Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, August 2009, pages 51-52

Arab-American Activism

Archbishop Hilarion Capucci Speaks at ADC’s Sunday Lunch

	Ambassador Clovis Maksoud and Archbishop Hilarion Capucci galvanized the ADC audience (photo courtesy Steve Hajjar).

ARCHBISHOP Hilarion Capucci spoke on Sunday, June 14, at the ADC convention’s annual Palestine Luncheon. He was introduced by Ambassador Clovis Maksood, who described the Syrian-born archbishop as the finest example of the Arab nation. Capucci energized the Palestinian people when he served as archbishop of Jerusalem from 1965 until his arrest by Israeli authorities in 1974 on charges of supporting Palestinian rights. He was imprisoned for four years, then deported. Capucci continues to advocate for Palestinian rights and, in January 2009, attempted to break the siege aboard a Free Gaza ship, which turned back after being fired on, harrassed and boarded by Israel’s navy.

Capucci wouldn’t be “co-opted,” Maksoud noted, so he had to be “deported and imprisoned.” The granddaughters and sons of the holocaust—which was a blot on our civilization—are conducting a holocaust in installments on Palestinians, especially in Gaza, Maksoud said.

For the past 32 years the Melkite archbishop has lived in exile, which Capucci described as being “painful and agonizing.” When asked about his identity, he said, he quotes the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish: “Mark your records, I am Arab!”

He condemned the fragmentation and factions in both the Palestinian and Israeli governments, explaining that unity is his religion. He quoted the Holy Qur’an: “Oh mankind! We created you from a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes,” and urged respect for each other’s beliefs, and merging the Qur’an and the Bible into one—which is love.

I am the archbishop of Jerusalem; I am nothing but a shepherd, Capucci said. If the shepherd sees a wolf approaching his flock, he defends his flock. “The Palestinian people are my flock,” he said. ”You see, this ring on my finger shows my engagement to Palestine. All the children of Palestine are my children and extended family...”

The archbishop is also a father, Capucci continued, and the sign of fatherhood is compassion. A father can’t watch his children suffer and sit idle with his hands tied. He must stand up to defend his children. “The people of Palestine are my children,” the archbishop said. “They have been oppressed, they have suffered a great injustice, their rights have been denied, their dignity trampled upon, their daily companion is nothing but suffering.”

Life is sustained not only by food and drink, Capucci said: honor and dignity is the essense of life, and nationhood is the sign of dignity. “Palestinians will live in dignity, free and independent in our homeland, with Jerusalem as its capital, he vowed. “We will not capitulate, we will not give in, we will not submit, no matter how much time passes.”

He went on to praise President Obama’s work in the Middle East, but added that hope alone is not sufficient to achieve the goal of Palestinian independence. “What was taken by force will only be returned by force,” the cleric said—but force is not always the use of violence and weapons. It is also standing together as one in “unity and solidarity,” which, along with our dignity, will bring our victory.

He urged Arab countries to unite, saying: “In the name of the one and only God, in the names of the martyrs, the orphans, the widows, the grieving mothers, and those imprisoned in Israeli jails, in the name of all those who suffer, I challenge all Arab leaders to stop their internal divisions—our division is our catastrophe.“

Israel must choose between two options—there is no third, he said: either peace or occupation, and it’s not possible to have both at the same time. It is in Israel’s benefit to have peace, Capucci said. Peace is a blessing; it is the oxygen of life.

“We Palestinians are seekers of peace,” he continued. “Peace is a struggle for us, Muslims, Jews and Christians alike. We are the children of Abraham and must work together.”

Toward the end of his speech, Capucci became emotional as he said, “I who lived in Jerusalem for very long, I worshipped under the calls of its minarets, and submitted to the will of God under the rhythm of its church bells. I was exiled from my beloved Palestine. I am thirsty, I am longing to return to Jerusalem, I am longing to beautify my eyes with it before I die.”

He concluded with a prayer and called on Arab Americans not to forget their roots, culture and language, and pleaded with them to teach their children and grandchildren about where they came from.

On a personal note, I was thankful that I was able to hear Archbishop Capucci’s speech, for it truly was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I was even more grateful that I was able to understand his speech in the most beautifully and powerfully orated speech given in the Arabic language that I’ve ever heard. I can credit that ability to my parents, who held on to their roots and taught their children this language and culture. My mother, a Palestinian refugee, was elated when she heard of Capucci’s visit. As a child, she said, she remembered him visiting her neighborhood and waving to him in excitement. In her mid-20s, she recalled attending venues where he was a speaker and being moved by his words, in the same way that his words moved me on that June Sunday. Her joy was in knowing that her daughter is now walking in the same footsteps she once walked, hearing the same speaker who once moved her, and continuing with the Palestinian struggle.

—Meriana Alrabadi