As a Palestinian and an elder of the Catholic faith, I have to confess the truth. My spirits are
dampened.
I have grown up in a Catholic family that
experienced the Palestinian refugee crisis following the Arab-Israeli War of
1948. My refugee parents, living together with four children in one congested
room, in contrast to the small independent house they had in Qatamon prior to
1948, insisted on the best private education for my siblings and me in Catholic
schools, part of the private educational scene in Palestine prior to 1948 and
after.
اضافة اعلان
Because of a good education and upbringing, I was
able to pursue a university education in the US, on a scholarship from the US
embassy in Amman. This opportunity enabled me to carry on the legacy of my
parents, Zachary and Marguerite, and to offer our children, my wife Mary’s and
mine, the possibility of a good education here and abroad.
I taught at the Catholic University of Bethlehem for
a quarter of a century, and I came to appreciate how Palestinian college
students are earnest in achieving a good education themselves. My PhD advisor,
the late Murray Milner Jr from the University of Virginia, who hailed from
Texas, visited the Bethlehem University campus back in the 1980s and remarked
that, except for the way the Palestinian co-eds were attired, you would think
that you were on any US college campus.
I have worked with the Department of Service to
Palestinian Refugees of the Middle East Council of Churches for the last 22 years.
I touched the pain of Palestinians and other displaced and refugees across the
Middle East. In my refugee work, some of the outstanding partners are Churches
in the USA: Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, the Disciples of
Christ (the Christian Church), the Presbyterian Church, and the Evangelical
Lutheran Church, to name some. These churches and their members have felt the
pain of Palestinians since 1948, and their solidarity has uplifted the spirits
and healed the bodies of thousands of Palestinian refugees throughout the
years.
In 2006 I was privileged to be elected a member of
the Palestinian Legislative Council on the quota reserved for Christians from
the city of Jerusalem.
And yet, despite all these life accomplishments and
the contributions that the US education and American church support have given
us, my spirits remain dampened.
We Palestinians have
always been hoping for a fair hearing from the successive American
administrations. We have been dealt with unjustly and we expected, with the
ideals that the US calls for — justice, democracy, and equal rights — that
there would be an insistence on these same values when dealing with our rights
so long denied.
We are left with no optimism that a fair, just, and
lasting solution to our predicament will come out of US policies on the
Arab-Israeli conflict. Strategy and power, rather than the values of fairness
and justice, appear paramount in determining political positions. At times, we
Palestinians question whether the US applies double standards in its dealings
with different countries, occupations, and conflict situations.
The conditions and improvement of Palestinian life
is an essential area of concern, as has been stressed repeatedly by American
administrations. But to quote the biblical verse: “One does not live by bread
alone”. (Matthew: 4:4). The spirit yearns for the kind of words and actions
that would tend to the wounds of my people.
We Palestinians have always been hoping for a fair hearing from the successive American administrations. We have been dealt with unjustly and we expected, with the ideals that the US calls for — justice, democracy, and equal rights — that there would be an insistence on these same values when dealing with our rights so long denied.
The ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian land,
the expansion of illegal settlements, the intermittent martial confrontations
in the Gaza Strip, the daily killings of Palestinian youngsters, the
expropriation of vast stretches of land that dislodge thousands of Palestinians
out of their natural habitats, and the continuing intimidation and harassment
of Palestinian children and farmers by settlers, protected by the Israeli army,
all point to a situation of no exit. Not even the church and its properties are
immune from the acts of settler groups, as happened in Jaffa Gate with
properties belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem.
Speaking on Palestinian television, a football
player said the following: “We are a people that want to live, like other
peoples. We want to enjoy playing football and to have a taste of the good
life.”
Likewise, Palestinian workers who get up as early as
3am each day to make it through crowded checkpoints to arrive at their work by
seven would tell you that they labor because they love their families, and they
want their children to have opportunities that they themselves did not have.
We aspire for freedom from occupation and to be able
to live like other nations in our own state. We also cherish a vision for
Jerusalem, as the heads of churches stated in a November 1994 statement: “We
invite each party to go beyond all exclusivist visions or actions, and without
discrimination, to consider the religious and national aspirations of others in
order to give back to Jerusalem its true universal character and to make of the
city a holy place of reconciliation for humankind.”
With the dampened spirits that weigh upon our hearts
as you visit with us these coming days, the least of our expectations is that
the US listen to Palestinian voices who yearn for peace and justice. The hurt
we feel inside us should be healed if a future of peace is to reign at some
point in the future in this troubled land.
Bernard Sabella is an elected member of the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council for the
Christian seat of Jerusalem.
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