People of Faith CT

Sunday, January 11, 2009
New Haven Register
Rev. Dr. Rochelle A. Stackhouse

IN 1992, I spent seven days in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip traveling with staff of the world mission board of the United Church of Christ. We visited missionaries and partner church agencies which work in the region. I had been on the Middle East Committee of the board for several years, studying issues of the broader Middle East, and I have continued to do so since.

While this does not make me an expert of any kind, I do know that it is hard for Americans who have not traveled to Gaza to get a full picture of the situation there.

In 1992, Israel still controlled and administered the Gaza Strip, a small piece of land between Israel’s internationally recognized borders and Egypt. Israel was allegedly responsible for the infrastructure and public services for the people there.

My first impression on entering Gaza City was that its motto should be "Abandon hope all ye who enter here." The sewer system for the city greeted us first, a large open cesspool that drained, unfiltered, into the Mediterranean Sea where we saw people fishing for food.

Three generations of Palestinians have grown up in the refugee camp there in corrugated metal shacks. Americans often ask why there are still refugee camps 60 years after the founding of Israel. Part of the reason is that when the Israeli government controlled the Gaza and the West Bank, it was almost impossible for a Palestinian to get a housing permit.

Health care in Gaza was and is a disaster. The Israelis had built a modern hospital to serve the 8,000 residents of a Jewish settlement in Gaza, but the two hospitals serving the far larger Palestinian population looked like something out of the TV series "MASH," only not as well supplied.

Unemployment was and is rampant. Israel controls the border crossings and port, thus effectively cutting Gaza off from the global economy. All movement between Gaza and the outside world is completely controlled by Israel. Palestinians have to carry identity cards and their license plates are color coded.

If Palestinians from Gaza, either Christian or Muslim, need to cross to Israel or the West Bank to go to a hospital, a college, to work, to visit family or holy sites, they are subject to harassment and humiliation, which I witnessed. Children watch elderly grandparents mistreated by Israeli soldiers. I saw all this before the building of the wall, which has made it all much more difficult and demeaning.

Then there are the bulldozings. Families whose only crime is having a relative arrested on suspicion of terrorism are given 15 minutes to get whatever they can out of their homes, which are then bulldozed. Olive groves lovingly tended by many generations of Palestinians are bulldozed in a day to make way for Israeli settlements or out of punishment.

Yes, Israel has a right to defend itself. Israel, and Americans whose tax dollars support the Israeli military, also need to understand that the hatred and anger of Palestinians has been fed and nurtured by decades of neglect, oppression and daily humiliations. In Gaza, the result I saw 17 years ago was deep anger, despair and hopelessness, a breeding ground for conflict.

Israel did not create Hamas, but it led to the election of Hamas in Gaza by its decades-long policies toward the Palestinian people there.

Bombs on either side will not solve this conflict; they never have. There are Israelis and both Christian and Muslim Palestinians whom we met in 1992 who are still working toward peace and reconciliation. They are the only hope for a lasting peace. I only wish they had the resources at their disposal that the armies of both sides have at theirs.

The Rev. Dr. Rochelle A. Stackhouse is pastor of Church of the Redeemer, 185 Cold Spring St., New Haven 06511,