What is Palestine/Israel?Answers to common questions

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Sonia K. Weaver

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Deborah Fast, Alain EppWeaver, Jan and Rick Janzen, J. Daryl Byler,William Janzen, Mark Beach, Patricia Shelly,Calvin and Marie Shenk, John F. Lapp and RonFlaming for having read through previous versionsof this booklet. Their perceptive comments havegreatly strengthened this piece.

Copyright © 2004 Mennonite Central Committee

Mennonite Central Committee Canada134 Plaza Drive, Winnipeg, MB R3T 5K9

Mennonite Central Committee21 South 12th Street, PO Box 500, Akron, PA 17501-0500

All rights reserved. No part of this book may bereproduced or transmitted in any form or by anymeans, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informationstorage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.

Design by Roberta FastPhotos by Matthew Lester and Ryan Beiler

Printed in Canada.

National Library of CanadaISBN: 0-9735784-1-6

®

Partially destroyedolive grove and wallconstruction onnorthern edge ofBethlehem.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2. GeographyWhat is Israel? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4What is Palestine?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Why do some people refer to Palestine/Israel or Israel/Palestine? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5What are the Occupied Territories? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6What is the West Bank? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6What is the Gaza Strip?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7How are Israeli settlements altering the geography of Palestine/Israel?. . . . . . . . . . . . 7

3. HistoryWho are the Palestinians? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10What is Zionism?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11How was the State of Israel established? What was the Partition Plan?. . . . . . . . . . . 12 What is the relationship between the Holocaust and the State of Israel? . . . . . . . . . . 13Who are the Palestinian refugees? Why are they still refugees? What is the

Right of Return?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14What is the Law of Return? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17What is the Palestine Liberation Organization? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17What is the Occupation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18What are settlements? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19What is the Separation Wall?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21What was the first intifada?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22What were the Oslo Accords? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23What is the Palestinian Authority? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

What is the Al-Aqsa Intifada? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Why was there a second intifada? Didn’t the Palestinians turn down

a generous offer at Camp David in July 2000? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26What is the Road Map? What is the Geneva Initiative? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

4. ReligionWhat religious beliefs are shared by Christians, Jews and Muslims? Do members of

these three faiths all believe in the same God? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32What beliefs and practices are unique to Christianity? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33What beliefs and practices are unique to Judaism?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 What beliefs and practices are unique to Islam? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 What is the religious significance of Palestine/Israel? What special associations

does this land hold for Jews, Christians and Muslims? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Are all Jews Zionists? Are all Zionists Jews?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39What is Christian Zionism? What do Christians believe about Zionism? . . . . . . . . . . . 39Didn’t God give the land to the Jews? Aren’t we as Christians supposed

to “bless Israel”? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Is criticism of Israel anti-Jewish? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Are there religious visions for justice and peace in Palestine/Israel? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

5. Continuing conflict, sources of hopeWhat is terrorism? What does MCC have to say about suicide bombings? . . . . . . . . 44What are the continuing sources of conflict?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Settlements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Refugees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Borders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

What does MCC see as the solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47What is the one-state solution?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47What is the two-state solution?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48What are the advantages and disadvantages of these solutions? Is a two-state

solution still possible? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48What does the future hold for Palestine and Israel if the one-state

or two-state solutions are not implemented? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

6. How MCC is responding, how you can helpWhat brought MCC to work with Palestinians? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52What is the focus of MCC’s work in the Occupied Territories today? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54Does MCC “take sides” with Palestinians and not Israelis? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Does MCC work with Israelis?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55Why does MCC work with Muslims? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55Why are there no Mennonite churches in the Middle East? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56Are North American MCC workers safe in Palestine/Israel? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56What sustains MCC’s work? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57What can we do? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Pray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57Share . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58Advocate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58Stay informed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

7. Resources for further studyMCC Materials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60Web sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Meet MCC’s partners. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

IntroductionA boy holds a piece of artwork showing the daily violence in the Gaza Strip atthe Shoroq wa Amal (sunriseand hope) children's center inKhan Younis, Gaza Strip.

1. IntroductionThe combined name Palestine/Israelonly hints at the deep fissures dividingthis land. An introductory booklet likethis one can only offer a brief glimpseinto such a complex conflict.Supporters of Mennonite CentralCommittee (MCC) regularly ask MCCworkers about the complexities of thePalestinian-Israeli conflict. This bookletpresents some of the questions MCCworkers in Palestine regularly receivefrom MCC supporters in Canada, theUnited States and beyond, along withstraightforward answers.

This booklet is organized bytheme, but all of the areas are inter-related. You may jump in and out of the text according to yourinterest. Please remember that whatyou are reading is a necessarilysimplified treatment of a complicatedsituation. For those wishing to learnmore about Palestine/Israel, the finalsection includes resources for furtherstudy.

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GeographyA street sign inBethlehem that wasrun over by a tankduring October 2001fighting.

What is Israel?Israel is the name of the country claiming sovereign control over 78 percent of Mandate Palestine (seePalestine below). Israel includes theNegev (Naqab) Desert in the south,West Jerusalem and the coastal plainsin the center, and the Galilee in thenorth. This area is also referred to as“Israel proper.” Israel has annexed EastJerusalem and the Golan Heights, territories it occupied in 1967, but the international community has notrecognized these annexations. AlthoughIsrael occupies the West Bank and theGaza Strip militarily, it has notannexed these territories, not wishingto absorb the Palestinians in theseplaces as Israeli citizens.

Approximately six million peoplelive in the state of Israel. Israel’s popu-lation is about 80 percent Jewish, 15percent Muslim, two percent Christian,and three percent other. Israel is aunique country because it defines itselfas the state of all Jewish peoplethroughout the world, rather than as a state of all of its citizens.

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2. Geography

A Palestinian man and his two sons (whodeclined to be identified) walk past wall construction near the checkpoint betweenBethlehem and Jerusalem.

To discuss geography in the MiddleEast is no simple matter. Even seem-ingly straightforward questions like“Where do you live?” or “Where areyou from?” can have major politicalimplications for Palestinians, Israelisand internationals alike. WhatPalestinians and the international com-munity call the Occupied Territories,for example, Israel calls Judea andSamaria or the “administered territo-ries.” The following section addressesthe multiple meanings behind some of the most common geographical references.

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As a result, Jewish citizens of Israel receivepreferential treatment in all major aspectsof social and political life, includingschooling, health care, housing and landuse. Israel refers to its Arab citizens as“Israeli Arabs.” In recent years, however,these Arab citizens of Israel have increas-ingly begun to refer to themselves as“Palestinian citizens of Israel.”

What is Palestine?The name Palestine means different thingsto different people in different contexts.Sometimes Palestine refers to all ofMandate Palestine, which includes all theland between the Jordan River and theMediterranean Sea. Great Britain admini-stered this territory during the first part ofthe 20th century through a mandate itreceived from the League of Nations,hence the name. Today Mandate Palestineincludes Israel proper, the West Bank andthe Gaza Strip. The term HistoricalPalestine is also used to refer to approxi-mately the same territory.

Palestine can also be used to designateonly the West Bank (including EastJerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. This combination of territories would constitute

the State of Palestine in the event that afuture independent Palestinian state wasestablished. Many Palestinians hope for thecreation of such a state as part of a finalresolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Why do some people refer toPalestine/Israel or Israel/Palestine?These rather clumsy, interchangeablenames represent attempts to refer to theland in question in a way that honors bothIsraeli and Palestinian attachment to theland. Saying Israel/Palestine or Palestine/Israel emphasizes that two peoples live inone land treasured by each as a homeland.Israel/Palestine and Palestine/ Israel desig-nate all of Mandate Palestine, includingthe West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Israel

Milade Thalgieh leaving the Churchof the Nativity in Bethlehem.

proper. Use of these names acknow-ledges that both Palestinians andIsraelis claim the land and should beable to live there peacefully andsecurely.

What are the Occupied Territories?In Palestine/Israel the OccupiedTerritories refers to East Jerusalem, theWest Bank and the Gaza Strip.Together these territories constitute 22percent of Historical Palestine. In thebroader Middle Eastern context,“Occupied Territories” also includesthe Golan Heights—Syrian territoryoccupied by Israel since 1967. TheState of Israel does not consider EastJerusalem, the West Bank and theGaza Strip to be Occupied Territories.Instead, Israel annexed East Jerusaleminto the state, and views the West Bankand the Gaza Strip as “administered”or “disputed” territories, rather than

as Occupied Territories. Some Israelis also refer to the West Bank by the bib-lical names of Judea and Samaria.Israeli settlers routinely call theOccupied Territories YESHA, anacronym of the Hebrew words forJudea, Samaria and Gaza.

What is the West Bank?The West Bank is a kidney-beanshaped territory, 5,860 square kilome-ters, extending from the city of Jenin inthe north to the city of Hebron in thesouth, with the Jordan River as itseastern edge. More than two millionPalestinians live in the West Bank,together with 200,000 Israeli settlers—figures that don’t include Palestiniansand Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem.Historically, East Jerusalem has beenan integral part of the West Bank.Decades of occupation, however, haveincreasingly isolated East Jerusalemfrom the neighboring West Bank citiesand villages.

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The shadow of Saliba Baddoun of Wi’am(The Palestinian Conflict ResolutionCenter) as he surveys the damage in theWest Bank village of Beit Jala after theIsraeli occupation of October 2001. Anoverturned Palestinian bulldozer lies inthe background.

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What is the Gaza Strip?The Gaza Strip is a small sliver of land,360 square kilometers, which hugs theMediterranean Sea and the Egyptianborder. Some 1.2 million Palestinians livein the Gaza Strip, two-thirds of whom arerefugees. Half of the refugees live in Gaza’seight refugee camps. Seven thousand Israelisettlers also live in the Gaza Strip, distri-buted among nearly 20 settlements. The1.2 million Palestinian Gazans have accessto approximately 60 percent of the GazaStrip. Israeli settlers and soldiers controlthe remaining 40 percent. Overcrowding inGaza’s refugee camps is a major problem,with the population density in some campsreaching four to eight people per room.

Gazans enjoy few economic opportuni-ties. In the past, most income generated byGazans was earned by Palestiniansworking as day laborers in Israel, wherethey were considered a source of cheaplabor. Harvard economist Sara Roy hasanalyzed how Israeli military regulationsactively discouraged economic develop-ment in the Gaza Strip, a policy that Roycalled “de-development.” Beginning withthe Oslo Accords (see page 23) in 1993,however, Israel began severely restrictingthe number of Gazans allowed into Israelto work. At the same time, Israel beganimporting workers from Asia and EasternEurope as new sources of cheap labor.Today, the vast majority of Palestinians are

rarely allowed to leave Gaza, either towork in Israel or to travel to Jerusalem orthe West Bank.

How are Israeli settlements altering thegeography of Palestine/Israel?The map on page 21 graphically demon-strates how Israeli settlements in the WestBank are turning Palestinian towns and vil-lages into isolated islands or reservations.Israeli settlements, also known as colonies,have been strategically placed to create“facts on the ground” that fulfill Israel’spolitical goals of claiming more territory.Rings of Israeli settlements, for example,cut off Jerusalem from the rest of the WestBank. This makes it more difficult forPalestinians to one day achieve their goalof an independent state with a sharedJerusalem as its capital. In addition, Israelisettlements and military outposts dominatethe Jordan Valley and prevent Palestiniandevelopment there. Another set of Israelisettlements separates Bethlehem fromHebron, while still other settlements cutoff Ramallah from Nablus. Palestiniansand Israelis committed to peace and reconciliation fear that the proliferation ofsettlements has already eliminated the possibility of establishing a viable, inde-pendent Palestinian state in the West Bankand Gaza Strip. Instead, settlement expan-sion is confining Palestinians to eversmaller parcels of land. This process,

known as the cantonization or bantus-tanization of Palestine, is oftencompared to the establishment of Blackhomelands in South Africa underapartheid or the creation of Indianreservations for Native NorthAmericans. Since Israel has begun con-struction of a “separation wall,” theprocess of land confiscation is occur-ring faster than ever. The wall isdesigned to divide Jewish andPalestinian populations from eachother. The map on page 21 illustratesthe route of the fences and walls thatmake it diffuclt at best for Palestiniansto go from one part of Palestinian ter-ritory to another without hard-to-obtain Israeli permission. Meanwhile,Israel gains control of more and moreof the West Bank, and its naturalresources such as water and land, foragriculture and building.

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HistoryAn old man walksthrough Aida refugeecamp in Bethlehem.

Historical Palestine was part of theOttoman Empire, ruled from Istanbulin what is now Turkey. The OttomanEmpire extended from present-dayTurkey down into what is now SaudiArabia and over into Egypt in NorthAfrica. During the late 19th and early20th centuries, the peoples of theMiddle East began to develop nationalidentities. This process paralleled thedevelopment of European nationalitiesin the mid-18th century. In practicalterms, this meant that people in theMiddle East began to think of them-selves as Palestinians, Lebanese,Syrians, etc. There was as yet no Stateof Israel. The Jewish minority in theMiddle East was also subject to theOttoman empire.

After World War I, the lands of thedefeated Ottoman Empire were dividedinto different nations, kingdoms and“mandate territories” by the League ofNations, the precursor of today’sUnited Nations. The League of Nationsgave Great Britain and France the mandate to administer various territo-ries until they were deemed ready fordemocratic self-rule. France, forexample, was given the mandate forLebanon and Syria, while Britain

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3. HistoryWho are the Palestinians?Palestinians are Arabs who live in orcome from the part of the Middle Easttoday called Israel, the West Bank andthe Gaza Strip. Dispersal of Palestin-ians throughout the world makes anaccurate count difficult, but researchersestimate that there are some 9.3 millionPalestinians worldwide. More thanthree million Palestinians live in theWest Bank and the Gaza Strip, andanother million live in Israel proper ascitizens of the State of Israel. The restlive outside of Palestine/Israel.

At the beginning of the 20th century, well over 90 percent of thepeople in Historical Palestine wereArabs.

Im Munir and Abeer cook in the Odehhome in the Aida camp.

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received the mandate for Palestine. Thisdivision of territory into various mandatesaccelerated the process of separate nationalidentification. People in French-adminis-tered Syria, for example, began to viewthemselves as Syrians as well as Arabs,while those in British-administeredPalestine viewed themselves more andmore as Palestinians, in addition to beingArabs.

The process of Palestinian indepen-dence was complicated by the BalfourDeclaration of 1917. This declarationcommitted Britain to working toward thecreation of a Jewish homeland in MandatePalestine. Palestinians interpreted theBalfour Declaration as evidence that theBritish authorities were not serious aboutmoving Palestine along the path towarddemocracy and self-determination.The Palestinian population at the turn ofthe 20th century was 80 percent Muslimand 20 percent Christian. There were alsoJewish communities in Palestine inJerusalem, Hebron, Safed and Tiberiaswhich had been present for hundreds ofyears. These Jewish communities consti-tuted about 6 percent of the totalpopulation of Historical Palestine andmade up about this percentage of the pop-ulation for more than 1,000 years. In the1930s and 1940s, Jewish communities inMandate Palestine were joined by largenumbers of immigrants from Europe. By

1946 the Jewish population of MandatePalestine had risen to 600,000, or about33 percent of the total population. Also bythis time some six percent of the land inMandate Palestine was owned by Jews.

Today, Christians make up two tothree percent of the Palestinian populationin the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and 15percent of the Palestinians in Israel. Theremainder are Muslim. Many PalestinianChristians, along with upwardly mobilePalestinian Muslims, have emigrated toNorth America and Europe in search of abetter life.

What is Zionism?Zionism is the belief that Jews should havea state of their own. In late 19th-centuryEurope, a form of Zionism emerged whichheld that, just as the French people hadFrance, or the Italians had Italy, the Jewishpeople should have a Jewish state. Theseearly Zionists were almost all secular Jews.They viewed their Judaism as an ethnicand cultural characteristic rather than as apersonal religious faith.

The author of this form of Zionismwas the Austrian journalist TheodoreHerzl, who wrote the landmark book DerJudenstaat (The Jewish State) outlining hisvision of a new Jewish state of Israel.Herzl and his fellow Zionists dreamed ofestablishing the Jewish state of Israel as asecular, socialist utopia. In the early days

of Zionism, European Zionist leaders considered several locations for the newJewish state, including parts of Ugandaand Argentina. Palestine, however, quicklybecame the focus of Zionist aspirations,and groups of Zionist settlers beganarriving in Palestine in the late 19th cen-tury. In contrast to these secular JewishZionists, most religious Jews opposedZionism prior to the Holocaust on thegrounds that only the Messiah could inaugurate a revived Jewish state.

How was the State of Israel established?What was the Partition Plan?In 1947, the United Nations passedGeneral Assembly Resolution 181, other-wise known as the Partition Plan. Thisresolution divided Mandate Palestine intotwo parts. One section, comprising 56 per-

cent of Mandate Palestine, was to be aJewish state. The remaining 44 percentwas to be a homeland for the nativePalestinian Arab population. At the time ofthe Partition Plan, Jews owned six percentof the land in Mandate Palestine andPalestinian Arabs owned the remaining 94percent. The Palestinians rejected this divi-sion, which they interpreted as the loss of56 percent of their homeland.

On May 15, 1948, the Zionist leader-ship in Palestine, led by David Ben-Gurion,declared the creation of the State of Israel.This declaration ignited the war Israeliscall “The War of Independence” andPalestinians call “The Catastrophe” (theNakba in Arabic). Throughout thisbooklet, the term “the War of 1948” or“1948 War” designates this event. TheHaganah and the Palmach, Jewish militaryunits formed before the declaration of theState of Israel, fought against the armies ofEgypt, Iraq, Jordan and Syria, as well asmilitary units of irregular Palestinianfighters. The Zionist armies proved betterequipped and motivated, while the Arabstates entered the war with conflictingmotives and goals. During the course ofthe fighting more than 700,000Palestinians became homeless refugees,either because they fled in fear of the vio-lence or were forcibly expelled by Israelimilitary forces. The Israeli military alsodestroyed at least 413 Palestinian towns

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and villages. At the end of the war, Israelcontrolled 22 percent more land than orig-inally called for in the Partition Plan,covering 78 percent of Mandate Palestine.

What is the relationship between theHolocaust and the State of Israel?The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah(the Hebrew word for destruction), refersto the systematic slaughter of millions ofJews and others throughout Europe duringthe Second World War. The Nazi ideologyof Adolph Hitler viewed Jews and other“non-Aryans” as less-than-human and athreat to racial purity. Jewish people wererounded up, enslaved in concentrationcamps, killed in gas chambers and cre-mated in what Nazis chillingly called “theFinal Solution.” Millions of other “unde-sirables” were imprisoned and killed in thecamps, including Roma and Sinti people(more commonly known as Gypsies),people with mental and physical disabili-ties, homosexuals, pacifists, Communists,Jehovah’s Witnesses and many Christians.European Jews suffered the heaviest losses,with an estimated six million killed in theconcentration camps.

The Holocaust, for many Jews, was ahorrible confirmation of the Zionist argument that Jews would never be trulyat home in Europe and that their securitycould only be guaranteed in a state of theirown. Many religious Jews who had

previously opposed Zionism became dedicated Zionists after the Holocaust.

After World War II, many Jewish survivors of the Holocaust immigrated toIsrael in search of a safe haven. Even forJews who did not immigrate to Israel,merely the idea of Israel was comforting tomany, as it promised safety in the eventthat genocidal, anti-Jewish forces wouldgain power once more. Zionism, whichhad begun as a European movementseeking to colonize Palestine by displacingand ignoring local Palestinian Arabs,changed significantly after World War II.Unlike their predecessors, the Jews arrivingfrom Europe after the Holocaust were notso much concerned with nation-building orthe realization of a utopian vision as withsafety and security from the ravages ofgenocide.

Almost 60 years later, the Holocaustcontinues to play a major role in discus-sions of the Palestine-Israel conflict. Somepeople believe that, given WesternChristianity’s shameful history of anti-Jewish discrimination and complicity inthe Holocaust, Christians have no moralright to criticize the state of Israel. Others,however, suggest that past silence in theface of genocide should push Christiansand others concerned with justice andpeace to raise their voices whenever anygovernment pursues policies of discrimina-tion, exclusion and dispossession.

Who are the Palestinian refugees? Whyare they still refugees? What is the Rightof Return?More than four million Palestinians areregistered as refugees with the UnitedNations Relief and Works Agency(UNRWA), the organization responsiblefor providing relief and basic services toPalestinian refugees. These refugees com-prise the people who lost their homes andlivelihoods in the 1948 war as well as theirdescendants.

Many Palestinian refugees live inrefugee camps operated by UNWRA in theWest Bank and Gaza Strip, Lebanon,Jordan and Syria. Camp residents do notlive in tents; instead they have built smallconcrete block houses with rudimentaryplumbing and electricity. The camps areextremely crowded and offer a low stan-dard of living. Over the years, somerefugees have moved out of the camps intoneighboring residential areas, or have goneto live in other parts of the world.

In 1949, the United Nations passedGeneral Assembly Resolution 194. Thisresolution called for the return of, andcompensation for, those refugees from the1948 war willing to live at peace with theirneighbors. It also stipulated that therefugees be allowed back to their homesand properties at the earliest practicable

date. As a condition for joining the UnitedNations, Israel had to affirm this resolu-tion. Israel has, however, adamantlyrefused to allow any Palestinian refugees toreturn to their homes, and the resolutionhas never been enforced.

Some people believe it is logisticallyimpossible for most Palestinian refugees toreturn to their original homes. Actually,most of the land to which refugees havethe right to return is currently not beingused for residential purposes, making itfeasible for the majority of refugees toreturn to what is now Israel, if they sochose. Broadly understood, Israeli opposi-tion to this process stems morefundamentally from a desire to minimizethe Palestinian population of Israel ratherfrom than any existential threat thatrefugee return would pose.

In addition to the refugees describedabove, millions of other Palestinians alsoconsider themselves refugees. “Internallydisplaced” Palestinians provide oneexample. These Palestinians lost theirhomes and lands in what became Israel in1948, but remained inside Israel’s newly-created borders. Father Elias Chacour, thewell-known Greek Catholic (Melkite)priest in the Galilee, originally came fromthe village of Bir’am in northern Galilee. In1949, the Israeli military ordered the resi-dents of Bir’am and neighboring Ikrit toleave their villages, promising them they

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would be allowed to return. The military,however, proceeded to demolish the townsand prevented villagers from returning.Chacour and his fellow villagers, who areIsraeli citizens, may not be included onUnited Nations lists of refugees, but like“official” refugees they lost their homesand lands. Still another group ofPalestinian refugees is comprised of thosewho became homeless as a result of thewar in 1967, also known as the Six DayWar.

After the War of 1948, Israel invokeda law known as the Absentee PropertyLaw to take over Palestinian-owned prop-erties left vacant when their ownersbecame refugees or were internally dis-placed. The Custodian of AbsenteeProperty, an Israeli government institution,allowed the Jewish National Fund (JNF),an agency to promote Jewish settlement inthe land, to use many of these properties.Because the JNF allows only Jews to useits properties, much of the Palestinian landbecame a resource for exclusively Jewishdevelopment.

Although most of the original refugeeshave not seen their homes and propertiessince 1948, they continue to identify withthe land from which they were expelledduring the war. Many refugees stilltreasure the deeds to their land and care-

fully store the large iron keys to their original homes. Women continue to decorate their clothes with the embroiderypatterns of their home villages. Whenrefugee children born in the camps areasked where they are from, they typicallyname the cities and villages from whichtheir grandparents came, places they havenever seen, instead of the refugee camps inwhich they have lived all their lives.

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What is the Law of Return?The Law of Return is an Israeli law guar-anteeing that any Jew can automaticallybecome a citizen of the State of Israel.Furthermore, persons from some countriesin which organized Jewish life had notbeen possible—such as the countries of theformer Soviet Union—can immigrate toIsrael if they have a Jewish grandparent.As an incentive to make aliyah (theHebrew word for immigration to Israel),Israel offers generous immigration benefitsto those who enter under the Law ofReturn. New immigrants are eligible forfree (one-way) plane tickets, free and sub-sidized housing, no-interest loans, reducedtaxes and tax exemptions, free medicalinsurance, free language study and otherattractive benefits.

Given the generosity of the new immi-grant benefits package, it is perhaps notsurprising that many recent immigrants toIsrael are not Jewish. This is particularlytrue of immigrants from the former SovietUnion, who make up the vast majority ofIsrael’s new immigrants. In 2001, forexample, only half of all new immigrantsidentified themselves as Jewish uponentering the country, and 9 percent identi-fied themselves as Christians. Many ofthese immigrants come to Israel not forreligious reasons, but in search of eco-nomic opportunities and hopes for a betterlife.

The Law of Return and relativelyrecent amendments to it are hotly con-tested within Israeli society. Some defend apolicy, crafted to bring in new immigrantsfrom the former Soviet Union, that allowsanyone with a Jewish grandparent to claimIsraeli citizenship, arguing that Israelshould provide safe haven for those theNazis would have killed (anyone with aJewish grandparent in Nazi Germany wasin danger of being sent to the concentra-tion camps). Other Israelis worry that byadmitting so many immigrants who arenot Jewish, or who lack a significant con-nection to Jewish identity and heritage,Israel is allowing its identity as a Jewishstate to be weakened. Still other Israeliswelcome all immigration under the Law ofReturn because it increases the numberand proportion of non-Arabs in Israel.These Israelis fear the high birthrate ofIsrael’s minority Palestinian population,and seek to absorb as many non-Arabs aspossible regardless of their religion.

Palestinian refugees find fundamen-tally unjust the contrast between Israel’srefusal to implement their UN-mandatedright of return and Israel’s embrace of theLaw of Return. In practice this means thatPalestinian refugees who had been born inIsrael proper and then became refugeescannot enter Israel, while anyone bornanywhere in the world who is Jewish canautomatically become an Israeli citizen.

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What is the Palestine LiberationOrganization?The Palestine Liberation Organization,commonly known as the PLO, wasfounded in the early 1960s as the officialorganization of the Palestinian nationalindependence movement. The PLO has tra-ditionally functioned as the Palestiniangovernment in exile, claiming to representall Palestinians living in Palestine and inthe Diaspora. Yassir Arafat, the well-known Palestinian national leader, hasbeen chairman of the PLO since the mid-1960s. In 1996, Arafat was alsodemocratically elected the first president ofthe Palestinian Authority (see below).

Most Palestinians have considered thePLO to be the only legitimate representa-tive of the Palestinian people. Manypolitical parties make up the PLO,including Fatah, the largest party, led byArafat, the Popular Front for theLiberation of Palestine and the DemocraticFront for the Liberation of Palestine. Notall Palestinian political organizationsbelong to the PLO, however: neitherHamas nor Islamic Jihad (both revolu-tionary Islamic movements) is a PLOmember.

What is the Occupation?By the end of the War of 1948, Israel hadtaken control of 78 percent of MandatePalestine. The remaining 22 percent wasdivided into two parts: the West Bank andthe Gaza Strip. The West Bank, whichincluded East Jerusalem and its Old City,was claimed by the Hashemite Kingdom ofJordan, while the Gaza Strip was adminis-tered by Egypt.

Then, during the “Six Day War” of1967, Israeli military forces drove theJordanians out of the West Bank and EastJerusalem and the Egyptians out of theGaza Strip and began to occupy thoseareas militarily. Israel also conquered theSinai Peninsula, which belonged to Egypt,and the Golan Heights, which belonged toSyria. The Sinai was eventually returned toEgypt as part of the Camp David Accordsof 1978. Israel officially annexed the

Israeli soldiers detain Palestinian teenagers in the streets of Hebron, West Bank.

Golan Heights and East Jerusalem,claiming them as integral parts of thestate of Israel. The West Bank and theGaza Strip were not annexed butremained under Israeli military control,a situation which persists to this dayand is usually referred to as “the Occu-pation.” By occupying instead ofannexing these territories, Israelavoided extending citizenship to thePalestinians of the West Bank andGaza Strip, a move Israel feared wouldundermine the Jewish majority inIsrael.

Israel argues that it is not occu-pying the West Bank and the GazaStrip but is simply “administering” dis-puted territories. However, theinternational community, including theUnited States, Canada, the UnitedNations and Israeli human rights

organizations, agree that Israel is infact an occupying power. As such,Israel has obligations under interna-tional law (specifically the FourthGeneva Convention, which Israel hassigned) to safeguard the well-being ofthe civilian population in the territoriesit occupies, to avoid confiscating nat-ural resources such as water fromthose territories, and to refrain frommoving its own civilian populationinto the Occupied Territories.

Israel routinely violates the provisions of the Fourth GenevaConvention. For example, Israel failsto safeguard the well-being of theoccupied Palestinian population whenit collectively punishes the Palestiniansof the West Bank and Gaza Strip withcurfews, house demolitions and clo-sures (sieges) of Palestinian towns andvillages. In addition, Israel routinelydenies due process to Palestinian pri-soners and illegally confiscates naturalresources from the OccupiedTerritories, such as water from WestBank aquifers.

One of the most sobering elements

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An empty belt of 7.62mm light machine gunammunition found by the Thalgieh familynear the Israeli emplacement from whichcame the bullet that killed their son.

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of Israel’s occupation policy is its construc-tion of illegal settlements, also known ascolonies, for Israeli civilians on confiscatedPalestinian land. The Geneva Conventionexpressly forbids occupying powers tomove any of their civilian population intoOccupied Territories. This provision isintended to protect civilian populationswho may become targets of the anger ofan occupied people. Because of Israel’smultiple violations of the Forth GenevaConvention, its occupation of the WestBank and Gaza Strip is illegal in practice.Many jurists also argue that Israel’s policyof maintaining an indefinite occupationmakes the occupation itself illegal.

On November 22, 1967, the UnitedNations passed Security CouncilResolution (UNSCR) 242 calling on Israelto withdraw from territories occupiedduring the 1967 war in exchange forpeace. This “land-for-peace” formula wasthe basis of the Egyptian-Israeli peaceagreement brokered by Jimmy Carter andoutlined in the Camp David Accords of1978. (The Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty itselfwas signed in 1979). Exploiting an ambi-guity in the resolution, Israel has arguedthat UNSCR 242 does not call on it towithdraw from all Occupied Territories,and so insists that its continued occupationof the West Bank and Gaza Strip does notconstitute a violation of the resolution.Palestinians and Arab countries disagree,

arguing that a just and lasting peace canonly be achieved with a full Israeli with-drawal from all the territories occupied in1967.

What are settlements? The term “settlements” refers to the Israelicolonies established in the OccupiedTerritories. Some Palestinians and theiradvocates prefer the term “colonies” to“settlements” because it highlights the roleof the settlements in controlling the landand natural resources of the OccupiedTerritories. As noted above, internationallaw prohibits an occupying power frommoving its civilians into occupied territory.This prohibition, however, has notdeterred a series of Israeli governments,both of the left-leaning Labor party andthe right-leaning Likud party (the party ofAriel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister asthese words are written). Israel beganestablishing settlements in the early 1970sand the number of settlers and settlementshas steadily increased. Today there arenearly 200 settlements in the West Bank,East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip housingapproximately 400,000 settlers.

Settlements are typically built on landconfiscated from Palestinians. Sometimesthe Israeli government uses Ottoman-eraland laws as a pretext for expropriatingland from Palestinian landowners. Some-times the land is simply taken. Other times

Palestinians are coerced into selling, orthey sell out of fear that the land willend up being confiscated while theyare left with nothing.The subsequentbuilding of settlements results in morethan a loss of land. Israel strategicallypositions settlements in order to securecontrol over water from West Bankand Gaza Strip aquifers.

Another function of Israeli settle-ment policy is to gain control overPalestinian population centers byestablishing geographical control.Palestinians, for example, have alwaysconsidered Jerusalem to be their cap-ital. They envision Jerusalem as aninternational city that can be theshared capital of two states and twopeoples. In contrast, Israeli govern-ments have opposed the idea ofsharing Jerusalem, insisting that thecity be entirely for Israel. In order tomake this desire a practical reality,

Israel has created “facts on theground” by establishing settlements ina pattern that encircles Palestinianneighborhoods in East Jerusalem.These settlements effectively isolatePalestinian neighborhoods from eachother and cut off East Jerusalem fromthe West Bank. This settlement policyundermines the possibility of any polit-ical settlement that includes a realsharing of Jerusalem as one city, twocapitals.

Israel employs a similar settlementstrategy throughout the West Bank andGaza Strip. Settlements in these terri-tories are established in ways thateliminate territorial contiguity forPalestinians, separating town fromtown and village from village. Thisleaves Palestinians unable to movefrom one Palestinian town to the nextwithout passing through Israeli-con-trolled territory. In addition, over thepast decade Israel has built a networkof special roads connecting the settle-ments to each other. Land for theroads has been appropriated fromPalestinian territory, and the right ofPalestinians to use these roads istightly restricted. Once again, the

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Israeli Settlement of Ha’re Homa (Mt. of Mercy) outside of Bethlehem.

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practical implication of this policy is toundermine any political settlement thatinvolves the creation of a viable Palestinianstate, as Palestinian towns and cities havebeen separated by a sprawling network ofsettlements and settlement roads.

Some Israeli settlers are motivated bypolitical and religious beliefs, convinced,for example, that settling the whole ofEretz Yisrael (Hebrew phrase for the Landof Israel) is a sacred obligation. Theybelieve that Jews are destined to subjugate,if not displace entirely, native Palestinianinhabitants. The majority of settlers, how-ever, choose life in the settlements foreconomic reasons: the Israeli governmentoffers a variety of incentives for Israelis tolive in settlements, including tax breaks andlow- to no-interest mortgages.

What is the Separation Wall?One of the most alarming developments inIsrael’s West Bank construction activities isthe building of the “Separation Wall.” Thiswall, called a “security fence” by Israel,but known by Palestinians as the“Segregation Wall” or the “SeparationWall,” is designed to physically separatethe remaining Palestinian areas of the WestBank from the Israeli settlements and thestate of Israel itself. The “wall” is a meansof enforcing separation through force. Atpoints, the barrier is a concrete wall thatreaches eight meters in height and featuresa series of guard towers. In other areas, the

barrier is an elaborate series of fences,barbed wire, roads and electronic sen-sors. Whether an electronic fence or aconcrete wall, the barrier is walling offPalestinians from Israelis and wallingoff Palestinians from their land andwater. The wall is not being built onIsrael’s border with the West Bank.Instead, land for the wall is being con-fiscated from the West Bankcommunities it is designed to isolate,and may eventually result in theannexation of at least 10 percent of theWest Bank to Israel. Some Palestinianpopulation centers, such as Qalqilya inthe north, are almost entirely encircled

by the wall. The walls and fences effec-tively annex land and water resources(along with many settlements) toIsrael, leaving Palestinians encircled inreservations that many observers likento the Bantustans of apartheid-eraSouth Africa.

What was the first intifada?Throughout the 1970s and the earlypart of the 1980s, foreign reportersvisiting the West Bank and the GazaStrip routinely commented on howquiet the Palestinian population was,given their suffering at the hands ofIsraeli policy. This apparent quietmasked deep-seated frustration andanger at life under military occupationand at the expanding Israeli settlemententerprise. On December 9, 1987, thequiet gave way to protest asPalestinians in the Gaza Strip launchedthe intifada, the resistance movementthat quickly spread to the West Bankand East Jerusalem. Intifada is anArabic word that literally means“shaking off,” but is commonly trans-lated as “uprising.” The first intifada,which lasted until 1993, inspired ordi-nary Palestinians to engage in

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A candle sits next to a photo of the motherof Joseph Thalgieh. She died after inhalingtear gas during the first intifada of the 1980s.

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nonviolent resistance to the Israeli militaryauthorities, particularly during theuprising’s first years. Palestinians used non-violent tactics such as strikes, taxresistance and unarmed demonstrationsdesigned to “shake off” the Israeli occupa-tion and express their desire to live infreedom. The movement was not entirelynonviolent, however: stone-throwingPalestinian youth and, especially later inthe intifada, groups of armed fighters werealso part of the uprising.

The Israeli military responded harshlyto the intifada. Yitzhak Rabin, then IsraeliDefense Minister and later Prime Ministerand Nobel Laureate, famously promised to“crush the bones” of those participating inthe uprising. The first intifada drew to aclose with the announcement of theDeclaration of Principles and the signing ofwhat came to be known as the OsloAccords.

What were the Oslo Accords?In September of 1993, the PLO and theState of Israel issued a Declaration ofPrinciples (DOP), the product of secretnegotiations conducted in the Norwegiancapital of Oslo. The DOP set the generalframework for the more detailed “OsloAccords” that would follow. In the Osloaccords, the PLO recognized the existenceand legitimacy of the State of Israel. Israel,for its part, simply recognized the PLO as

a representative of the Palestinian people,something they had denied until this time.The Gaza-Jericho First Agreement (alsoknown as Oslo I) gave Palestinians“autonomy” over the West Bank town ofJericho and about 60 percent of the GazaStrip. The Cairo Agreement (or Oslo II)extended Palestinian autonomy into addi-tional parts of the West Bank. Oslo IIdivided the West Bank into a geographicalalphabet soup. In Area A, comprising themain cities of the West Bank, Palestinianshad control over civilian and securityaffairs. In Area B, which included villagesnear Palestinian cities, Palestinians hadresponsibility for civil services such asschools and hospitals while Israel remainedin control of security. In Area C, mean-while, Israel retained full control.

In order to fulfill the requirements ofthe Area A, B and C system, the Osloaccords established joint Palestinian-Israelicoordination mechanisms for security andstipulated a series of three Israeli with-drawals. At the end of these withdrawalsIsrael was to have pulled back from all ofthe Occupied Territories except for settle-ments and designated military areas.Palestinians understood this provision tomean that, after the three Israeli with-drawals, the Palestinian Authority wouldbe in control of 95 percent of the WestBank. Only two withdrawals were carriedout, however, and these withdrawals

occurred only after delays and prolongednegotiations. After the second withdrawalwas carried out in 1999, still only 18 per-cent of the West Bank fell under fullPalestinian control (Area A); in another 22percent Palestinians had responsibility forcivilian affairs while Israel maintainedresponsibility for security (Area B); in theremaining 60 percent of the West BankIsrael kept full control.

The Oslo accords were based on theprinciple that the most contentious issuesof the Palestine-Israel conflict, referred toas the “final status” issues, would bedeferred to a second phase of negotiationswhich would take place five years later.These final status issues included the futureof Israeli settlements in the OccupiedTerritories, the use of water resources inthe Occupied Territories, the fate ofPalestinian refugees, the final status ofJerusalem and the final borders of aPalestinian state. In the meantime, thethree Israeli withdrawals and the negotia-tions on the final status issues were to becompleted during the course of a five year“interim phase.” This interim phaseexpired on May 31, 1999 with most ofthese goals unmet.

Supporters of the Oslo process arguedthat it was impossible to reach agreementon all of the difficult issues affectingPalestinians and Israelis. They maintainedthat the only way forward was to post-

pone those issues and hope that a series ofincremental measures would foster a spiritof trust and mutuality that would allowfor the resolution of those issues at afuture date. Critics of the Oslo accords, incontrast, claimed that an incrementalprocess served the interests of the strongerparty to the negotiations, namely Israel.They pointed out that the Oslo accordswere vague about the timing and extent ofthe stipulated Israeli withdrawals and thatthey lacked any enforcement mechanism.These critics also noted that this ambiguity,combined with the postponement of themost difficult negotiations, would allowIsrael to consolidate its grip on theOccupied Territories rather than take stepsto withdraw from them. Unfortunately, itappears that criticisms of Oslo were justi-fied. The Israeli authorities not onlyrepeatedly delayed withdrawals from partsof the West Bank, they also accelerated set-tlement building in the OccupiedTerritories, established new settlements,expanded existing ones and constructed anetwork of “bypass roads” to connect set-tlements with one another.

By the time Oslo’s “interim phase”expired at the end of May 1999,Palestinians had gone from an enthusiasticembrace of the Oslo accords to a mood ofpessimism and despair. It had becomeapparent to Palestinians and their sup-porters that the Oslo accords had not been

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about ending the occupation, but aboutsolidifying Israel’s control over theOccupied Territories. The accords allowedIsrael to free itself of the mundane obliga-tions of an occupying power, such asoperating schools and hospitals and safe-guarding the wellbeing of civilians, whileretaining control over the majority of theOccupied Territories.

Critics of the Oslo accords also notedthat the incremental nature of the accordsallowed the process to be held hostage byextremist organizations. A minority ofPalestinians, mainly supporters of groupssuch as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and thePopular Front for the Liberation ofPalestine, favored continued armedstruggle over the Oslo accords. Whenmembers of these groups carried out a sui-cide bombing or other violent attack, Israeltypically cited the violence as a reason todiscontinue the withdrawals mandated byOslo. Palestinians opposed to Oslo recog-nized this dynamic and used it to furthertheir own interests, much to the chagrin ofthe majority of Palestinians who were atleast initially Oslo supporters.

What is the Palestinian Authority?The Palestinian Authority (PA) is thenational administrative body of Palestineset up in accordance with the Oslo agreements. As such, it is responsible forcivilian and security affairs in parts of theWest Bank and the Gaza Strip. The PA hasdisappointed the many Palestinians whorejoiced in its creation as the first steptowards the establishment of the long-awaited independent Palestinian state.Instead of ushering in a new era ofPalestinian self-determination, the PA hasbecome barely functional. Israeli road-blocks and checkpoints have severelyrestricted Palestinian movement betweenpopulation centers in the West Bank andGaza Strip. Israel’s reinvasions ofPalestinian cities have further weakened thePA. Only the Health and EducationMinistries still manage to operate as

An Israeli soldier checks the documents of aPalestinian teenager.

national authorities throughout theOccupied Territories. The rest of the various PA ministries are basically extensions of municipalities and villagecouncils. Some Palestinians and Israelishave observed that the existence of thePalestinian Authority allows Israel tomaintain its occupation of the West Bankand the Gaza Strip, without taking respon-sibility for the welfare of the civilianpopulation, as required under internationallaw. As a result, the international commu-nity, through its support of the PalestinianAuthority and through emergency relief tothe Occupied Territories, ends up fundingthe occupation.

What is the Al-Aqsa Intifada?On September 30, 2000, a second uprisingagainst Israeli occupation began, this timeknown as the Al-Aqsa Intifada. This new

intifada received its name from the Al-Aqsa Mosque, part of the Noble Sanctuaryin Jerusalem’s Old City.

On September 28, 2000, Ariel Sharon,who was then leader of Israel’s oppositionLikud party, visited this Muslim holy sitein the company of hundreds of armedIsraeli soldiers and police. This provoca-tive move asserted Israeli control over theMuslim holy site. The following day Israelimilitary units opened fire on Palestiniansaround the Al-Aqsa mosque who wereprotesting Sharon’s visit of the day before.Five Palestinians were killed and morethan 200 were injured. These killingsinspired waves of protest by Palestinians,both within Israel and in the OccupiedTerritories. During the month of October2000, 13 Palestinian citizens of Israel werekilled by Israeli police during demonstra-tions in Palestinian towns in Israel. Scores

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MCC peace development worker Ed Nyceand Ruti al-Raz, International Coordinatorfor the Israeli Committee Against HouseDemolitions (ICHAD), tour and discuss theseparation wall in the Abu Dis neighborhoodof East Jerusalem.

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of Palestinians in the Occupied Territorieswere also killed, and thousands moreinjured. By the end of October 2003, morethan 2,600 Palestinians had been killed byIsraeli soldiers and settlers. More than40,000 Palestinians, meanwhile, had beeninjured (light, moderate and severeinjuries). Israelis have also been the targetsof Palestinian violence in the Al-AqsaIntifada. More than 700 Israelis have beenkilled and around 5,000 more have beeninjured. Sadly, the killing and violence continue.

Why was there a second intifada? Didn’tthe Palestinians turn down a generousoffer at Camp David in July 2000?The five-year interim period established bythe Oslo accords expired in May 1999without a completion of Israeli with-drawals from the Occupied Territories andwithout the start of negotiations on finalstatus issues. Meanwhile, peace negotia-tions continued to limp along, hindered by Israeli settlement expansion andPalestinian suicide bombings. Eventually,in July of 2000, then President of theUnited States, Bill Clinton, called togetherYassir Arafat, chairman of the PLO andpresident of the Palestinian Authority, andEhud Barak, then Israeli Prime Minister,for a summit at Camp David.

Clinton hoped the summit would

produce a dramatic breakthrough in thestalemated negotiations, a breakthroughthat would address outstanding final statusissues. The outcome of the summit is notin question: the United States was unableto generate a Palestinian-Israeli agreement.The substance of the summit, however,remains hotly debated. The various partiesdo not agree on what proposals were orweren’t made, and who should take theblame for the summit’s failure. Israeli offi-cials accused the Palestinians of havingrejected the most generous Israeli offerever, claiming that Israel offered thePalestinians 90 percent of the West Bank.Some reports from the summit indicatethat Israel did discuss withdrawing frombetween 80 to 90 percent of West Bankterritory. In contrast, Palestinian sources atthe summit have questioned the extent ofthe alleged Israeli “compromises.”

What is clear is that Palestinian andIsraeli negotiators approached discussionsabout the borders of a future Palestinianstate from very different angles.Palestinians believed they had alreadymade their major concession when theysigned the Oslo accords and agreed to giveup the 78 percent of Mandate Palestine,which is today the State of Israel. From thePalestinian perspective, the point of theCamp David negotiations was to discusshow to end Israel’s occupation of theremaining 22 percent of Mandate

Palestine. Israel, on the other hand, viewedthe negotiations as centering on what portion of that remaining 22 percentwould be retained by the state of Israel,and how much of it would be relinquishedto the Palestinians. What Israel portrayedas a generous offer did not feel generous toPalestinians who believed they had alreadymade the far larger concession when theyrelinquished 78 percent of MandatePalestine to the State of Israel and acceptedestablishing a Palestinian state in theremaining 22 percent.

Some Israeli officials claimed that thePalestinian leadership, having failed toobtain what it wanted through negotia-tions, turned to violence and launched thesecond intifada, the Al-Aqsa Intifada.Other analysts, including Palestinians andtheir Israeli and international supporters,paint a different picture. They locate theoutbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada againstthe backdrop of years of popular frustra-tion with a peace process that was neitherending the occupation nor improving theeconomic situation for the averagePalestinian. In this view the visit by ArielSharon to the Haram al-Sharif (the NobleSanctuary) was simply a spark that ignitedan already volatile situation. Immediatelyafter the Sharon visit, the PalestinianAuthority might have been able to calmthe Palestinian population. But the heavy-handed Israeli response to the initial

demonstrations, a response that left scoresdead, further inflamed Palestinian publicsentiment. The Palestinian leadership,rather than instigating the second intifada,played the role of follower.

Even after the failure of the CampDavid 2000 summit and the outbreak ofthe second intifada, some Palestinian-Israeli negotiations continued, withrepresentatives from both sides comingcloser than ever to each other’s positions atmeetings held in Taba, Egypt, in January2001. Recent unofficial Palestinian-Israelinegotiations, such as the Geneva Initiative(see below), have tried to build on posi-tions presented at Taba.

What is the road map? What is theGeneva Initiative?The road map refers to the path to peacein Palestine/Israel as envisioned by theGeorge W. Bush administration. Thesecond Gulf War of 2003 confirmed thesuspicions of many in the Middle East that the United States favored Israel anddiscriminated against Arab countries. In an effort to allay these suspicions and pro-mote the idea that the United States couldplay the role of Middle Eastern peace-maker as well as warrior, the Bushadministration laid out the plan known as the Road Map.

This road map, like the Oslo accords,

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involves incremental stages. Unlike theOslo accords, however, it insists that thetwo parties, Israeli and Palestinian, mustmove together simultaneously, not conditioning their actions on the actions ofthe other party. In the first phase of theroad map, Palestinians are to reactivatesecurity services (which had been deci-mated by the Israeli military, a fact notmentioned in the road map) and to actagainst Palestinian militant networks.Israel, meanwhile, is to freeze settlementconstruction and to dismantle settlementoutposts that even Israel acknowledges tobe illegal. By the end of the first phase, aprovisional Palestinian state is to be estab-lished in parts of the OccupiedTerritories— most likely no more than 40percent of the West Bank and 60 percentof the Gaza Strip. Like in the Osloaccords, the core issues of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict (refugees, Jerusalem,settlements, etc.) are postponed to the finalstages of negotiations.

While the road map is an improve-ment on the Oslo accords in that it calls

for an end to the occupation and envisionsa viable Palestinian state next to Israel, itremains to be seen if the promise of theroad map will be met. If Israel continuesbuilding its “separation” wall throughoutthe West Bank, any Palestinian state thatwould emerge would not be viable, butwould instead consist of disconnected cantons. When Palestinians and their advo-cates speak about ending the occupation,they mean a full withdrawal from the WestBank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.When Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharonspoke of “ending the occupation” in amuch-publicized speech in May 2003, hemeant withdrawing from Palestinian population centers. It remains to be seenwhether the road map will lead to a realend of the occupation or rather its solidification.

Itay Nachliel and Ruti al-Raz discuss thewall. Nachliel is an engineer living in TelAviv who believes the wall is necessary forIsraeli security and to prevent terrorism, butis troubled by the way in which it has beenimplemented.

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The Geneva Initiative. In late 2003, a groupof Israeli politicians and academics fromopposition political parties joined somePalestinian politicians in an unofficialpeace effort dubbed the “GenevaInitiative.” In many ways, this effort mirrored another informal peace effortknown as the “Nusseibeh-Ayalon” plannamed after its drafters, Sari Nusseibeh(president of Al-Quds University) and AmiAyalon (a former head of the Israeli secretpolice). Both efforts shared the followingfeatures: Jerusalem as a shared capital forIsrael and a future state of Palestine; anIsraeli withdrawal from most of theOccupied Territories, albeit with an annex-ation of several settlement blocs, includingsettlements in East Jerusalem; a territorialexchange in which parts of present-dayIsrael would be added to the future state ofPalestine in exchange for settlement blocsthat were annexed to Israel; and at most

minimal return of refugees to lands insidepresent-day Israel, with no Israeli recogni-tion of any responsibility for thePalestinian refugee crisis. While somePalestinians, desperate for any hope after36 years of occupation, viewed the Genevaand Nusseibeh-Ayalon initiatives as prom-ising, many others, particularly refugees,were dismayed that these unofficial initiatives did not provide for real refugeechoice between return and resettlement.While some Israelis, meanwhile, welcomedthe initiatives as potential alternatives tothe policies of the Sharon government, thefacts on the ground in the form of ongoingconstruction of settlements and the separa-tion barrier meant that the borders of thePalestinian state envisioned by Geneva andNusseibeh-Ayalon were being replacedwith borders that would leave a Palestinianstate with only around 40 percent of theWest Bank.

Abed Jabber stands in front of his bullet riddled home in Azza refugee camp in Bethlehem.

Religion

are often referred to as the threemonotheistic faiths, or the threeAbrahamic faiths. The latter expressionrefers to the patriarch Abraham who isa key figure in the traditions of allthree religions. Jews and Christianstrace the Abrahamic tradition throughAbraham’s wife Sarah and their sonIsaac. Muslims also claim the traditionof Abraham, whom they call “thefriend of God.” Muslims trace theAbrahamic tradition throughAbraham’s concubine Hagar and theirson Ishmael.

Christians, Muslims and Jews callGod by different names depending ontheir native languages, but all of theseterms refer to the same God. In Arabic,the word for God is “Allah.” Arabicspeaking Christians and Muslims bothrefer to God by this name. Because theQur’an was revealed in Arabic, someMuslims refer to God by using theArabic name “Allah” when they arespeaking English. Other Muslims usethe name “God” in English contexts.Both of these options refer to the oneGod worshipped by members of allthree Abrahamic faiths. This is similarto the way Spanish-speakers call God

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4. ReligionWhat religious beliefs are shared byChristians, Jews and Muslims? Domembers of these three faiths allbelieve in the same God?Christians, Jews and Muslims allbelieve in the same God. Jewsencounter God in the Torah (the firstfive books of the Christian Bible), theTanakh (the Torah, the propheticbooks of the Bible, and wisdom writ-ings such as Proverbs), and the Talmud(rabbinic commentary on the Torah).Christians encounter God in the OldTestament, the New Testament and inthe life, death and resurrection of JesusChrist. Muslims encounter Godthrough the Qur’an. These three faiths

Milade Thalgieh lights candles in theChurch of the Nativity.

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“Dios” or French speakers call God“Dieu,” without referring to differentdeities.

Jewish God-talk is sometimes morecomplicated than that of Christians andMuslims, but it still designates the sameSupreme Being. Jews refer to God in dif-ferent ways depending on their religiousorientation. Some Jews believe that thename God is so holy it cannot be spoken.To avoid pronouncing the Hebrew wordfor God, which is “Yahweh,” they callGod “HaShem,” meaning “the Name.”When writing in English, these Jews some-times spell God without the “o,” as in“G-d,” in order to avoid direct referenceto the sacred name. In general conversa-tion, some Jews also use terms like“Adonai,” meaning “the Lord,” or“Elohim,” meaning “the highest”, whenthey refer to God. Many other Jews simplyuse the name “God” when speaking ofGod in English. Once again, all of theseterms are ways of referring to the one Godworshipped by Christians, Muslims andJews.

One of the most important principlesto remember in discussing different reli-gions is that theory should be comparedwith theory and practice should be com-pared with practice. Christianity, Judaismand Islam all share an ethic of treatingothers fairly, yet all of these religions haveadherents who fail to follow this general

principle. In this sense, it is unfair to makecomments like: “Christians believe inloving their enemies, but Muslims carryout acts of terrorism.” In reality, bothChristians and Muslims are enjoined toavoid violence, and both Christians andMuslims sometimes commit violence. It isalso unfair to make comments like: “Islamis a religion of justice, but Jews andChristians are always violating the rightsof Muslims.” In truth, Judaism, Christian-ity and Islam all have strong traditions ofjustice, and Jews, Christians and Muslimsall sometimes violate human rights.

What beliefs and practices are unique toChristianity?The foundation of Christianity is the beliefthat God, the Creator of heaven and earth,was incarnated, took flesh, in the personof Jesus Christ, who was born, conductedhis ministry, then was crucified and resur-rected. Christians believe that throughChrist’s atoning work humanity’s reconcili-ation with God is made possible and real.Through God’s Holy Spirit, creation is sus-tained and the church is empowered to liveout its witness to God’s love. Christianslearn about the life of Jesus by reading theBible. Both the Old Testament and theNew Testament are sacred Christian scrip-tures. Christians worship God in churchesthrough the reading of scripture, music,teaching and prayer. Mennonites believe

that a core element of Christianity isthe rejection of violence. Along withother Christians, Mennonites believe inwitnessing to the good news of theGospel through love of God, neighborand enemy.

What beliefs and practices areunique to Judaism?Judaism, the oldest of the threemonotheistic religions, is based on theTorah, the Jewish name for thePentateuch, the first five books of theHebrew Bible. (The Old Testament isoften referred to as the Hebrew Biblein discussions of Judaism). Jews alsoacknowledge the rest of the OldTestament as scripture. The Talmud,an extensive commentary on theTorah, is another important source ofreligious authority in Judaism.

Since Christians and Jews sharethe Old Testament, members of bothfaiths acknowledge the same OldTestament prophets. Jews are expectedto follow the Ten Commandments ashanded down by Moses. While someJews respect Jesus as a teacher, theyreject his divinity. A small portion ofpersons of Jewish heritage do acknowl-edge the divinity of Jesus. Some ofthese call themselves “Christians ofJewish origin.” Others prefer to bereferred to as “Messianic Jews” and

see Judaism as being completed by thedivine Jesus of Christianity.

Observing Shabbat, the Hebrewterm for the Sabbath, is an importantpractice for observant Jews. Accordingto Jewish law, the Sabbath begins onFriday evening and continues untilSaturday night. It is commonlybelieved that Jews are forbidden towork on Shabbat. A more completeunderstanding of the prohibition isthat Jews are to refrain from creatingor destroying anything on Shabbat inhonor of the Creator God. This refersto everything from burning trash toactivating an electrical current. In prac-tice this means that, on Shabbat,observant Jews will not turn lights, TVor radio on or off, use electrical appli-ances, write, drive a car, take a bus, ortie or untie a permanent knot. Shabbattime is often spent on religious activi-ties such as attending services at asynagogue, or visiting friends and relatives.

In addition to “keeping Shabbat,”observant Jews also “keep kosher,” thephrase used to designate eating onlyfoods permissible under Jewish law.Pork products and shellfish are for-bidden. Fish, some birds, and landmammals with cloven hooves thatchew their cud are permitted. Keepingkosher also means keeping meat (flesh

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from birds and mammals) and dairyfoods separate. This means not eatingsuch foods together at the same mealand keeping two sets of dishes, one formeat and one for dairy. Utensils thathave come into contact with dairycannot be used with meat and viceversa. Prohibiting meat and dairy com-binations means, among other things,that observant Jews will never eatcheeseburgers or have meat on a pizza.

Not all Jews are equally observant.According to Jewish law a Jew isanyone born to a Jewish mother oranyone who converts to Judaism. Thismeans that Judaism has a quasi-ethnicquality. The majority of Jews in Israel,about 60 percent, are secular Jews.These are Jews who do not have a religious faith but who consider them-

selves Jewish for reasons of ethnic heritage and culture.

What beliefs and practices areunique to Islam?Islam, the youngest of the threemonotheistic faiths, is founded on thebelief that God revealed the HolyQur’an to the prophet Muhammad inSaudi Arabia in the seventh centuryCE*. Many people erroneously assumethat the Qur’an plays a role equivalentto the Bible in Christianity, and thatMuhammad plays a role similar toJesus. A better understanding of Islamacknowledges the Muslim belief thatMuhammad was a human being butthe Qur’an, containing the words ofGod, is a book of divine origin.Muslims do not worship the prophetMuhammad the way that Christiansworship Jesus Christ. Muslims believein the Old Testament prophets, theybelieve that Jesus was a prophet, and they believe that Muhammad is God’sfinal prophet. They do not, however,worship any prophet, all of whom they

Praying at the Wailing Wall in the OldCity of Jerusalem.

*CE refers to the Common Era, or Christianera, reckoned from the traditional date ofChrist’s birth; AD.

consider fully and only human. In Islam, the concept of divinity isreserved for Allah alone. DevoutMuslims pray in mosques on Fridays,the Islamic holy day. They also followIslamic dietary restrictions, includingabstaining from all alcohol and porkproducts.

Muslims are enjoined to followthe “Five Pillars” of Islam:• Salah (Arabic word for prayer).

Muslims are required to pray fivetimes a day. During prayer theyrecite an Arabic text and perform aseries of prostrations. They alsoengage in personal prayers anddevotions at other times.

• Zakat (Arabic word for alms).Muslims are required to give

annually to the poor 2.5 percent ofall they own. (Note that this is not2.5 percent of their earnings, butrather 2.5 percent of all their pos-sessions.)

• Shehadah (Arabic word for witness). In this context, theShehadah refers to the statement:“I will be a witness that there is nogod but God and Muhammad isthe prophet of God.” A personbecomes Muslim by speaking thisphrase.

• The Hajj (Arabic word for pilgrimage). All Muslims with themeans to do so are required tomake a pilgrimage once in theirlifetime to the holy cities ofMakkah and Medina in SaudiArabia.

• Ramadan (The name of the ninthmonth in the Islamic calendar).During the month of RamadanMuslims fast during all daylighthours. This fast includes abstainingfrom food, drink, smoking andsexual relations. In the eveningMuslims break the fast as theygather to eat with family andfriends. Ramadan is a time when

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Samir Odeh prays before breaking theRamadan fast.

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Muslims are particularly conscious oftheir faith and put extra effort instrengthening family and communityrelationships.

What is the religious significance ofPalestine/Israel? What special associa-tions does this land hold for Jews,Christians and Muslims? Palestine/Israel is drenched in religiousassociations. Christians, Muslims and Jewsall consider Palestine/Israel a holy land.Often the same religious site resonatesdeeply with more than one faith.

Judaism. For religious Jews, Palestine/Israelis Eretz Yisrael, a holy land promised byGod to the Jewish people. The land is con-nected to Jewish history: Abraham andSarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob andLeah are believed to be buried in the WestBank town of Hebron. Their graves arelocated in the tomb of the patriarchs,known to Jews as the Cave of Machpelah.The matriarch Rachel is buried nearBethlehem where she died in childbirth.The kingdoms of David and Solomonflourished in what is now Palestine/Israel,and the temples of Solomon and Herodwere built in Jerusalem.

The most sacred place in Judaism, theWestern Wall, is found in the Old City ofJerusalem. Jews have gathered at the

Western Wall, the only remaining supportwall of the Second Temple, since thedestruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Therethey lament the destruction of the temple,giving rise to the alternate name “theWailing Wall.”

Although religious Jews believe thatEretz Yisrael has been promised to themby God, the consensus among Jews untilthe mid-twentieth century was that theJewish people would only be returned tothe land at the coming of the Messiah. Asa result, contemporary attempts to estab-lish a Jewish state in historical Palestinewere viewed as blasphemous, a belief stillheld by many ultra-Orthodox Jews. Otherreligious Jews, however, believe they aredivinely mandated to settle all of EretzYisrael. These Jews argue that settling theland will help bring about the coming ofthe Messiah. Some Jews who hold thisview are already at work preparing theimplements to be used in the ThirdTemple, such as the type of priestly gar-ments prescribed in Exodus 28 in theHebrew Bible or Old Testament. The mostextreme proponents of this view believethat the Islamic holy site, the NobleSanctuary which houses the Dome of theRock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, must bedestroyed so the temple can be rebuilt inits place. Most religious Jews, however,refuse to enter the Temple Mount/Haramal-Sharif, fearful that they would inadver-

tently tread on the Holy of Holies, the sec-tion of the temple reserved for the HighPriest.

Christianity. Palestine/Israel holds deep asso-ciations for Christians, not only from thestories of the Old Testament but especiallyfrom Jesus’ birth, ministry, death and res-urrection. The Church of the Nativity isfound in Bethlehem, built over caves whereJesus was born. The Shepherds’ Fields inBeit Sahour next to Bethlehem mark whereangels appeared to announce Jesus’ birth.In Galilee, in what is now northern Israel,churches have been built commemoratingJesus’ teaching ministry around the Sea ofGalilee. The Basilica of the Annunciationin Nazareth, a primarily Palestinian city inIsrael proper, marks the proclamation ofJesus’ conception to Mary by the angelGabriel. Meanwhile, in Jerusalem’s OldCity, pilgrims retrace the steps of Jesus onthe Via Dolorosa, the way of sorrows. Thispath leads to the Church of the HolySepulcher, a church that containsGologtha, the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, aswell as the empty tomb in which Jesus’body was placed after his death and fromwhich he arose on Easter morning. Inaddition to the dozens of churches andshrines commemorating biblical events,Palestine/Israel is also home to thousandsof faithful Christians who have been livingand worshipping in the land since the days

of the early church.

Islam. For Muslims, Jerusalem is reveredfirst and foremost as the site of theProphet Muhammad’s Night Journey.Pious Muslims have for centuries under-stood the Qur’an to describe a journey to“the farthest mosque” in whichMuhammad rode from Saudi Arabia toJerusalem on a winged horse named al-Buraq and from there ascended to heaven.Al-Aqsa, a name meaning “the farthest,” isthus the name given to the mosque on theHaram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary), theMuslim sanctuary built on the hilltopwhere the Jewish Temple once stood.

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Milade Thalgieh prays in front of an iconin the Church of the Nativity.

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Muslims consider the wall to which thesteed was tied to be part of the sanc-tuary—and therefore as Islamic-endowedreligious property, known as “waqf” inArabic. This wall also happens to be theWestern Wall, the holiest site in Judaismwhere Jews gather to remember theTemple. Also in the Noble Sanctuary is theQubbet al-Sakhrah, known in English asthe Dome of the Rock. This stunningshrine was built in the eighth century overthe rock that Islamic tradition associateswith Abraham’s near-sacrifice of his son,Ishmael. (The Qur’an teaches that Godcommanded Abraham to sacrifice his sonIshmael, not his son Isaac as recorded inthe Old Testament.)

For centuries Muslims have referred toall of Jerusalem as Bayt al-Maqdas, or theHouse of the Holy. One mosque outside ofJerusalem with particular significance forMuslims is the Haram al-Ibrahimi, orAbraham’s Sanctuary, in the West Bankcity of Hebron. This resting place of theOld Testament patriarchs and matriarchs isimportant to Christians, Jews andMuslims. The site consists of a largebuilding which contains a mosque and,more recently, a synagogue. (Jews refer tothe site as the Cave of Machpelah.)

Are all Jews Zionists? Are all ZionistsJews?Not all Jews are Zionists, and not all

Zionists are Jews. Zionism began as a sec-ular movement and was initially opposedby religious Jews. While the profoundshock of the Holocaust caused many reli-gious Jews to view the new State of Israelas a safe haven, many other religious Jewscontinued to find the Zionist project ofestablishing a Jewish state sacrilegious.Other Jews, both religious and non-reli-gious, strongly oppose Zionist practice,arguing that Jewish identity is not compat-ible with the dispossession of Palestinians.These Jews advocate for a future in whichPalestinians and Israeli Jews might livetogether on the land in a relationship ofequality and justice.

What is Christian Zionism? What doChristians believe about Zionism?Some Christians are Zionists. They believethat it is part of God’s plan to establish aJewish state in Palestine. Christian Zionistsbelieve that God’s promise of the land tothe Jewish people means that they mustsupport the State of Israel. For someChristians, support of Zionism serves as aform of repentance for WesternChristianity’s shameful history of anti-Judaism. For other Christians, specificallythose who read the Bible through the lensof a theology known as dispensationalism,support of Zionism is motivated by thebelief that the creation of the State ofIsrael is an essential step on the way to

Jesus’ Second Coming. Although dispensa-tionalists are strong supporters of Israel,their theological approach has an anti-Jewish bias. According to this theology, atthe time of Jesus’ Second Coming mostJews will be eternally condemned.

Palestinian Christians, many of whomhave suffered tremendously at the hands ofthe State of Israel, find it hard to under-stand why some Western Christianssupport Zionism. Christians in otherMiddle Eastern countries find this supportequally puzzling. Uncritical WesternChristian support of Zionism hampers thewitness of the church in the Middle East; itcauses some Muslims to associate MiddleEastern Christians and Christianity in gen-eral with the pro-Zionist beliefs of WesternChristian Zionists. Christians in Palestineand the rest of the Middle East argue thatthe Bible, which testifies to God incarnatein Jesus Christ, should not be used to jus-tify the confiscation of Palestinian land,the destruction of Palestinian homes, viola-tions of Palestinian human rights and thedenial of justice to Palestinian refugees.

Didn’t God give the land to the Jews?Aren’t we as Christians supposed to“bless Israel”?How should Christians understand biblicalpromises of the land to Abraham and hisdescendants? (See, for example, Genesis

15:18-21 and Genesis 17:7-9.) One way toapproach this question is to ask, “Who arethe descendants of Abraham?” TheApostle Paul would answer that “he is thefather of all of us,” that God’s promises toAbraham are for all of his descendants,“not only to the adherents of the law butalso to those who share the faith ofAbraham” (Romans 4:16). God’s promiseof the land to Abraham and his descen-dants, then, should not be seen as awarrant for exclusive Israeli Jewish controlover the land today, but rather suggeststhat the land is a place for all those—Jewish, Christian and Muslim—who claimAbraham as their father. The land is notthe exclusive possession of one people, butcan embrace Jews and Gentiles, bothIsraeli Jews and Palestinians.

Another way to approach the questionis to think about the conditions of God’sgift of land. Scripture repeatedly warnsthat failure to live righteously means jeop-ardizing the gift of land. “You shall keepall my statutes and all my ordinances, andobserve them,” Leviticus stresses, “so thatthe land to which I bring you to settle inmay not vomit you out” (Lev. 20:22).Many Israelis critical of their government’smilitary rule in the West Bank and theGaza Strip poignantly suggest that Israelfails to keep God’s statues and ordinanceswhen it occupies another people and vio-lates their human rights on a daily basis.

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The biblical prophets were also critical ofthe unjust acquisition of land. Elijah isblunt in his message to King Ahab afterAhab takes over Naboth’s vineyard: “Thussays the LORD: Have you killed, and alsotaken possession?” (I Kings 21:19). Yet theState of Israel “took possession” of thehomes and properties of the Palestinianswho fled or whom it expelled during thefighting of 1948, forbidding them toreturn, and today it takes possession ofland from Palestinian farmers in order tobuild settlements, bypass roads and its“security fence” (separation wall) in theOccupied Territories.

A third approach to the question ofthe promise of land is to remember thatultimately it is God, not individuals ornations, who owns the land. “The land ismine,” God proclaims, “with me you arebut aliens and tenants” (Lev. 25:23). Godissues this reminder to the people of Israelin the course of instituting the Jubilee, theacceptable year of the Lord. Jesus, in hisinaugural sermon in Nazareth (Luke 4),has the audacity to declare the acceptableyear of the Lord, with its Jubilee promisesof justice in the land. A people thatremembers its alien status in the land willnot dispossess others and treat them as

aliens. God’s promise of the land thereforecannot mean the dispossession ofPalestinians, the destruction of their homesand the confiscation of their land.

The Rev. Naim Ateek, a prominentPalestinian Christian theologian, observesthat the concepts of peace and justice areintertwined in the Old Testament. TheHebrew word “shalom” and the Arabicworld “salaam” share the same linguisticroot and point to a common concept ofpeace, justice, wholeness, health and secu-rity. Peace, Ateek insists, cannot beachieved without justice, a reality illus-trated by the prophet Isaiah: “Then justicewill dwell in the wilderness and righteous-ness abide in the fruitful field. And theeffect of righteousness will be peace, andthe result of righteousness, quietness andtrust forever” (Isaiah 32:16-17).

Some Christians hesitate to criticizeIsraeli military policies, citing the biblicalinjunction to “bless Israel.” WhileScripture does not actually talk about

A bullet-riddled Qur’an was one of the few items that survived the rocket attack on Sami Jubrin’s home.

“blessing Israel,” God does promiseAbraham that “I will bless those who blessyou, and the one who curses you I willcurse; and in you all the families of theearth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). Evenif we read this promise to Abraham asapplying only to the Jewish people, wemust still ask ourselves what it means to“bless” the Jewish people and the State ofIsrael today. Is it to give uncritical andunconditional support to Israel? Or doesblessing Israel instead mean calling uponIsrael to love mercy and do justice in theland?

Is criticism of Israel anti-Jewish?Supporters of justice, peace and reconcilia-tion condemn all forms of anti-Judaism.(The term “anti-Judaism” is preferable tothe more common term “anti-Semitism.”Anti-Semitism technically refers to discrim-ination against all Semitic peoples, a cate-gory that includes Arabs as well as Jews.)Critiquing discriminatory and oppressivepolicies carried out by the State of Israel isnot anti-Jewish; many Jews themselvescriticize Israel’s destructive policies,arguing that house demolitions, land con-fiscations and disproportionate use oflethal force are not compatible with Jewishpractice and belief. Christian critiques ofIsraeli policies should be made in a spiritof humility and should not use anti-Jewishstereotypes when describing the oppressiveIsraeli practices in the Occupied Territories.

Are there religious visions for justiceand peace in Palestine/Israel?While religion fuels political visions andideologies of conquest, violence andrevenge, it also energizes those working forpeace, justice and reconciliation. Everyday, MCC workers in Palestine/Israel meetMuslims, Christians and Jews, both reg-ular people and community leaders, whoare committed to their religious traditionsand who yearn for a future of peace withjustice. At the Sabeel EcumenicalLiberation Theology Center, PalestinianChristians promote nonviolence and workalongside Palestinian Muslims and IsraeliJews for freedom and equality. Rabbis forHuman Rights, an Israeli Jewish organiza-tion, works for the renewal (tikkun) of theworld by engaging in such acts as helpingPalestinians harvest olives when they arethreatened by Israeli settlers. PalestinianMuslims associated with an MCC partnerorganization, like the Culture and FreeThought Association in the Khan Younisrefugee camp, live and work as committedMuslims who strive for peace, justice andreconciliation.

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Conflict & Hope

The bombers are often young men, butyoung women and older men have alsoperpetrated such attacks.

What are North AmericanChristians to make of such disturbingactions? Certainly, as we look at news-paper photos of an empty baby strollerstanding in the debris left after anattack, or hear of cell phones ringing inthe wreckage of a blown-up bus, neverto be answered again, our hearts goout to the victims. There is no possiblejustification for such horrible crimes.

As Christians committed tospreading the good news of Christ’skingdom, including his message of justice and peace for all people, MCCworkers categorically condemn suicidebombings. MCC Palestine opposes allefforts that use violence in attemptingto rectify the Palestinian-Israeli con-flict. While recognizing the despair thatmany Palestinians living through occupation feel, MCC workers in theMiddle East deplore suicide bombingsand all forms of violence in Palestine/Israel and mourn the senseless loss oflife.

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5. Continuing conflict,sources of hopeWhat is terrorism? What does MCChave to say about suicide bombings?Terrorism is typically defined as violence against civilians in service of apolitical cause. One of the most visibleforms of terrorism in the Israel-Palestine conflict is the practice ofso-called suicide bombings. As the phenomenon appears in Palestine/Israel, the bombings are carried out byPalestinians who strap explosives totheir bodies and then detonate themselves in the presence of Israelisoldiers or civilians, killing themselvesand usually a number of people aroundthem.

A tree is decorated with the faces ofpeople killed in the violence in theGaza Strip at the Bunat Lalghad(center for teens) in the Gaza Strip.

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The majority of ordinary Palestiniansoppose the killing of Israeli civilians.Certainly the official Palestinian leader-ship, including President Yassir Arafat andofficials of the Palestinian Authority, haveconsistently condemned suicide bombingsand, to the extent possible, tried to preventthem from occurring. These Palestinianleaders know that suicide bombingsdestroy their credibility and severely limithopes for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

MCC Palestine has tried to understandand explain the reality that produces sui-cide bombers, but never to excuse orjustify the practice. Some Palestinians saythat the brutal conditions, endless frustra-tion, and forced hopelessness of the Israelioccupation lead many young people tobelieve that the best contribution they canmake is to “sacrifice” their life for theircountry. As one Palestinian mechanic put itwhile waiting hours at an Israeli check-point on his way to work: “I know thisfrom my work as a mechanic. If pressure isapplied at some point, it must be releasedat another. This process explains the rise ofthe suicide bombers.”

While many Palestinians deplore vio-lent actions that target civilians, they alsoask why the high number of Palestiniancivilian casualties are not given equalweight. When scores of Palestinian civil-ians are killed as “collateral damage”

during Israeli assassination attempts onwanted men, when children on their wayto school in Khan Younis are killed by abomb left on the side of the road, when anelderly woman in Nablus is killed by seem-ingly random shooting, Palestinianswonder why the world does not label theseactions as “terrorism.” Palestinians alsoobserve that much of Israel’s military hard-ware comes from the United States andruefully ask why the United States doesnot object when its F-16 fighter planes andApache helicopters are used in militaryactions that result in civilian deaths andinjuries.

What are the continuing sources of conflict?The Oslo process deferred five issues to“final status” negotiations. These fiveissues continue to be at the heart of theongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Settlements. Israel continues to build settle-ments, or colonies, in the OccupiedTerritories. Illegal under international law,these Israeli colonies take over Palestinianland and break up connections betweenPalestinian cities and villages. Thanks tosettlements and bypass roads connectingthe settlements, travel for Palestinianswithin the West Bank becomes difficult toimpossible. Jerusalem, meanwhile, hasbeen progressively cut off from the rest of

the West Bank by settlements and bypassroads. Today there are nearly 400,000Israeli settlers (including those in EastJerusalem) in nearly 200 illegal Israeli settlements. The Separation Wall beingbuilt throughout the West Bank is a dramatic extension of the settlement enterprise, as it de facto annexes many settlements into Israel proper.

Water. The Palestinian Hydrology Grouprecords that 75 percent of the renewablewater resources in the West Bank and theGaza Strip are used by Israel, both for settlements and for use inside Israelproper. While Israel confiscates waterresources from the Occupied Territories,nearly 200,000 Palestinians do not enjoyrunning water. The path of the SeparationWall in the northern West Bank, mean-

while, solidifies Israeli control overPalestinian groundwater aquifers.

Jerusalem. Palestinians want EastJerusalem, including the Muslim,Armenian and Christian quarters of theOld City, as their capital. The State ofIsrael, however, wants exclusive sover-eignty over all of the city; throughcolonization and the construction of theSeparation Wall, it is cutting Jerusalem offfrom nearby West Bank villages and cities.Some Israelis insist that Palestinians mustrecognize Israeli rights on the TempleMount/Haram al-Sharif if there is to bepeace. Other Israelis, however, argue thatthe rebuilding of the Temple will be thework of the Messiah: Israelis, they argue,should not insist on sovereignty over theTemple Mount if doing so would scuttle achance for peace and reconciliation.

Refugees. Palestinians insist that anydurable peace must include an Israelirecognition of the rights of Palestinianrefugees to return and receive compensa-tion, rights upheld by the United Nations(UN General Assembly Resolution 194)and in international law. The majority ofIsraelis, however, categorically reject the

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Dentures rest on a shelf in the medicine cabinet of a burned-out bathroom in a homein Beit Sahour, near Bethlehem.

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return of Palestinian refugees, fearing thatrefugee return would endanger the Jewishdemographic majority within Israel andthus endanger its identity as a Jewish state.MCC partner organization Zochrot, anIsraeli Jewish initiative, promotes dialoguewithin Israeli society about ways in whichthe recognition of the rights of Palestinianrefugees might be an integral part of peace-building rather than an obstacle to it.

Borders. Palestinians who endorse a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeliconflict insist that the borders of thePalestinian state must correspond with thedemarcation lines of June 4, 1967. In otherwords, the Palestinian state must compriseall of the Occupied Territories of EastJerusalem, the West Bank and the GazaStrip. Some Palestinians have discussedpotential adjustments to these borders in afinal settlement with Israel, as long as thePalestinian state received land from insideIsraeli equivalent in size and quality tocompensate for any changes to the 1967borders. Israeli proposals, however, haveinvolved creating autonomous Palestinianareas or “statelets” in anywhere between40 to 80 percent of the occupied territories.

What does MCC see as the solution tothe Palestinian-Israeli conflict?MCC workers in Palestine are often asked

what they see as the solution to the con-flict in Palestine/Israel. MCC Palestinedoesn’t officially advocate for any partic-ular political solution to this complexproblem. Instead, MCC supports a frame-work which will allow Palestinians andIsraelis to enjoy the “secure dwellings” ofIsaiah 32:18. International law, with itsprohibitions of illegal confiscation of landand other natural resources, its provisionsfor the return and compensation ofrefugees, and its curbs on violence, all areimportant elements of any political solu-tion that seeks to secure “securedwellings” for Palestinians and Israelis.Some Palestinians and Israelis believe thatjustice, peace and secure dwellings can bestbe achieved through a “two-state solution”to the conflict, while other Israelis andPalestinians suggest that this vision is mostcompatible with the establishment of onebinational state in which Palestinians andIsraelis would be equal citizens. Any pro-posed resolution to the Palestinian-Israeliconflict (the Road Map or, more recently,the “Geneva Initiative” drafted by civilianIsraelis and Palestinians) must be judged asto whether or not it provides securedwellings by ending the occupation,reversing the legitimization of land confis-cation and colonization, and allowing forthe return and compensation of Palestinianrefugees.

What is the one-state solution?When people talk about final resolutionsto the Palestine-Israel conflict they oftenrefer to two basic options, known as the“one-state solution” and the “two-statesolution.” The one-state solution meansthat all of the territory now making upIsrael proper, the West Bank and the GazaStrip would be united into a single country.This “one-state” would be a binationalstate, which means that it would be hometo two peoples, the Israelis and thePalestinians. Instead of a Jewish state (asIsrael is now) or a Muslim state (as aminority of Palestinians hope an inde-pendent Palestine would be), the newlycreated binational state would be a secularstate with equal rights for all of its citizens.

What is the two-state solution?The two-state solution involves creatingtwo separate independent states, the Stateof Israel for Jews and the State of Palestinefor Palestinians. Under the two-state solu-tion, Israel would end its occupation of theWest Bank and Gaza Strip and withdrawfrom part or all of this territory. ThePalestinians would then form an inde-pendent state of Palestine on the remainingland in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.How much of the West Bank and GazaStrip would be offered to the Palestiniansfor the creation of their state is one of themajor controversies of the conflict.

Palestinians insist that, if the two-statesolution is to be economically viable forPalestinians and is to meet the minimumdemands of justice, the Palestinian statemust comprise all of the West Bank, EastJerusalem, and the Gaza Strip (22 percentof Mandate Palestine). The ongoing Israelicolonization of the Occupied Territories,however, is making the implementation ofsuch a solution increasingly difficult.

What are the advantages and disadvan-tages of these solutions? Is a two-statesolution still possible?The one-state solution features several dis-tinct advantages. Having one state wouldallow Palestinian refugees to return to theiroriginal homes. In contrast, under manyversions of the two-state solution discussedby Palestinians, Israelis and internationalmediators, Palestinian refugees would berepatriated to the new state of Palestinebut would not be allowed to return totheir original homes in what is now Israel.Proponents of the two-state solution arguethat it is pragmatic and realistic. While itmight not meet the demands of justice,they say, it is the best to which Palestinianscan aspire. Other Palestinians and Israelissuggest that ethnically-based states areanachronisms: rather than working for a“Jewish state” or a “Palestinian state,”persons concerned with justice and recon-

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ciliation should strive for futures in whichnational boundaries are transcended.Regardless of whether one favors a two-state or a one-state solution to the conflict,facts on the ground are rapidly under-mining the possibility of a two-statesolution. Israeli colonies around Jerusalem,Bethlehem, Hebron and in the northernWest Bank are making any future con-tiguous Palestinian state impossible. ManyPalestinians and Israelis fear that theSeparation Wall, the latest stage of Israelicolonization, is the final nail in the coffinof a two-state solution, as it is creating defacto political borders, leaving Palestinianswith at most 40 percent of the West Bank,with no connection to Jerusalem.

What does the future hold for Palestineand Israel if the one-state or two-statesolutions are not implemented?If the difficulties of the one-state or two-state solutions cannot be overcome, thefuture of Palestine/Israel looks very bleakindeed. One of the few principles that allparties in the conflict can agree on is thatthe status quo cannot continue; the levelsof violence and human suffering are toohigh to make the current arrangement asustainable or desirable option.

Unfortunately the other probable sce-narios, known as “unilateral separation”and “transfer,” are equally discouraging.

Neama Mahmod Harb pulls bits of clothing from abag. The clothes were wore by her sister Azaza andfriend Rahma Shahean who were accidentally killedwhen Israeli helicopters launched rockets at a carduring the political assassination of Hosan Awbait.

In the first scenario, Israel continues imple-menting its policy of unilateral separation.This involves maintaining control over theOccupied Territories while enclosingPalestinians—through the SegregationWall, with its eight-meter concrete wallsand its electronic fences, and throughtrenches, barbed wire, checkpoints andmilitary roadblocks—into ever smallerpieces of territory. The Segregation Wall isthe most visible manifestation of this plan.Unilateral separation might eventually pro-duce a climate in which Palestinians wouldbe allowed to call their disconnected terri-torial islands a “state,” but such adesignation would only disguise, not alter,the reality of turning Palestinian cities intoeconomically dependent reservations. Thisstrategy of “unilateral separation” allowsIsrael to have its cake and eat it too: Israel

remains in full control of the West Bankand Gaza Strip while simultaneously cre-ating the illusion that the occupation hasended. More and more Palestinians,Israelis and international observers arecalling unilateral separation a form ofapartheid.

The second scenario, known as“transfer,” is even more troubling. InIsraeli political discourse, “transfer” is aeuphemism for another euphemism:“ethnic cleansing.” Right-wing Israeli par-ties, including some which haveparticipated in coalition governments, callfor the “transfer” of Palestinians out of theOccupied Territories in order to create aPalestinian-free space.

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The swept up remains of a United States anti-tank missile lie in the living room of the Nazzal family home in Beit Jala.

Response

strengthen Palestinian society. In the55-year history of MCC Palestine,nearly 200 North American volunteershave served in the program.

MCC was moved by the plight ofPalestinian refugees from the War of1948 to begin work in Palestine. In theearly years, many MCC workers pro-vided material aid to refugees.Numerous Christmas bundles, con-taining much-appreciated clothing,were distributed, along with MCCcanned meat, comforters and layettes.MCC also worked hard to empowerrefugees to help themselves. Theproverb, “Give a man a fish and youfeed him for a day; teach a man to fishand you feed him for a lifetime,” hasbeen influential in shaping MCC’swork in Palestine and beyond. In theWest Bank, early MCC workers startedsewing programs for refugee womenand shoemaking and carpentry pro-grams for refugee men.

In the early 1950s, MCC began its famous Palestinian needlework program. The program worked withup to 500 women at any given time invillages around Bethlehem and Hebronand in refugee camps in Jericho. Thevibrant colors and geometric

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6. How MCC is responding and how you can helpWhat brought MCC to work with Palestinians?MCC has worked in Palestine for morethan 50 years. Arriving in 1949 to pro-vide material assistance to Palestinianrefugees driven from their homes in theWar of 1948, MCC stayed to workalongside Palestinians in their searchfor justice, peace and freedom.Through Christian education, peace-building, the promotion of Palestinianneedlework and rural development,MCC has supported vital initiatives to

Students at an MCC-sponsored kindergarten in the West Bank village of Deir Ibziya.

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patterns of Palestinian cross-stitch havebeen purchased and enjoyed by thousandsof Mennonites and many other touristswho visited MCC’s needlework shop inJerusalem. The decline in tourism causedby increasing political violence led to theclosing of the shop in 2001. It was the endof an important era in the work of MCCPalestine.

For many years, MCC was known inthe Palestinian community for its supportof Palestinian Christian schools servingboth Christian and Muslim students. TheArab Evangelical Orphanage in Hebron,the Hope Secondary School in Beit Jalaand the Latin Patriarchate School inZababdeh all enjoyed the contributions ofMCC volunteers and/or material assistance.

From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s,MCC’s rural development unit workedwith thousands of Palestinian farmers asthey introduced drip irrigation networks,reclaimed land for cultivation and plantedtens of thousands of fruit trees. As Israelimilitary authorities routinely looked toconfiscate uncultivated land, MCC’s workin rural development had a markedly polit-ical character.

Gradually, as the capacities of the localPalestinian population developed, MCCbegan to hand over its projects to localPalestinian administration. The role ofMCC in Palestine became one of catalyst

and supporter of Palestinian initiatives.MCC support of the Palestinian Center forRapprochement between Peoples exempli-fied this type of support. For example,MCC assisted Palestinian Christians in BeitSahour as they created a movement to ini-tiate grassroots dialogue with Israelis andpromote nonviolent resistance to the occupation. MCC also began entering intopartnerships with local Palestinian organi-zations in fields such as agriculture,women’s development and the rehabilita-tion of persons with disabilities. Theserelationships gave MCC an opportunity tolearn from local people and assist localgroups with grants, loans, training andother needs.

As time passed, MCC workers beganto understand the problems in Palestineless in terms of emergency material assis-tance or capacity building and more asrequiring justice and peacebuilding.Returning to the fishing proverb, MCCworkers began to observe that Palestiniansalready knew how to fish very well—theproblem was that Israelis were (and are)denying them access to the pond. Inresponse, in the 1980s MCC began toassign North American peace developmentworkers to serve in partnership withPalestinian peacemaking initiatives. By thesummer of 2002, Palestinian non-govern-mental organizations (NGOs) were unableto carry out their work due to increasing

Israeli restrictions on freedom of move-ment and Israel’s brutal occupation policiesthat made normal life impossible. In thiscontext, MCC workers made an extraeffort to communicate with MCC con-stituents in North America about the diresituation facing Palestinians and Israelis.

What is the focus of MCC’s work in theOccupied Territories today?MCC’s work in Palestine today is two-fold: supporting the witness of the localPalestinian churches and working withPalestinian and Israeli groups pursuing jus-tice and peace. MCC supports projectscarried out by a variety of church-relatedand grassroots organizations:• The Wi’am Conflict Resolution Center

in Bethlehem, modeling nonviolentconflict transformation withinPalestinian society.

• The Sabeel Ecumenical LiberationTheology Center, providing a theolog-ical and spiritual resource for thePalestinian church.

• The Rebuilding Homes Campaign, ajoint Palestinian-Israeli initiativerebuilding destroyed Palestinian homesin East Jerusalem, the West Bank, andthe Gaza Strip.

• The Badil Refugee Resource Center,researching and advocating for durablesolutions for Palestinian refugees.

• The Stop the Wall Campaign, advo-cating against the creation of theSeparation Wall which cuts throughthe West Bank.

• The YMCA Rehabilitation Program,working with Palestinians with disabil-ities, including those injured by theIsraeli military.

• The Palestinian Center forRapprochement, promoting nonviolentresistance against military occupation.

• The YMCA Women’s TrainingProgram, supporting sustainable eco-nomic development.

• The Culture and Free ThoughtAssociation in the Khan Yunis refugeecamp in the Gaza Strip, providing cre-ative learning opportunities forchildren and teenagers.

• The Latin (Roman Catholic)Patriarchate School in Zababdeh,where MCC’s Global Family programis providing scholarships for Christianstudents whose families find it difficultto pay the minimal school fees.

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Does MCC “take sides” with Palestiniansand not Israelis? As a Christian organization, MCC doesnot “take sides” for Palestinians andagainst Israelis, knowing that bothPalestinians and Israelis are children ofGod made in God’s image. MCC workersdo not take sides in prayer, but rather peti-tion God that Israelis and Palestiniansalike might dwell in God’s peace. MCCdoes take sides with the good news ofChrist that reconciliation between enemiesis possible and that reconciliation involvesdoing of justice. MCC does take sidesagainst all forms of violence, regardless ofwho perpetrates it. MCC also take sidesagainst a false neutrality that portraysPalestinians and Israelis as equal parties tothe conflict and avoids the task of identi-fying military occupation, siege anddispossession as injustice. Finally, MCCtakes sides with courageous Israeli peacegroups and nonviolent Palestinian groupswho struggle jointly against military occu-pation and through that struggle form newbonds of solidarity and cooperation. Pleasepray that Mennonite workers in theOccupied Territories might have wisdom,love, courage and strength as they seek todiscern how and when to “take sides.”

Does MCC work with Israelis?Yes, MCC works with Israelis in several

ways. MCC’s peace development workerregularly meets and consults with membersof Israeli peacebuilding organizations suchas Ta’ayush, a joint Palestinian-Israeli ini-tiative whose name means “coexistence”;Gush Shalom, the Israeli peace bloc; andRabbis for Human Rights. MCC also pro-vides supports to Israeli peacebuildinginitiatives such as the Israeli Committeeagainst House Demolitions, devoted toprotesting the destruction of Palestinianhomes, and Zochrot, an Israeli organiza-tion committed to raising awareness of theevents of 1948 and to making a just reso-lution of the Palestinian refugee crisis thefoundation of future Palestinian-Israelipeace and reconciliation.

Why does MCC work with Muslims?MCC works with Muslims for two mainreasons. First, Muslims make up about 98percent of the Palestinian population. Inthis context it is natural for an organiza-tion like MCC, which emphasizes personalrelationships, to work with Muslims on adaily basis. MCC workers relate toMuslims in a number of ways: students,teachers, friends, neighbors, employees andfellow workers.

MCC also works with Muslims inPalestine as a way of witnessing to the pos-sibility of peace between peoples ofdifferent religions. In Palestine/Israel thereare many examples of fear, hatred and mis-

trust based on religion. Christians,Muslims and Jews all deal with the nega-tive consequences of religious prejudiceevery day. In this context, MCC Palestinebelieves that working with PalestinianMuslims as well as Christians is an impor-tant part of witnessing relationships thatcharacterize the Kingdom of God.

Why are there no Mennonite churches inthe Middle East?When the first MCC workers came toPalestine in 1949, 10 to 15 percent of thelocal Palestinian population was Christian.The majority of these Christians wereGreek Orthodox. Some were also RomanCatholics or Greek Catholics (also knownas Melkites). A minority were Protestants,including small numbers of Baptists,Lutherans and Anglicans. North AmericanMennonites believed it was more impor-tant to support these local churches thanto compete with them by introducing yetanother denomination. There was alreadysome resentment in the local Christiancommunity regarding “sheep stealing,” thepractice of drawing Christians from onedenomination to another. Instead ofplanting Mennonite Churches, Mennonitesbegan to work with all sectors of theChristian community.

The practice of not plantingMennonite Churches in the Middle East is

sometimes questioned by North AmericanMennonites. Middle Eastern Christians,however, consistently report that thispolicy is one of the things they most appre-ciate about Mennonites. MCC Palestineworkers do share their Mennonite beliefswith their Palestinian Christian brothersand sisters. Together with local churches,they strive to promote Mennonite valueslike peacebuilding, following Jesus andhaving a personal relationship with God.These values are also held by many localChristians. MCC workers in Palestine havediscovered spiritual vitality in the EasternChurch. Many Palestinian Christians findwithin the Orthodox, Catholic orProtestant faiths a deep well of spiritualitythat sustains them as a minority religionliving under Israeli occupation.

Are North American MCC workers safe inPalestine/Israel?While they recognize that no place isentirely safe, North American MCCworkers in Palestine/Israel feel confidentabout their security. MCC Palestine consis-tently checks with local Palestinian andinternational sources regarding any risks toNorth Americans or MCC programs. IfMCC’s Palestinian contacts or MCCMiddle East office supervisors in NorthAmerica were to recommend evacuation,MCC Palestine workers would comply.

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What sustains MCC’s work?MCC workers in Palestine are sustained bytheir faith in God who conquered thepowers of sin and death through JesusChrist and who raises up witnesses for jus-tice, peace and reconciliation through theHoly Spirit. Although MCC workerssometimes become discouraged, they arerejuvenated when they see God’s recon-ciling Spirit at work, bringing Palestiniansand Israelis together to rebuild aPalestinian home destroyed by Israeli mili-tary bulldozers; when they work withPalestinians, Christians and Muslimsengaged in nonviolent protests against mil-itary occupation; and when they worshipalongside Palestinian Christians.

What can we do?How can North American Christiansrespond to the tragic situation inPalestine/Israel? What is the role ofMennonites, as believers in the nonviolentgospel of Jesus Christ, in this conflict?How do we live with the knowledge thatour tax dollars pay for bullets used by theIsraeli army, Apache helicopters attackingPalestinian towns, and F-16s that terrorizePalestinian cities? What risks should NorthAmerican Mennonites be willing to take topromote justice and peace in the MiddleEast? We can respond in many ways:

Pray. To receive frequent prayer requestson the situation in Palestine/Israel, sendyour e-mail address to mccwb@palnet.com.Here are some sample prayers from MCCPalestine workers:• Pray that Mennonite workers in the

occupied Palestinian territories mightbe granted the wisdom to know whenand how to “take sides.”

• Pray for Palestinians opposing violencein the resistance to Israeli occupation.

• Pray for conscientious objectors inIsrael who refuse to serve in the Israeliarmy.

• Pray for Israeli soldiers who refuse toserve in the Occupied Territories.

• Pray for MCC workers, that theymight live and witness, in word anddeed, the reconciling love of God mademanifest in Jesus Christ.

• Pray for children in Palestine/Israel:Pray for Palestinian children, who livedaily with the threat of violence andarbitrary killing, who see Israeli sol-diers with guns and tanks patrollingtheir streets, who spend too many daysof their childhood in their housesunder military curfew, unable to go

Share. Contribute time or money to MCCor specifically to the MCC Palestine pro-gram. The MCC web site www.mcc.org/areaserv/middleeast/palestine/index.htmlhas examples of giving projects suitable forfamilies, Sunday School classes and congre-gations. A good place to start is MCC’sGlobal Family program, which supportsChristian education in the West Bank townof Zababdeh.

Advocate. Work to change United States’foreign policy in the Middle East. Raiseawareness in your church and communityof issues of peace and justice in Palestine/Israel. Ask that your tax dollars not go tosupport the Israeli occupation. ContactMCC’s offices in Washington, D.C. orOttawa for advocacy suggestions or checkon-line at www.mcc.org/areaserv /mid-dleeast/worship.html.

Stay informed. MCC workers send monthlye-mail updates on MCC’s work inPalestine/Israel. To receive these updates,send your e-mail address to optmcc@men-nonitecc.ca.

Continue to learn by reading MCCpublications like this booklet. U.S. citizenscan subscribe to the MCC Washington

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A student from the Rawdat Al MustaqbalKindergarten in the West Bank village ofBeit ‘illu.

out and play, knowing that even step-ping onto the porch or balcony coulddraw Israeli gunfire. Remember them inyour prayers as they wait for hours atcheckpoints, watching their parents andgrandparents humiliated by teenageIsraeli soldiers, kept away from school,church, mosque and medical care byIsraeli policies of collective punishment.Pray that God would grant them somejoys of childhood despite these difficultconditions, and to keep their hearts freeof hate and full of hope for a just andpeaceful settlement. Pray for Israelichildren, who live in fear of suicidebombers on buses and in stores. Praythat they not grow up with hate in theirhearts. Pray for young Israeli men andwomen required to do military service,and pray for strength for those whorefuse to serve for reasons of con-science.

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Memo and act on “Action Alerts” sent outby the MCC Washington Office. For moreinformation, see www.mcc.org/us/wash-ington/alert_form.html. Follow news of theconflict, but remember that the NorthAmerican mainstream media does not tellthe whole story. Seek out alternativesources of information such as the periodi-cals, books and web sites mentioned in thefinal section of this booklet.

Learn more about MCC’s work inPalestine on the MCC web site:www.mcc.org/middleeast/areaserv/pales-tine/index.html/. The web site includesservice opportunities, news stories, photos,articles, program updates, giving projects,worship resources, prayer requests andmore. Consider the resources for furtherstudy listed below.

devastated by Israel's separation barriers and high-lights the voices of Palestinians and Israelis whowork for a future of bridges instead of walls.

The July 2004 issue of MCC's Peace OfficeNewsletter focuses on the separation wall thatIsrael is building in the Occupied Territories. Theissue includes a map and articles by Dr. Jad Isaacof the Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem, JeffHalper of the Israeli Committee Against HouseDemolitions and Samia Khoury, a board memberat Sabeel.

Constantinianism, Zionism, Diaspora: Toward aTheology of Exile and Return. MCC OccasionalPaper #28 (Akron 2002).

BooksNaim Ateek, Justice and Only Justice (Maryknoll,NY: Orbis, 1986). A Palestinian Christian theolo-gian reads the Bible out of the experience ofoccupation.

Gary Burge, Whose Land? Whose Promise? WhatChristians are Not Being Told about Israel and thePalestinians (Cleveland: The Pilgrim Press, 2003).An evangelical Christian New Testament professorat Wheaton College reads Scripture in light of thePalestinian-Israeli conflict.

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7. Resources for further study

MCC MaterialsWalking the Path Jesus Walked, a videofeaturing Nora Carmi, a PalestinianChristian.

Salt and Sign: Mennonite CentralCommittee in Palestine, 1949-1999, AlainEpp Weaver and Sonia Weaver (Akron1999). A video of a brief history of MCC’swork in Palestine.

The Dividing Wall, a video/DVD featuringPalestinians whose lives have been

A student at the Dar Al-Luiqman Kindergartenin the Khan Younis Refugee Camp of the GazaStrip.

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Marc Ellis, Out of the Ashes (London: PlutoPress, 2002). Jewish-American scholar MarcEllis provides a searing analysis of thePalestinian-Israeli conflict from a Jewish faithperspective.

Amira Hass, Drinking the Sea in Gaza (NewYork: Henry Holt, 1996). A leading Israelijournalist chronicles life in Gaza during theearly 1990s.

Mitri Raheb, I Am a Palestinian Christian(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995). Pastor ofChristmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem,Raheb offers narrative and theological reflections on Palestine/Israel.

Tanya Reinhart, Israel/Palestine: How to Endthe War of 1948 (New York: Seven StoriesPress, 2002). A professor at Tel AvivUniversity presents a concise analysis of theroots of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and discusses potential ways forward.

Raja Shehadeh, When the Bulbul StoppedSinging (London: Profile Books, 2003). A per-sonal account of life in the West Bank town ofRamallah during the Israeli invasion of April2002.

Ilan Pappe, The History of Modern Palestine(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,2003). A leading Israeli historian presents athorough discussion of the tumultuous eventsof the 19th and 20th centuries.

Donald E. Wagner, Anxious for Armageddon:A Call to Partnership for Middle Eastern andWestern Christians (Scottdale, PA: HeraldPress, 1995). Discussion and critique ofChristian Zionism by the president ofEvangelicals for Middle East Understanding.

Munib Younan, Witnessing for Peace: InJerusalem and the World (Minneapolis:Fortress Press, 2003). Poignant personalaccounts and theological reflections from theLutheran bishop of Jerusalem.

Web sitesApplied Research Institute-Jerusalem:www.arij.org. Maps and case studies on Israelisettlement activity in the Occupied Territories.

Badil Resource Center for Residency andRefugee Rights: www.badil.org. LeadingPalestinian resource and advocacy center forresearching and promoting durable solutionsfor Palestinian refugees.

Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions:www.icahd.org/eng/. Critical Israeli perspectiveson settlements and house demolitions.

Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation TheologyCenter: www.sabeel.org. News and reflectionsfrom Palestinian Christians.

Stop the Wall: www.stopthewall.org. Extensivematerial about the Separation Wall being builtin the Occupied Territories.

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Meet MCC’s Partners:

Zoughbi Zoughbi, Wi’am“The reality of our life is living trapped byfear,” says Zoughbi Zoughbi, director ofthe Wi’am Center for Conflict Resolutionin Bethlehem. Economic insecurity, restric-tions on movement and the possibility ofmilitary invasion all contribute toPalestinians’ fears, according to Zoughbi.The Wi’am Center mediates conflictsamong Palestinians and trains educators towork with children living through trau-matic events. Zoughbi and his co-workers“try to help people address injustice ratherthan avenge it.” Palestinian Christians,Zoughbi believes, are “Christians of thecross, awaiting resurrection.” Security, hecontinues, will not come throughvengeance, but through a future of peaceand justice for Palestinians and Israelisalike. “We need to bring Israel to itssenses, not to its knees,” he says.

Nora Carmi, Sabeel“Remember that Christianity started hereand that I am a descendent of the contin-uous non-stopping witness of Christianityin this land,” urges Nora Carmi, directorof local programs at the Sabeel EcumenicalLiberation Theology Center. “Christianitywas not imported—imported to this land.And we are the few faithful remnants whoare living and witnessing every single day.”Carmi organizes theological and spiritualworkshops for Palestinian Christian clergy,lay people, women’s groups and youthgroups, seeking to support and strengthenthe Palestinian Christian witness for thegospel and its message of peace, justice,and reconciliation. In her work, Carmitakes inspiration in her work from Jesus’example. “For us Palestinian Christians,there is a lot we can learn from our model,Jesus Christ,” she shares. “How did Christresist the occupation? What can we learnfrom Christ in our resistance? How can weresist with dignity, respect, non-violencebut yet have the courage to speak out,because we cannot remain silent whenthere is injustice.”

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Eitan Bronstein, ZochrotThe father of four children, EitanBronstein organizes workshops forPalestinian and Israeli Jewish youth at theSchool for Peace at Neve Shalom/Wahatal-Salam, an intentional community inIsrael whose name means “Oasis ofPeace.” In 2002, Bronstein and 15 friendsand acquaintances founded Zochrot, anIsraeli initiative to promote discussion ofthe Palestinian Nakba of 1948 withinIsraeli society. Zochrot organizes visits byIsraelis to the sites of destroyed Palestinianvillages, where they hear from refugeesabout the history of the village and how itsresidents were expelled. Zochrot thenplaces signs in Hebrew and Arabic at thesite, bringing an erased past momentarilyback to life. “I believe that the right ofreturn [for Palestinian refugees] is a condi-tion for reconciliation,” Bronstein says.Bronstein challenges students to learnabout the erased history of the country-side, starting with “Canada Park” near theSchool for Peace. This national park isplanted with trees donated by theCanadian Jewish community and is builton the site of three Palestinian villages(Imwas, Yalu, Beit Nuba) destroyed in1967. “Students often resist hearing aboutthe past, and when they don’t deny thepast, they often want to justify it.Education is a long, hard process.”

Amal Khoudeir, Culture and Free ThoughtAssociation“The children here are older than theyshould be,” says Amal Khoudeir, directorof the Bunat al-Ghad (Builders of theFuture) center for teenagers in the KhanYounis refugee camp in the southern GazaStrip. “They’ve seen too much, grown uptoo fast.” A devout Muslim woman,Khoudeir is committed to providingPalestinian children and teenagers withsafe spaces to develop their intellects andcreativity and to empowering Palestiniangirls. In the summer of 2000, Amalattended the Summer PeacebuildingInstitute at Eastern Mennonite University,where her conviction that peace withoutjustice cannot last was reinforced. ForAmal, the biggest challenge in her work isto provide children with a sense of hopeamidst routine military invasions, housedemolitions, and nearly nightly shootingfrom nearby army bases guarding Israelisettlements. “How can we inspire them,give them hope?” she asks. “That is ourtask.”

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Jeff Halper, Israeli Committee AgainstHouse DemolitionsFor Jeff Halper, a teacher of sociology atthe Hebrew University in Jerusalem, stop-ping Israeli demolition of Palestinianhomes is about promoting reconciliation.House demolitions, he observes, have been“at the center of the Israeli struggle againstthe Palestinians” since 1948. The messagesent by Israeli bulldozers, according toHalper, is that “You [the Palestinians] donot belong here. We uprooted you fromyour homes in 1948 and now we willuproot you from all of the Land of Israel.”Halper and his colleagues at the IsraeliCommittee Against House Demolitions(ICAHD) believe that the way of peace,justice and reconciliation takes a differentroute than that of the bulldozer. In addi-tion to raising awareness within Israel andinternationally about house demolitions,ICAHD staff joins with Palestinians torebuild destroyed Palestinian homes,building peace from the ground up.

Mennonite Central Committee and MCC U.S.21 South 12th Street, PO Box 500, Akron, PA 17501(717) 859-1151 or toll free (888) 563-4676

MCC Canada134 Plaza Drive, Winnipeg, MB R3T 5K9(204) 261-6381 or toll free (888) 622-6337

MCC Washington, D.C. Office110 Maryland Ave NE #502, Washington, D.C. 20002(202) 544-6564

MCC Ottawa Office803 - 63 Sparks Street, Ottawa, ON K1P 5A6(613) 238-7224

www.mcc.org

0407rlf25c Printed in Canada.

MCC peace development worker Ed Nyce and Ruti al-Raz, InternationalCoordinator for the Israeli CommitteeAgainst House Demolitions (ICHAD) at a section of the wall that has yet to be per-manently built. A small opening has beenleft to allow pedestrian traffic.

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