The quote "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do
nothing" is attributed to Edmund Burke.
The following letter is only a small step out of nothing but at least it
is something. That said, if everyone in
the West who is aware of the injustices that take place in the West Bank on a
daily basis decided to write their congress man or woman perhaps we can shift
the winds of injustice to winds of justice.
And for those of you who have asked about my recent experience in
Israel/Palestine here is a window into that experience. What follows is one copy of a letter of which
there are three—one to my Representative and one each to my two Senators. My hope is that if this is something that you
are passionate about that you too will also pick up a pen or spend some time at
a keyboard. Isaiah 1:17: “Learn to do
right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed…”
Chris Van Hollen
Congressional
Representative
U.S. House of
Representatives
1707 Longworth H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative
Van Hollen:
In 2011 I had the privilege of taking a trip
to Israel/Palestine as part of a dual narrative tour with my church. During this trip we visited holy sites, but
more paramount to my experience was getting to hear the diverse personal
narratives of the people that live there.
For example, we heard stories from an Israeli settler, an Imam at the Al
Aqsa Mosque, a Palestinian Christian pastor in Bethlehem, and a refugee from
Dheisheh, one of the three refugee camps in Bethlehem, to name a few.
This experience created the biggest paradigm
shift of my life! For my entire adult life I had seen Israel as this small
oppressed country that needs the assistance of the United States to
survive. I was absolutely wrong in this
thinking! I was aghast at the oppression
that Palestinians live with under the military occupation and at the ever-increasing
expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank—settlements that are illegal
under UN Resolution 446. Moreover, I was
also humbled at the generosity and hospitality that was shown by the
Palestinians who so often get demonized in our media here in the West.
This April I again had the privilege of
returning to the West Bank with my wife and one other friend to participate in
the Right to Movement Marathon that takes place in Bethlehem. The experience was similar to my 2011 trip in
how my heart was moved to sorrow and anger at the oppression that I witnessed there. However, I noticed something on this trip
that eluded me in 2011. I noticed how
hidden this occupation can be—particularly if one were to visit just Jerusalem
or Tel Aviv. To illustrate this, I would
like to share a story. On a Tuesday my
wife, our friend and I were relaxing in Nativity Square in Bethlehem when we
met a man named Jamal. We would spend
the rest of the afternoon with Jamal and two of his friends from work learning
about their stories and experience in Palestine. Jamal grew up in Aida Camp which is about a mile
and a half from Nativity Square, and we were very excited when Jamal said that
he would show us his parents’ home in the camp, which he did after a few hours
of conversation in the peaceful and tranquil Nativity Square.
Our experience in Nativity Square that afternoon for lack of any other description was normal. There was a band practicing for a concert to take place in the square later that week as part of the marathon celebration. There were the sporadic buses that would show up with westerners wanting to visit the Church of the Nativity, the traditional site of the birth of Jesus. It was peaceful!
We left Nativity Square close to dusk to walk
with Jamal to go visit Aida Camp. As we
approached the entrance to the camp our eyes, noses and throats began to
burn. This was from the remnants of tear
gas that had been shot in Aida earlier that afternoon. As we entered the camp we walked under an
arch surmounted by a huge key, which symbolizes the right of return for the
refugees who have called this place ‘home’ since 1948. Just beyond this arch there is a steep hill. In the opposite direction from the arch, about
200 yards away, is a blue door in the separation wall. This door is used for the Israeli Defense
Forces (IDF) to enter the camp. At the
bottom of this hill were 4 IDF soldiers with machine guns as well as an armored
vehicle with at least two more IDF soldiers inside. At the top of the hill were kids throwing
stones. I was a bit nervous as we began
walking toward the soldiers, but we had to walk this way to get to Jamal’s
parents’ home. As we walked, on our
right was the separation wall with graffiti of the faces of about 15 Palestinian
men. Jamal told us that these were all
men from Aida that were in Israeli jails.
Jamal also told us that about 80 percent of the men from Aida had at
some point been arrested by the IDF, including himself on four different
occasions.
We walked by the IDF soldiers with their guns
pointed at us with their fingers on their triggers, but otherwise without
incident. Then we waited for Jamal to
convince the teenagers throwing stones that we were friendly and not there to
cause any harm. Jamal as well as a shop
owner that lives next to Rachel’s Tomb and whose shop is surrounded on three
sides by the separation wall stated that the incidents of tear gas, shock
grenades and the shooting of rubber-coated bullets is nearly a daily occurrence
in Aida Camp. In the course of a 35
minute walk I went from the peace and tranquility of Nativity Square to a war
zone. And…and if we had not met Jamal
and had we not accepted his invitation to visit Aida Camp we would have
completely missed the truth that is so easily hidden from non-perceptive eyes,
ears and hearts. We would have come home
with a completely different narrative.
Our secretary of state, John Kerry, was close
to the truth when he said that Israel is in danger of becoming an apartheid
state. It is not in danger of becoming an apartheid state; it already is an apartheid state.
Here is my request for you, my
representative. Please go and see for
yourself. I am delivering copies of this
letter to our state Senators Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski as well. Perhaps the three of you can take the trip
together. I have a friend that owns a
dual narrative tour company. My contact
information is at the bottom of this letter, and I would be happy to organize a
meeting with him to discuss traveling opportunities.
Sincerely,
Steve Graybill
Constituent
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