December/January 1992/93, Page 69

Waging Peace

By Jerri Bird

Israeli Media Attacks Clerics

An unprecedentedly bitter Israeli media campaign against Christian leaders in Israel/Palestine was initiated in the daily Jerusalem Post and reprinted in the weekly international edition dated Oct. 17. None of the mainstream U.S. daily newspapers has reported it, although the campaign against the Christian community has continued over a period of several weeks at a level of intensity never before observed. Among Christian clerics personally attacked were Samir Kafity, president bishop of the Anglican church in Jerusalem, Riah Abu El Assal, archdeacon of the Anglican church in Nazareth, and Father Elias Chacour, a Melchite (Roman Catholic) priest and Arab citizen of Israel.

All have refuted the Jerusalem Post's charge that a call by Christian clerics for a conference to study the role of Christians in Jerusalem is a "blatantly political intervention in Israel's affairs." The media attack apparently was triggered by the realization that Palestinian Christians and Muslims confer together as brothers and sisters about the erosion of their rights under Israeli administration of Jerusalem.

Princeton Conference on Jerusalem

The Princeton, NJ Middle East Society sponsored a Nov. 7 conference on "Jerusalem, Past and Present."

Panelists included Geoffrey Aronson, associate director of the Foundation for Middle East Peace; Mordechai Bar-On, current peace fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace; Joseph Donnelly, associate secretary-general of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association; Michael R.T. Dumper, a scholar from the U.K. and former coordinator for the Quaker Peace Service in Jerusalem; and Nasser Atta, press officer for the Palestinian delegation to the Middle East peace talks and an associate of the International Media Center in Jerusalem. The predominant view that the problem of Jerusalem should be tackled in the early stages rather than at the end of peace talks was shared even by Mordechai Bar-On. Solutions for the final status of Jerusalem were varied, and the semantics of the problem were emphasized by all, since the very definition of "Jerusalem" is a major stumbling block.

For a tape recording of the proceedings send $15 to Middle East Society of Princeton, POB 7342, Princeton, NJ 08540.

Israeli Attacks on Red Cross Personnel

The International Committee of the Red Cross closed its offices in Gaza, Rafah and Khan Younis in October protesting harassment by Israeli soldiers of foreign human rights workers and Palestinians on the grounds of these ICRC offices. Soldiers entered the offices, confiscated identity cards, insulted and harassed individuals, and on at least two occasions tear-gassed the Red Cross compounds. Incredibly, these attacks remain unreported to date in the American daily press. For details contact Gaza Center for Rights and Law, phone 011-972-7-866287 or the Palestine Human Rights Information Center in Jerusalem, phone 011-972-2-287077.

Sympathy in Harper's

The cover story in the December issue of Harper's by Dr. Edward W. Said is entitled "Palestine, Then and Now." It describes in a touching yet dispassionate manner the author's first return to his home in Jerusalem since his departure as a child in 1947. (Ironically, his family home now houses the so-called "Christian Embassy," an Israeli government-subsidized Christian fundamentalist fringe group that describes the ingathering of Jews in Jerusalem and the rebuilding of their temple there as a necessary prelude to the Second Coming of Christ.) The nine-page illustrated article provides American readers a rare portrayal of Palestinians as a moral, cultured, stubborn, and courageous people determined to survive in their homeland.

Jerri Bird is the national coordinator for Partners for Peace in Washington, DC.