Negotiations--No Illusions in Palestine

Doug Hostetter is International/Interfaith Secretary of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, <dhostetter@forusa.org>

A Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) Interfaith Delegation returned mid November from an intensive, two-week visit to Israel/Palestine. Despite the wide divergence of opinion in the region on the short term prospects for peace, the delegation met several individuals and organizations which are actively laying the foundations for long term security, mutual respect, and sharing of land and resources between Israelis and Palestinians.

The FOR delegation was co-led by Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb of Nahalat Shalom Synagogue in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Doug Hostetter, of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Nyack, New York. Rabbi Gottlieb is active in the Jewish Renewal Movement and the Jewish Peace Fellowship. Other participants were: John Dear, Director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation; Tarek El Heneidy, active in the FOR Muslim Peace Fellowship, Rockport, MA; Rev. Robert Keck, Superior, West Side (NYC) Jesuit Community; and Rev. William Pickard, Diocesan Director, Prison Ministry, Scranton, Pennsylvania. Members of the delegation did not stay in hotels, but accepted hospitality in a kibbutz in northern Israel, in the homes of Palestinian Christians near Bethlehem, Palestinian Muslims near Hebron, and several rabbis in Jerusalem.

The delegation learned that Jewish Israelis, with few exceptions, were guardedly optimistic about the Barak government and the movement of the negotiations towards peace. Palestinians, however, including Palestinian peace and human rights activists, expressed a deep, and nearly universal, distrust in the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, and a strong belief that the final status negotiations were leading to a system of apartheid.

For the Israelis, the words of the politicians sound like peace. For the Palestinians, the actions of the Israeli government and military tell quite a different story. During the "peace" negotiations, settlements have continued to expand; Palestinian homes have continued to be demolished and their lands seized for the expansion of Israeli roads, settlements, and military bases; travel for Palestinians on the West Bank is more restricted than it was six years ago before the Oslo negotiations. For most Palestinians it has become clear that the final status will bring a "Palestinian State" in which the Palestinian population would be crowded into small reservation-type enclaves surrounded and subjugated by Israel in cooperation with Palestinian Authority security services.

Palestinians reported corruption and a lack of democracy in the 4% of the West Bank and Gaza controlled by the Palestinian Authority (PA): journalists have been arrested for criticizing Arafat or the PA; Palestinian students ordered released by Palestinian courts, remain in prison; and laws which had been passed by the Palestinian Legislative Council remain unimplemented. Palestinians reported that education and health care were in deplorable condition, while the PA has spent 36% of the budget on "security services" while building enormous mansions on the beach in Gaza for Arafat and the PA leadership. Shortly after we returned, 20 prominent Palestinian intellectuals and politicians issued a protest statement: "Our homeland is being sold out, and our people are being betrayed. . . Let us join together to confront this tyranny and corruption." Arafat's response was to arrest the intellectuals and move to lift the immunity from the politicians who were members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. A Palestinian journalist near Hebron warned our group, "The Israelis and the US will likely get Arafat to sign an unjust peace treaty, but don't confuse Arafat's signature on a piece of paper with peace for the Palestinian people. A durable peace for Israel and Palestine can come only when there is an equitable distribution of land and water resources and democracy for both peoples."

Despite the pessimism of most Palestinians, the group did encounter one oasis of hope--Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam (Oasis of Peace) in Doar Na Shimshon, Israel. This is the only village in all of Israel where Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs of Israeli citizenship live together in a cooperative community. Forty-five Jewish and Palestinian families equally share the responsibilities of the community and the land. Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam Primary School is the only Jewish/Palestinian, completely bilingual educational program in Israel. The 220 students come not only from the Neve Shalom community, but also from twenty other villages in the area.