PFP tour in the news in Black Mountain, NC
31 March 2004
PFP tour in the news in Black Mountain, NC
Wednesday March 31, 2004
Jerusalem women speak to Black Mountain
By J.P. Kennedy
Staff Writer
On Sunday afternoon approximately 70 people gathered at the Black Mountain Library to listen to three women from Jerusalem talk about their experiences in the Middle East.
“It is important for Americans, for people here, to listen to these people who actually live there, and who have an idea for how to obtain peace,” said Tony Bing, the organizer of the event and a member of Western Carolina for Peace and Justice for the Middle East.
It was a somber talk, made more timely by the killing of Hamas’ founder Ahmed Yassin on March 22, and another round of escalating violence in the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
“We want to get the message of peacemakers to the American people,” said Michael Brown, the executive director of Partners for Peace, as he introduced the three women. “We wanted to bring the voice of peacemakers here, particularly from women from that part of the world.”
“There was only one question we asked each of these women: Are you willing to share the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordanian River? All three of these women agreed that the land should be shared,” Brown said.
The three women have been talking in the United States to demonstrate that peace is possible between Palestinians and Israelis, despite the ongoing violence. Partners for Peace is an NGO (non-government organization) based in Washington D.C., with a mission to bring about a just and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The women’s visit to Black Mountain is part of a 10 city tour in the southeast, finishing in Washington D.C. on April 2.
The first to speak was Dr. Nuha Khoury, a Christian Palestinian, born in Jerusalem who now works in Bethlehem.
“Being a Palestinian is an honor, but also a burden,” she stated.
Khoury told the story of three generations of her family. Her grandfather had been the owner of Palestine’s largest printing press in the 1940’s
In 1948, after the Deir Yassin massacre, her father sent the family to live in Damascus. They were never allowed to return to their original home in Jerusalem. Khoury is still a registered refugee with the United Nations.
In 1996, her father built an inn in Bethlehem, called the “Bethlehem Inn.”
“He wanted to make sure that no one would knock on the door of an inn in Bethlehem and be told there were no rooms,” Khoury said.
Khoury stated that in October 2000 a soldier walked into the hotel and gave the order for her family to leave. The Israeli army wanted the hotel as the military headquarters.
Her father died in January 2004 when he was denied passage at a checkpoint on his way to a hospital for a massive heart attack.
“Am I angry,” Khoury asked. “Yes, I am angry. Do I blame the Israelis for my father’s death? Yes, I do blame them. Is this making me angry enough to hurt myself and to hurt others? No. I believe if I tell enough people my story I can change this occupation. Occupation is evil. Occupation kills. It kills in so many ways. Occupation dehumanizes both the occupier and the person who is occupied. That 19-year-old soldier from the checkpoint probably does not know he helped kill my father.”
The second member of the group was a Jewish Israeli, Michal Sagi. Sagi was raised in Hafa and currently lives in Jerusalem. Last year, Sagi participated in the Palestinian-Israeli delegation for dialogue, “Nonviolent Women Leadership,” sponsored by the U.S. State Department and the British government. She is also involved with Checkpoint Watch, a woman’s human rights monitoring group which reports on military and police check points in the occupied Palestinian territories.
“By standing at the check points we try to reduce the level of violence and tension,” Sagi said.
Sagi showed a Powerpoint presentation of a map of the occupied territories. The checkpoints were not situated only along the borders between Palestine and Israel, but through the Palestinian land. In total, there were 47 checkpoints, 457 mounds of earth that the Israeli soldiers have used to block roads in villages, and 95 concrete barriers also used to block the roads. Travel in Palestine is restricted to roads with checkpoints.
Sagi also showed a slide of a section of the wall that Israel was constructing in Abu Dis to encircle the Palestinian territories. Due in part to the wall and the checkpoints, the Palestinian economy is collapsing and the population has a 60 percent unemployment rate, Sagi explained.
Nahla Assali, a Muslim Palestinian born in West Jerusalem in 1938, was the last to speak.
Assali began her presentation by showing a slide of her house in Jerusalem that she was forced to leave. When she revisited the house with an Australian film crew, a woman came out of the house and told her that she would never be allowed to return to her home.
“The Palestinians have been occupied and disposed since 1967,” Assali told the room. “They are the weaker side whenever there is negotiations. The gulf is so wide. You have one side that has everything, and one side that has nothing.”
“The Israelis are armed to the teeth, with an army and a government which is elected and functioning,” Assali said. “On the other side, the Palestinians have an endless story of humiliation and suffering, loss of life, more suffering, and it goes on and on.”
Assali stated that the plight of the Palestinians has only worsened since the September 11 terrorist attacks in America.
“They use the pretext of security. I think in the wake of September 11, the Israelis are walking hand in hand with President Bush to fight terrorists. Ariel Sharon has been given a free hand in Palestine, including targeted assassinations. No one is looking out for the weaker side,” said Assali.
In terms of moving towards a peaceful solution between Palestine and Israel, the three women advocated removing the checkpoints, the wall, and the Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory before the two countries can meet diplomatically.
“When we talk to people in this country, people ask who is financing the settlements. You are financing them with your tax dollars,” said Sagi. “Who is financing the building of the wall? You are doing that. Who is selling F-16 jets to Israel? It is you. The largest recipient of aid as a country from the United States is the State of Israel. $3 billion a year comes as direct help from the United States. And then there is the sale of arms and loan guarantees.”
“If an occupying army came to Western North Carolina 50 years ago and occupied us, if our children could not go to schools and we could not go to hospitals, our children, the third generation of the occupation, would do everything it could to fight the occupation,” said Dr. John Wilson, a member of the Black Mountain community. Dr. Wilson worked as a pediatrician in the Middle East in 1982, as part of a Middle East evangelical organization.
David LaMotte, an area musician, asked about how Palestinians viewed the United States.
“I think the image of the United States was very good until the Iraq war,” said Khoury. “People make a differentiation between the country’s administration and the American people.”
“I care deeply about Israeli society,” answered Sagi. “I am part of Israeli society, and no one will tell me I am less Israeli if I am pro-peace.”
