From my e-mail;
Dear Friends,
On Friday, 11 July, the Los Angeles Times published a commentary by Mr. David Wilder, a spokesperson for the Jewish settler community in Hebron. On subsequent days it was carried in a variety of other papers. Dianne Roe, a member of the Christian Peacemaker Team in Hebron wrote a response to Mr. Wilder. Below I have copied both commentaries for your reflection.
Sincerely,
Sandra
Rev. Sandra Olewine
United Methodist Liaison – Jerusalem
email: solewine@annadwa.org
This is the link to Wilder’s commentary. I couldn’t find it on the LA Times site.
I’ve posted Dianne Roe’s comments in the ‘extended’ section. The link to the Christian Peacemaker Team’s site isn’t working this morning.
COMMENTARY
A response to David Wilder, spokesperson for the Jewish Community of Hebron
From Dianne Roe
Dear David Wilder,
I read your commentary in the Los Angeles Times 11 July 2003. You spoke of your precarious situation living in Hebron among your enemies, and of your tenacity in remaining. I admire your tenacity and pray for your continued safety. However, I do not admire the actions that I have seen taken by you and members of your community.
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dianne Roe. I am a member of Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT). For the past eight years my teammates and I have been your neighbors. I live around the corner from you in the chicken market, among some Palestinian families, the people you call enemies.
You entitled your commentary Why Stay in a Place of Fear? It’s Home – The Jews of Hebron will not appease terrorism by pulling up their roots. I could write a response with a similar title but substitute Palestinians for the Jews. The Palestinians with whom we live have been the victims of terrorism perpetrated by members of your community.
In 1994 when Baruch Goldstein, your neighbor from Kiryat Arba settlement in Hebron, massacred 29 praying Muslims at the Tomb of the Patriarchs-Ibrahimi Mosque, you lived nearby. Why were the Palestinian victims placed under curfew while members of your community remained free? I remember one evening in October 1995 Mariam Levinger, one of the founders of your community, led a group of youth through the streets of Hebron, spray painting anti-Arab graffiti on the doors of Palestinian shops. Death to the Arabs and Baruch Goldstein was right are two of the many slogans that have adorned the street.
Also that October your community sponsored a march through the streets of Hebron with a picture of Rabin dressed in a kaffiya, calling him a traitor. In the early afternoon of November 4 1995 I watched as members of your community threatened Palestinian elementary school girls trying to leave Corduba School. They assaulted me, knocking me down. A Palestinian schoolgirl tried to help me but these same youth, from your Hebron Jewish Community, dragged the Palestinian girl down the road by her braid. Later that day a Jewish extremist assassinated Rabin in Tel Aviv. That evening as I walked in Hebron I saw a large gathering outside your headquarters in Avraham Avino. The soldiers denied me entry. They said you were having a party. Were you? How did you feel about the assassination of Rabin?
On 21 November 2000 I spent the night with a Palestinian family in the Ba’ aqa Valley near Harsina Settlement. An Israeli friend of mine, Neta Golan, was also present that night as members of your community gathered and terrorized the Palestinian family. You (your community) stoned houses, trampled crops and burned irrigation hoses. We called the Israeli police that night; the situation de-escalated, and we thought you retreated. The next morning we read your demands. Neta translated from Hebrew the fliers you presented to the Israeli army and police. You demanded dismantling of the Palestinian market, restrictions on Palestinian movement, and closure of roads to Palestinian traffic.
As we returned to Hebron, we saw the Israeli army caving in to your demands. They were dismantling the Palestinian market according to your specifications. In the months that followed we observed how you succeeded in getting the Israeli army to implement the rest of your demands.
In early 2001 the violence escalated. A Palestinian sniper hiding in the terraced hillside of Abu Sneineh, shot and killed ten month old Shalhevet Pass. It was terrible, just as the deaths of the many Palestinians we know were terrible. You said that the Jewish youth who were in Hebron the following week were not members of your community. But they were staying with you and they terrorized the Palestinian neighborhood. They set fires in the market while Palestinian families living over their shops were under curfew inside. On 1 April as I walked passed they taunted, “We will kill a thousand Arabs today. And we will kill the Christians who help them.” The next morning at 1:30 we heard a big explosion in the market. Your guests had vandalized Palestinian shops and exploded the gas for the bread oven, destroying three shops.
On August 21, 2001 our team had a Quaker woman, Angie Zelter, visiting us. As Angie and I approached a Palestinian market area near Avraham Avinu, we saw young women from your community stoning Palestinians trying to get to market during a lifting of curfew. Angie took a picture of the stoning of 75 year old Saadi Al Karaka. She talked to Karmel Frank, from you community, hoping he would ask the girls to stop throwing stones. Instead Mr. Frank assaulted Angie, and destroyed her camera.
Mr. Wilder, I would like to see a renewed Jewish presence in Hebron. The family of our landlord, the Shaheens, were among the many Palestinian families in Hebron who rescued Jewish families in 1929. I would like to meet Moshe Mizrahe, whose parents were rescued by the Shaheens, and invite him to visit Hebron again as he did in 1967 for a reunion with our landlord. I want my Palestinian neighbors to know that Judaism is a religion that respects human rights. I have introduced my Palestinian friends to Jews who practice the highest examples and values of Judaism, hoping that the ensuing friendships can lead to a return of a Hebron community that welcomes all religions and adheres to the values of our common patriarch, Abraham.
Sincerely yours,
Dianne Roe,
CPT Hebron