Thursday, April 21, 2005
For Many Palestinians, hatred Is Not The Answer
By BETHE DUFRESNE
General Assignment Reporter/Columnist
Published on 4/21/2005
Sawaiya, West Bank -- Ibrahim Khalil said it would cost him only 20 shekels, or about $5, if he wanted to get from his West Bank home to Tel Aviv and blow himself up, along with some innocent Israelis, to avenge the killing of his son by an Israeli settler.
That's 10 shekels for the materials to make the bomb, which are easily available anywhere, he said, and 10 more to pay for a “lift” over the wall that Israel is building to secure itself from angry Palestinians.
But, he said, he wouldn't do that.
Khalil said he wouldn't even tell his 6-year-old son that an Israeli killed his older brother, though he thinks the young boy is likely to find out someday. The death of his son, he said, led to his wife being hospitalized for shock and depression.
Despite the deep pain and grief, Khalil said, there's been enough hate and killing.
Wednesday morning travelers from Old Lyme visited Khalil in his hilltop village home of Sawaiya, which Khalil said has existed for about 1,000 years.
Two years after a Russian Jewish settler ran over his young son, while the boy's mother watched helplessly, Khalil's wife is still hospitalized in Jerusalem, he said.
He said she can't function without drugs and sessions with a psychiatrist, who visits from Tel Aviv. He has sold off much of his olive orchards, he said, to pay the bills. Since he is the only family member who can get a permit to visit her, which often takes hours of waiting at checkpoints, he can't work the way he used to.
Anyone who has suffered a death in the family attributable to an Israeli is automatically considered a security risk, Khalil said.
This was not the first time that Connecticut travelers, on a tour hosted by the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, heard of Khalil. He is a member of the Bereaved Parents Circle, made up of Israelis and Palestinians who have lost children to violence and chosen reconciliation over revenge.
Robi Danelin, an Israeli woman whose son was killed by a Palestinian while serving as a soldier in the West Bank, has visited Old Lyme to tell her story, and the group plans to meet with her later this week.
•••Along with meeting Khalil, the group on Wednesday toured the tiny Sawaiya medical clinic, which serves 10,000 Palestinians with two examining rooms, bi-weekly doctor visits and no nurses. After the visit, the group moved on to Galilee.
They would spend the night at the Ein Gev Holiday Village on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. But first came a visit to the Mar Elias Educational Institutions in Ibillin, founded by Abuna Elias Chacour, a well-known Melkite priest, peace activist and author.
Travelers had all been asked to read Chacour's autobiographical “Blood Brothers” in anticipation of the journey. In 1948, Zionists evicted Chacour's family from the village where they had centuries-old roots.
But his father rejected violence and hate, Chacour said, and recognized that Jews needed a safe haven after centuries of persecution that culminated in the Holocaust.
Speaking to the American visitors, the priest said, a person can't be an advocate for peace “if you understand the terror that your friend does and don't understand the good that your enemy does.”
Chacour clearly had no use for those who claim suicide bombers are driven to terror by oppression, or for those who claim Israel confiscates land and restricts people's freedom because of security concerns.
Chacour said he doesn't study philosophy or theology because he is too busy telling the story of Jesus Christ, a story of love for others and especially for those who are different. He said Christians should honor and celebrate those of different backgrounds and faiths, rather than tolerate them.
“If anything has killed our Christianity,” he said, “it is philosophy and theology.”
In a few run-ins with evangelical Christians who have come to the Holy Land seeking converts and proclaiming the infallibility of their take on the Bible, Chacour said, he has been “shocked” by their claim that people who aren't “saved” according to their rules are doomed to hell.
If that were the case, Chacour said, “I prefer to be in hell, because that is where God is.”
Chacour amused his audience with an anecdote from a long-ago trip to the Vatican, where he questioned a cardinal.
“You are not in communion with Rome,” the cardinal admonished him. To which, Chacour said, he replied, “You are not in communion with Galilee,” going on to point out that nothing came out of Rome but everything came out of Galilee.
http://www.theday.com/eng/web/news/re.aspx?re=F6A6DE1A-CB19-4869-BB81-61461945CE7C
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