5024 Jerusalem Women Speak: Three Faiths, One Vision

Sponsors: Planning Committee and UUs for Justice in the Middle East.

Speakers: Michal Sagi, Jumana Odeh, M.D., Rana Khoury

Prepared for UUA.org by: Jone Johnson Lewis, Reporter; Margy Levine Young, Editor

Michael Brown of Partners for Peace described the "Jerusalem Women Speak" program, in which women peacemakers tour and describe their experiences in today's Jerusalem. The only "litmus test" for being part of the tour, he said, is to believe that "the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River should be shared."

The first speaker was Jumana Odeh, M.D., a Palestinian Muslim and a pediatrician who teaches at a medical school, also the mother of two daughters and wife of a professor. She began with a story from 2002, when a patient of hers with epilepsy was not allowed past a checkpoint even though he was in a seizure, and she had to bring medicine to that checkpoint.

She had her own experience with the checkpoints, when her father was diagnosed with cancer. Treated in an Israeli hospital, she and her father became part of a community dealing with similar issues. But, she asked, "If we can share the pain, why can't we share the joy?"

The three main stresses on Palestinians, she said, are poverty, siege, and checkpoints. She showed slides of pictures drawn by Palestinian children about their lives during the intifada. The first ones were stark, done in only black – later, color appears, and the final one she showed expressed a wish for peace. She closed with a photograph of a delicate, beautiful flower growing out of a stone – an appropriate metaphor, she said, for today's children in Palestine.

Michal Sagi, a native Israeli whose parents were born in Israel and were of European descent, described her own experiences – from being raised to respect human rights, to seeing policemen harassing a woman near a checkpoint. She asked herself, "How can we treat another human being that way? What has my society become?" She wondered, as well, why no one else seemed to think the incident unusual or curious.

She became part of a group of Israeli women called Checkpoint Watch, women who go in shifts to the checkpoints set up for Palestinians, carrying signs "No to checkpoints" in Hebrew, Arab, and English, and reporting on what they've seen. They also file complaints to the army and government, lobby for changes, and even interfere when they see human rights violated "beyond the army rules."

She's not against security, she said, but "I believe the checkpoints are not about security." The majority of checkpoints don't separate Israelis and Palestinians, but are located where they separate Palestinian from Palestinian. She showed powerful slides of checkpoints, such as that at Huwwara, showing the turnstiles, the people jammed between them, uncomfortable, humiliated, even endangered. "I choose to believe it is a matter of stupidity," she said of the way the checkpoints are organized, "not of evil; it's easier to live that way."

The checkpoints, she said, are "not really about security but about controlling" Palestinians. "My parents," she added, "always told me that occupation corrupts.. We are ruining Israeli society. Domestic violence is rising. Corruption is rising." She called for an end to the occupation "if only for the sake of Israel " – and "not to waste another hour."

The third speaker, Rana Khoury, grew up and lives in Bethlehem. She works with a vocational training program for young men and women ages 16-35, training them in arts, media, and communication.

She is not familiar with Jerusalem, she told us, for despite it being only about five miles from Bethlehem, she cannot enter Israel or Jerusalem without a permit, and it is very difficult to get that permit. "It's easier to get a visa to the United States," she said.

Bethlehem is a town that most Americans have heard of because it is the birthplace of Jesus, but few Americans hear what is happening in Bethlehem today. She described the wall that is built around the city on three sides, 26 feet tall, creating Bethlehem "as a large open-air prison." It is also constricting the city, making it literally smaller, so that with the high Palestinian birth rate, it is predicted that within five years, there will be no green areas left in the city.

She called for the end of the manifestations of Israeli occupation for peace to be achieved – and said that this will be good for the Israelis, too. "It is important to rehumanize one another."

In answer to one question, panelists expressed both skepticism about Sharon's current disengagement plan, and hope that it can be a step forward as it begins to remove at least some settlements. To another question, about razing settlement buildings being a "waste," they noted that the buildings may not be appropriate for what Palestinians need, and also noted that the original settlements were often built with U.S. money, and U.S. money will probably be used in the rebuilding.

The panelists noted the growth of evangelical Christianity in America and Europe, and the rise of a world view which identifies Israelis with good and Muslims with evil. With many Palestinian Christians emigrating, it is easier and easier to see the situation as simply involving two faiths (Judaism and Islam). This is "not about a conflict in faiths, but about land and politics – religion is being used for political ends."

One audience member talked of the hope in 1979 for "permanent peace" and how appalling it is that "things have gone totally awry." Another commented on the connection of the Holocaust, and noted that those abused as children can become oppressors. Sagi responded that Israelis conceive of themselves as victims, as weak – when they are actually strong, but the occupation itself weakens them. Israelis need, she said, to get away from feeling like victims, and it will be easier to make change. "We can take out of the Holocaust more than one lesson," she said. "One of them is, 'Never again for everyone.'"

Another questioner asked about how seriously the panelists take the Bush proposal for a Palestinian state. Dr. Odeh responded that her dream is one state for both nations – but, she added, "both nations need time to get over their traumas." What can Americans do? Know what our tax money is doing – for instance, building walls – and make our voices heard. While settlements exist, the wall is being built, confiscations happen, Palestinians are afraid that any state would be small. And, she added, people mistrust Americans, seeing them now as occupiers in Iraq. How can America be unbiased relative to another occupier?

The program closed with emma's revolution leading the audience in a song, "Peace, Salaam, Shalom."

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