Above, from left to right: Hanan Elmasu (Coordinator,
Birzeit Human Rights Action Project), Rami Ma'alouf
(photojournalist), Pierre Shantz (CPT member)
My e-mail in-box was busy this last week, with reports and updates from the violence reduction presence of the red-capped Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) in Hebron (see right, more recent photos to follow), all relating to recent death threats against three of their members.
On 18 January, Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) member Kathleen Kern retrieved a message sent both to her home e-mail and CPT's mennolink news list with the subject heading - in the usual sad weirdo uppercase - "SWIFT PUNISHMENT."
Over the text of the message was written "KACH INTERNATIONAL WARNING." The writer stated:
"It has been learned that three of your membersxhelp [sic] and assist [sic] arab terrroists in smuggling explosives used in recent bombings of the Hebron Jewish Community in Israel. For their safety, [the] above-mentioned terrorists are advised to depart from the Land of Israel to their own countries in the next 96 hours."
The Kach organisation, was founded in 1968 by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane who immigrated to Israel in 1971, and is considered a terrorist organisation by both the United States and Israeli governments. Kach calls for annexing the Occupied Territories after expelling all Palestinians from it. Kahane successfully ran for a seat in the Knesset in 1984, although in 1988 Kach was banned from the Knesset and was assassinated in November 1990. A 'youth wing', the Jewish Defence League, also founded by Kahane, lives on, and their FAQ makes the connection without any apparent sense of concern (and some denial) about their well-known anti-Arab racism.
CPT director, Gene Stoltzfus retrieved a similar message from the answering machine at the CPT Chicago office that added:
"As [a] humanitarian effort to save their lives, we ask you to evacuate them from Israel before Wednesday. After Wednesday their lives will be in jeopardy. This is a warning. This is a last warning. Bye."
In response to the threats, CPT director Stoltzfus stated that, "We are taking precautions and we plan to continue our work. In this deeply divided situation, this is the time to stand with our Israeli and Palestinian friends and co-workers."
The team in Hebron, commenting on the inciteful allegations about explosives smuggling said, "The only explosive force we believe in is the power of love - stronger than hatred, fear, or the enmities they create."
CPTer Kathleen Kern replied to the e-mail message, as it was sent (duh) with an e-mail header:
From: HARPON@worldnet.att.net (AL SHEKHTMAN) Reply-to: HARPON@worldnet.att.net To: klaskern@aol.com Date: 98-01-18 00:57:06 EST [Subject: SWIFT PUNISHMENT]
She wrote:
Dear Mr. Shekhtman,
Please look up "Anabaptism," "Mennonite," "Quaker," or "Church of the Brethren" in an encyclopedia. We are the spiritual descendants of people who were burned alive, drowned, and tortured to death in other ways for refusing to participate in violence at any level-which includes participating in the military.
We believe that all human beings were created in the image of G-d, and loved by G-d, and that no one has the right to harm any human being for that reason. Participating in any action that would physically harm a human being for us is trayf [i.e. the opposite of "kosher;" unclean.]
It would be more likely that the settlers in Hebron would start serving ham sandwiches at bar mitzvahs than it would be for anyone serving with Christian Peacemaker Teams to become involved with explosives or other objects that could bring harm to others.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Kern
Shekhtman responded as follows:
Ms. Kern,
I am on a humanitarian mission to save the lives of those 3 members of your organization in Hevron.
People are not stupid, nor can you fool anybody. Nobody will go figure if all of your members are stupid/naiive [sic] or 1 or 2; are all of them sympatizewith Hamas or PFLP or ...?
Fact is: they assisted in smuggling explosives later used against Jewish Community of Hebron.
People not connected with the Hebron Jewish Community nor with the Israeli Government are angry and the accusing fingers are pointed at those 3.
Federal Laws specifically prohibit assisting terrorism overseas: looks like your church choose to violate those laws.
Time to get the 3 to Europe ASAP, before it is too late.
If you would like to write to Mr. Al Shekhtman, explaining politely the meaning of pacifism, his e-mail address is HARPON@worldnet.att.net
A previous diary entry dealt with the work of the CPT in Hebron. To me, CPT is one of those rare manifestations of the Christian Church where one finds it easy to respect what they are doing.
Although CPT's motivation for being present in the city results from religious conviction, which always seems to primally offend the athiest do-gooders amongst us, the actual work they are doing is something that all of us can see ourself doing.
Can we, with all of our scattered beliefs about the world, agree that standing as a witness in front of a soldier and a ten-year-old child that the soldier wants to beat, is a good thing?
In addition, no one else is producing reports that give such an accurate sense of what daily life is like for the 120,000 inhabitants of the Palestinian city. Looking at a recent one below, we also begin to understand what life is like for the members of the team as well:
HEBRON UPDATE: JANUARY 5-JANUARY 14, 1998
January 5, 1998
All throughout the week, CPTers continued to help a Palestinian family build a bathroom and kitchen. The family has lived without these facilities since 1992, because they feared building them would draw the Israeli military's attention to the house, which already has an order to be demolished.
January 7, 1998
Pierre Shantz observed a blindfolded and handcuffed Palestinian male being taken away by an Israeli military jeep filled with soldiers. He reported this incident to TIPH (official international observers in Hebron).
CPTers participated in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan by fasting during the day and breaking the fast with good Palestinian friends at sundown.
January 10, 1998
CPTers shared experiences of working in Hebron and gave an educational tour of the city to a small group from New Zealand and Australia brought by Tom Getman of World Vision.
CPTers also met with a large group of Jewish Americans who are spending two weeks in Israel/ Palestine with a Compassionate Listening project.
In the afternoon, Pierre Shantz, Sara Reschly, and Mark Frey visited with two Palestinian families living on farms about two kilometers from Hebron. Both families' homes have orders to be demolished. For the past two nights, the families' have hosted six American Jews who are participating in the Compassionate Listening project. The father of the first family stated, "I never would have believed that Jews would be staying with us. And last night, one of the Jewish women began to cry. I was talking about what the soldiers and Jews from the nearby settlement have done to me and my family."
Also in the afternoon, in the old city of Hebron, Palestinian youth threw stones at Israeli soldiers, who responded with rubber-coated metal bullets and tear gas. The newspaper reported that six Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were injured.
January 12, 1998
Anne Montgomery witnessed two Israeli women settlers physically push and shove a Palestinian journalist who took their picture. Another near-by Palestinian journalist began to get our her camera and the settlers immediately began to attack her. Anne pulled the Palestinian journalist away to protect her from the pushes and shoves of the settlers.
Later in the day, a Palestinian journalist reported to CPT that Israeli settlers had thrown snowballs with rocks and pieces of glass in them at the journalists. One journalist's hand was all bloody. The journalist also stated that a soldier pointed a gun at him and threatened to shoot him, because he was taking pictures.
January 13, 1998
Bruce Yoder and Pierre Shantz spoke to a journalist from the Jerusalem Post about the work of CPT, the situation in Hebron, and about our relationship with the Israeli Hebron settlers. The article appeared in the Friday edition of the Jerusalem Post.
CPTers witnessed four Palestinians being detained-- the four were forced to stand with their faces against the wall while the soldiers checked their I.D.'s. After 15 minutes, they were released. About 500 meters up the road, they were stopped again at a different checkpoint.
In the late morning, Joanne Lingle and Pierre Shantz witnessed Israeli soldiers welding shut the entrance to an Arab house while the family was still inside the house. In the afternoon, CPTers returned to the site to find the door opened. An international observer stated that the soldiers returned to cut open the door after realizing they had welded-in the Palestinian family.
January 14, 1998
CPTers observed a minor stone throwing incident in the center of Hebron. Young Palestinian boys (between 8- 12 yrs) were throwing rocks and shooting firecrackers at soldiers, who responded with rubber-coated steel bullets. CPTers witnessed an injured Palestinian boy being carried away by an adult. Clashes of this nature continued for the next two days.
I've read CPT reports for some time now, and both these and the CPT archives represent an oasis of information coming out of a desert of silence. In Hebron we had endured both the "we work with the authorities and cannot comment" silence of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the "Our reports are passed on to committees [somewhere]" silence of the mostly Norweigen Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH). TIPH unfortunately means "spit" in Arabic, and silence - which is what ultimately results from no-publish human rights mandates - is what keeps the violators happy and makes you want to make the same sound as the name.
In the end, it doesn't really matter whether the threats were intended to be carried out or not. The threats themselves were not the point. The point, if you have never received a death threat, is what it is supposed to make you feel like. The question is not whether it is real or not, it is whether you believe it could be real or not.
Death is the one reality that every member of the human race faces but, ironically, the main reality that every member of the human race tries to avoid. Who wants to spend their days thinking about the time when they are gone? Who wants to focus on death when they are living? And, in the end, how can you not take a death threat seriously? You can't. And the best protection for someone who has been threatened is the presence of people around them.
So, I figured that, with their current experiences, it was time to visit CPT again. Although this specific threat. coming from a named individual who subsequently went into correspondence with the group, seems unlikely to manifest, there are other considerations. In some small way, I hoped that the company of people from outside and any extra words that can be written about their circumstances can only help minimise the sense of isolation that they are facing and increase the sense of focus on them.
The latter is important, as it will make the person or people behind the threat realise that the CPT are neither alone nor invisible to the rest of the world, and because the current media focus on them will undoubtedly bring them to the attention of other fascist-individuals.
A CPT update from 22 January said, "The death threat has thrown us for a loop... It has interrupted our regular work and derailed us emotionally. We're scared. But we refuse to let this fear stop our witness against injustice and domination. As much as possible we are trying to use this threat as an tool to illustrate the often-overlooked Jewish extremism that exists in this conflict... This event has put us in touch with emotional elements of terrorism."
Pierre Shantz, the CPT-er we ended up spending a lot of the day with, also described the threats with some emotion as "terrorism". Usually we consider terrorism to be acts of violence, but the dictionary doesn‘t let us off here:
the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coersion.
Terror itself is described as:
1. a state of intense fear: fright
2. One that inspires fear [synonyms: panic, consternation, dread, alarm, dismay, horror, trepidation.]
The point being that terrorism is not about the act, it is about the result. And alarm, trepidation and fear were part of the result. Unfortunately for the terrorist in this case, the CPT are motivated and inspired by higher considerations. Fear they may feel, but fear can be overcome if your ultimate aim is greater than yourself.
As Pierre (right) said, "The point of the threat is to scare us and make us leave. Yet even if one of the CPT members was killed, we wouldn't leave."
This is the official view of the team. In July 1995 and November 1996, members of the Christian Peacemaker Team in Hebron issued a statement that detailed what they would like to have happen should they be injured or killed in the course of their work. The current team in Hebron has decided to reissue the statement with some revisions since the threats:
"Should we be injured or killed, it will be the result of policies that promote contempt for human rights and human dignity. We continue to operate under the assumption that God's redemptive power is at work here. Should our deaths come as a result of attacks by soldiers, settlers or other extremists/militants in Hebron, we ask that our deaths be regarded as no more tragic than the murders of dozens of Palestinians who have died here in the last decade. We ask that all legal nonviolent means be taken to ensure that these deaths do not continue. Should our lives be threatened or harmed, we ask that the perpetrators be held accountable."
Pierre is the only Canadian member of CPT Hebron, an otherwise American group, and came to be part of the Hebron team after his mother joined another CPT team in Haiti. He also spent 8 months there before coming here for a six-month period.
In common with most pacifists, Pierre has a healthy distrust of soldiers, honed by 4 months of experience on the only-lawful-if-you-are-watching school of Israeli-occupied streets of Palestinian towns.
His interviews during the last few days have left him bemused by the attention of the media. "If only we had this much support every day, we would see a lot of pressure build up for change."
Pierre may have only been here 4 months, but he has learnt the most important lesson for all those wishing to end the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, namely that if the world could see what those of us who live here see, the conflict would have less shelf life than a box of Tylenol during the mercury scare.
By the way, since Tylonol put the 5 separate seals on each jar of capsules, it has become the antidote of choice to West Bank alcohol abuse which is the answer for many internationals here when confronted with the gulf between what they see and what people at home care about.
We respect grassroots organisations such as CPT for their dedication and focus. Their reports give those of us outside the region the opportunity to achieve something with information from "on the ground."
Our problem, when we separated from situations that we feel responsibility to address in some way, is that our immediate reality distracts us from action. Individuals - contrary to the Holywood perception - are pretty directionless and powerless on their own. Yet, with a group of people and a common vision, we should remember what CPT knows - that the world is within reach.
To be added to CPT's mailing list for updates and news, send the following e-mail: cptheb@palnet.com