01-2003

The Church and Israel

Palestinians look to Germans and to YMCA for help

by Rolf Lehmann

Rolf Lehmann, former mayor of Stuttgart and former head of the Ministry of Social Welfare, visited YMCA institutions in Palestine in December 2002 in his capacity as president of the Evangelical Youth Agency of Württemberg, Germany. The following are extracts from the journal notes he kept during the trip.

Jerusalem: The Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, Riah Hanna Abu el-Assal, is also YMCA President. We visited him at St. George’s Cathedral, the seat of his bishopric. He is the first Palestinian to hold this office. His great concern is that more and more Christians are emigrating, because they can no longer endure the situation after 35 years of the Occupation. He says, ”We Palestinian Christians are being made to pay for everything - for the deeds of others, including what the Germans did to the Jews.”

Ramallah: Again, we cross the border on foot. Now we are in the supposed ”Autonomous Region”. We see right away that one cannot call this autonomy, but a military regime. Arafat’s house is surrounded by a wasteland full of rubble. How is education for peace possible under such conditions?
At the Ramallah YMCA, two women tell us about their programme, one a Christian, the other a Muslim. They run programmes for women and girls, going to the villages to train volunteer teachers, teach all sorts of handicrafts, help in the production of olive oil, soap and mushrooms and help to market them. The object is to make women self-supporting.
Gaza: The car brings us as far as the border. Here are walls, barbed wire, young soldiers with guns, huts, fences, very few people. Gaza is actually a closed entity, a huge prison. After a lengthy inspection, we are allowed in. A taxi takes us to the YMCA in Gaza City. We are received by the 76-year-old YMCA-Secretary, who has spent a lifetime building up these facilities: a nursery school for 170 children, rooms for youth work, a hall, sports facilities, and a small art school with 29 students.
An extension is just being built, financed by Canadians. The old man tells us that they are trying to educate young people for a life of reconciliation; here, too, Christians and Muslims are working intensively together. Even though this man, at the end of his life of service, gives an impression of total resignation, still, ”We will do our job!”

We drive around the Gaza Strip. Five thousand Israelis live here in settlements, securely walled off, which really means they also are shut in, but on wide, fertile tracts of land. There are also 1.2 million Palestinians living here, including 3000 Christians. We try to drive into a refugee camp. Suddenly the road is blocked. There are tanks, a crowd. They say there have been exchanges of fire. There is an Israeli settlement nearby. We turn back.
We drive into another refugee camp, Yabalya. More than 100,000 people live in half-ruined houses, spending much of their time in the street - in wretched conditions. The youth go to school whenever they can. But they are afraid. Often they would rather sleep in the street than in the house, for fear of being shot in there. Wherever one looks is despair. We drive along by the sea, in sunshine. What a splendid place this might be.

Bethlehem: Today Bethlehem is open, so we go by car, then on foot over the hills. Is this a border, a secret path? Houses are barricaded. On the mobile phone we ring the YMCA Secretary, who comes by car to fetch us. First we go to meet the mayor of Bethlehem. The city hall is across from the Church of the Nativity. There are few people in Manger Square, and almost all the shops are closed. The last time I was here, it was full of tourists everywhere. Hama T. Nasser, the mayor, welcomes us, with the same hospitality we have met everywhere. He is a Christian and has six grandchildren. He says, ”The USA doesn’t ask the UN. The USA and Israel do whatever they please.” Is this despair? Bitterness! ”I’ll just do my job!”
Then comes a visit to the UN refugee camp. It has been here since 1949, one of 19 refugee camps. There are 2600 families living here, 11,000 people. Many of the buildings have been destroyed. There was a curfew for 45 days. In 1993 the Israeli government claimed the grounds as a military area. What does ”UN” mean anyway? No answer. What can the UN do? No answer.

Jerusalem, city of peace: With a YMCA worker in the Old City, I visit the poorest quarter which I never saw as a tourist. This nursery with 35 children urgently needs to be enlarged, but no building permit is granted. Houses are knocked down, and no building permits are granted to Palestinians, or else they are fantastically expensive. The streets are almost empty.  We see more soldiers than tourists. Here is a view of the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque, the Temple Mount. Many large posters proclaim that the Temple should be rebuilt. That means tearing down these mosques, which are among the most holy places for Muslims. City of peace?
At the Wailing Wall many Jews are praying. They all want peace. Here I am, a German, knowing what my people did to the Jews - unequalled, unimaginable. One of the most important tasks for me as a German remains reconciliation with the Jews. That includes a secure state of Israel. For many years I was president of the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation. This is still my job.

After a week of looking and listening, what memories stay with me? One deeply emotional evening is the clearest. We have been invited to a private home, where we sit with a Roman Catholic, a Copt, an Anglican, a Protestant and a Muslim. My question is, ”In these surroundings, how can you do peace education, or practice reconciliation?” The Muslim, an important YMCA staff member who has been in prison several times, tells a story.
Two months ago, his nine-year-old son asked him, ”Why does President Bush hate the Palestinians? Why were you in prison? Why do they torment us kids?” The father tried to explain, to awaken some understanding for reconciliation. His son said, ”I’m going to be a suicide bomber.” There is a long silence. The boy is now undergoing psychological treatment. For the first time during these days, I can no longer keep back the tears.

The day of departure comes. I try to absorb this week’s experiences. I know that Israel needs security. But I also know that Palestine needs justice. And I have seen that after 36 years of occupation, such a prison must explode sometime. I try to suppress any feelings of hate, but not my anger, my anger at a state which does not take the UN seriously. Neither does the USA. It is not always anti-American to long for peace.

This article, published here in abridged form, appeared on 2 January 2003 in the Stuttgarter Zeitung (Stuttgart city newspaper).