Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id WAA08969 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 25 Sep 2001 22:37:26 +0100 From: "Lawrence DeBivort" <debivort@umd5.umd.edu> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: FW: MD FYI - Palestinian reactions Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 17:34:32 -0400 Message-ID: <NEBBKOADILIOKGDJLPMAIEKDCGAA.debivort@umd5.umd.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600 Importance: Normal Sender: fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Regarding our memetic comments on the reaction of the Palestinians to the
Sept 11 attacks.
> >From another list:
>
> -----
> 9/14
>
> The following message was written by Rev. Sandra Olewine, the United
> Methodist Liaison in Jerusalem.
> Joseph Gerson
> American Friends Service Committee
>
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> I've had numerous emails from people asking me to help interpret the
> scenes they have watched of Palestinians 'celebrating' after the
> event.
>
> Yes, there were some gatherings of people, particularly in Nablus, who
> were shown in the very early hours of the horrible attacks in the US
> on the street, dancing and cheering, and passing out chocolate. But,
> these expressions were few and certainly did not represent the feelings
> or mood of the general population. The deep shock and horror of the
> Palestinian people, the real sorrow for all the dead and wounded, was,
> and continues to be, unseen by the world, particularly in the USA. It
> is the story unheard.
>
> Because those few scenes were disturbing, the easy response is to cast
> judgment on the participants, naming those 'celebrating' as inhuman,
> despots, or despicable. The more difficult response, though,
> particularly in the midst of grief, is to ask the questions about what
> might drive people, men, women and children, to such actions. One
> might remember that the people who were seen 'celebrating' are a people
> who for almost a year have been under a brutal siege, who due to the siege
> have been unable to feed their families and hover on the brink of
> poverty and despair, who have watched their children and their parents
> killed by bullets, tank shells and guided missiles, most of which are
> supplied to the Israeli Occupation Army by the USA. One might remember
> such things as one watches those images. Attempting to understand
> motivations doesn't discount our feelings of anguish at such scenes,
> but does allow us to keep humanity a bit more in tack in a time of such
> utter brokenness.
>
> But, more importantly to me is what has mostly gone unseen by the
> American public. I have to ask why these scenes of a few
> Palestinians been shown again and again and again, as if they capture
> the 'truth' of Palestine. How few cameras have caught the spontaneous
> sorrow, despair, tears and heartache of the vast majority of the
> Palestinian
> people.
> As the news unfolded here on Tuesday afternoon about the extent of the
> attacks, people gathered, as people did everywhere, in front of
> television screens to learn as much as possible. My phone rang and
> rang as Palestinians from around the West Bank called to express their
> horror and their condolences.
>
> Yesterday following a prayer service held at St. George's Anglican
> Cathedral, I talked briefly to the US Consul General in Jerusalem. We
> talked about the scenes from here which were most prevalent on the TV.
> He told me that his office had received a stack of faxes of
> condolences from Palestinians and Palestinian Organizations 'this high'
> (indicating a stack of about 12 inches). He asked his staff to fax a
> copy of every last one of them to CNN to give a different visual
> image from
> Palestine.
>
> When we left the cathedral after the service, we drove by the American
> Consulate in East Jerusalem. Gathered there were about 30 Palestinian
> Muslim schoolgirls with their teachers. Looking grief-stricken, they
> held their bouquets of dark flowers and stood behind their row of
> candles. Silently, they kept vigil outside our Consulate. But no
> cameras captured their quiet sorrow.
>
> When I got home, my neighbor explained that her son who is in 8th
> grade came home in the afternoon and talked to her about the students
> reactions at school. He told her that everyone was talking about what
> had happened. He said that many were asking "how could someone do
> that?" "Is someone human who can carry out such acts?" He went on to
> tell her that many of the girls were crying. Friends, then, began
> stopping by my home. Palestinian Christian and Muslim came together,
> visiting me to express their sorrow and to ask what they could do.
> Again, the phone rang incessantly with Palestinians asking if
> everyone I knew was okay and asking if they could do anything to help.
>
> As we talked many went on to tell of stories of their loved ones who
> are in the States - relatives they were worried about having been
> injured or killed or who had been subject to harassment in the last couple
> of days. Others talked of having received emails from people who had been
> supporters of their work who wrote saying "I can never again support
> the Palestinian people," as if somehow Palestinians everywhere were
> suddenly responsible for the attacks in the States.
>
> The remarkable thing to me, though, was that despite such messages,
> these same people still wrote letters of condolences, made phone calls
> to friends, and asked what they could do to help. Despite the world,
> and particularly the American world, not seeing them or seeing them
> only as 'terrorists', Palestinians continued to express their common
> humanity with people everywhere as they shared in the heartache and
> dismay.
>
> Trusting in God's everlasting presence,
>
> Sandra
>
> Rev. Sandra Olewine
> United Methodist Liaison - Jerusalem
>
>
>
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>
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