Two-Week Holy Land Tour Frightens, Angers and Inspires

By Nuha Marchi

The glorious ethereal splendor of East Jerusalem is beyond description or imagination. Looking down on Jerusalem from any place on the Mount of Olives, where our Palestinian hotel was located (and from which Jesus Christ ascended to heaven), takes your breath away. The ever shimmering golden Dome of the Rock—adjacent to the holy and historic Al Aqsa Mosque and the heavenly and magnificent Church of the Holy Sepulcher—along with many other graceful old churches and mosques and the overwhelming and ageless Damascus Gate, push away the bad memories and ugly sights and sounds of the brutal and endless Israeli occupation of Jerusalem and all of Palestine.

Nevertheless, I shall describe briefly the cities and villages and some of the inspiring people we visited as members of a Palestine Aid Society fact-finding delegation in the Holy Land from July 28 to Aug. 18. And, as I record my own humble experiences, which were alternately inspiring, bittersweet and painful, I am reminded of what Jesus said in Jerusalem in the last days before He was crucified: "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful even unto death."

On our first day in Jerusalem, our delegation of eight people toured the Old City—stone by stone! We took pictures, bought souvenirs and ate typical Palestinian food. The following day the delegation, with our newly married young driver, traveled to Hebron to visit the impressive men and women who are the pillars of the Hebron Red Crescent Society. We all noticed that the whole city was waterless. We were informed that the illegal settlers, who live on the hilltops overlooking Hebron and other Palestinian towns, get most of the water for their lush gardens and clear swimming pools!

We also saw and smelled the garbage which collected on the nylon and net coverings which the Palestinian merchants have extended over their shops to protect themselves and their customers from the trash purposely thrown down on them by the 400 arrogant and fanatical Jewish "settlers" who have occupied the houses over the old souq, or marketplace. When I asked some shopkeepers why they don't do something to end this constant harassment and humiliation, they told me that they are very fearful. The settlers are heavily armed, shoot Arabs for fun and are protected by the Israeli army, which sometimes shoots the Palestinians too!

The next day, Tuesday, Aug. 1, we attended the Jerusalem Information Center conference and took their six-hour fact-finding tour. We saw, at first hand, the building of new Jewish settlements on land confiscated from Palestinian villages, the separation of Palestinian neighborhoods into small isolated pockets or ghettos by Israeli planning policy, the utter lack of housing for Palestinians in Jerusalem because building permits are denied, the limitations imposed on the economic, cultural, social and religious life of the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, and the closure of the Holy City to all the Palestinian residents of the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

We also visited the Jewish neighborhood of East Talpiot, which is built on lands confiscated from the Palestinian Suahra neighborhood, and noted sadly the contrast in human services. East Talpiot has everything Suahra is missing: paved roads and sidewalks, street signs and lighting, playgrounds and parks, health clinics, garbage collection, a covered sewage system and public transportation. We also went to the Palestinian town of Beit Sahour (known to foreign Christians as Shepherds Fields) and saw the green forested mountain where a Jewish settlement of Har Homa soon will be built, despite all of the legal suits and protestations which claim that the Jewish settlement will suffocate the historic Christian town and its heroic people.

I say heroic because theirs was the only town in the West Bank to practice complete civil disobedience in the intifada through their historic tax revolt. They have paid very dearly ever since. However, Beit Sahour's leaders begged us to mobilize our fellow Americans to join them in their vigorous campaign to "Stop Har Homa Now."

The next day the delegation was driven to El-Bireh, in the West Bank, where we were received by the dynamic president of "In'ash El Usra Society," Mrs. Sameeha Khalil. This remarkable 73-year-old social and educational activist recognized me instantly. I had met her in Orlando four years ago and helped her raise some funds for her institution. After touring the huge building—which houses family-related programs such as child care centers, a library, embroidery and sewing rooms, a museum and a new frozen food department—she presented me with her recently published biography, An Activist From Palestine: Sameeha S. Khalil.

In the evening, we attended a Palestinian cultural program and dinner sponsored by the same Jerusalem Information Center, which consists of concerned Israeli and Palestinian members seeking a shared future for all of Jerusalem. There I met two young white men from South Africa and told them that the best solution for the Israeli-Palestinian dilemma would be one modeled on the partnership of their two wise and courageous leaders, F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela, who dismantled apartheid and decreed equal sharing of the power and the land with all its resources among all their people.

On Thursday we went to Ramallah, and at its magnificent Bir Zeit University we met Dr. Ibrahim Abu Lughod, its vice president and professor of political science. What a man! He left all of the comforts of the U.S. to return home to help sustain the university during the intifada. But the Israelis treat him as an American tourist in his hometown. Every three months he has to return to the United States to get permission to come back to Ramallah! Moreover, since money is very tight in the university, he is not paid every month. But then, neither are many of our other unsung heroes who sometimes must sustain themselves solely with inner pride, collective dignity and memory.

Friday morning we took our bottled water and traveled to Jericho and the Dead Sea, both well below sea level. The only sign of the Palestinian Authority was the absence of Israeli soldiers. When we arrived at noon, Jericho was sweltering hot, empty and lifeless. I began to suspect that the Israelis gave up Jericho because, at least on that blazing summer day, it resembled hell on earth.

On Saturday, Aug. 5, our group went to Gaza. We did not meet President Arafat as we had hoped. Instead we toured the many refugee camps where life has been unimaginably hard with their open sewers, awful smells, and dusty unpaved streets. However, we were followed everywhere by very cute and friendly little children, speaking English and laughing at everything we said and did. We laughed, too. I was happy to know that they all went to school, boys and girls alike, and that everyone we asked turned out to be the smartest kid in his or her class.

Afterward, we visited Dr. Haider Abdel Shafi, head of the Gaza Red Crescent Society and former head of the Palestinian delegation at the Madrid and Washington peace talks. He informed us that "the picture is not rosy," but that there is hope. He said the Palestinians must make the best of the faulty Oslo agreement. When I asked him if anybody would dare run for president against Yasser Arafat if there were elections today, he answered: "Of course!" Gradually I felt less fearful. With men like him around, there will be light.

On Sunday we went to Nablus, which I was told was labeled "The Mountain of Fire" during and after the intifada. We visited "Dar al Tifl" for handicapped children, and there we met the great women who have created this oasis for the disadvantaged. They now are constructing a huge new stone building to make more children feel secure, useful and happy. I instantly loved Nablus, with its beautiful stone buildings and its strong, lovely and extra generous people who insisted on giving each of us five cakes of soap from their very famous soap factory.

Aug. 7 and 8 were spent between Nazareth, city of the Annunciation, and the beautiful seaport of Haifa—inside the Green Line that marks Israel proper. After touring Nazareth and its historic church, we visited its charismatic mayor, Ramiz Jaraisy, who has kept the city completely Arabic, with its roughly equal Christian and Muslim Palestinian citizenry.

Then we visited Haifa, which still has a vast Palestinian population. I looked for my parents' house on Abbas Street, which is an Arabic district, but could not find it. At last, we swam in the blue and cool Mediterranean Sea. This was very refreshing and reminded me of Beirut and my family.

On Aug. 9 I did my own touring in East Jerusalem because I refused to meet with the settlers or tour their illegal settlements. I believe that they are the true obstacle to peace and the cause of all the present evil. Besides, we were instructed not to talk back to them, or give our opinions, since they could shoot us with their ever-present guns if we disagree with their ideas.

So I took a taxi to the "Orient House." Unfortunately, there I found many settlers who harass East Jerusalem Palestinian leader Faisel Husseini day and night, demanding that he leave this district which they falsely claim is theirs. I wanted to take a picture of these arrogant thieves and liars but when I brought out my camera a scowling settler pointed his gun at me.

Here the real and frightful terrorists are on display for all who wish to see the true face of the evil abroad in the Holy Land. Here the Palestinian resistance to occupation is peanuts compared to the endless acts of intimidation, humiliation, destruction and theft of Palestinian property by the settlers, plus their sudden vicious raids and killing sprees.

By contrast, going to Bethlehem and Beit Jala was a real treat, and our visit to the Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation and our meeting with its dynamic and outspoken executive director, Dr. Edmond Shehadeh, was uplifting. Every person working there has suffered some severe disability, and overcome it. We met a nurse who is blind, a seamstress who walks on two artificial legs, a sweet candy girl who has Parkinson's disease but is perfect in math, and smiling artists and painters. Equally astonishing is the sunny and breezy white stone building set amid green trees and blooming plants and flowers.

I was glad that our final trip to Bethlehem on Aug. 10, was perhaps the most hopeful and promising visit of the tour. Non-governmental organizations are the backbone of societies and should remain so. All of the successful enterprises we encountered there are non-governmental, and they deserve all our support and aid. I returned determined to begin helping them now with fund-raising picnics, lunches, parties, lectures, presentations and bazaars. If readers prefer, send them money directly. I have all the addresses, the fax and phone numbers. Just give me a call or call the Palestine Aid Society: (202) 728-9425.

I find myself hopeful, grateful and proud. The simple, ordinary everyday Palestinians—children, parents and grandparents, able and disabled, employed and unemployed, intellectuals and laymen, males and females—living in the occupied territories are our unsung real live heroes. They are the ones who struggle, suffer and shed their blood to keep our dreams alive. As long as we on the outside help them meet their daily needs, they will stay proud, resilient and steadfast in their homes, their businesses and on their lands. Despite their difficult and nearly impossible lives, they will triumph in the long run. Time is on their side. So, I am confident, is God.

Nuha Marchi, a Lebanese-American writer, is associated with the Arab-American Community Center in Orlando, FL. She recently returned from a two-week visit to Jerusalem.