Your Excellency Secretary General
Mr, Antonio Guterres,

On the 22nd anniversary of UNSC Resolution 1325 and the annual open discussion at the Security Council for the advancement of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda, the Palestinian Women’s Civil Coalition for the Implementation of UNSC Resolution 1325 would like to bring your attention to the fact that the suffering of Palestinian women living in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) has unprecedentedly escalated since this resolution was passed, due to the Israeli occupation’s ongoing, hostile policies, systematic violations of human rights and grave breaches of international humanitarian law that are disproportionally impacting women and girls in the OPT. These violations include extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrests, restriction on movement, military blockades, house demolitions, land confiscation and illegal de-facto and de-juri annexation, in addition to the ongoing isolation of areas of the OPT from one another. This has had both individual and collective impact on the lives of women, impeding their access to resources, compounded by the deteriorating economic situation due to the occupation’s control and dominance over land and resources. Added to this is the rise in poverty levels due to unemployment, military blockade on the Gaza Strip for over 15 years and the occupation’s exercise of systematic long-term violence against the Palestinian protected population in the OPT, settlement expansion combined with settlers’ violence and vandalism

The Palestinian Women’s Civil Coalition strongly believes that 22 years since the passage of UNSC Resolution 1325 has not resulted in concrete measures for the advancement of the women, peace and security agenda to Palestinian women living under Israeli prolonged military occupation. A lot still need yet to be made by the Security Council to maintain peace and security for Palestinian women living under military occupation. To the contrary, complications and challenges to Palestinian women have increased in terms of implementing the WPS agenda, due to Israeli impediments to its implementation. Israel, the occupying power, has also placed enormous obstacles before Palestinian women who seek to implement this resolution, given its continued occupation of the OPT and the absence of a just and durable solution to end this prolonged belligerent occupation. No concrete measures were taken by the international community to implement UN resolutions related to the question of Palestine, namely UN Resolutions 242, 338, 194 and 2334. Instead, Israel is intent on confiscating and annexing more land to build settlements, which has severed any path to the establishment of an independent and contiguous Palestinian state. Instead, OPT has been transformed into isolated islands more like the Bantustans of apartheid South Africa, as indicated in the most recent evidence based-report by Amnesty International, describing Israel as an apartheid regime, where one racial group is discriminating against other racial groups.

The Palestinian Women’s Civil Coalition, would also like to point out to the remarkable conclusions of a UN independent Commission of Inquiry (CoI) in its recent to the UN General Assembly in New York on 20/10/2022, which considered the Israeli occupation as unlawful according to international law. The report called on the UN General Assembly to ask the International Court of Justice for an urgent advisory opinion on the illegality of this prolonged military occupation, and the impacts of the Israeli illegal measures and violations against the Palestinian civilian population in the 1967 OPT.

Your Excellency UN Secretary General,

As the UNSC is meeting to discuss the advancement of the WPS agenda, we would like to draw to their attention the double standards employed by the United Nations in dealing with its own resolutions, especially when it comes to Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the practices of Israel, the occupying power against Palestinian civilian population. Israeli illegal policies in the OPT , has not only curtailed Resolution 1325 from guaranteeing protection for women and involving her in security and peacemaking, it has also thwarted all international tools and mechanisms for the protection of civilians in times of war and under occupation. This is due to the failure of the international human rights and humanitarian law especially the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protections of Civilians at time of War and under occupation. The reason for this is that the UN itself is discriminatory and has double standards in its handling conflicts, and peoples’ causes due to the huge imbalance in justice and the policy of impunity, which Israeli, the occupying power enjoys. These policies have allowed Israel to escape from accountability or any punitive measures in accordance to UN Charter and more specifically Article 11 of UNSC Resolution 1325, which demands that perpetrators of crimes and violations during war are not afforded impunity. The fact that Israel is treated as a country above the law, and the absence of any form of accountability has only encouraged it to commit more crimes and violations. A case in point is the recent murdering of Palestinian Journalist Shirine Abu Akleh, where no one has been held accountable thus far, although the incident was caught on tape and there is hard evidence proving that her death was the result of premeditated and extrajudicial killing by the Israeli army.

During its evaluation and review of its action plan, the Palestinian Women’s Civil Coalition noted that Resolution 1325 and the nine subsequent resolutions, pinpointed the reasons for the outbreak and development of conflicts in various regions of the world to racial, religious and ethnic disputes. However, it excluded women under racist, colonialist occupation, which is the case of Palestinian women under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including occupied East Jerusalem. Thus, it has disregarded all international resolutions pertaining to the rights of the Palestinian people, over and above Israel’s disregard for its responsibilities as an occupying power. This necessitates a special resolution addressing the status of Palestinian women under racist, colonialist occupation, and addressing the root causes of the suffering of Palestinian women and the major obstacle they face in meaningful political participation, and in moving forward in the advancement of the women, peace and security agenda.

Mr. Secretary General,

Finally, we in the Palestinian Women’s Civil Coalition for the implementation of Resolution 1325, thank your Excellency for your understanding, and for conveying our concerns to all nation states during the open debate on WPS in the Security Council this year. We call on you to dedicate ample attention to the status of Palestinian women during the 22nd Security Council meeting on Resolution 1325, with the objective to develop and push forth the WPS agenda and put into action the role of international tools of accountability. We ask you to provide the necessary protection for Palestinian women under occupation, by closely overseeing the implementation of this resolution and the party responsible for impeding its application on the ground, namely, the Israeli occupying power that has exacerbated the suffering of Palestinian women at all levels and increased discriminatory measures against them.

With our sincere thanks and appreciation,
The Palestinian Women’s Civil Coalition for the Implementation of UNSCR1325

Mr. President, Esteemed Members of the Security Council,

I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to address you today, especially thankful to H.E. Ambassador Macharia Kamau, Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary and the Republic of Kenya for the kind invitation.

For over 70 years, the UN and its various bodies have been seized of the Palestine question; repeatedly reviewing conditions, adopting resolutions, and dispatching fact-finding missions, to no avail. Sadly, this Council has been unable to assert authority, allowing this injustice to become a perpetual tragic human, moral, political and legal travesty.

So it would be disingenuous of me to come before you assuming I could inform you of something you do not already know. Nevertheless, I do appreciate the opportunity to communicate in a candid manner, not to recite endless statistics, nor to reiterate the ongoing pain of a people, deprived of their basic rights, including even the right to speak out, admonished not to “whine” or “complain,” as a means of silencing the victim.

The tragedy is that you know all of this; yet, it has had a minimal impact, if any, on the horrific conditions in Occupied Palestine.

I imagine it must be disheartening and frustrating for this distinguished organization and its members to find themselves trapped in this cycle of deliberate disdain and futility.

It is therefore imperative that this Council consider where it has gone wrong and what it can do to correct course and serve the cause of justice and peace.

Undoubtedly, the absence of accountability for Israel and of protection for the Palestinian people has enabled Israeli impunity to ride roughshod over the rights of an entire nation, allowing for perpetuation of a permanent settler-colonial occupation.

Mr. President,

Much of the prevailing political discourse overlooks reality and is diverted and subsumed by chimeras and distractions proffered by Israel and its allies under such banners as “economic peace,” “improving the quality of life,” “normalization,” “managing the conflict,” “containing the conflict,” or “shrinking the conflict.”

These fallacies must be dismantled. Volatile situations of injustice and oppression do not shrink. They expand and explode, with disastrous consequences. Similarly, the delusion of “imposing calm” under siege and systemic aggression, particularly as in Gaza, is an oxymoron, for calm or security on the one hand and occupation or captivity on the other are antithetical and irreconcilable.

Likewise, the fallacy of “confidence-building measures” is misguided since occupation breeds only contempt, distrust, resentment, and resistance. The oppressed cannot be brought to trust or accept handouts from their oppressor as an alternative to their right to freedom and justice.

The misleading and flawed “both sides” argument calling for “balance” in a flagrantly unbalanced situation is another attempt at obfuscation and generating misconceptions.

Israel’s impunity is further enhanced using such excuses as being the so-called “only democracy in the Middle East” or a “strategic ally,” or having “shared values,” or even for the sake of protecting its “fragile coalition.”

There has also been tacit and, at times overt, acceptance of Israel’s ideological, absolutist arguments, including the invocation of religious texts as a means to dismiss and supplant contemporary political and legal discourse and action. Hence, the so-called “Jewish State Law,” which allocates the right to self-determination exclusively to Jews in all of historic Palestine, is endorsed and normalized.

In the meantime, a massive disinformation machine persists in its racist maligning and demonizing of the Palestinian people, going so far as to label them “terrorists,” or a “demographic threat,” a dehumanizing formula exploited as a way to deny the right of millions of Palestine refugees to return.

Such slander has warped political focus and discourse globally. Some states have gone off on a tangent pursuing Palestinian textbooks for so-called “incitement,” or adopting the IHRA definition that conflates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism, or criminalizing BDS, or intimidating and censoring academics and solidarity activists who stand up for Palestinian rights.

These distortions ignore the unequal and unjust laws designed to persecute Palestinians, individually and collectively. It is evidenced in the defamation of our political prisoners and the targeting of their families’ livelihoods, as though Israeli military courts or prison systems have anything to do with justice or legality.

The mindless refrain that Israel has the “right to defend itself,” while the Palestinian people are denied such a right, is perverse in that the occupier’s violence is justified as “self-defense” while the occupied are stigmatized as “terrorists.”

We cannot afford to disregard the context of occupation and its systemic aggression as the framing device for all critical assessments and action.

Excellencies,

Occupied Palestine, including Jerusalem, is the target of a comprehensive and pervasive policy of colonization and erasure, of displacement and replacement, in which Israel is appropriating everything Palestinian; our land and resources; our cultural and human heritage; our archeological sites, which we have safeguarded for centuries; our history; our cuisine; the names of our streets; and most egregiously the identity of Jerusalem, as we witness in the ethnic cleansing of the Old City, Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan among others. Even our cemeteries have been desecrated such as the building of a so-called “museum of tolerance” on top of human remains in Maman’ Allah cemetery. And, Israel continues to stoke the flames of a “holy war,” with repeated assaults on our holy sites, particularly Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Jerusalem is being targeted in a deliberate campaign of annexation and distortion. Israel now brazenly declares its intent to complete the settlement siege of Jerusalem and destruction of the territorial contiguity of the West Bank, with its outrageous plans for E-1, Qalandiya airport (Atarot), “Pisgat Ze’ev” and “Giv’at HaMatos.”

We cannot be distracted by symbolic gestures that create a false impression of progress. Claims that the “time is not right,” or that it is “difficult now” to work for a peaceful solution, give license to Israel to persist in its perilous policies. Likewise, repeating a verbal commitment to the two-State solution, while one state is allowed to deliberately destroy the other, rings hollow.

Mr. President,

All of this does not preclude our recognition of our own shortcomings. We do not shirk our responsibility to speak out against internal violence, human rights abuses, corruption, or other such practices that are rejected and resented by our own people. It is our responsibility to carry out democratic reform and revitalize our body politic while ending our internal divisions. This is a Palestinian imperative.

But we must caution others against exploiting our shortcomings to justify Israeli crimes or international inaction, or to condition any positive engagement on the creation of an ideal system of governance in Palestine while we languish under a lawless system of Israeli control.

We ask that you, trustees of the rules-based order, uphold your responsibilities: provide us with protection from aggression and empower our people to amplify their voice, both in governance and liberation.

Esteemed Members of the Council,

Peace is not achieved by “normalizing the occupation,” sidelining the Palestine Question, or rewarding Israel by repositioning it as a regional superpower. Such an approach maintains the causes of regional instability and insecurity, while enabling Israel as a colonial apartheid State to superimpose “Greater Israel” on all of historic Palestine.

Generation after generation, the people of Palestine have remained committed to the justice of their cause, the integrity of their narrative, the authenticity of their history and culture, and their inviolable right to live in freedom, and dignity, as an equal among nations and in the fullness of our humanity.

It is time to reclaim the narrative of justice and invoke our collective will to activate the UN Charter and affirm the relevance of international law.

The time has come for courageous and determined action, not just to undo the injustice of the past but to chart a clear and binding course for a peaceful future of hope and redemption.

I thank you.

To view the full Speech as PDF

We, the undersigned global coalition of leaders –from civil society to academia, art, media, business, politics, indigenous and faith communities, and people of conscience around the world– call upon the States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to act decisively to put an end to Israel’s notorious use of arms and military equipment for the commission of serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights against Palestinian civilians by immediately imposing a comprehensive two-way arms embargo on Israel.

In the spring of 2021, the world once again watched in horror as Israeli occupying forces attacked defenceless Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and inside Israel. Palestinian civilians peacefully protesting against colonisation of their land were assaulted with live fire, rubber-coated steel bullets, sound bombs, tear gas and skunk water. Israel’s deadly military aggression against the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip was the fourth in a decade. Over 11 days, 248 Palestinians were killed, including 66 children. Thousands were wounded, and the reverberating effects of the use of explosive weapons on hospitals, schools, food security, water, electricity and shelter continue to affect millions.

This systematic brutality, perpetrated throughout the past seven decades of Israel’s colonialism, apartheid, pro-longed illegal belligerent occupation, persecution, and closure, is only possible because of the complicity of some governments and corporations around the world.

Symbolic statements of condemnation alone will not put an end to this suffering. In accordance with the relevant rules of the ATT, States Parties have legal obligations to put an end to irresponsible and often complicit trade of conventional arms that undermines international peace and security, facilitates commission of egregious crimes, and threatens the international legal order.

Under Article 6(3) of the ATT, States Parties undertook not to authorise any transfer of conventional arms if they have knowledge at the time of authorisation that arms or items would be used in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva conventions of 1949, attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such, or other war crimes as defined by international agreements to which they are a Party.

Under Articles 7 and 11, they undertook not to authorise any export of conventional arms, munitions, parts and components that would, inter alia, undermine peace and security or be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law.

It is clear that arms exports to Israel are inconsistent with these obligations. Invariably, Israel has shown that it uses arms to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity, as documented by countless United Nations bodies and civil society organisations worldwide. Military exports to Israel also clearly enabled, facilitated and maintained Israel’s decades-long settler-colonial and apartheid regime imposed over the Palestinian people as a whole.

Similarly, arms imports from Israel are wholly inconsistent with obligations under the ATT. Israeli military and industry sources openly boast that their weapons and technologies are “combat proven” – in other words, field-tested on Palestinian civilians “human test subjects”. When States import Israeli arms, they are encouraging it to keep bombing Palestinian civilians and persist in its unlawful practices. No one –neither Israel, nor arms manufacturers in ATT States parties– should be allowed to profit from the killing or maiming of Palestinian civilians.

It is thus abundantly clear that imposing a two-way arms embargo on Israel is both a legal and a moral obligation. ATT States Parties must immediately terminate any current, and prohibit any future transfers of conventional arms, munitions, parts and components referred to in Article 2(1), Article 3 or Article 4 of the ATT to Israel, until it ends its illegal belligerent occupation of the occupied Palestinian territory and complies fully with its obligations under international law. Pending such an embargo, all States must immediately suspend all transfers of military equipment, assistance and munitions to Israel.

A failure to take these actions entails a heavy responsibility for the grave suffering of civilians – more deaths, more suffering, as thousands of Palestinian men, women and children continue to bear the brutality of a colonial belligerent occupying force– which would result in discrediting the ATT itself. It also renders States parties complicit in internationally wrongful acts through the aiding or abetting of international crimes.  A failure in taking action could also result in invoking the individual criminal responsibility of individuals of these States for aiding and abetting the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity in accordance with Article 25(3)(c) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Justice will remain elusive so long as Israel’s unlawful occupation, settler-colonialism, apartheid regime, and persecution and institutionalised oppression of the Palestinian people are allowed to continue, and so long as States continue to be complicit in the occupying Power’s crimes by trading weapons with it.

In conclusion, we believe that the ATT can make a difference in the Palestinian civilians’ lives. It has the potential, if implemented in good faith, to spare countless protected persons from suffering. If our call to stop leaving the Palestinian people behind when it comes to implementation of the ATT is ignored, the raison d'être of the ATT will be shattered.

Joining organisations:

1. Action Sécurité Ethique Républicaines
2. Adalah Justice Project
3. Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
4. AFPS 63
5. Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
6. Aldameer Association for Human Rights
7. Al-Haq, Law in the Service of Man
8. Alrowwad Cultural and Arts Society
9. American Muslims for Palestine
10. Anglican Pacifist Fellowship
11. Applied Research Institute - Jerusalem (ARIJ)
12. Arab Canadian Lawyers Association
13. Arab Organization for Human Rights
14. Argenteuil Solidarité Palestine
15. Asociación Americana de Juristas
16. Association Belgo-Palestinienne WB
17. Association femmes plurielles
18. Association France Palestine Solidarité (AFPS)
19. AssoPacePalestina
20. Australia Palestine Advocacy Network
21. Australian Centre for International Justice
22. Australians For Palestine
23. Badayl
24. BDS Australia
25. Begian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
26. Campagne BDS France
27. Canadian BDS Coalition
28. Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME)
29. Center for Constitutional Rights
30. Center for International Policy
31. Centro Interdisciplinario de Estudios Estratégicos para la Seguridad y el Desarrollo Social CIESED A.C.
32. CNAPD - Coordination Nationale d'Action pour la Paix et la Démocratie
33. Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine
34. Collectif 69 de Soutien au Peuple Palestinien
35. Collectif BDS 57
36. Collectif Judéo Arabe et Citoyen pour la Palestine
37. Colombian Campaign to Ban Landmines
38. Columban missionaries Britain
39. Columbia Law Students for Palestine
40. Combatants for Peace
41. Comitato BDS Campania
42. Comité de Solidaridad con la Causa Árabe
43. Comité pour une Paix Juste au Proche-Orient asbl
44. Community Action Center - Al-Quds University
45. Confederación Intersindical Gallega (CIG)
46. Cultura è Libertà, una campagna per la Palestina
47. Dagropass
48. De Palestijnse gemeenschap in Nederland
49. Defense for Children -Palestine (DCI-Palestine)
50. Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN)
51. docP - BDS Netherlands
52. Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
53. European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP)
54. European Legal Support Center
55. Femmes Unies pour la Paix dans la région des Grands Lacs
56. FILEF Sydney Federation of Italian Migrant Workers
57. Finnish-Arab Friendship Society
58. Friends of Palestine Tasmania Inc
59. Gaza Action Ireland
60. Gesellschaft Schweiz Palästina GSP/ASP
61. Global Kairos Asia Pacific Solidarity For Palestine (GKAPS)
62. Good Shepherd Collective
63. Housing and Land Rights Network
64. Human Rights and Democratic Participation Center “SHAMS”
65. Human Rights Network Nigeria
66. ICAHD Finland
67. ICAHD UK
68. Independent Jewish Voices Canada
69. Indian Writers Forum
70. Indo Palestine Solidarity Forum
71. International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD)
72. International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific
73. Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign
74. Jewish Voice For Peace
75. Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
76. Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement Pour Une Paix Juste
77. Karapatan
78. Kenya Human Rights Commission
79. Labor for Palestine
80. Manushya Foundation
81. National Association of Democratic Lawyers (South Africa)
82. National Justice & Peace Network (NJPN)
83. National Lawyers Guild, Palestine Subcommittee
84. Nederlands Palestina Komitee
85. Newweapons research group
86. Niagara Movement for Justice in Palestine-Israel (NMJPI)
87. North Notts Unite Community
88. NOVACT
89. Oakville Palestinian Rights Association
90. Palestine Solidarity Network - Edmonton
91. Palestinian and Jewish Unity
92. Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)
93. Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign (Stop the Wall)
94. Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO)
95. Pax Christi International
96. Pax Christi, England and Wales
97. Paz con Dignidad
98. Platform of French NGOs for Palestine
99. Salaam ragazzi dell'Olivo, comitato di Trieste
100. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
101. SODePAZ
102. Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative
103. The Civic Coalition for Palestinians Right in Jérusalem
104. The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)
105. The Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC)
106. The National Association of Human Rights Defenders
107. The Oakville Palestinian Rights Association
108. The Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC)
109. The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy-MIFTAH
110. UJFP French Jewish union for peace
111. Union syndicale Solidaires
112. US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
113. US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
114. Visualizing Palestine
115. Vrede vzw
116. Vredesactie
117. War on Want
118. Women for Palestine
119. Women in Black Vienna
120. Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling

Joining individuals:

121. Ahmed Ben
122. Ahmed Reda Tolba
123. Alaa Shalaby
124. Alaaeddine Tatak
125. Aline Shaban
126. Amin Abbas
127. Andrea Balduzzi
128. Angie Mindel
129. Ann McNicholas
130. Anne Peacey
131. Ashley Tellis
132. Atamjit Singh
133. Audrey J Bomse
134. Badee M.T. Aldwaik
135. Baruti Likoyi
136. Bernadette McPhe
137. Chirag Shah
138. Claudia Karas
139. Claudia Schiavelli
140. Denise Peillon
141. Denotter JJ
142. Devaki Khanna
143. Dr. Ibrahim Lada’a
144. Dr. Nerina Cecchin
145. Egbert Harmsen
146. Marc Fayard
147. Firoz Ahmad
148. Flavia Lepre
149. Françoise Abadie
150. Frstot Marie-Paule
151. Gabriel Mondragón Toledo
152. Geeta Kapur
153. Geeta Kapur
154. Georges Franco
155. Gillard Francois
156. Gina Cardosi
157. Githa Hariharan
158. Gregory Kotoy
159. Gyan Prakash
160. Haidi Ali Muhammad Eltayeb
161. Hélène Le Cacheux
162. Herman De Ley
163. Huwaida Arraf
164. Ian Ampleford
165. Ian Mc Cabe
166. Indu Chandrasekhar
167. Jake Javanshir
168. James Dickins
169. James Lafferty
170. John King
171. Joop Hoekstra
172. Julia Auf Dem Brinke
173. Julie Hart
174. Kalyani Chaudhuri
175. Karel Arnaut
176. Karin Brothers
177. Karin Verelst
178. Kathryn Kelly
179. Kellie Tranter
180. Lauren Speiser
181. Laurent De Wangen
182. Lee Rhiannon
183. Luisa Morgantini
184. M.N. Harakeh
185. Madeline Lutjeharms
186. Maha Abdallah
187. Maha Alami
188. Malini Bhattacharya
189. Mani Shankar Aiyar
190. Marcy Newman
191. Maria Bartolacci
192. Marjorie Cohn
193. Martin Mavenjina
194. Massimiliano Masini
195. Maxime Florentin
196. Maya Devi
197. Michael Letwin
198. Michel Gevers
199. Mohamad Arouki
200. Mohamed Aboelazm
201. Mohammad Al Nabulsi
202. Mohan Rao
203. Monique Vincent
204. Muralidharan K
205. Nalini Nayak
206. Nandini Sundar
207. Naresh Dadhich
208. Nasir Tyabji
209. Navdeep Mathur
210. Nick Deane
211. Nozomi Takahashi
212. Oishik Sircar
213. P A Azeez
214. Pamela Blakelock
215. Pamela Philipose
216. Paola Manduca
217. Patrick Lechopier
218. Persis Ginwalla
219. Pierre Bordone
220. Pushpa Achanta
221. Pushpamala N
222. Raffaele Spiga
223. Rajni Palriwala
224. Rev Joseph Ryan
225. Rey Asis
226. Rudolf Knutti
227. S. Raghunandana
228. Salim Yusufji
229. Sellin Jean-Christophe
230. Shafey Kidwai
231. Sharib Aqleem Ali
232. Sigour Brigitte
233. Sonia Fayman
234. Stephen Flaherty
235. Sue Ingham
236. Sumanta Banerjee
237. Terri Ginsberg
238. Valter Mutt
239. Vinay Bharadwaj
240. Vincent Basabé
241. Winfried Belz
242. Yousuf Saeed
243. YVes Goaer
244. Yves Jardin

To View the Letter as PDF

When spring arrives in Jerusalem, daffodils and other wild flowers bloom. Of the images of spring this year was that of a young boy collecting daffodils near the French Consulate in West Jerusalem. When I greeted him and asked for his name, it turned out that he was from an Arab Palestinian family living in the Old City of Jerusalem. With his eyes sparkling with happiness as he collected one daffodil after another from between stones and rocks I wanted to know the purpose of his precious collection. 'Oh, these flowers are for my mother, she loves flowers.' I was overwhelmed by this 10-year old's attachment to his mother and his willingness to walk from his home in the old town at a rather late afternoon hour to enterprise a motherly daffodil collection.

I was reminded of this young boy when the other day I visited a demolished, Palestinian home on the Mount of Olives that the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem claimed was built illegally. The home housed two families of more than 15 members together.

As I approached the head of the household and shook hands with him, an 8-year old boy made his way to me amidst a cluster of older people, shook hands and told me in a spontaneous manner: 'today is my birthday!' A wave of electricity went through me as I looked at his smiling face and wished that I had brought a birthday cake with me, in spite of the sad occasion of his family's home having been destroyed.

These two boys symbolize the future and also the value given to the family in Palestinian society and culture. In the final analysis the Palestinian family remains the bastion which nourishes and strengthens, even when the political, economic and other ills appear to be insurmountable.

With politics and its process I feel in a void these days and therefore prefer to keep my silence.

One of my teachers in high school diagnosed me once as a hopeless case of an addicted pessimist. But it has nothing to do with pessimism but rather with the feeling that in the final analysis our Palestinian people and we ourselves as individuals and families will pay for whatever 'progress' happens in the political process.

If there is no progress, we will continue to pay and the world will continue talking about the overall contours of the political process and the difficulties it encounters and how to overcome them. Meanwhile our difficulties as families and communities will be swept under the excuse that all is permitted to the Israelis to ensure their security. This may sound surrealistic and it is: we are damned if there is a peace process and we are damned if there is not!

I am not discounting the good intentions and efforts of world politicians in advancing the political process between us and the Israelis, but my gut-level reaction is that four years from now we will still be in the same place, if not worse.

I honestly hope that I am absolutely mistaken and my arguments would be brushed away as those of a naïve know-nothing person.

However, I am afraid that too many more Springs will pass and too many homes will be destroyed in Jerusalem before the daffodil collections of young Palestinian boys will adorn family homes and bring joy to mothers in a true environment of peace.

For a conference organized by Saint Egidio Society in Rome on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 under the title “The Value of Christian Churches in the Middle East: A Christian Muslim Discussion”, I was asked to make a 10-minute presentation on the topic ‘A Window on the World.’ I got to my pc and printed out the last four or five articles that I have written over a number of years on Christians in Palestine and in the Arab World. I was debating myself on whether to base my presentation on personal experiences and recollections or to be more academic, and usually boring, by citing statistics, institutions, schools, printing presses, community societies, clinics and other varied contributions of the Churches in Palestine and elsewhere in the region since the Middle of the 19th Century and even earlier. Local Christians, indigenous to the Palestinian and Arab settings, usually root themselves, their families, communities and churches in the early Church and like to insist that Jerusalem was and remains, as they wish it to be, the “Mother Church.” In a recent talk I have given to a group of priests from the Philippines visiting the Holy Land, I referred to the physical limitations of the city of Jerusalem and thanked the divine wisdom for Rome’s hospitality to the Church otherwise, I asked my group of priests, how would we have dealt with the traffic if Jerusalem would have become the seat of St. Peter’s successors and Jewish, Christian and Muslim holidays and feasts would have coincided with each other with millions of visitors to the Holy City? The Almighty has thankfully taken care of the anticipated traffic and population congestion in Jerusalem but much more work needs to be done on the human dimension in the city as elsewhere in the Middle East.

So what kind of a Window on the World would I present to the distinguished group of Christians and Muslims that will gather to exchange notes and reflections? Would I tell them the stories of growing up in Jerusalem with the images of a child of a Palestinian Christian refugee family of ten being hosted in two rooms by the Franciscans or better would I tell them of the experiences of school at the Ecole des Freres at New Gate with Christian and Muslim students, mostly refugees, sitting next to each other and getting a quality education in languages and other subjects. Or much better yet to share with them the experiences of the young boy who walked the streets of Jerusalem and heard prayers and saw pilgrims of a variety of countries and of both Muslim and Christian faith? Or would I impress them with the view from the two-room home looking unto the Al Haram Al Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary, and the Mount of Olives and the voices and sounds of bells, muezzins and other religious intonations mixing with each other and providing a semblance of harmony and peace?

But the personal, regardless of how significant it is for the individual, remains rooted in the context or environment. With the impression that Jerusalem placed on me as a young boy, there was also an impression that Jerusalem is a troubled place; a place that is yet to evolve into something else. As I grew up, the academic courses, the thousands of articles, books, lectures and conferences on the city; its past, future and the unspeakable prospects presented by so many sides of interested and noninterested groups made me realize even more that Jerusalem indeed is a troubled place and not the place of hope and salvation that Christians, Jews and Muslims see and seek.

Palestinian Christians or Christians of the Holy Land, comprising Jordan, Israel and Palestine, are grouped in more than 15 churches and in their kaleidoscopic representation of Christianity; they reflect the challenges and hopes. But, as the Heads of Churches have indicated in their November 1994 declaration on Jerusalem, the city is the place of roots and the aspiration for a future of peace, harmony, free access and respect for religious freedom and practice. History of Christianity is recognized by the declaration of the Heads of Churches side by side with the history of Judaism and Islam. What is asked for Christians, pilgrims and citizens alike, is also asked for Jews and Muslims. The vision motivating the declaration is clearly a religious vision but it is also aware of the religious, historical, national and political complexities that impact the present realities of the city and its inhabitants. But these complexities are not simply peculiar to Jerusalem as they are impacting the whole of the Middle East and making the prospects for the future quite bleak, to say the least.

While at every juncture of the long history of conflict in the Middle East, blame is put on this side or that for the absence of peace, it is clear that the exercise of basic rights whether religious, civil, political or just human is dependent on an environment of peace. With no peace in the city and the region, there is no clear vision of a different future for Jerusalem or the region. Crystallizing the clear vision is the responsibility of everyone and in particular the spiritual and religious leaders on all sides. The tragedies that befell our Palestinian people in Gaza recently and the fear, injury and stress caused to Israeli citizens because of the shelling of rockets are a reflection of the tragedy in which all of us live at present. It appears that at present so many people in the Middle East but especially in Palestine and Israel have turned their backs to each other and find it normal to opt for confrontation rather than compromise. The Churches and the faithful cannot be comfortable with such a situation, irrespective of the partisan feelings and emotions that are continuously generated with new rounds of conflict and war. At the moment, political developments do not bode well for the future of peace in the region. On the contrary we may be in a new cycle of vicious violence and counter violence that will lead all of us into the abyss of despair and hopelessness.

The Churches with their Window on the World must work and act to touch the pain of all people in Jerusalem and the region and to actively engage in peace efforts, either through influencing politicians or through mobilizing their own faithful to work for a different future. This cannot be done without the involvement of all in the region: I and other Palestinian and Arab Christians are often perceived as too controversial, or too marginal and hence unimportant, to be involved in peace work and intellectual exchange as we like to bring out the sensitive issues, the injustices committed against our people, the historic tragedy of the disintegration of Palestinian society as a cost to the establishment of the State of Israel and the ingathering of the Jewish exiles. Often people who want to work for peace, particularly in the West, seek unconditional forgiveness on all sides but especially on the Christian and Arab sides. For whatever reason, these well intentioned Western people believe that if the Arabs show willingness to forgive and to make peace then the Israelis will be forthcoming. But there are also many counter arguments and examples that prove when Arabs are more forthcoming the Israelis become less willing to compromise. But this is not the issue and for fear that I would lose the intended conclusion in this short presentation, I would go back to the major argument that PEACE is the essential task of Middle East Churches and their faithful as well as of Judaism and Islam and their faithful. Accordingly, for all of us who seek the Peace of Jerusalem and the region, we have to work together to formulate a comprehensive framework of Peace:

First, each religious community is entitled to continue to live in the dignity and pride of its own religious tradition and history and to attend to its own holy places, without interference from any outside source. This applies to all countries of the region.

Second, each national community feels that it is secure in its territory in terms of the sovereignty that guarantees the fulfillment of basic needs of political community life and continuity with acknowledgement of mutual rights and obligations. This is specifically applicable to Palestine and Israel.

Third, the wounds inflicted on the parties to the conflict must be recognized and addressed. This could be most difficult but we cannot recognize the pain of one party to the exclusion of the other. Pain is pain, regardless of who is feeling it.

Fourth, while recognizing the pain of the conflicting parties, we should work to steer away from the “victim” mentality. So many of us in the region have grown accustomed to presenting ourselves as victims. Unfortunately, some feel comfortable with this victim mentality and keep perpetuating it for various reasons. We need to do all to get away from this mentality and to overcome it through work of healing and eventual reconciliation.

Fifth, we must be very careful not to abuse our religious traditions and teachings. It is disheartening and saddening when transgressions against neighbors are justified by religious leaders of different faith communities in the name of religion. What makes these “religiously” based justifications even more reprehensible is the fact that some of those religious leaders participating in inter group and inter faith encounters are the ones who are making these statements. It is the obligation of all to remind all of expected standards and obligations: we cannot be for dialogue here and for justification of war and conflict there!

Sixth, the Churches of the Middle East with all their heritage of caritative, social, educational and religious work done in harmony with their neighbors and for the purpose of community and society building should be courageous to speak up and work for the sake of peace and be uncompromising on this. Without peace and harmony among the different religious and national groups, there will be no future in the Middle East irrespective of victor or loser in intermittent wars and battles.

Our Window on the World as Churches of the Middle East is a window that has so many contrasting tales; sad and happy experiences; marginal tendencies and openness to others; letdowns and hopeful expectations. While we feel our limitations we also can value our potential. But without action and without engagement, this potential can never be accomplished. It is at this particular juncture that much is demanded from Christians and Churches in the Middle East so as their Window on the World would influence as well the Window of the World of their Muslim and other neighbors.

I found myself extremely frustrated and emotionally moved when someone told me that for some groups in certain countries there was discomfort to news reports and briefings describing the bombs falling on Gaza as “Israeli bombs”. As incredible as this may sound, this was mentioned in a very respected and august company by a media specialist. I asked my interlocutor how to best describe these bombs: bombs from up there or bombs manufactured in the USA or any other country of origin? He thought I was not serious but in reality I was desperate to understand the logic behind raising such an apparently senseless and to me immoral question. Possibly the objection of these groups to the use of “Israeli bombs” had to deal with its possible undertone of anti-semitism for certainly the Israeli pilots were only an instrument to deliver these bombs to innocent children and other civilians as they did not manufacture the bombs themselves. Another reason for the objection of these groups could be that their back donors, honest citizens in civilized and cultured countries, would have a problem with describing bombs as being Israeli. To ease the conscience of leaders of these groups and their back donors, I am asking them to please stick to their conscience, keep their money and go spend it in a way that would not pose a moral and ethical dilemma to them. We, Palestinians, are absolutely opposed to anyone of them not being able to sleep soundly overnight because of the wrong description of the bombs that fell down on our people in Gaza.

In order to determine how best to describe the bombs that fell down on Gaza, I searched the internet for stories from Jerusalem Post and Reuters, among other media outlets, to see how some religious Jewish leaders could enlighten us on this. The chief rabbi of the city of Safed Shmuel Eliyahu in Northern Israel was emphatic about the need to kill as many Palestinians in order to get them to stop launching rockets: "if they don't stop after we kill 100 then we must kill a thousand and if they do not stop after 1000 then we must kill 10,000. if they still don't stop we must kill 100,000, even a million. Whatever it takes to make them stop." Rabbi Eliyahu quoted from the Psalms: "I will pursue my enemies and apprehend them and I will not desist until I have eradicated them." (Israel.Jpost.Com, January 25, 2009 at 22:14.) Would this position be a point against referring to the bombs as “Israeli bombs” and instead refer to them as bombs from up there?

Rabbi Eliyahu’s father is former Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel Mordechai Eliyahu who was quoted himself as saying in a letter sent to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that there was absolutely no moral prohibition against the indiscriminate killing of civilians during a potential massive military offensive on Gaza aimed at stopping the rocket launchings. According to Jewish war ethics, wrote Eliyahu, an entire city holds collective responsibility for the immoral behavior of individuals. The former Chief Rabbi opposed a ground troop incursion, according to his Rabbi son, because it would endanger IDF soldiers. Rather, he advocated carpet bombing the general area from which the Kassams were launched, regardless of the price in Palestinian life. (Israel.Jpost.Com, January 25, 2009 at 22:14.) Would this be an additional arguing point for not calling the bombs “Israeli bombs” and calling them bombs from up there?

An Israeli rights group, Yesh Din, called on Monday for the dismissal of the chief military rabbi, Brigadier-General Avichai Rontzki, saying he had authorized a booklet, written by a civilian rabbi who advocates Jewish settlement in the West Bank that told soldiers to show no mercy because they were fighting a "cruel enemy" and "murderers". (Reuters, January 28, 2009.) Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger, citing Maimonides (1135-1204), the Jewish philosopher and legalist, urged soldiers to "trust in God and know that war is being waged for the sanctification of His name... and not to fear. [The soldier] should not think at this time of his wife or of his children or of his mother and father." Meanwhile, Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar called the military campaign in Gaza "a holy mission that is being waged in the name of the entire Jewish people." Chief Rabbi of Safed Shmuel Eliyahu, quoted above, has recorded a message to soldiers on MP3s distributed freely to Israeli soldiers as compliment of a donor or group of donors by the Jewish Consciousness Field (JCF) which is a division of the Israeli army Rabbinate. "Our intention is to uplift soldiers' spirits," said Eliyahu, who likened Hamas to Haman in the biblical story of Ester and to the Nazis. In addition to the MP3s, the JCF also distributed to IDF rabbis in the field in Gaza a pamphlet entitled "Jewish Consciousness Emphases for Cast Lead." In the pamphlet, the IDF rabbis are addressed as "Anointed Priests of War." In the introduction, Shmuel Yurman, an officer in the JCF, defines the purpose of the pamphlet: “This is the hour to strengthen our fighters in this heavenly commanded war [milchemet mitzva] that they have the merit to wage. Each of you [rabbis] has the knowledge and skills needed to contribute to the IDF battle spirit.” (Israel. Jpost.Com, January 8, 2009 at 11:14.)

Would all these religious enlightenments further reinforce the position of these groups that are calling for not using the term “Israeli bombs?” Or should these groups engage in an intense morally and ethically driven effort to help explain the position of these Jewish religious leaders as they search for a new descriptive term for the bombs that fell on Gaza and its population during the 22-day war?

Israeli politics with Arab neighbors have always been weighed by the use of force. Israel has once again decided that in order to accomplish what could have been accomplished by negotiation and willingness to compromise; force would be the best solution. Apparently, the objective of the use of force this time is to eliminate the threat posed by rockets launched from the Gaza Strip. But to accomplish this goal Israel is also intent to deal a deadly blow to the overall infrastructure, both human and material of the Gaza Strip, irrespective of the damage inflicted and the costs to innocent civilians, families and communities as a result of the indiscriminate air power, naval bombardments and shelling. The end objective, accordingly, cannot be accomplished without reducing Gaza to rubbles and holding its people captive. This supposedly would further Israel’s political goal of weakening Hamas and rendering its authority and ability to govern questionable.

Observers of the Palestinian, Arab and indeed of the international scene speak of an overwhelming sympathy and support to the people in Gaza and to the Hamas movement. This sympathy, however, translates itself to no more than the needed humanitarian help that at the moment is not effective since the ground war on Gaza has begun and since the air strikes of the last 9 days have made it almost impossible for people to move around freely. Accordingly, the distribution system of food, medical and other essential commodities has been severely hampered. This may be intentional and policy guided by Israel as it aims to drive the Palestinian people of Gaza to their limits with the hope that this would serve the overall Israeli policy of showing that a weakened Hamas cannot cope with the emergent needs of the population.

The tragedy in what is happening in Gaza is not restricted to Israel’s use of force as the preferred course of action by the electioneering politicians and their military cohorts. This tragedy unfortunately is also shared by the Arab world with its political divisions and by the World community with its inaction. In the Arab world, the Palestinian issue has become a political tug of war and those rulers who want to climb on the bandwagon have been doing so to serve their own narrow interests often in collision with regional and foreign powers, whose policies are not particularly favorable to our Palestinian people. We have been at pain with the political division in Palestine and yet the call for comprehensive Palestinian dialogue in Cairo has been torpedoed in part by considerations that are not in our interest. If the Arab world were to insist on Palestinian Unity and worked for it as it should have diligently, we would have had one more reason against Israel’s pretexts for attacking Gaza. This is not the place to blame but there is apparent frustration among all Arabs and Palestinians not simply with the inaction of Arab rulers in the face of the Israeli war on Gaza but more so with the missed opportunities that these same Arab rulers have lost in order to bring Palestinians together as they took sides between opposing Palestinian factions and parties, thus exacerbating the divisions instead of healing them. Some Arab analysts have argued that it is better to wait on the Palestinian Unity issue after President-Elect Obama takes office in January 2009 and after the Israeli elections in February 2009. The same argument unfortunately has also been made on promoting a new truce with Israel. Our people under siege in Gaza and under continuing fierce Israeli control and occupation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem cannot wait. Arab politics needs to become proactive and not reactive and to assert Arab interests not with apologetics but with concrete and practical steps that force Israel, Western powers and the world to weigh the Arab world more seriously.

The Western Powers have failed us, in spite of the fact that the French President has shown much more acumen and movement than some of the rulers in the region, with the clear exception of Turkey and its Prime Minister and other officials. The inability of the UN Security Council to come up with a plan to end the Israeli war on Gaza is symptomatic of the delaying tactics, usually employed by the US, in order to enable Israel to finish its work on the ground. Meanwhile, if the Gaza situation has happened anywhere else, the US would be foremost on insisting on an immediate ceasefire, Georgia being the most recent example. The position of the West and its governments, in general, reflects quite poorly on the pretense often made of subscription to universal human values and the adoption of moral and ethical positions, especially in situations of war and conflict. The mass demonstrations across the globe and in Western countries and Capitals show that the decency of ordinary people in expressing their indignation and in calling for an end to the war remains to be matched by their government’s actions and deeds.

We Palestinians are at a crucial juncture once again. It is absolutely clear that we need to come together since a house divided cannot withstand the storm nor be able to rehabilitate and reconstruct. Individual or factional agendas should be put aside as we should opt for a national agenda that would bring all of us together. The wounds of Gaza are the wounds of all Palestine and we need together to tend to these wounds as we call on all decent people and powers to do their utmost to stop the war. If Israel and its allies have their way, we will soon be forced to give up control of the Gaza Strip and possibly the West Bank in order to further the control over the population and to make Israel the undisputable Lord of the Land. Besides, it would help Israel greatly if in the process hundreds of thousands of our Palestinian people emigrate, leave or simply disappear or are transferred. The micro politics that has characterized Palestinian politics since the January 2006 elections should change to macro politics. We should adopt a clear course and we should insist that all Palestinian factions and political groups shed their narrow interests and benefits from the current status quo and come together in order to chart this course and to deal with the human, political, social and economic after effects of the Israeli war on Gaza. The rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip and its reconstruction necessitates equally the rehabilitation of Palestinian politics and its regeneration to serve the interest of our people. The challenge is how to get the world with us and to confront the difficult future that lies ahead in 2009 and perhaps for years to come. The more pressing challenge is to stop the Israeli carnage and to bring the war to an immediate stop. But we should never forget what awaits us all in terms of unification, reconstruction and molding a vision for the future of our Palestine.