Palestinian Christian Leaders Outline Their Hopes for Peace

By Hasan Zillur Rahim

About 35 Christians, Jews and Muslims, including Barbara Lubin, director of the Berkeley-based Middle East Children's Alliance, met recently at the Oakland residence of Syed Moeln Saifullah, a member of the interfaith "Witness for Peace" of San Francisco, to listen to Dr. Manuel S. Hassassian, one of five representatives of the Christian Churches of Palestine who visited the United States for two weeks last summer to inform American audiences of their own responsibility for what is being done to Palestinians with American aid.

Dr. Hassassian, 38, a professor of political science and dean of the faculty of arts at Bethlehem University, began by citing the grim statistics that haunt people of conscience everywhere. Since the beginning of the intifada, 1,050 Palestinians have been killed, 267 of them children under the age of 8; 18,000 Palestinians have had their bones broken; 125,000 have been injured; 130,000 olive trees have been uprooted. Since 1967, 200,000 Palestinians have been jailed at least once, and 2,100 deported. Currently, 70,000 Palestinians are in jail, of whom 48,000 are under "administrative detention," meaning that they have not been charged or tried in a court of law.

Since the uprising, schools in the West Bank have been closed for up to 18 months, leaving 140,000 students without any means of education. Six major universities were closed for five years and "my own university for three years," Dr. Hassassian said.

Also since 1967, 6,380 days of curfew have all but destroyed the Palestinian economy. Some 25,000 graduates of West Bank universities are forced to perform menial jobs to survive.

But the intifada has also had a remarkably positive effect on the Palestinian people, Professor Hassassian said. It has inspired them with the idea of self-reliance. Although Israelis have responded with more deportations, more settlements and more oppression, the intifada has actually helped Palestinians develop democratic institutions.

"It is irreversible," declared Professor Hassassian. "The international community must respond to it or peace will never come to the Middle East. As a Palestinian I am destined to live with Israel as a neighbor, as the Jewish people are destined to live with me as a neighbor."

He told the gathering that Palestinians who believed in violence would fade away and those with peace in their heart would endure. The same should be true for Israelis, he said, but the creeping annexation of Jerusalem and blatant Israeli attempts to change its demography are major obstacles to peace.

Professor Hassassian refused to characterize himself as a victim. "We are not objects of history. We are a democratic and tolerant people," he said. "It is in the interest of Israel to recognize that her security depends on a democratic Palestinian state by her side. We are their bridge to the Arab states."

It is Palestinians, the professor declared firmly, who can convince Arab states that Israelis are indigenous to the Middle East, not aliens. He spoke movingly of Israeli friends in the "Peace Now" movement who have shared the plight of his people, who marched with them through difficult, trying times, and who were with them when extremist Jews took over St. John's hospice. "Israel's peace parties have 13 members in the Knesset," he said. "That's reason for optimism."

Dr. Hassassian told his audience that Palestinians are fighting not to improve life in the camps of the Gaza Strip, but for "self-determination as a stepping-stone to an independent state." He cited U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338 as a basis for "land for peace" and praised Secretary of State James Baker and President Bush for their efforts in seeking a just and lasting peace for everyone in the region.

Although he greeted Yitzhak Rabin's victory in the recent election with optimism, he reminded the gathering that Rabin has never mentioned Resolutions 242 and 338 in his speeches. And 11,000 settlements are still being built. Under Rabin, "If the current rate holds up, there may soon be no land left for Palestinians," he said.

Professor Hassassian emphasized the right of Israel to exist "as Israel must believe we have the right to exist." As a Palestinian, he said he feels his people "test the morality of Judaism and the Arab world." How long can Israel continue to be a garrison state? he asked.

If the current peace initiative fails, he said, extremists from both sides will prevail and that will be the end of peace in the Middle East. He underscored the need for Israel to withdraw from southern Lebanon, where he felt Israel's real intention is to control the Litani River.

Concluding his prepared remarks, Professor Hassassian expressed cautious optimism for the peace process and envisioned an independent Palestinian state in the near future with East Jerusalem as its capital. "Israel cannot control Jerusalem alone; All three monotheistic faiths must have a say over the destiny of that holy city," he explained.

In the lively question-and-answer session that followed his talk, held before the U.S. election, Professor Hassassian said his choice would be President Bush because of the latter's sincerity in trying to solve the Middle East crisis. Any change in the current U.S. foreign policy vis-a-vis the Middle East would be disastrous, he said.

As for the danger posed by so-called "Islamic fundamentalists," he said, they are bound to fade away. "In a pluralistic democratic society we will tolerate them as a dissenting voice," he explained. "But we know in our hearts they can never match or subdue the overwhelming desire for peace by most Palestinians."

Dr. Hassassian spoke to similar interfaith groups in Washington, DC, Dallas, Los Angeles and Seattle before leaving the U.S.

A Tale of Deportation

In this unique gathering, I also spoke with Dr. Alfred Toubasi, who was accompanying Dr. Hassassian. The 64-year-old Palestinian dentist, who practices in Amman, told me he was deported from Ramallah on Nov. 22, 1974 by the Israelis. He got a call at midnight from the military governor of Ramallah, who cited an obscure British government law of 1946 and said he was being deported as a "threat to Israeli security." Israeli soldiers handcuffed and blindfolded him and, along with three others, drove him away. He recognized one of the deportees, his friend Hanna Nasir, from the sound of his cough.

"Could it be Hanna Nasir, president of Bir Zeit University?" I asked.

Dr. Toubasi's eyes lit up: "You know him?"

"No, but I just read about him. Do you remember anything about the trip you took 18 years ago?" I asked.

"How can I forget," he said with a sigh. "It is burned in my memory. I remember Hanna telling me he thought they were taking us to prison. I told him, no, they were taking us to Lebanon. You see, I had traveled on that road many times and recognized it even though I was blindfolded. The trip lasted 8 hours. They left us in the mountains of southern Lebanon."

For 18 years, Dr. Toubasi has lived alone in Amman. His wife, a son and three daughters refused to yield to Israeli goals and have continued to live in their ancestral home in Ramallah. It has meant an 18-year ordeal.

"It has been hell," Dr. Toubasi said bluntly. "Prison in Ramallah would have been far better."

Dr. Toubasi has struggled as a dentist in Amman, particularly during the present hard economic times in Jordan. Although his wife visits him off end on, his sons and daughter cannot afford to make the trip more than once a year.

"It's expensive," he explains. "For each person it costs about $180 to get the Israeli 'stamp of approval.' When you add the cost of transportation and such, for the whole family, it comes to about $1,500. We had to sell most of our properties in Ramallah for the education of my son and daughters. As a deportee, I cannot visit my family. And there is no phone link between the West Bank and Amman."

But, like Professor Hassassian, Dr. Toubasi feels that the dark days are about to end. He places great hope in the peace talks now underway. He is a member of the Palestine National Council and a close friend of Dr. Haider Abdel Shafi, leader of the Palestinian delegation to the Middle East peace talks.

"My dream is to be reunited with my family and live a normal life, not the inhuman life of a deportee." Dr. Toubasi explains. He shudders to think what would happen if the peace talks were to fail.

"What would you like to see a year from now?" I asked.

Dr. Toubasi thought for a moment and said: "I would like to see Palestine represented as an independent nation at the 1996 Olympics at Atlanta. I hope my family and I are around when that happens."

Hasan Zillur Rahim, a Bangladesh-born American physicist, is editor of IQRA, the bimonthly newsletter of the South Bay Islamic Association in San Jose, CA.