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~MY VOICE…
By Glenn Edward Witmer
“The rules that apply on one side must apply to the other
[or] they won’t take it anymore.”
All’s Fair in Love… But Not War

Love your Neighbour as Yourself, read the two bumper stickers on a pickup truck of a settler. But the problem still seems to be, Who is my neighbour? If it’s a Palestinian family in a zone an Israeli wants to occupy, not much love is lost between them. In this case the truck belonged to a contractor whose army of some 20 workers loaded the belongings of the 29 members of the Gozlan family onto trucks and carted them away from the family home. The now homeless family will need to go to a warehouse somewhere just to get fresh clothes.

After an 18-year court battle, the Gozlan family, who risked their lives to save Jews in 1929, were expelled from their Silwan [East Jerusalem] home by an army of private guards. While the press was focused on the election results, the Israeli expellers arrived with a letter from a lawyer who didn’t answer any phone calls, and threw the family out of their home.

As the last truck rolled away, Riad Gozlan sat in front of the home. The stunned family urged him to leave with them, for there was nothing left to do. He waved them away as tears rolled down his face, and continued to stare at the home he could no longer enter.

It’s just one more story—among hundreds—of people who experience the constant frustration of legal helplessness in the face of unbridled theft of land, property, and rights across this country. The seething hate that is building beneath the surface of so many Palestinians soon lashes out in the most unacceptable ways. But one begins to understand why they are so incredulous about a world which pats itself on the back for human rights and the rule of law elsewhere, but simply turns a blind eye when it happens in Israel/Palestine.

The new Prime Minister of Palestine has been given the first word in our news issue this month [next page], commenting on the Israeli election results. This quiet-spoken highly educated man—and leader of the Hamas government that many Western countries call terrorist—first asks for simple fairness. The rules that apply to one side must apply to the other—otherwise it’s simply not fair, and not right. He says they won’t take it anymore.

We can never accept the terror of suicide bombers…nor the terror of unlawful and dishonest usurpation of what is your weaker neighbour’s. He is right. It’s just not fair. —GEW

~OTHER VOICES…

By Ismail Haniyeh, Prime Minister of Palestine

“Israeli unilateralism is a recipe for conflict,
as is the West’s racist refusal to treat Palestinians as equals.”
A Just Peace or No Peace

Do policymakers in Washington and Europe ever feel ashamed of their scandalous double standards? Before and since the Palestinian elections in January they have continually insisted that Hamas comply with certain demands. They want us to recognize Israel, call off our resistance, and commit ourselves to whatever deals Israel and the Palestinian leadership reached in the past.

But we have not heard a single demand of the Israeli parties that took part in this week’s elections, though some advocate the complete removal of the Palestinians from their lands. Even Ehud Olmert’s Kadima party, whose Likud forebears frustrated every effort by the PLO to negotiate a peace settlement, campaigned on a programme that defies UN Security Council resolutions. His unilateralism is a violation of international law. Nevertheless no one, not even the Quartet—whose proposals for a settlement he continues to disregard, as his predecessor Ariel Sharon did—has dared ask anything of him.

Olmert’s unilateralism is a recipe for conflict. It is a plan to impose a permanent situation in which the Palestinians end up with a homeland cut into pieces made inaccessible because of massive Jewish settlements built in contravention of international law on land seized illegally from the Palestinians. No plan will ever work without a guarantee, in exchange for an end to hostilities by both sides, of a total Israeli withdrawal from all the land occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem; the release of all our prisoners; the removal of all settlers from all settlements; and recognition of the right of all refugees to return.

On this, all Palestinian factions and people agree, including the PLO, whose revival is essential so that it can resume its role in speaking for the Palestinians and presenting their case to the world. The problem is not with any particular Palestinian group but with the denial of our basic rights by Israel. We in Hamas are for peace and want to put an end to bloodshed.

We have been observing a unilateral truce for over a year without reciprocity from the Israeli side. The message from Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to the world powers is this: talk to us no more about recognizing Israel’s “right to exist” or ending resistance until you obtain a commitment from the Israelis to withdraw from our land and recognize our rights.

“This is a good time for peace-making—if the world wants peace.”

Under Olmert’s plan, our land will still be occupied and our people enslaved and oppressed by the occupying power. So we will remain committed to our struggle to get back our lands and our freedom. Peaceful means will do if the world is willing to engage in a constructive and fair process in which we and the Israelis are treated as equals. We are sick and tired of the West’s racist approach to the conflict, in which the Palestinians are regarded as inferior.
Though we are the victims, we offer our hands in peace, but only a peace that is based on justice. However, if the Israelis continue to attack and kill our people and destroy their homes, impose sanctions, collectively punish us, and imprison men and women for exercising the right to self-defense, we have every right to respond with all available means.

Hamas has been freely elected. Our people have given us their confidence and we pledge to defend their rights and do our best to run their affairs through good governance. If we are boycotted in spite of this democratic choice—as we have been by the US and some of its allies—we will persist, and our friends have pledged to fill the gap. We have confidence in the peoples of the world, record numbers of who identify with our struggle.

This is a good time for peace-making—if the world wants peace.
—from The Guardian. Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh is a Hamas leader.

By Amira Hass, Ha’aretz
“The separation fence and the ‘legal’ settlements thwart any chance for the establishment of a sustainable Palestinian state.”
Intertwined Debates on Two Sides

There is logic behind the coincidence that involved the establishment of the Palestinian cabinet just a few days before the elections were held in Israel. No matter how much both sides declare that there are not, and will not, be talks between them, the two peoples, occupier and occupied, are intertwined. At the temporal juncture created by the elections in Israel and the creation of the Palestinian cabinet, the two internal debates within the two societies are themselves meeting and “speaking.”

The internal debate regarding the composition of a cabinet headed by Hamas prompted an open clash between two types of legitimacy to rule. It was Hamas, which Israel and the United States define as a terror organization that relies on legitimacy of the liberal-democratic kind. It believed it was allowed to determine policies on the basis of that electoral achievement, while rejecting the demand to pay any attention to previous decisions made in the PLO regarding negotiations with Israel (which are what brought about the establishment of the Palestinian Authority).

Hamas, whose goal, theoretically, is a Muslim state in all of Palestine, is depending on a clearly defined public: the Palestinians in occupied Gaza and the West Bank. However, the PLO, which accepted the solution of a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank, looks to the entire Palestinian people, in the territories and the diaspora. It leans on the historic achievement of its existence and its struggle: the international decision of the two-state solution (which included recognition of the PLO as the “sole representative” of the Palestinian people). That is, the legitimacy of the PLO as a liberation organization is linked to international recognition of the rights of its people.

“The legitimization that Israelis feel because of their military superiority also absolves them from knowing all the details of their control over the lives of the Palestinians.”

In Israel at this time, the decisive internal debate is taking place entirely in one framework. The Kadima school of unilateralism, the settlement blocs of the Labor Party and the rest of the center parties, and those that call for the greater land of Israel—all depend on the legitimacy bestowed by Israeli military superiority on the ideology of the occupation and its application on the ground. This superiority allows Israel to decide unilaterally not only what its permanent borders will be, but where the Palestinians will live, how much water they will drink, whom they will marry, whether and where they will study, whether their salaries will be paid, and how much agricultural produce they will market to other countries.

The legitimization that Israelis feel because of their military superiority also absolves them from knowing all the details of their control over the lives of the Palestinians. The debate that will ensue during the formation of the coalition will be over the best use of this military superiority, and over the dimensions of the real estate achievements that can be turned into facts on the ground, thanks to military superiority.

What Israel permits itself to do based on military superiority and US support collides with a number of international resolutions—the same resolutions that the international community demands that Hamas accept as a condition for being recognized as legitimate: for example, the United Nations resolutions on the establishment of Israel and on a two-state solution to the conflict.

Kadima and Labor are doing a good job of jabbering about “painful concessions,” the Iranian connection, Holocaust denial, and Hamas, and repeating the mantra of “withdrawal” while their creations—the separation fence and the “legal” settlements—thwart any chance for the establishment of a sustainable Palestinian state.

By Mohammed Al Masry, Waterloo, Ontario
The Qur’an is crystal clear: There is no compulsion in religion.
There are no exceptions. Coercion, compulsion, force…is totally forbidden.
History Dispels the Lies about Islam

A well-known technique in any propaganda war is the spreading of “disinformation” about your enemy. Disinformation is the new post-modern word for lies. If you repeat the same lies over and over again, listeners’ critical thinking skills are numbed; and in the absence of any opposing argument, the lies eventually cannot be differentiated from truth. Islam has had many enemies over the centuries and still has.

One of the most persistent lies repeated by its detractors is that Muslims spread their faith by the sword. Yet of all mainstream religions, none is more precisely documented as to its origin, revelation, message, and teachings. Since its emergence through the Prophet Muhammad and his transmission of its holy book, the history of Islam has been well recorded. From the Prophet’s time until today, the Qur’an has offered guidance and discipline for everyday life. As Islam spread, the lives and teachings of its messengers have also been documented.

As with Judaism and Christianity, the most influential and revered figures are those from the time when the faith was newly revealed; in Islam, these were Muslims who lived in the age of the Prophet and who embodied the teachings of the Qur’an as examples to their fellow human beings. Many of their thoughts and deeds were recorded for the benefit of future generations.

To return to the question of whether the Qur’an encourages Muslims to spread their faith by force, or whether the Prophet himself set a violent example for Muslims to follow, one has only to consult the source. The Qur’an is crystal clear in stating, “There is no compulsion in religion.” The commandment is absolute; there are no exceptions. Coercion, compulsion, force—whatever one chooses to call it—is totally forbidden. No other holy book lays down such a clear directive to its adherents.

“They loved the Islamic teachings that God is One and the Lord of All, that humans can talk to God directly, and that there is no Original Sin—every human being is wholly accountable for his / her deeds.”

Believers in the world’s largest Muslim country of today, Indonesia, have never in history encountered foreign Muslim soldiers on their soil. Even in Egypt where the earliest Muslims were mostly Arab soldiers, Islam was diffused slowly throughout the country over more than 400 years. The Egyptians loved Islam because of the values it embraced, such as justice, equality, modernity and freedom.

During those early centuries, people who felt oppressed or restricted by the rigidity of Christian and Jewish traditions, or excluded from the caste system of Hinduism, were attracted by Islam’s de-emphasis on hierarchy. They loved the Islamic teachings that God is One and the Lord of All, that humans can talk to God directly, and that there is no Original Sin—every human being is wholly accountable for his / her deeds.

So while it is true that Islam spread in some places with the speed of a bullet, no literal bullets have been involved. The whole concept of “convert or die” is utterly foreign and reprehensible to authentic Islamic beliefs and conduct. And the Qur’an itself further reinforces the sanctity of all human life in saying that to kill another person is as evil as killing the entire human race.

Muslims do not blame any religion for the atrocities committed by those claiming to be its adherents. Thus, Muslims do not blame Judaism itself for injustices committed by Jews against Palestinians. Nor do they blame Christianity per se for the crimes committed by Church-sanctioned medieval Crusades; for atrocities committed during the conquest of Spain by Christian armies and the subsequent persecution and expulsion of Muslims; nor for the horrors of the Inquisition, or any number of similar tragedies.

“Those who take up the ‘cause’ of any faith through violent means
are in effect blasphemers of it.”

All three faiths, rooted in Abrahamic tradition, teach similar values of non-violence, justice and equality. Those who take up the “cause” of any faith through violent means are in effect blasphemers of it. The Muslims’ aim was not to convert their pagan countrymen, but to defend themselves; similarly, the anti-Muslim pagans were not interested in suppressing Islam itself, but in subjugating its believers through political power.

When the Prophet Muhammad and his followers returned peacefully to Mecca in triumph, he granted pardon to the same people who had persecuted and waged war against him and his fellow Muslims. This humane and generous behavior reflected the teaching of many Qur’anic verses that stress the importance of courtesy, politeness, and civility, even where there has been severe conflict: “And the true servants of the God of Mercy are those who walk upon the earth humbly; and when the ignorant address them, they reply ‘Peace’; and they pass the night praying to their Lord, prostrating and standing” (25:63-64).

—Middle East Times. Mohammed Al Masry is a Professor at the University of Waterloo and National President of the Canadian Islamic Congress.

Canada Halts Diplomatic Ties, Aid to Hamas Government

Canada suspended all contact and financial aid to the new Hamas-led government in the Palestinian territories, Foreign Minister Peter MacKay announced, becoming the first nation to do so. The new Palestinian government sworn in a few days ago, dominated by the radical Islamist group Hamas, has not addressed the concerns raised by Canada and others over non-violence, the recognition of Israel and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations including the roadmap to Middle East peace.

“As a result, Canada will have no contact with members of the Hamas cabinet and is suspending assistance to the Palestinian Authority,” the minister said. “A clear commitment by the Hamas government to the principles that we and the international community have outlined remains an essential precondition for Canada to resume any assistance to the Palestinian Authority…We are not going to fund terrorism.” However, officials said humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people directly would not be affected by suspending aid to the new government.

Prime Minister Harper said, “Canada remains a staunch supporter of peace in the Middle East and we will continue to work with new Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Mahmoud Abbas to reach that goal.”
—Agence France Presse

Israel Barrier Hurting Farmers
“Nearly 75% of the barrier lies on territory occupied by Israel in 1967.”

A UN report into the humanitarian impact of Israel’s West Bank barrier says it has caused widespread losses to Palestinian farmers. About 5,000 Palestinians currently live in the areas between the barrier and Israel’s pre-1967 boundary and they need permits to get in and out. The UN says farmers are not being allowed access to farmland, causing unemployment and loss of income.

Israel says the barrier is justified to counter bomb attacks by Palestinians. About half of the 700-km-long barrier’s system of electric fences and high concrete walls has been built so far.

The focus of the latest UN report is access to farmland in the closed areas. UN official Allegra Pacheco says the barrier is having a worrying economic impact on people who live close to it.
“Our biggest concern is that farmers are increasingly not being allowed access to their farmland located west of the barrier. Either through the very complicated permit system that requires proof of land ownership—or that’s quite difficult at this point—and also because of the operation of the gates.”

Ms. Pacheco says many of the gates provided by the Israeli army to allow the passage of farm workers are either kept closed, or are opened only for limited times. The UN is worried that if the land is not cultivated it may eventually be confiscated. An Israeli spokesman said any problems the barrier might cause Palestinians were not comparable to the benefits it brought in terms of Israeli lives it is saving.

The UN says its report would not have been necessary if the barrier had been built along the Green Line, the boundary between Israel and the West Bank before the 1967 war. Nearly 75% of the barrier lies on territory occupied by Israel in 1967.
—BBC News

By Kevin Eckstrom
“Once you stop [humanitarian aid], you’re as bad as anyone else.”
Religious Leaders Urge US to Continue Palestinian Aid

Christian, Jewish, and Muslim leaders are warning against “premature” decisions on US aid to the new Hamas-led Palestinian government and insisting that American humanitarian aid not be disrupted. The National Interreligious Leadership Initiative for Peace in the Middle East last month also urged President Bush to take a more active role in resolving the conflict, including appointing an “on the ground” special envoy.

Ron Young, the co-coordinator of the Connecticut-based coalition, urged that the “president’s hands not be tied” by congressional efforts to stop all US aid to the Palestinians because Hamas is considered a terrorist organization committed to destroying Israel. “A decision should not be made until a government is formed and its policies are put in place,” Young said. “We need to avoid a rush to judgment” on the Hamas government and its potential views toward Israel.

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, who led a delegation to meet with Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes, said the Hamas victory is “problematic” but humanitarian aid must be continued. “Once you stop doing that, you’re as bad as anyone else,” McCarrick said. “The humanitarian aid is so important. If we lose that, we create chaos for the Palestinian people.” Retired Methodist Bishop Ray Chamberlain of Tennessee said: “If we do not find peace in the holy city of Jerusalem, we will have terrorism all over the world.”
—Religious News Service

Israeli-Palestinian Couple Asks Court to Live Together

Israel has banned a Palestinian husband, a sculptor from Ramallah, Palestine, from entering Israel proper, while his wife, a ballet dancer and an Israeli resident of Jerusalem, has been denied permission by the state to set foot in Palestinian territory. The couple married in a traditional Muslim ceremony in East Jerusalem and subsequently flew to Cyprus where they exchanged civilian vows.

Upon returning to the country, they filed requests with the Interior Ministry in hopes of obtaining authorization to live together. All relevant authorities denied the couple’s requests. “As a result, destruction has been brought about on the joint lives of the petitioners,” their attorney told the Court. “The right to familial livelihood is a recognized fundamental right around the world as well as in Israeli law. The couple is searching for a place where they can live together, to build a home and start a family.”

“Has the conflict here engulfed every aspect of life so much so that romance between a man and a woman has to yield before it?”
—excerpted from an article in Ha’aretz

Exclusively for Pastors and Bible Teachers

MennoJerusalem’s
Biblical Study & Travel Program in Israel / Palestine / Jordan
April 28 to May 19, 2007

A special study opportunity is being offered in Israel for a 3-week Biblical Study & Travel Program in May 2007. This is a unique opportunity for church leaders and others teaching the Bible to travel through the Holy Land and to participate in seminars conducted by key lecturers in the Middle East, each specialized in his or her own area of expertise. The goal is to provide unique study and travel experiences that will enhance the Pastor’s knowledge of the biblical setting, and provide new insights into understanding the text in context.

The underlying methodology is to provide hands-on opportunities to walk the Land of the Bible—with an open Bible—to experience the setting, culture, and history that provided the context for the written Word. St. Jerome argued that one cannot fully understand the four gospels without first experiencing the Fifth Gospel—the Land itself!

Invited Lecturers and Courses:

Touring throughout Israel / Palestine / Jordan with on-site teaching will be directed by Glenn Edward Witmer and other teaching guides, focusing on key biblical reference points, including those of Jesus’ ministry in Jerusalem and Galilee. Three days in Jordan will add such places as Petra, Amman, Mount Nebo, Jerash, baptismal site, Madaba.

Register now! For information and application form,

Information on other Bible Land Study Tours for churches is also available on request.

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