ted Keating, S.M., Executive Committee member of Churches for Middle East Peace and former Executive Director of the Catholic Conference of Major Superiors of Men's Institutes said, “It is no longer possible for the vast majority of Palestinian Muslims and Christians living in the West Bank and Gaza to worship at their holy sites in Jerusalem." Along with the signers of the letter, Rev. Keating believes a negotiated solution for Jerusalem, that takes into account the profound dimensions of the Holy City for Jews, Christians and Muslims globally, is the key to Middle East peace.
“Our highest priority is to prevent the humanitarian crisis that is anticipated as the United States and European donors stop all financial aid going to the Palestinian Authority and tightly restrict aid going through non-governmental organizations," said Joe Volk, Executive Secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation. (Volk recently met with government officials and staff of NGOs in Jerusalem along with others from Churches for Middle East Peace.) In this letter, Volk and the other church leaders ask Bush, Abbas and Olmert to “adopt policies and take actions that provide both space and opportunity for the newly-elected Hamas government to make positive changes, while finding mechanisms that allow financial aid assistance to reach the Palestinian people immediately." He noted that the Palestinian Authority can no longer pay its 152,000 employees – one-third of whom are women – who staff over half of the primary health clinics and primary and secondary schools.
Full text of the letter with a list of signers is available at www.cmep.org/letters/CMEP_May06_Leaders_Letter.pdf.
Churches for Middle East
Peace is a Washington based program of the Alliance of Baptists, American
Friends Service Committee, Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese, Armenian Orthodox
Church, Catholic Conference of Major Superiors of Men's Institutes, Christian
Church (Disciples of Christ), Church of the Brethren, Church World Service,
Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Franciscan Mission
Service, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese,
Maryknoll Missioners, Mennonite Central Committee, National Council of
the Churches of Christ in the USA, Presbyterian Church (USA), Reformed
Church in America, Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations,
United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church (GBCS & GBGM).
Your comments and suggestions are always welcome.
How can the Justice and Peace Office help you get involved?
T. Michael McNulty, SJ, editor
mmcnulty@cmsm.org
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
 |
||||||||
8808 Cameron St., Silver Spring, MD 20910
Tel: 301-588-4030
• Fax: 301-587-4575 • www.cmsm.org
