Update from Bethlehem

from: Sami Awad

Believing that killing as many Palestinians as possible will make the Palestinian leadership and people fall to its knees and beg him for... (well, still no one knows what he wants), Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has ordered the Israeli army to return to Bethlehem and other Palestinian areas throughout the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and implement his order, which he made on March 5th, 2002 to "increase the number of losses on the other [Palestinian] side."

After not sleeping all night due to the continuous shelling of Bethlehem and its surrounding villages and refugee camps by US made Apache helicopters and F-16 fighter jets, approximately 100 tanks and other army vehicles, I decided to drive the very short, usually busy, but now completely empty road between our home and the office to write an email and send it to our friends update them on what is happening in Bethlehem today.

I sat on my desk and stared outside on the empty roads listening to the shells explode, approximately two per minute, wondering if the next one was going to hit somewhere near and also what to write. I just heard on the news that a very well respected man in the community, Mr. Ahmad Na'man, the director of a local private hospital in Bethlehem, was shot dead outside the doors of the hospital as he was trying to bring the injured inside and away from the Israeli sniper bullets. He was one of five Palestinians killed in Bethlehem alone on this very warm spring day. As far as numbers, it was truly a day of massacres. Over thirty Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and Gaza today, and it is only 2 pm. Five Israeli settlers living on an illegal settlement in Gaza were also killed last night. The Israeli army with its entire military might and technological intelligence has not been able to protect these settlers as it has promised them and with all its restrictions, closures, security checks, and assassinations has not been able prevent Palestinians from conducting these actions. How did they ever imagine, and convince the world, that the Palestinian Authority can do a better job?

So in order to keep some sort of face with the settlers, they go out and kill more Palestinians. Just as they are doing today. As far as tomorrow, well do I need to write you the headlines of tomorrow's newspapers? I think we all know what they will say.

What should I write about? Should I give details of the Israeli government's brutality towards the Palestinians? Should I write about the many children that have been killed, the many homes that have been destroyed, the economy that is in complete collapse, the feeling of isolation and frustration faced by so many? Should I dare to write about the root causes of the conflict-the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem-which, if not addressed, everything being done, with good intentions or bad, will not help end the pain and suffering of both sides? Everyone knows this; even according to recent polls 53% of all Israelis know that occupation is the root cause of all this violence. It would be an insult to the world's intelligence to write about that.

Should I write an appeal to the international community to intervene and stop this violence that is hurting both sides? A strong international presence, with international pressure, can seriously minimize the attacks on both the Palestinians and the Israelis. But you have heard that call many times and have seen UN resolutions fall to US veto, one after the other.

I guess there is not much to write. You know the story, the history and what the future can look like. It seems that everyone does. The question is: Why is this being allowed to continue? What are you doing to put an end to this massacre?

Continue working and praying for peace and justice in the Holy Land.

In Peace,

Sami Awad

Executive Director

Holy Land Trust