An Unmerry Christmas: Protecting the Omar Sultan Home From Jewish Settlers

By Art Gish

8 p.m. I am suddenly very sorry I didn’t stay here at Omar Sultan’s house in the Beqa’a Valley all day today instead of going to the Christmas march in Bethlehem. After returning from Bethlehem, as I walk up the road I see lots of police and a large crowd of people on the road across from the Sultans’ house. Between 150 and 200 settlers are down on the road, singing. A few of the settlers come up to the house. I learn from the Sultans that a few settlers arrived at the Sultan house around 3 p.m. Around 7 p.m., the big crowd arrived.

8:20 p.m. I can hear one of the Israeli settlers giving a speech. There is much applause, as the emotional pitch increases. I take stock of myself. I am feeling calm and peaceful, but I realize this situation could be serious. I pray for God’s protection. I am at peace.

8:30 p.m. I see soldiers on the old road just below the house. I am tempted to go down and introduce myself, but decide not to. It sounds like the settler speaking is reading a prayer. There is more singing, more speeches. I see a large fire about 200 feet into the field across the road. About 10 settlers are there. The fire lasts about five minutes and dies down—maybe it was made of cardboard? Now there is boisterous singing.

About 25 Palestinians have gathered in front of the Sultan house. The mood is somber and people are expecting the worst, but everyone is calm.

8:45 p.m. I see the settlers dancing and shouting on the road. They are holding torches. The flames light up the area. Now I see about 20 settlers running up the hill just north of the house here. No, there must be 50 running up the hill with their torches. I see police between us and the settlers. We move up the hill and get within 30 feet of the settlers. The police are filming us and the settlers. Now there must be a hundred settlers. I go up to a policeman and introduce myself to him. I tell him I am an American and am here to observe what is happening. I think if the police know there is an American with the family here, they may be safer, and the police may act more responsibly.

I begin to believe this is not too serious. The police and soldiers are here. The settlers will not do anything stupid. The police light a flare. The settlers move up the hill above the house. It appears they are claiming the land.

Now the settlers are coming down the hill. There is lots of cheering. I hear the sound of rocks hitting rocks. They are tearing down the rock wall just 75 feet north of the house. There must be about 100 settlers all tearing down the Sultans’ rock wall as fast as they can. This is crazy. We all feel helpless.

I think my only role is to observe. Only the police and soldiers can deal with this. I introduce myself to more police. I ask them why they are just watching the settlers demolish the wall. The police say they are waiting for a bigger force to come. Are the police really helpless, or are they complicit in what is happening? Why did they not have more personnel here?

9:30 p.m. The settlers are moving down the hill. Now they are on the old road just below the house. A number of us move down to within 20 feet of them. We are above them. They start jeering at us and waving Israeli flags. Several children are with them. The Palestinians remain nonviolent. They are showing the settlers they are not afraid. It is good the Palestinians are so self-disciplined. If they threw one rock now it would be a disaster.

It troubles me that the police and soldiers are doing nothing. If Palestinians were running amok like this, destroying Israeli property, they would be shot.

My colleague Pierre Shantz is on the phone, calling Israelis, America, other contacts. We want to get lots of Israelis, press and others here. The Sultans are eager to get lots of people here for protection. We are checking with them before we act.

12:30 a.m. All the neighbors have left. We are sitting around the fire on the Sultans’ porch in silence. This has not been a merry Christmas. But we have been trying to let the Word become Flesh.

Gathering From Around The World to Keep Watch With the Sultan Family

By Joanne “Jake” Kaufman

After weeks of on-and-off pressure on the Sultan family in the Beqa’a Valley near Hebron, Israeli West Bank settlers backed off for the day on Dec. 27. CPTer Art Gish continued his watch, and Natasha Krahn took Pierre Shantz’s place with the family. Several internationals working in the West Bank paid visits of support to the family during the day.

The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc) announced that they would send a busload of Israelis to visit the family on Dec. 28, in case the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) or settlers try to carry through the threat to demolish the 13-member family’s house. Press releases sent out to international and Israeli journalists elicited a spate of calls from reporters interested in the story. An Israeli journalist called the Civil Administration and was told that the house would not be demolished, because the demolition orders were “too old” and too many people were living there.

Two Israelis from Tel Aviv, as well as an American and a Canadian Jew, joined the CPTers and Palestinian neighbors and friends at the Sultan family’s house in the evening. Around 9:45 p.m., Krahn called the team to report that IDF jeeps were making regular patrols throughout the area, shining spotlights on the hills to look for settlers. At one point, one jeep was in the Sultans’ driveway, one on the gravel access road and one on the bypass road down below the house. The family first served coffee and then tea to soldiers who came to the house to explain what they were doing.

“We wonder if the soldiers are patrolling because Israelis are out here,” Krahn told her colleagues. “We have Christians, Jews and Muslims who are all concerned about the situation... We wonder what would be happening if there were only Palestinians here. Would they receive this kind of security?”

The Israelis from Tel Aviv told the Sultans that they were there to stand with the family. The Israelis said they do not support the actions of the settlers. According to one of the Israelis, the members of the Israeli peace group Peace Now called the IDF, which promised that it would monitor the situation. Two international journalists also joined the group at around 10 p.m.

Meanwhile, the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz had reported earlier in the day that nearly 5,000 new settlement houses have been approved for the West Bank in the past two months: “Construction permits have been issued for 2,757 homes in the settlements, with plans to build another 2,139 homes in process and the installation of 85 mobile homes in West Bank ‘outposts’ being approved, the Peace Now movement said yesterday.” Ironically, at the same time the Israeli daily was reporting this item, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s government was claiming that no new construction plans had been approved for building in the settlements since Barak took office in July.

“The biggest sign of hope for me is the fact that all these people are becoming involved,” Krahn said. “In addition to the Sultan family there are three Canadians here, three Americans and two Israelis. It’s such a mixed bag of people. Four here are Jewish.”

Concluding, she listed the reasons for her optimism: “The fact that people who don’t usually do this kind of stuff are coming here. The fact that the Sultans have opened their home. The fact that the Sultans served the soldiers coffee. The small gestures mean so much. And the fact that our phone is ringing every half hour with people saying ‘How can we help?’”

An Invitation to Join Christian Peacemaker Teams or the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions

By Dianne Roe

On my last day in Hebron before returning to the states in late October I wondered what had happened to Liga. There was no way to telephone her. The cave dwelling in the remote area in the south of the Hebron district where she tended her sheep and raised her children was out of range for most cell phones, even if she had one, and there was neither a phone line nor electricity for recharging batteries in the rocky area where her family lived.

I had heard that the Israeli government had placed much land in that area under military closure and that families had been given 12 hours’ evacuation notice. So in my final hours in Hebron I went to Yatta, the village south of Hebron, to find Liga’s niece Manal.

“Yes,” Manal told me. “We have heard from my aunt. Three days ago Israeli soldiers came in the middle of the night and evacuated them from their land. They were forced to go where there is no water and there are no caves for shelter. They are afraid that if they do not do as the soldiers say they will lose their sheep. Our families have lived on this land for hundreds of years. My aunt is very afraid.”

I think about Liga now that I am back home in Corning, NY, as our churches prepare for the Advent season. Two thousand years ago Jesus may have been born in a cave such as one of those that shelter Liga’s family. Today hundreds of Palestinian families whose lands have been subject to closure, confiscation, or home demolition don’t even have mangers in which to lay newborn babies.

But Advent is about hope. Along with the birth of the newborn baby there are shepherds, angels, and wise men and the care and love of God who watches over us all. As I think of Liga today, I remember with thanksgiving the visitors God has sent for families like Liga’s. They are part of a coalition that includes Palestinians, Israelis and internationals.

The Palestinian Land Defense Committee (LDC) are shepherds watching over their flocks. Abdel Hadi Hantash of the Hebron LDC knows these families by name.

The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) are angels who have come to the shepherds with a message that says “fear not.” Harriet Lewis witnessed a demolition near Liga’s land in March 1997 while she was spending time with Christian Peacemaker Teams in Hebron. She confronted the soldiers then and went back to her home to spark the formation of ICAHD.

Who are the magi, the visitors from afar? They are you, the members of our churches. Christian Peacemaker Teams’ Campaign for Secure Dwelling (CSD) has matched dozens of churches with families who face problems such as Liga’s. As we enter this advent season there is a CPT Rebuilders Against Bulldozers (RAB) delegation made up of visitors like you who want to give a voice to people like Liga.

It is with thanksgiving for your witness that we prepare for a multitude of pilgrimages into the Holy Land of the lowliest places. Let us go to those places together as the Wise Men (and women) have done before us.

Art Gish, Joanne “Jake” Kaufman and Dianne Roe are members of the Christian Peacemaker Team in Hebron, where it has maintained a violence-reduction presence since June 1995 at the invitation of the Hebron municipality.