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Greetings to all,

The ISM office in the West bank was raided by the Israeli army yesterday. Computer records were confiscated and people were detained. This will probably be presented as part of the war on terrorism in this part of the world. However the following should be noted:

- The ISM, like CPT, is committed only to non-violent, peaceful activities - Recently three ISM members have been attacked by the Israeli army while they were engaged in non-violent activities. One woman was bulldozed to death and two men were shot in the head by Israeli gunfire. - These ISM members were active in exposing the harrassment that has become a part of the Palestinian people's daily experience in the occupied terroritories.

The ISM raid has become part of the daily ups and downs of life here. Unfortunately there are far more down moments than upward ones.

Recently I attended a meeting of about 60-70 Palestinian farmers in the south of the West Bank. A number of international NGOs were present and the meeting was supposed to be a time to address the farmer's very real water problems in the region. Unfortunately the meeting was mainly a time when farmer after farmer got up to express the human rights violations that daily beseige them. Arbitrary military decisions are made to confiscate their land (to make the land available to expanding Jewish settlements in the West bank). Their sheep are stolen and they are personally harrassed and beaten. The pattern is clear. Expanding Israeli settlements harrass Palestinians in the surrounding countryside (often with Israeli army protection). If this provokes any kind of Palestinian incident, the army rushes in to confiscate the area in the name of military security. The settlement thus further expands and the cycle is repeated.

It seems that it is impossible to have a benign occupation of one people by another people's army, especially in this case when the Israelis are constantly enlarging their settlements and seizing Palestinian land in the process. Sometimes I think - well this process of one people conquering another is as old as human history. After all most of us of European origin in North America are living in conquered lands as a result of the colonial activities of our ancestors. Then I muse that at least modern occupations are more moderate than past ones where entire peoples were practicaly eliminated in genocidal rampages. Now we have human rights standards, international media spotlights and international criminal courts- even if these mechanisms are regularly ignored by our modern day conquerors. Yes I think, by comparison to past exploits, Israel's present process of conquest seems relatively moderate.

Then in the midst of this philosophical reflection I am brought face to face with the human dimensions of this tragedy. For me the most searing memories in my consciousness are the effects on the children in this region. There are frightening signs of rage and hatred that may have incalculable effects in the future. I think of the snarling Jewish settler boy who threw a stone at my face on the other side of a screened gate just outside of our apartment. I sadly recall that sometimes Palestinain boys throw stones at us, as they would at any foreigners who pass by their houses. With extreme sadness I recall the very little children that have been traumatized by attacks on their parents and their homes. They still cry very easily when someting reminds them of that terrible incident. What kind of future hell are we building for ourselves here?

Before I knew much of the situation here I used to think, when I heard of a house demolition - well at least they are not killing people, they are only destroying their homes. Now I am not at all so sure that that is a more benign act. Just for a minute, as you sit reading this, try to think of all that you home means to you. It is your sheltered place , where you can feel safe, reflect, rest, be renewed and comforted and hopefully find love expressed with those who live there with you. NOW TRY TO IMAGINE THAT ONE MORNING, USUALLY IN THE DARK, BY MILITARY ORDER, ALL THAT IS YOUR HOME IS DESTROYED! Would you not be totally devastated.? This is what is happening regularly in the Palestinian occcupied terrotories.

However in the midst of all of the darkness here there are, thank God ,occasional shafts of light. A talk with a moderate and humane Israeli soldier, who also disagees with what is going on here and yet is caught in the middle of it. He fears the ghettoization of the Palestinain people and remembers the ghettoization of his own people in Europe. I have met some wonderfully brave Palestinian families who suffer and live with constant fear, but will not let this suffering break up their warm and loving family structures.

Unfortunately, here one often sees religion at its worst, with its ready resort to violence and willingness to control others. All sides have erred here - Christians, Jews and Muslims. If we are to survive this, we must learn to respect each other and to live together in harmony!

Blessings of peace upon you all,

Eric