Letters from Israel

by the Rev. Sandra Olewine

Once Again

30 July 1997, 4:00 pm, Jerusalem time

Dear Friends,

I was standing by the window in our office getting ready to make a phone call. It sounded like two big pops. I looked out the window instinctively. I knew they weren't sonic bombs, which we hear all the time in Jerusalem.

My eyes searched the horizon for signs of smoke. I didn't see any. But I waited. Within minutes the sounds of sirens began to fill the air. They sounded as if they were coming from all over the city. Soon, a helicopter began to circle the air just over the hill from us. My colleague, Doug, and I looked at each other, praying that it wasn't what we thought it must be.

We made a couple of quick phone calls. No one had heard anything. Deciding to close the office, Doug and I walked down to Salah-Eddin Street. Within minutes our fears were confirmed; it was another suicide bomber. In fact, two, which explained why I had heard two pops. The news was saying 16 dead and over 50 wounded. At one of our friend's shops, we stopped to watch the TV reports. The all-too familiar sight of the Jewish religious team in charge of gathering human remains filled the screen.

Chaos was the only word to describe the usually busy open air market street. Up and down the street, Palestinians were shaking their heads saying how terrible it was. As we sat in one shop, sipping the always-offered cup of coffee, one of the businessmen said, "This is not good. It is a terrible thing. But, I wonder if people understand. When you don't have a job and you can't feed your family--when there is no money for your

children and there is no sign of change--frustration builds and builds and builds. People think, 'What is left? Everything is finished.' That doesn't make it good. It doesn't solve anything for anyone. It ultimately causes more harm, but people become almost crazy with frustration here. They don't think what will happen after; they just strike out."

We talked about the violence of the moment and how that is what the world sees. It is horrible, of course. Tonight, someone will be without a mother, a sister, a brother, a grandparent, a father, a friend. It is senseless.

But the acts of suicide bombers are not the only senseless activities, the only forms of violence. It is also violent to demolish a family's home, to move Bedouin to a garbage dump to make way for new Jewish houses, to confiscate land, to prevent males aged 18 to 40 from getting to work just because they are young men, to imprison people because they might be guilty of something and hold them without charge for up to six months, one year, three years, to humiliate people at checkpoints by insults and sneers.

The bomb blasts are terror, short and simple. Everyone understands that. My heart feels heavy under the pain that so many families will know in the coming days and months.

But, the other terror--the terror of occupation, dehumanization, arrogant power--also breaks my heart every day. I see the grief of Palestinian families who live with this constant daily terror.

Both are heart-rending, both are horrible, both need to stop!

This day, as you hear the news, hear the accusations, hear the grief, remember both peoples of this land--Palestinian and Israeli. Pray for reason, mercy, compassion, justice, peace, for without those, neither will have any security.

Sincerely,
Sandra Olewine

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Another Heartbreaking Day