January 15, 2003

Crazy Under Curfew

[Bethlehem, West Bank] Can prison make a person go crazy? I mean can confinement cause someone to lose their mind? Not that I'm comparing five months of curfew in Bethlehem to prison. I think they get cable TV in prison.

What's the point of curfew in Bethlehem? Thousands of innocent people are confined inside their homes. These folks have broken no law against the state of Israel, but to discourage their peaceful attitudes and moderate behavior, Israeli soldiers patrol the streets enforcing an unnecessary curfew. It's a daily provocation against everyone. Pushing the community a bit more at every opportunity. A multitude of blameless Palestinians have been nothing but restrained. They have tolerated more than other folks around the world would have tolerated. What happens when the guiltless have had enough? What happens when they have been pushed too far?

Israel hopes for one reaction -- that those families who have had enough harassment and humiliation will pack up and leave. It's called the "slow transfer." Many Palestinians with adequate resources do leave. Who can blame them? In a new country maybe they can live a decent life, find a job and provide for their children. I know I'm eventually leaving this place. I've got no desire to spend the rest of my life under conditions like this. It's inhuman for an entire population to be locked up for months. For me, life without freedom is not much of a life.

I got an email this week asking me what I expect to accomplish here. Legitimate question. At the bottom of most of my webpages in a little gray box, I keep a reminder of the things my agency asks me to do: share, strengthen and develop communities, alleviate human suffering, and seek justice, freedom and peace. Curfew curtails my work here, no doubt. But there are still small things I can do -- like sharing information with you. This might not seem to be much, but if it makes you think just a bit about justice or freedom or peace, then I consider it significant.

Peace activists often visit the occupied territories. They do things to draw media attention to the situation here. They might chain themselves to olive trees threatened to be bulldozed or stay in homes due to be demolished. This work is very important. But your work in your country is even more important. A peace action saves one tree or one home, but you have the ability to influence government policy and save all the trees and all the homes -- and most importantly -- all the people. You have the means to change government guidelines and procedures. Nations are not able to act with total impunity. They are forced to react to pressure from other countries. If your nation is offering support to an policy that you think is oppressive or unjust, then do what you can to change it. Everyone sitting under curfew in Bethlehem today will thank you for it.