Episcopal Press and News
Volunteers Leave Work in West Bank to Begin Educational Crusade on Middle East
Episcopal News Service. October 31, 1990 [90277]
In an atmosphere of rising tensions due to the Persian Gulf crisis, two Volunteers for Mission recently left their work as teachers in the Israelioccupied West Bank and returned to the United States to share their experiences.
Rebecca Miller of Norfolk, Virginia, left an appointment in Ramallah three months early. Miller was training schoolteachers to improve their skills as English instructors.
Josie Hookway of Bath, North Carolina, curtailed a six-month stint as a nursing instructor at St. Luke's Hospital in Nablus. St. Luke's is the only Christian-sponsored hospital on the occupied West Bank, according to Hookway.
"It was their decision to leave early," said Dorothy Gist, associate for the Volunteer for Mission program office in New York. Gist reported that there were four volunteers working in Israel or the occupied territories before the two departed. "Bishop Kafity was disappointed that they had to leave, and hopes that they will be able to return," Gist said.
Hookway attributed her decision to leave the West Bank to fears that the Persian Gulf crisis might force the Israeli government to intensify its opposition to the Palestinian uprising, the intifada. "I think many of the Palestinians are so exhausted by their struggle that they turned to Sadam Hussein," she said. "They see him as someone who is listening to their concerns."
Hookway said that she worries that the hospital will come under increasing pressure amid decreasing resources. "I went there to help out with the nursing students, not to get involved in politics," said Hookway. "I was very careful not to make political comments while I was there."
"St. Luke's is a no-frills hospital," Hookway said. "It's a 100-year-old, decrepit, and worn-out building, with doctors and nurses working to capacity around the clock." Hookway set out to help improve conditions in the hospital, in addition to training a class of 18 nursing students, age 16 to 26.
"These young people had worked very hard for 18 months, through the times when the hospital had been filled with injured from shootings, gassings, burs, during the intifada uprisings."
The crowning moment for Hookway was a graduation ceremony for the nurses -- the first ever for a practical nursing class. "It isn't for lack of caring" that they had never had a ceremony before, according to Hookway, "but this is a very busy hospital, and who would have had the time to think of one?" she asked.
Miller said that constant disruptions prevented all but nine of her 20 students at the Evangelical School for Girls in Ramallah from finishing their course work before the three-month program ended. "Hardly a week goes by without interruptions from holidays, curfews, strike days, or violence," she said.
Miller also tutored several Palestinian children during her abbreviated stay. She reported that the poor living conditions and increasing tensions have infected school children with an air of hopelessness and bitterness.
"Many of the children ask, 'Why should I study hard, because where will I go to college, or where will I get a job?'" said Miller. She reported that the constant turmoil interferes with school and family life of the Palestinian people.
"Many of the school children display a defiance that they never had before the intifada," Miller said. "One of them once said, 'I don't do what my parents tell me -- I have a political conscience.'"
Both Hookway and Miller said that they intend to educate Americans about life in the West Bank and would like to return there someday. "Our ministry is not so much about what we did there," Hookway said. "Just to be there in the midst of them was important."