[ RELIGION ]
FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Bishop Bob Jones and wife Mary Page Jones pose for a recent photo at St. Elizabeth's Episcopal Church in Kalihi. The stained-glass window represents "a house of prayer for all people," with the symbols reflecting the ethnic diversity of the church's history.
A retired Episcopal bishop and
his wife work to educate Americans
about the treatment endured
by Palestinians
A retired Episcopal bishop and his wife, whose service at a Christian college in Jerusalem made them witnesses in the Arab-Israeli conflict, are on a mission in Hawaii to share their insight about people on the Palestinian side of Israel borders.
Palestinians are subjected to a "policy of humiliation" by the Israeli military, said Bishop Bob Jones, now serving as interim pastor of St. Elizabeth Episcopal Church in Kalihi. He and his wife, Mary Page Jones, will speak at 7:30 p.m. today at St. Andrew's Cathedral's Tenney Theatre in a free program sponsored by the Hawaii Geographic Society.
"My hunch is that 1 percent of the whole Palestinian population" is involved in terrorism, yet all of them are subject to the "collective punishment of a people," said Mary Jones. "A rage has built up within the people ... and this leads to violence," such as the revenge suicide bombings in Israel, she said.
Bishop Jones served as dean of St. George's College in Jerusalem for four years, while his wife worked in Palestinian refugee camps. They returned to the United States in 2000. They have spoken at several church and peace group gatherings in Hawaii. Their talks are peppered with anecdotes from friends in the land holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians.
Their education effort began while in Jerusalem as they took visiting Christians into personal encounters with Palestinians. "Invariably, the 400 or so Americans who came per year came pro-Israel. After 10 days they left pro-Palestinian. They weren't told (about the discrimination), they saw it on the street themselves, they absorbed what was happening."
Bishop Jones said the United Nations has initiated more than 200 human rights violations against Israel since it occupied the West Bank and Gaza after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. The United States has used its veto in the U.N. Security Council 50 times to defend Israel.
"Our government doesn't talk about the root of terrorism, the O-word -- for occupied," he said.
The missionary pair is frustrated that the American public is not aware of the treatment Palestinians suffer, especially innocent civilians. They blame the "controlled media" in the United States for not telling the other side of the story on terrorism in the Middle East.
Mary Jones said, "We get the message about Palestinian suicide bombers, but they don't get to the collateral-damage stories" of Arab civilians killed and families whose homes are demolished and livelihoods are taken away.
A Honolulu Jewish scholar agreed that "the media has not been accurate" in America, but from his viewpoint it is Israel that has gotten a bad rap. "We never get a full story; (reporters) would lose their credentials in Arab countries if they reported accurately.
"Israel has always been evaluated with a double standard," said Rabbi Morris Goldfarb, scholar in residence at Temple Emanu-El. Americans are so lacking in history that they do not know that the West Bank and Gaza land was conquered by Israel in the 1967 war in which "they were not the aggressor," he said. "Tell me any other country in the world that has returned land that it conquered in war."
Goldfarb said, "Terrible things have been done by the Israeli army; I don't defend them."
But, he said, "The Palestinians have won the PR battle, and Israel has done a poor job."
George Hudes, a retired University of Hawaii political science instructor and member of the Conservative Jewish Sof Ma'arav Congregation in Honolulu, said he agrees with the Joneses.
"Americans never get a picture of the terrible conditions under which Palestinians live -- just to get to the hospital or to school -- it's a horrible situation. I can't be silent about it in good conscience," said Hudes, a member of Friends of Sabeel, the local chapter of an international group that takes its name from an ecumenical organization in Jerusalem and promotes information about conditions in the Palestinian territories.
"That doesn't mean I think the suicide bombings are not horrendous. But one must begin to understand where this comes from -- these are acts of desperation," said Hudes.
"Palestinians were living there for thousands of years, then practically overnight their homes are taken away. They are made to pay for 1,500 years of European racism and oppression of the Jewish people," said Hudes.
The Joneses describe people waiting in line for hours at guarded checkpoints trying to travel from home to work. No matter their condition, some are forced to crawl under wires at random at the order of Israeli guards.
"At checkpoints, old men are detained in the hot sun for hours. They wet themselves because they aren't allowed to go to the toilet," a sight he has witnessed, Jones said.
"There are very few jobs in the West Bank. They have to travel (through the checkpoints) to get to work. And (Israelis) close these checkpoints overnight for no reason, so they can't get to their jobs" or take their vegetables or animals to market, Jones said.
Mary Jones quotes an e-mail message from a Christian Palestinian friend, Samia Khouri, a retired director of a girls school in Jerusalem: "Please do not let us lose hope in humanity. We know there are too many good people out there who can do something about this occupation which is killing us all."
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COURTESY OF LEONA WEIGHTMAN
U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye poses with Rabbi Avi Magid at Temple Emanu-El.
U.S. Sen. Inouye says Israel
deserves American backing for
a peace plan that includes
returning settlement land
U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye said he will do whatever he can to ensure U.S. backing for the Israeli peace plan for Palestine that proposes holding onto some West Bank lands that opponents believe should be part of a Palestinian state.
"That was a gutsy proposal," said Inouye about Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's recent blueprint for settlement of the dispute over lands captured by Israel in the 1967 war.
He spoke to an audience of about 100 people April 16 at Temple Emanu-El. He emphasized Sharon's suggestion that land occupied by four Jewish settlements would be returned rather than other aspects of the plan that call for holding onto five Jewish settlements and completing a wall to control Palestinians in crossing Israel borders.
"How many nations have given up lands they have conquered?" said Inouye in a talk at the weekly Shabbat service. "We pressed them to give up Sinai land (after the 1967 conflict with Egypt and Syria), and now they will give up Gaza and part of the West Bank. If Israel is willing to do that, the least we can do is support Israel in a real sense. It is high on my agenda when I return to Washington to make certain the peace proposal by Israel is not only supported, but to do what we can to make it happen.
"Today we find every effort being made to put a wedge between the U.S. and Israel," he said. "The Israelis are fighting our war. It is the only democracy in that part of the world. It is in our national interest to support Israel."
The ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Hawaii's senior senator made no reference to the fact he shares this view with Republican President Bush.
Bush's remarks last week in support of Sharon's peace platform raised criticism from some American churches because it seems to reverse U.S. policy that supports a negotiated peace between the Israeli and Palestinian sides. A coalition of 19 national Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox Christian church offices, including the National Council of Churches, issued a statement April 15 that criticized Bush for backing the unilateral proposal, saying protracted conflict continues to endanger the Christian presence in the Holy Land.
Inouye traced his backing for the state of Israel back to its creation in 1948, using anecdotes that delighted the synagogue audience. Inouye said he has always supported the U.S. grant program that gives Israel $3 billion a year with no required repayment. "We instituted the program ... to make up for all we failed to do over the years."
» "We were the first to support the state of Israel, but we would not sell them arms."» "I helped support the bond sales (which financed early Israel government construction) and still have a bond with (first Prime Minister David) Ben Gurion's picture."
» "As a child in Sunday school, I heard it said that Jews killed Jesus. Unfortunately, that is still repeated in many parts of the United States."
» "Another GI told me about Dachau. I made it a point to find out and study what a Jew is. I was horrified by attitudes in the United States. We knew about these camps ... and did nothing. None of them ever got bombed."
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