[Reader-list] Palestine

[melissa]

Please feel free to distribute these news and information sites. Walk  
a mile in a Palestinian's shoes in the Occupied Territories and start  
a new dialogue that could shift the dominant discourse from never- 
ending violence to creative justice.

1. A Question of Zion, by Jacqueline Rose

2. Breaking the Silence (Israeli soldiers speak out)
http://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/index_e.asp

3. Holyland Trust http://www.holylandtrust.org/
Including the Palestinian news network: http://www.pnn.ps/

4. http://www.shovrimshtika.org/gallery_item_e.asp?id=53

5. The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
http://www.icahd.org/eng/

6. Reports from the Lutheran Church
http://www.elcjhl.org/palestine/conditions/

7. The Palestine Monitor
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article14

8. Ecumenical liberation Theology Centre, Al Quds/Jerusalem
http://www.sabeel.org/

SABEEL’S REFLECTION ON GAZA

The Narrow Gate of Justice

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is  
easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it.  For  
the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there  
are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)

On Saturday, December 27, 2008, as the children of Gaza were about to  
leave their schools to return home, the Israeli air force carried a  
massive air attack against the people of Gaza. In less than 4 hours,  
over 150 people were killed and 200 injured – men, women, and  
children.  By the end of the fourth day, over 390 Palestinians were  
killed and almost 2,000 injured. On the Israeli side, 4 were killed  
and no statistics are available on the number of injured.

FACTS ABOUT THE GAZA STRIP:

Population:  1.5 million.  75% of them are refugees.  45% of them are  
under 14 years.
Area:  360 sq km, 139 sq miles.
Population density: 4,167 people/sq Km (The highest in the world.)

80% of Gazan households live below the poverty line, subsisting on  
less than $3 per person a day.  80% of all Gazan families would  
literally starve without food aid from international agencies.


The Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip, similar to that of the West  
Bank, including East Jerusalem, started with the 1967 June war.  In  
September 2005, the Israeli army pulled out ofGaza and removed its  
illegal settlements.  However, the illegal Israeli occupation of the  
Gaza Strip did not come to an end.  Israel maintained its tight  
control over Gaza’s borders (air, land, and sea).  To make things even  
worse, Israel imposed a siege on Gaza in June 2007, thus tightening  
its border restrictions and causing the humanitarian conditions to  
deteriorate further.  Under the brutal siege, every aspect of the  
lives of the people of Gaza was controlled.  They were totally  
dependent on Israel for fuel, electricity, cooking gas, medical  
supplies, food supplies (even flour), building material, etc.  Israel  
made sure that the Palestinians would remain alive at barely the  
survival and basic subsistence level.

On November 14, 2008, UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon issued a  
statement that said, “The Secretary-General is concerned that food and  
other life saving assistance is being denied to hundreds of thousands  
of people, and emphasizes that measures which increase the hardship  
and suffering of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip as a whole  
are unacceptable and should cease immediately.”



IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER:

FIRST:  A word about tahdi’a (the period of calm or truce).  It is  
important to note that among the terms of tahdi’a was the  
understanding that Israel would lift the siege of the Gaza Strip, and  
gradually extend the truce to the West Bank.  This Israel did not do.   
It only partially lifted the siege and allowed a trickle of vital  
commodities into Gaza which kept the people at the level of mere  
survival.  Israel’s raids into the West Bank continued on a daily  
basis and scores of Palestinians were arrested or assassinated.

The International Herald Tribune reported on December 19, 2008 that it  
was Hamas’ understanding that after the tahdi’a Israel would open the  
crossings and allow the transfer of goods that have been banned since  
the siege was imposed.  There was never a return to the 500 – 600  
truckloads of goods shipments that used to go into the Gaza Strip  
before the siege. “The number of trucks increased to around 90 from  
around 70.”  The facts and figures tell the real story.  Sadly,  
however, many western leaders have shut their ears, eyes, and mouths  
against the cry of the oppressed and they fell into the deceptive  
snares of Israel.  Most of the world judges Israel by what it says and  
not by what it does; while they close their ears to the comprehensive  
and workable 2002 Peace Initiative adopted by all the Arab leaders  
including the Palestinians.  Even Hamas has agreed to a Palestinian  
State within the 1967 borders as expressed to President Carter on his  
latest visit to Syria.

SECOND:  So long as Israel holds the Palestinians in general and the  
Gazans in particular under occupation, they (the Palestinians) have  
the right, according to international law, to resist the “seemingly  
never ending” belligerent occupation and struggle for their  
liberation.  Israel, therefore, cannot demand from the international  
community sympathy and political support and from the Palestinians  
calm and security, while it maintains its inhuman and illegal  
occupation.  It is only when Israel ends its occupation that it can  
have a legitimate right to defend its borders.  Israel stands in  
violation of international law and is the aggressor due to its  
belligerent occupation.

THIRD:  The Arab leaders and governments can do more for peace.  Many  
people accuse them of a conspiracy of silence.  Most of the Arab  
people are ashamed of the positions of their governments because they  
have not used their resources collectively to end the occupation.   
Sabeel is not talking about the use of force although many of our Arab  
people do.  We believe that the Arab governments could have  
contributed much more towards a resolution of the Palestine-Israel  
conflict through nonviolent means.  Tragically, this did not happen.

FOURTH:  Although Sabeel wishes that Hamas and other Palestinian  
factions had chosen a nonviolent way to resist the Israeli siege, we  
feel that the disproportionate use of military force against the Gaza  
Strip and the number of casualties that it produced must be strongly  
condemned.  It is a shame that once again many western leaders have  
failed to see the deeper issues that are involved.  They chose to  
stand with the occupier rather than with the occupied, with the  
oppressor rather than the oppressed, and with the powerful rather than  
with the weak.  It is important to continue the resistance against the  
belligerent occupation.  But we call on our Palestinian people to  
abandon the armed struggle and to choose a more potent and effective  
way – the way of nonviolence.   We can do it and we can win.  The  
Palestinians are capable of setting an example for the rest of the  
world.  This is what we must do; and this is what can restore to us  
our human pride and dignity.

In fact, we must look to a world where wars, and weapons of violence  
and destruction would be banned and where oppressed nations would  
choose the higher moral ground and resist the evil of belligerent  
occupations by nonviolent means.  We hope for a world where a reformed  
United Nations would never be held hostage by powerful nations, but  
would enjoy the freedom to establish justice for the oppressed of the  
world.

FIFTH:  We believe that the real message of the Palestinians to the  
world is a genuine cry for freedom and liberation.  The Palestinians  
did not initiate the violence.  The prolonged illegal Israeli  
occupation is the real cause for the violence in our area.  Israel has  
shut the door on justice.  The only way that can guarantee a lasting  
resolution of the conflict is for the United States’ new  
administration to dare and open the door of justice.  We believe that  
it is the narrow gate of which Jesus Christ spoke.   It is the gate  
that leads to a life of peace and security. “Enter through the narrow  
gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to  
destruction, and there are many who take it.  For the gate is narrow  
and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find  
it.”  This is the narrow gate of justice.  This is the basis of  
international law.  The way of military domination, occupation,  
violence, and wars is the wide gate that leads to destruction; while  
the gate that seems narrow and hard is the one that leads to justice,  
peace and security for both sides.  We have tried the wide gate and it  
has only brought us destruction.  It is high time to try the narrow  
gate of justice so that we might find life.



Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center
Jerusalem
December 31, 2008
www.sabeel.org

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