See also

Non-violent   protestors
  and
  "human   shields"
  model
  intervention
  in
  Middle
  East
  conflict

Bethlehem
  on strike

Statement
  to U.S.
  consul
  in
  Jerusalem

Israeli   terrorism

"All of us here, Israeli and Palestinian, need the active participation of the international community to resolve our conflict. We need it to come from a place of love and understanding, and we need it now more than ever before."

Charles Lenchner coordinates Olive Tree Summer, which brings American Jews to the Occupied territories to stand in solidarity with Palestinians. At a demonstration against Israel’s take-over of Orient House last week, he tried to protect an elderly Palestinian man who was being beaten by police. Lenchner was arrested, beaten and sexually brutalized with a baton, then shoved into a police van where he witnessed further assaults on another arrested Palestinian. Of the five to seven officers involved, the most active was a ear-ringed, plainclothes officer in a white tee-shirt who had earlier beaten the elderly man. The following excerpts from Lenchner’s report:

"The action was so intense, that I was carried out to give the police more space to beat up the occupants of the van. . . . All of this was done by policemen or border police who serve professionally, not by conscripts or young officers. Most were men between the ages of 30 and 40. Many had insignia that showed them to be midlevel non-commissioned officers or officers. None of them was wearing a badge or nametag that allowed people to get their name or number. At least seven different ones hit me after I was arrested, and this was witnessed by at least 25 police, including senior officers who seemed to be in charge of the situation.

"As a result of the heat, I suffered a migraine headache, which forced me to seek medical attention afterwards. The doctor who examined me was convinced that my condition might be related to blows to my head. .

"I'm getting a perverse pleasure out of showing off my back to unsuspecting friends; none of them has ever seen such a battered piece of flesh as my back. In a few days the colors will fade, along with all the other pains, scratches, and bruises on my body. I will not forget.

"The next day . . . I got a call from a peace activist who had read the initial report of my arrest, and wanted to know what could be done on my behalf. I explained that this is the country we live in; my beating is not out of the ordinary. Other friends of mine were beaten at other times, and more will be beaten in the future.

"This is one of the many faces of Israel: a smirking cop shoving his baton into the rectum [original anatomical reference changed] of one of the citizens he has sworn to protect.

"But please, do not discount my Israeli face, which I hope is also an important part of the picture. Some Jewish Israelis are deeply concerned about what we are doing to Palestinians, and are deeply concerned about the violence done to our own national soul as a people. Some Palestinians, facing incomparably more difficult circumstances, are trying to present a vision of the future that includes respect for both peoples.

"Whoever behaves with great violence and inhumanity, Israeli or Palestinian, is obviously suffering from severe psychological scars and intense fear. Without trying to promote an obviously false symmetry, let me say that all of us here, Israeli and Palestinian, need the active participation of the international community to resolve our conflict. We need it to come from a place of love and understanding, and we need it now more than ever before."

Lenchner’s report was forwarded by the Palestinian Rapprochement Center in Bethlehem, where gbgm missionary Bob May began working last week.

August 12, 2001