July 20, 2002

Response by Sister Miriam Ward to the Burlington Free Press and the News-Journal, Wilmington, Delaware

To the Editor:

Norman A. Lockman's op-ed Israel's actions are cruel and dangerous reprinted in the Burlington Free Press (VT), July 18, 2002 is a most accurate analysis of Israeli military reoccupation of Palestinian lands and lives. When he describes the West Bank "in almost total lockdown," an appropriate description of round the clock curfew, my personal experience over thirty years conjures up hundreds of examples of the inhumanity of caging an entire civilian population in their homes. Imagine what thirty days of lockdown would do to your life! Imagine a university extending its academic year from the end of May into June and then into July with students risking lives to get to final classes and exams.

This story from a Palestinian professor a friend of mine: red faced and drenched in perspiration, a student apologized for being late for her final exam. The professor told her she could have extra time. She disappeared at the end of the allotted time. When her professor read the exam that evening, she found a note of apology for being late with the explanation of having to get to another exam and that she had walked some 20 kilometers in the scorching heat. She actually risked her life because the hours of "lifted curfew" in her town did not agree with the hours in the university city. My friend broke down and cried. "Why are the Israelis doing this to us?" she wrote to me.

Norman Lockman's superb piece underscores Edward Said's statement that "Israel is seeking to eliminate the Palestinians as a people, destroying their civil life." And more to the point of his editorial is the responsibility we Americans have in subsidizing this cruelty.

For identification: A professor of religious studies, Sister Miriam Ward is a founding member of Pax Christi Burlington and Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel. She has led some 27 pilgrimage tours to biblical lands. Tel. 864-3885