Bethlehem

Welcome prime minister

The government of Sharon welcomes the assigning of Abu Mazen by strengthening the aggressive procedures against the Palestinians. I will not analyze the political situation in this message, but as an observer, as a human being who lives the situation, I would like to put my notes on what I see in these days.

In the last four days I had to go to the city of Al-Khalil (Hebron) to do training for few school teachers in a workshop entitled "conflict resolution in nonviolent ways in schools" it is a daily three hours workshop, at 12 noon. In spite that Al-Khalil city is only 30 km away from Bethlehem, I had to leave my office two hours earlier to reach those participants, this is due to the Israeli army cutting the road to four areas, adding a check point on each one, guarded by young soldiers, throwing big insults on the local people, holding them for hours on the check point without differentiating between the elderly people, and small children, or between men and women, in injustice all are the same.

I was sitting in the bus with more than 50 passengers waiting, each one of them wondering why, and blaming Israel, the USA, and the whole world for leaving them alone to face this army artillery and this collective punishment on children, women, and old people. The most ironical thing I heard them saying was: "we gave Sharon and the USA the prime minister they requested, so why till now they don't allow us to go to our works, and schools in dignity, what do they want more, what are the steps that Israel took to meet our submission, and hiring a new prime minister?"

On the next day, the Israeli army killed fifteen Palestinians and demolished 20 houses, that is to welcome the new government, and to make the mission of calming down the situation an impossible task to perform, and to provoke reactions from different groups. Me personally, I don't think that the issue is to appointing a new prime minister, and I am not optimistic with Sharon government which include the most fundamentals with grudges against the Palestinian people, looking at us as less than humans. If we follow the announcements of most ministers in Sharon government on the government of Abu Mazen which agreed to all the Israeli and the American conditions, it is not encouraging, but on the contrary it is discouraging, and upsetting for example what Avy Eitan, one of the Israeli ministers: "the Palestinians does not deserve a government, because they are not like us, they are even less than Guatemala, or Nicaragua, they should accept being in cantons, and these cantons should be separated one from the other." I think if the world does not move and put pressure on the occupying government, to change the current situation and improving the life of people, and respect the minimum of human rights in the Palestinian territories, the new Palestinian government will not be able to work, and that is what Sharon wants, to justify the continuation of occupation of 2,000,000 Palestinians, and putting them in cages that is called cities, without rights, and without the minimum level of respect to their humanity.

The third day has passed on the new Palestinian government forming, which declared its program, which insures the stopping of all violent actions, and collecting all kind of weapons, but Israel did not even make one step, on the contrary, yesterday Thursday, the first of may, labor day all around the world, Israel forced curfew on Bethlehem, invading the city of Yatta in Al-Khalil (Hebron), murdering 15 Palestinians including children of only 2 years and one of 13 years old, and destroying 20 houses using the army to accomplish all that, all this is to provoke all parties of the Palestinian community, and push it to respond, because Sharon wants to make sure that violence continues, because his plans cannot succeed without this atmosphere.

I don't think that Sharon government wants peace, it does not even want to calm things down, as on the same day that the new peace government was formed at the Palestinian side, the Israeli governments destroyed 20 houses, and killed 15 Palestinian citizens, with children and women among them, to send a message to the peace government, saying that Sharon method will not change, and that the Palestinian people should not expect that your circumstances should change even if you changed your government, even if you surrendered, even if you stopped all kind of struggle, this is the message that Palestinian people received from the government of Sharon the minute their new peace government was formed, and declared its commitment to making peace, entering negotiations, and stopping all kind of struggling.

Did Mr. President Bosh and Mr. Blair heard this message, will they do the least to pressure the occupying government to stop this blood shed, and will they change the double standards that they treat Iraq and others by, and treat the Israeli occupation with the same standards and measures.. I really hope so, and pray that they respect their Christians values as they go to pray and ask their people to pray for their souls.

N.