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The Times Argus, December 29, 2002

Lock-down in the Holy Land

By Sister Miriam Ward

Daily I receive messages of desperation and pleas from Palestinians in Bethlehem. For the entire month of December thousands of Palestinians have been under a strict military lock-down, virtual prisoners in their homes.

Muslims could not celebrate their feast of Eid al-Fitr at the end of Ramadan while Christians were not allowed to attend Mass during Advent in preparation for Christmas.

It is not the decorations but food that worries the mayor. It is the “arbitrary slow torture that is wearing,” complains a professor. Bethlehem University held 15-minute classes during one lifting of the curfew and planned another of 30-minute classes only to have the curfew reimposed, cutting two hours off the stated time.

Susan Atalah, (M.A., St. Michael’s College) describes her students at St. Joseph’s High School as “angry, feeling old, and depressed” as they try to schedule exams in the few hours when curfew is lifted.

Brother Neil, an American teaching at Bethlehem University for 12 years, urges Americans to be better informed and to realize their responsibility for financing the policies of Israel. He calls attention to the policy of the Israeli government which, “using the guise of responding to terrorism (for which its occupation is responsible) to piece by piece take-over of the entire Palestinian territory, new settlement by new settlement, new road by new road, house by house, olive grove by olive grove until the entire land has been incorporated into Israel.”

Sister Miriam Ward
Burlington, VT