The Invasion of Bethlehem and Our Tax Dollars at Work
Written April 3rd, dictated over the phone April 4, 2002
By Nancy Stohlman in Bethlehem
Appeared at www.PalestineChronicle.com and www.Counterpunch.org
There are many myths about what is happening in the Middle East- urban
legends, stereotyping and dangerously slanted information. This information has
been spoon-fed to the American people. We lap it up unquestioningly. But these
half truths, slants and outright lies do as much to perpetuate this blood bath
as if we were sending guns and ammunition. Oh wait we are.
MYTH #1 is that this conflict is ‘too far away’ or ‘ none of our business’.
Before I continue I want to make sure that every American is clear that the US
sends six billion dollars in aid to the Israeli government. So for people who
think this conflict is not their problem I would like to give an update on what
their tax dollars are being used for- Tanks. Lots and lots and lots and lots of
tanks. Automatic weapons and olive green uniform. Right now OUR TAX DOLLARS are
blocking all the entrances to Bethlehem, not allowing anyone in or out. OUR TAX
DOLLARS have also surrounded manger square. Where little baby Jesus once laid in
a manger, Palestinians are now lying wounded and dying or contracting gangrene.
OUR TAX DOLLARS keep ambulances from reaching them. OUR TAX DOLLARS have also
trapped 200 Palestinians inside the church of the Nativity, including the
Governor of the Bethlehem District, where the wounded are without medical
attention and the rest are without food. The day of the invasion OUR TAX DOLLARS
killed a priest and wounded nuns. And when the Latin Patriarchy marched from
Jerusalem in support of their endangered brothers and sisters, OUR TAX DOLLARS
would not allow them through the Bethlehem checkpoint, turning them back to
Jerusalem in the cold drizzle. Near manger square OUR TAX DOLLARS killed a
mother and her teenage son. Bodies are still lying in the house as we speak
while the younger children scream. When some international press went to try and
rescue the children they were shot at by OUR TAX DOLLARS, in the same way OUR
TAX DOLLARS shot through the door of that same house without even a warning.
OUR TAX DOLLARS ‘sanitize’ the Palestinian refugee camps. Two nights ago in
Dehaisha refugee camp our dollars were demanding all the men aged 14-45 and all
the women 15-25 come out of their houses and give themselves over. Pictures of
the dead plaster all the walls of the camps like wallpaper.
Which brings me to MYTH #2, that all Palestinians are terrorists- raised to kill
since childhood. Arafat, the fearless leader of the terrorist state. This
biased, slanted information makes me ill and ill to think of all the people who
have digested it. Remember when native Americans were ‘savages’? Remember all
the Anti-Semitic propaganda of WWII? It is of urgent importance that we brush up
on history quickly because if we do not learn these lessons right now we are
dooming ourselves to repeat them. Saying that every Palestinian is a terrorist
is like saying that every New Yorker walks around with a knife waiting to mug
people in dark alleyways. The information that is given to Americans is biased
profiling. I sat in a Palestinian living room watching TV with the family when
we all heard the news of the suicide bomber in Tel Aviv. Their reactions were
the same as mine, Oh no, how many were killed? Oh no, this is terrible. The
Palestinians realize that they will all pay for the acts of one, the proof being
the invasion of Bethlehem. The bomber in Jerusalem was from the Dehaisha Refugee
Camp and not surprisingly the people living there, 11,000 of them plus
internationals, prepared themselves for direct and merciless retaliation. It
would be like attacking the home town of Timothy McVeigh and killing the
innocent people living there.
These Palestinian people have been living under Marshall law for over 30 years
in constant fear for their lives. They are not raising their children to become
terrorists. They are trying to raise their children as best they can in
desperate situations. Walking through Aida Refugee Camp I see the paintings of
the children and the children’s cultural center that is the pride of the 3700
people living there. The doctor and poet who heads the center says, ‘the world
cannot say that we raise our children to fight’. He gestures to the wall ‘the
kids do not paint tanks or artilleries they are painting on the walls their
dreams lakes, rivers, doves’. There is not green in the refugee camps these kids
have never seen these things, they paint from their dreams.
Aida camp has been working with the children of the camp teaching them music,
dancing, poetry, music, dancing sports, all the things that children should do.
The adults feel that these skills are better weapons. They explain, and I agree,
that the children ‘need this kind of hope’ and healthier ways to express the
myriad feelings swimming inside their little minds.
Kareem tells me a story. Once when the children were learning music inside a
relatively exposed building inside the camp the Israeli soldiers began shooting.
The children became afraid so to help calm them he suggested they sing. The
songs of the children were drowning out the sounds of the shooting and giving
the children courage. And then a girl was injured.
There are many more myths from the Middle East but we should also feel
responsible for the international silence regarding the dire situation of the
Palestinian people. Addressing the 22 internationals staying in the Aida Camp
the same doctor says ‘we were beginning to lose hope that anyone cared, we
appreciate what you do. It gives us a little light in the darkness that
surrounds us’.
* Nancy is a member of the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace, and one of four Coloradans currently in the West Bank in solidarity with Palestinians under siege by the Israeli military. You can read more about their experiences at: www.ccmep.org/palestine.html