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by Miriam Ward, RSM

    Susan Atallah, a Palestinian who made many friends in Vermont while at St. Michael's College and former teacher at Lawrence Barnes School in Burlington, joins the cries of desperation  coming from Bethlehem and other cities in the Occupied Territories. For the last 17 days Palestinians have been under 24-hour curfew  (39 days during the siege of the Church of the Nativity). Her friends in the States asked her to describe what curfew means. She writes:
     "Curfew means Israeli soldiers roam around town in their tanks and armored vehicles announcing a military curfew. Anybody who defies this order will be shot. So people are forced to stay caged in their homes until "mercy" comes their way: every three or four days we are given a few hours to do our shopping and then must return to our homes which have become our prison. Everything comes to a standstill, like a paralyzed body. What a depressing feeling! A home for most people is a place where you welcome friends and have a nice gathering. But for us Palestinians, our home has become our prison. Life outdoors is denied us. While most families go to parks, beaches, restaurants, and outings in the summer, we Palestinians live under the guns of tanks."
    Susan advises her friends who ask what they might do, "Pray for peace to prevail. . . . Injustice breeds violence. The powerful can not oppress, crush and grind into poverty those who are asking for freedom and a dignified human existence without expecting resistance." Susan regrets that some of the oppressed resort to extremist measures such as suicide bombings which she deplores.
     For Palestinians "curfew" means total disruption of ordinary activity: going to work, school, hospital, church or mosque, visit friends, relatives. Susan has personally suffered from this 24- hour curfew. She could not get from Bethlehem to Jordan to fly to the U.S. to serve on the Staff of the University of the Middle East summer program for teachers at Boston College.
    Finally, Susan implores her friends who just celebrated July 4 to contact their congressional representatives and President Bush on behalf of Palestinians to say, "Palestinians want their July 4th!"

Miriam Ward, RSM, Burlington, VT 05401