Note #8677 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:
 

05156 March 21, 2005

No hosannas

Israeli army stops Palm Sunday procession short of Jerusalem

by Alexa Smith BETHLEHEM, West Bank - Israeli soldiers stopped about 200 non-violent demonstrators trying to walk to Jerusalem for Palm Sunday services because they had not obtained a permit from the Israeli government.

When the protesters were stopped at a military checkpoint here, their leaders urged Israeli soldiers to "put down their guns" in defiance of an unjust law that confines Bethlehem residents to an "open-air" prison.

Since 1993, measures taken by the Israeli army to protect the Israeli population have restricted access to Jerusalem for residents of the West Bank, including religious access for Christians and Muslims.
 

Worshippers cannot go to Friday prayer at the Al Aqsa Mosque, or to Sunday Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, without the requisite government permits. The Israeli Civil Administration (ICA) said 2,950 Christians from Bethlehem had obtained permits to worship in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and 3,694 permits had been issued for the entire West Bank. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), citing 1997 census data, estimates that about 20,000 Christians live in Bethlehem. Sami Awad, the director of the Holy Land Trust, told the Presbyterian News Service that the goal of the demonstration was simply to "go to Jerusalem and pray today." [that is why the brought along the prepared statement!  At least in part their goal was confrontation.] "Today we are demanding to be in Jerusalem to pray with our brothers and sisters," Awad told the throng gathered in Manger Square for the start of the march. Led by local Bedouin riding donkeys, Christians, Muslims and a large contingent of international supporters began a march of about eight miles to Holy Sepulchre Church, a cathedral that stands at a site believed to be that of Jesus's tomb. However, it was brought up short at the Israeli checkpoint about three miles short of its goal. The demonstration was to be a modern-day adaptation of Jesus's triumphal donkey ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, just days before his crucifixion and resurrection. Dozens of children waved palms, olive branches, balloons and Palestinian flags and banners emblazoned with images of the Holy Sepulchre and the Dome of the Rock - the mosque that straddles the hill that both Jews and Muslims claim as holy. [Still trying to make Jesus a "palestinian"!] Pedestrians stared, laughing, as the donkeys headed slowly down the city's main drag, stopping traffic. Shopkeepers waved from the sidewalks as the crowd moved up the street, picking up people as it went. Children giggled as Bedouin hoisted them onto the donkeys' backs. When soldiers ordered the crowd to disperse within 15 minutes, many of the marchers urged them to defy their orders. "You have rights," they shouted. "You don't have to enforce unjust laws." Most children and the Bedouin stayed at a distance from the checkpoint. Earlier Sunday morning, a border policeman had seriously wounded a Palestinian at the checkpoint. The army said he had tried to grab the soldier's automatic rifle. Before turning back, Awad, just inches from the soldiers, read a prepared statement while traffic continued to back up at the checkpoint, which is nearly a half-mile from the Israeli-built cement wall that is slowly coiling around Bethlehem.

The barrier is annexing hundreds of acres of agricultural land, in essence extending the city limits of Jerusalem. Soldiers and demonstrators stood virtually nose-to-nose, those on each side locking arms in solidarity. "We represent the family members and friends who are imprisoned by these concrete walls and wire fences that now create the Bethlehem open-air prison," Awad said. "You, like prison guards, control our freedom and ability to live as human beings with dignity in this holy land. [Can you imagine the Mexicans making a similar argument to cross the border into the United States? "Our strong delegation of civilians comes to you without weapons but with great strength and commitment to deliver the message of just peace," he said. "In the name of security, you do not permit us to travel to work, to school and to worship in the holy sites of Jerusalem. Your government deprives us each day of basic human rights. ... Each day you keep us from being with our families at weddings, funerals, graduations, birthdays and religious holidays. "Although Al Quds (the Arabic name of Jerusalem) [should be translated as the Muslim name for the city] is only 20 minutes from Bethlehem, we have not been allowed to pray or worship at our holy sites." Still addressing the soldiers, Awad continued: "Each day as you come to our city, you serve the system of violence that keeps our people imprisoned. ... With your guns, tanks and insults, you teach our children to hate. "However, we believe each of you has the power ... to choose a different ending to this story. We appeal to your conscience and humanity, as individuals and as soldiers who may feel there is no way out of this system. Put your guns away and join us in the fight for peace and freedom." The army had no comment on the protest or on Awad's address. The demonstration was the first in several years to employ non-violent resistance in Bethlehem, a demoralized city of 150,000 people that has weathered humanitarian and economic catastrophes since the violence of the Palestinian Intifada stretched beyond Jerusalem about four years ago. About that time, gunmen in Beit Jala sprayed rifle fire on Gilo, an Israeli settlement on a hilltop above the city - and the Israeli army retaliated with tanks, in a siege that lasted nearly 45 days. For most of 2002, Bethlehem was a closed military zone, where residents were confined to their houses for weeks on end, refused entry into Israel and prevented from working or sending their children to school. The tourism industry, on which many depended for their livelihoods, was virtually shut down. Ghassan Andoni, the director of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People in nearby Beit Sahour, a longtime pacifist, was the demonstrators' chief negotiator with the soldiers at the checkpoint. Andoni told the Presbyterian News Service that the army sees no security threat in bussing Jews from Jerusalem and nearby settlements into Bethlehem to pray at Rachel's Tomb, a site that is holy to Jews and Muslims - but Christians and Muslims cannot easily go to Jerusalem to pray. Bilal Mosque, near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, is inside a military compound, inaccessible to Muslim worshippers. Seventy-two of 80 businesses near Rachel's Tomb have closed or moved since 2002, when the army built a wall across the main access road connecting Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron, according to OCHA. A Bible narrative holds that Rachel, the favorite wife [questionable analysis given who Jacob was burried with] of the patriarch Jacob, was buried along the road to Bethlehem. What once was a thriving commercial center became a sort of ghost town. Many of the ruined businesses were operated by Christian families. Kim Lamberty, a Roman Catholic pacifist from Washington, DC, and a member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams program that intervenes in violent clashes here, said the truncated march was an apt symbol of how the Israeli occupation stymies Palestinian life, including religious life. Lamberty noted that the organizers of the non-violent demonstration included Christians and Muslims. "Palestinian Christians are just following Jesus today ... but they can't get from Bethlehem to Jerusalem; no Palestinian can," she said. "But this is symbolic ... to emphasize the point." Walking back inside the cement wall that is soon to surround Bethlehem, George Rishmawi, also of the Rapprochement Center, said another march is planned for March 30, a day commemorating Palestinians' resistance to the Israeli government's confiscation of their land. Asked to assess the Palm Sunday demonstration, he said: "They threatened to use force if we did not turn around. We're not interested in violence. ... But this isn't the end. We'll be back."