Episcopal Press and News
Palestinian Plight an 'Eye Opener' for Women to Women Exchange
Episcopal News Service. January 25, 1990 [90020]
Jeffrey Penn
A delegation of 14 women travelers to the Holy Land met face to face with the violence and turmoil of Palestinian refugee camps and has now returned to the United States with a sense of mission to "tell the truth" about its encounter.
"It felt like we were seeing the face of the suffering Christ," said one of the travelers. "It was not a retreat."
The delegation, "The Women to Women Exchange," representing national, diocesan, and parish women's groups in the United States, spent 10 days visiting with Palestinian and Jewish women in the context of visits to Palestinian refugee camps, the Anglican hospital in the Gaza Strip, elementary schools, an orphanage, and holy shrines.
"It was an eye-opening experience for me -- a conversion," said Nancy Grandfield from the Diocese of California and president of the National Association of Diocesan Altar Guilds. "It was not the kind of vacation where you say, 'Wasn't that a nice trip? Let's send a postcard home,'" she said.
Grandfield, who says she was "not a very political person" before the trip, is now "invigorated and committed to doing something to raise consciousness about Palestinian concerns."
"My eyes were opened by seeing the harassment of Palestinians first hand -- by talking to women and listening to the national pride songs of little children," Grandfield reported.
Daphne Copenhagen from San Mateo, California, admitted that she was moved by an intense and honest interchange on the first night of the trip. "A Palestinian woman who was a member of the YWCA human rights commission came to speak to us. It was a body-aching experience."
Copenhagen was confronted by the woman's testimony: "We don't worry about our daily lives, but the lives of our children. As women and mothers we understand how to keep peace in our families, so we have a special burden to try to bring peace to our country. . . . We Palestinians want to be recognized and treated as equal partners in planning for peace."
The woman's witness was "very honest and inclusive," according to Copenhagen. "She did not berate the Jews. She was just saying, 'We live here too.'"
The Women to Women Exchange delegates spent part of their visit in intensive study at St. George's College in Jerusalem. Nina Pohl from San Carlos, California, said that the course at St. George's, "Palestine in the Time of Jesus," pointed out some uncanny similarities to the present situation. "Our study showed us that the turmoil has been going on for 2,000 years. We are still weeping over Jerusalem like Jesus did," she said.
Visits to Palestinian refugee camps were studies in harassment and oppression, according to most of the delegation. Grandfield reported that one of the camps "cramped together over 85,000 people. It was beyond your wildest imagination."
"We visited one camp that didn't have any facilities for sewage treatment," said Marjorie Burke of Lexington, Massachusetts, and president of Episcopal Church Women. "I wasn't aware of the horrible conditions in the refugee camps until I saw it firsthand," she said.
The delegation heard many stories of intimidation on the part of Israeli soldiers. "One woman's home had been demolished because her husband was in prison because he was outspoken and committed to make their lives better," Burke reported.
"The refugee camps were littered with stones and rubble," said Daphne Copenhagen. "Whenever the Israeli armies bulldoze a house, you're not allowed to build it up again. The armies want the rubble to be a symbol of your disobedience," she said.
"I think all of us felt betrayed by the American press in that the people in the United States are not being told the truth about the suffering and deprivation inflicted on the Palestinians, especially in the refugee camps," said Ann Smith from the Office of Women in Mission and Ministry at the Episcopal Church Center.
"It was very, very scary at times," said Grandfield. "We were in danger lots of times. Our bus was stoned, and we were harassed by soldiers when we visited the camps."
"The oppression of being constantly accompanied by soldiers and having binoculars and guns pointed at us while we were traveling and visiting Palestinians was appalling," said Copenhagen.
"We experienced what is a daily routine for Palestinians -- of the military entering the camps, throwing tear gas and racing at top speed in jeeps around the streets in the camps while pointing their guns at the American women and the children and women of the camps. . . We experienced the smell of tear gas, a chemical poison that causes miscarriages in women," Smith reported.
"Some of my vivid memories are of the children throughout the camps who raise their fingers in the victory sign even though they know they could be beaten or their fingers crushed," Smith said.
A visit to the Anglican hospital in Gaza added to the pathos of the delegation's tour. "The hospital doesn't have much modern equipment, and the Israeli government makes it difficult to replace and update needed parts," said Burke. "I was shocked that supplies in the pharmacy seemed totally inadequate."
"Most of the people in the hospital come from refugee camps," Burke continued. "A young boy with a gunshot wound was admitted while we were visiting, and we were horrified to learn that he was shot in the very camp we had just visited before we went to the hospital," she said.
"I met a woman in the hospital named Noel whose 17-year-old son was murdered last year," said Grandfield. "She had another son in prison, and a sick teenage daughter. The mother was yellow from jaundice resulting from cancer," she continued. "Though we did not speak the same language, I comforted her and said a prayer over her. As the woman's eyes welled up with tears, my interpreter told me she was saying, 'Hold me close. All I have is my hope."'
"This woman who had lost her children, but not her hope, reminded me of Mary the mother of Jesus," Grandfield said.
Pohl feels that the sense of family and kinship was a common dynamic between the Palestinian women and the delegation. "We had a very powerful understanding of their feelings. We shed tears together," she said.
The concern for the children was also a common factor among all of the women. "The whole effect of the turmoil on children is one of the most serious problems," said Burke. "Because the Israeli government has closed down most of the refugee schools, they have cut off access to knowledge for generations of people. We could see a whole generation of illiterate Palestinians. If the situation doesn't change before long, the hatred will continue to build," she continued.
The Rev. Daphne Grimes of Meeteetse, Wyoming, agreed. "The critical issue for the children is what is happening to them since their school systems were closed. In the past couple of years there has been only a couple of months of school," she said. "As a result, many women are trying to organize preschool for their children."
Grimes said she is "amazed" that in spite of the hardships the "kids still have a lot of hope and their morale is generally high."
"Palestine has an endless supply of stones and an endless supply of spirit and hope," said Grandfield, in a subtle reference to the recent uprising. "They bring up their children to persevere."
Yet, it is the witness of the women who may bring about any solutions to the current stalemate of fear and oppression. "It will take the women to make a difference because the men are wounded or in prison," said Grandfield. "I was extremely impressed with their determination and sacrifice. They are not going to leave, no matter what," she continued. "Their persistence was made clear to me in the words of one woman, who told me, 'If you kill my sons and take my husband to prison, what difference does it make if you shoot me?'"
The Palestinian women are not passive in their struggle. "We can endure constant danger and fear because our cause is just. Our struggle goes on all the time. Our lives are for the cause of freedom through whatever channel we can find," a Palestinian woman told the visiting delegation.
Grandfield sees the Women to Women Exchange as one of those channels for the cause. "We are a lifeline for the women over there," she said.
All of the delegation returned with the conviction that new solutions should be sought to end the Palestinian problem. "I would like to see the U.S. get to the bargaining table with the Palestinian Liberation Organization," said Burke. For Grimes, who has toured the Holy Land many times in the past 30 years, it is very important to "get the story out."
Grimes said for many years she has felt "like a voice crying in the wilderness" but now feels that there is more interest in the plight of the Palestinians. Many of the delegation are preparing slide shows, newspaper interviews, and letters to their congressional representatives in an effort to open the dialogue.
"I am not going to forget this trip anytime soon," said Pohl. She plans to speak to her parish and to keep the spiritual dimension of the trip in focus. "I was concerned that the visit to the Palestinian camps would overshadow the pilgrimage to holy places on the trip," she continued. "But on the final day of our trip when we shared the Eucharist in Capernaum, I had a realization that Christ is there -- in the camps, in the midst of the turmoil."