It is Sunday, a family day out for many people, a time to spend together with friends and relatives. My two daughters wanted to go out for a ride so we took the car and drove to Beit Jala, thinking we could stop for donuts and coffee. So sad are our streets today; they are empty of people and all the shops are closed. Coffee shops and restaurants are closed. No-one is walking through the streets. We drove around and returned home, Salam and Luna were very disappointed.
It is Sunday, a family day out for many people, a time to spend together with friends and relatives. My two daughters wanted to go out for a ride so we took the car and drove to Beit Jala, thinking we could stop for donuts and coffee. So sad are our streets today; they are empty of people and all the shops are closed. Coffee shops and restaurants are closed. No-one is walking through the streets. We drove around and returned home, Salam and Luna were very disappointed.
All the citizens here are glued to the TV, listening to the news. It seems this is our goal for the next few weeks. The thing is, we do not know what is happening in other cities and villages in Palestine, but we can watch the destruction of Iraq. The Israeli occupation forces continue to disrupt our daily existence, no local TV crews are free to report what is happening in our areas. They have also imposed a stricter siege and we are completely separated from the nearby villages.
Our lives are dull to say the least, and even our children have no place to go to and play, to enjoy being a child. This is all thanks to Mr. Sharon who has been most successful in making our lives a misery. He has turned us into zombies where we only eat and sleep; our hearts may beat and the blood may course through our veins but in reality we are dead, we do not exist anymore.
Already in excess of 90 families have emigrated from Beit Sahour alone. A city of 13,000 inhabitants, 80% Christians and 20% Moslem, is decreasing rapidly with many citizens seeking a life elsewhere, just for the hope of survival. Many have gone, many others are trying. The Holy Land will very soon be empty of it’s Christians and the world sits by, watching. The phenomena of emigration is a stark reality and our Christian communities are now elsewhere.
Sharon continues with his viscous oppression, using economic pressure to effect ethnic cleansing of the land of Palestine. Many Israelis support the right wing and are demanding that we are all driven from our homes and our land. With the war in Iraq, we fear that this is exactly what will happen, as the world watches elsewhere.
Sharon wants no Palestine state. Christians, Moslems and Jews can live together as brothers in this land, if that is what they all want. I remember the days when my father used to trade with Israelis and many of his Israeli friends used to come and stay with us.
We hear the words of Bush, of Blair and of others, but we do not believe the sincerity anymore. We also watch as America pledges to give $10 billion of support to Israel, helping to buy more war planes and weapons with which to kill us. We hear Sharon demanding alterations to the so-called ‘road map to peace’, alterations which take away any possibility of an independent Palestine. We are watching as Israel is taking yet more land of Palestine for it’s ‘security fence’, ensuring more illegal settlements are within ‘Israel’, rather than in West Bank. How are we supposed to believe in peace when we are being forced to give up more and more? How are we supposed to work for peace when we will never be given justice?
Keep us in your prayers
Suzan Sahori
Beit Sahour
