Episcopal Press and News
Delegation Says Middle East Is a Mixture of Hope and Despair
Episcopal News Service. April 10, 1992 [92091]
Seven Episcopalians who have returned from a trip to Israel and the occupied territories are reporting that the political climate there is a mix of optimism and storm clouds threatening on the horizon.
"The fact that the peace talks are happening is reason for optimism," said the Rev. Wallace Frey of Central New York, vice president of the Episcopal Church's House of Deputies, and a member of the delegation. "Yet, the road ahead is littered with significant obstacles. The crunch will come when both sides have to give up something," he said.
The delegation, which included members of the Standing Commission on Peace with Justice, the United Thank Offering (UTO), and the Episcopal Church Center staff, joined Patti Browning, whose visits to the Middle East have helped focus the church's attention on the plight of Palestinians. The March 8-15 trip included visits to Jerusalem, Nazareth, refugee camps in the Gaza Strip, and the towns of Nablus and Ramallah on the West Bank.
Browning noted that a recent Israeli government policy permitting the arrest of West Bank Palestinians who leave their homes after curfew has created conditions not unlike a calm before a storm. "The house arrest has strapped the intifadeh movement. With the peace talks in progress, there is a sense of depression among the Palestinians," Browning said.
"The abuse of Palestinians has lessened -- but the talks have increased expectations and frustrations because progress is so slow," Browning added. "There is a gap between the rhetoric of patience and the despair in the reality of the Palestinians' situation," she said.
For Frey, whose last trip to the Middle East was in 1982, the recent visit was testimony to a hardening of attitudes in the past decade that is made manifest in the construction of settlements in the occupied territories. "I was far more conscious of the military presence in the territories this time," he said, "and the Israeli settlements have increased dramatically."
"The settlements that Israel is building seem permanent and are located in very strategic places," said Nell Gibson of New York City, a member of the Standing Commission on Peace with Justice. "They [the settlements] are very modern -- a stark contrast with the makeshift refugee camps and their galvanized fences," she added.
Gibson said that life in the occupied territories "remind me a great deal of the conditions in South Africa." She added that an encounter with a former Israeli ambassador during the trip contributed to the comparison. "He described Palestinian people as 'others' who have no regard for human life. He sounded like an Afrikaner," she said.
Gibson said that the current situation had suggested another comparison to her: "There is a sense that the Palestinians have become like David and Israel is like Goliath."
Frey asserted that Israel must "ultimately move to some form of accommodation to sharing land with the Palestinians. I do not see how the government of Israel can continue the strong military presence in the West Bank." He said that the presence felt like "military occupation," and suggested that the policy would ultimately lead Israelis "toward destroying themselves."
"I do not come back feeling anti-Israel or anti-Semitic," Frey said. "I believe in the right of Israel to exist -- but also for Palestinians to exist in peace and security."
For Jane Ames, coordinator for the UTO from Long Island, this first trip to the Middle East was eye-opening. "I was awakened to the injustices against the Palestinians," she said. However, she said that the Palestinian children represented a "glimmer of optimism" in an otherwise foreboding situation.
"I can still remember the faces of children who were smiling and singing despite their plight," Ames said. "You could see the face of Christ in these children."
Ames and other members of the delegation said that they were extremely impressed with the work of the Episcopal Church in the places they visited. "The work of the 32 church-related institutions there is amazing," Frey said. "They operate out of a philosophy of helping people in need -- regardless of whether they are Christian, Muslim, or Jewish," he added. "People were putting their faith on the line in profound ways."
"Being with Christians in that part of the world is a spiritual journey -- you get a sense that the church's witness is much larger than the dynamics of the current political situation," Frey continued.
"As a Christian I can't give up hope for peace in the Middle East," Gibson said. In addition to the impasse symbolized by the construction of West Bank settlements, Gibson pointed out that she saw a different construction project there that gave her a sense of hope. "Christians are rebuilding a church in Nazareth," she said. "The Israelis are making the stained glass, the Muslims are working on the interior renovation, and the Christians are contributing to the stone masonry. I think it is a symbol of what is possible," she concluded.