Friends International Center in Ramallah
June-July 2009 Newsletter
(Vol. III No. 5)

From the Program Coordinator

Summer is upon us in full swing.  In Ramallah it means hot days and cool evenings.  It also means vacations and travel.  Some Palestinians travel abroad, to visit their families wherever they may be.  It is also a time when Palestinians living in the Palestinian diaspora come back to Palestine to visit their families and friends.  For three years the Israeli authorities have been stopping thousands of Palestinians with dual citizenship and others from entering Israel in order to travel to the oPt (occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank and Gaza).  The Right to Enter (RTE) Campaign has been working on this issue in order to change this Israeli policy.  During the past three years this policy has not changed, but Israel has put in place certain procedures in order to allow some Palestinians and others to enter and in some cases to stay and renew their visas.  As a result of a lack of a clear policy for entry/re-entry, every person wanting to enter the West Bank or Gaza must enter through one of the Israeli controlled ports and is at the mercy of the Israeli immigration official on duty.  

(See more details below and for what you can do.)  

No Palestinian living in Gaza or the West Bank, except Jerusalem, is allowed to travel to Jerusalem without permission from the Israeli military.  This permission is seldom granted.  Palestinians say:  “It is easier for us to travel to any place in the world than to Jerusalem.”  In order for them to travel to the rest of the world, Palestinians from the West Bank must use the Allenby/King Hussein Bridge to enter Jordan and from Amman fly to the rest of the world.  The only way for Palestinians living in Gaza to exit Gaza is via Rafah, the exit controlled by Egypt.  Palestinians living in East Jerusalem are not considered by Israel to be living in the West Bank, even though East Jerusalem is part of the West Bank and according to international law is occupied territory and occupied by the Israeli military.  It is the Wall that is separating Palestinians living in occupied East Jerusalem from Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.  So, Palestinians living in Israel or in occupied East Jerusalem are allowed to travel via Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv.  

The international community is waiting for President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu to take some courageous steps towards a just peace between Palestinians and Israelis.  If this does not happen soon, any glimmers of hope for a just peace will surely fade.  

Click here to read and article by Akiva Eldar

Click here to read an article by Ali Abunimah

Click here to read the statement of the World Council of Churches

Click here to read more about house demolitions in Jerusalem-Yusef Daher

Click here to read about the demolition of Beit Arabiya.  

Click here to read the CMEP statement.

Click here to read the latest statement of the Jerusalem Municipality on house demolitions.

  
From the Friends International Center in Ramallah

The past academic year I have been teaching part-time at the Ramallah Friends School.  It has been a wonderful opportunity to work more closely with another Quaker institution in Palestine.  It has enabled me to make some contacts and create connections with a part of the Palestinian community that I would have otherwise not had the opportunity to relate to.  As a result of this effort and the relationships I was able to establish, I will be organizing activities for a Young Friends Group at the Friends Center this coming autumn.  The young people – children from Quaker families and their friends are keen to participate in these special activities.  

The program for children with special needs at the Friends School is a unique and one-of-a-kind program in Palestine.  The Friends School was the first school in Palestine to offer classes for children with special needs, while at the same time seeking to integrate the students into the regular classrooms, while getting special assistance.  

Click here to read more about the Ramallah Friends Schools www.palfriends.org

In spite of the teaching I did at the Friends School, the programs at the Friends Center have continued.  In June, Al-Kamandjati held two concerts at the Ramallah Friends Meetinghouse.  We also hosted Jeff Halper, director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, who gave an analysis of the current situation from an Israeli perspective.  

Kamadjati concert at the Ramallah Friends Meetinghouse

During the month of June a delegation of European Quakers spent ten days in Palestine and Israel.  The delegation traveled to many parts of Israel and Palestine to hear Israelis and Palestinians analyze the situation and speak about their hopes for a just peace between the two peoples.  The delegation was led by Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) representatives in Brussels, Martina Weitsch and Liz Scurfield.  It was an intense ten days.  Here are a few quotes from members of the delegation:  

Click here to read what some members of the delegation said about the trip.

QCEA delegation listens to Palestinians and Internationals talk about the Quaker work in Palestine

QCEA delegation listens to Mohammad Zeidan talk about the situation of Palestinians living in Israel

QCEA delegation watches young people in Bethlehem at Wi‘sam dance

David and Mona Halaby, originally from Jerusalem and now living in Berkley and I visited Nancy and Mike Anderson on Monday, July 13.  Their son, Tristan, who was shot by the Israeli soldiers while demonstrating nonviolently against The Wall in Na‘ilin has now been in Tel HaShomer Hospital for more than three months.  He had shown signs of improvement, but in recent days had a set back.  The doctors expect to perform another surgery to reconstruct his skull during the next weeks.  Thus far, visitors other than family have not been allowed into Tristan‘s room because the hospital staff does not want Tristan to catch a cold or flu from visitors.  

July 1 is Canada Day.  This year the Canada Representative Office to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah decided not to organize a reception to celebrate Canada Day, but instead took the entire Canada Rep Office staff and their families to clean a park in Ramallah.  In the evening we had a Canada Day Potluck on the patio of the Friends Center.  Below are pictures of some of the 36 guests who came --- Canadians, Palestinians, Americans,  Europeans.   

From the Ramallah Friends Meeting

Jean Zaru, the presiding clerk of Ramallah Friends Meeting returned to Ramallah after spending two months in the US.  Jean traveled to the US as the invited Betty Carter Lecturer at Earlham College.  While in the US, she also attended the high school graduation of her granddaughter in Mount Airy, Maryland.  
Joyce Ajlouny, a member of the Ramallah Friends Meeting and Director of the Ramallah Friends Schools, attended the American Federation of Ramallah Convention in San Francisco the last week in June.  
Tareq, the son of Joyce Aljouny and Ziad Khalaf, left for Kenya on June 30.  He is one of the many volunteers joining AGLI Quaker Workcamp where he will be helping in rebuilding homes for people whose do not have a house to live in.   We are proud and supportive of his sense of justice and volunteering his time to this noble cause.      

From the Occupation: Monthly Action Focus:

The Right to Enter (RTE) Campaign continues it’s focus on the responsibility of third states concerning the matter of Right to Enter/Re-Enter the oPt (occupied Palestinian territory) via one of the entry ports Israel controls.  The Campaign is calling on third states to assume their responsibility in enforcing human rights and international law in a situation of military occupation.  

The Campaign continues to collect the names of persons - Palestinians and Internationals who have been denied entry at one of the ports Israel controls (Ben Gurion airport or one of the bridges across the Jordan River from Amman).  If you are a person who has been denied entry or know of someone who has been denied entry, please contact Anita Abdullah at anita_abdullah@hotmail.com  

Due to the fact that there is no clear policy for denial of entry, a person is allowed to enter via one of the ports controlled by Israel at the discretion of the Israeli immigration official.  The denial of entry is random.  People continue to be given a one-week visa, a new trend and alternative to being denied entry completely.  
On Monday, July 20, the RTE Campaign will organize a public meeting.  

Click here  for more information about this meeting.

For more information on "Right to Enter/Re-enter" go to www.righttoenter.ps

NOTE:  Please click on the FICR Newsletter Archive below to read previous newsletters.  

Kathy Bergen
Program Coordinator
www.ramallahquakers.org