Catholic Worker Peace Team Arrives at Palestinian Refugee Camp
Frank Cordaro
From: Scott Schaeffer-Duffy <there...@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, May 13, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009,
Catholic Worker Peace Team Arrives at Palestinian Refugee Camp
Bethlehem, Israeli-Occupied West Bank- The six members of the Catholic
Worker Peace Team (Brenna Cussen, Scott Schaeffer-Duffy, Colin
Gilbert, Jenny Thomas, Mark Colville, and Beth Brockman) left Ariesh,
the Egyptian city closest to the border of Gaza, at 5 am today and
traveled ten hours to the nearest border crossing to Israel. Their
journey through the Sinai peninsula was marked by repeated stops at
Egyptian police checkpoints. It was evident that the Peace Team's
prayer/protests at the Rafah border to Gaza made the Egyptian
government keep them under a close eye. A police escort never left
them until the team was within minutes of the Israeli border.
After the team entered Israel, they hired two taxis which took them
north along the Red Sea, through the eastern side of the
Israeli-occupied West Bank to Jericho and then across the West Bank to
Jerusalem and lastly through the 20-foot-high Israeli separation
barrier into Bethlehem where they are staying in the Deheishe Refugee
Camp. One of their taxi drivers was an Israeli Palestinian who is a
sergeant in the Israeli army. He told team members Jenny Thomas, Mark
Colville, and Scott Schaeffer-Duffy that his commander ordered him to
"kill anything that moved" in Gaza during the January attack. He told
the team that he objected to this indiscriminate targeting and noted
that the Israeli air superiority gave them sufficient intelligence to
avoid killing civilians. He also told the team that he favors a
peaceful solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict which was just
to both sides. He supported an independent Palestinian state with
Jerusalem as its capital alongside Israel. He said that the Israeli
separation barrier was wrong and that people living together, side by
side, was essential for peace. He noted that his hometown of Eliat,
Israel had a large Jewish and Palestinian population that lived
together in harmony. He said that too many Israeli Jews blamed Islam
for the conflict, but that he believed that Islam and Judaism were at
the heart religions of peace. He recounted an incident when his best
friend, an Israeli Jew who was driving the other members of the team,
had parked his taxi in front of his own, but an Israeli customer who
saw his dark skin mistook him for an Arab and chose his taxi instead.
He asked her why she didn't hire the lead taxi and she told him that
she would not ride with an Arab. He told her that despite his lighter
skin color that he was an Arab. "What was she afraid of?" he asked,
"Did she think he would eat her?" Both taxi drivers stopped at a
scenic spot on the bank of the Dead Sea not far from Mosada, and posed
for photos arm in arm flashing the peace sign.
The team passed many Israeli settlements and entered the West Bank
through the formidable wall in Bethlehem. they noted that the wall is
festooned with hundreds of peace messages including one that said,
"Give them justice and they will reward you with peace.' Their
Palestinian driver to the refugee camp complained that the Israeli
government had closed all Palestinian businesses for two days due to
Pope Benedict XVI's visit.
The team plans to visit two Jewish settlements in Hebron tomorrow and
to tour the Israeli separation wall around Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
They plan to meet with Israeli human rights workers later in the week
and to join nonviolent protests against the wall on Friday. They also
plan to visit the Sderot Media Center to receive an Israeli government
sponsored tour of the impact of rocket attacks from Gaza on that town.
The team plans to return to the United States on Sunday.
Team member Brenna Cussen of the Saints Francis & Therese Catholic
Worker in Worcester, Massachusetts said, "Traveling here on highways
from which Palestinians are prohibited by Israel, passing by luxurious
Jewish-only settlements on occupied Palestinian land, passing through
the dreary wall into an impoverished and oppressed Palestinian town is
very hard to bear."
Contact: 203 415-5896
For more info contact:
Saints Francis and Therese Catholic Worker House
52 Mason St., Worcester MA 01610
508 753 3588
there...@gmail.com
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Previous Postings:
The “Catholic Worker Peace Team” model explained by Scott
Shaeffer-Duffy and Brenna Cussen
http://groups.google.com/group/National-CW-E-mail-List/browse_frm/thread/f7f9bccbaa3fcaac?hl=en#
CW Peace Team arrive in Cairo with Medical Supplies and Toys for Gaza
http://groups.google.com/group/National-CW-E-mail-List/browse_frm/thread/7f64d91eff3300fc?hl=en
"Rafah Crossing Closed: CW Peace Team Will Attempt to Enter Gaza in
the Morning" first report from CW Peace Team in Gaza
http://groups.google.com/group/National-CW-E-mail-List/browse_frm/thread/1b403a448bebaf70?hl=en
Catholic Worker Peace Team delayed at Rafah Border; Medical supplies sit idle.
http://groups.google.com/group/National-CW-E-mail-List/browse_frm/thread/fff62c9e3f7d1130
CW Peace Team Praying for Entry into Gaza at boarder.....
http://groups.google.com/group/National-CW-E-mail-List/browse_frm/thread/5d575a837c6efa15