Israel Matzav

Woodward's libel

It is remarkable that a veteran religion writer can be so ignorant of his subject as to write that East Jerusalem is not part of Israel. In fact, Israel annexed East Jerusalem after the 1967 Six-Day war. East Jerusalem’s Arab residents are full-fledged citizens of Israel or eligible to be so. By contrast, Bethlehem is part of the territory in the West Bank designated as "Area A" --that is, under the control of the Palestinian Authority--and one does indeed require a permit to pass from it into Israel proper. This is Israel’s prerogative, and a quite sensible one for the protection of Israel’s borders from terrorist infiltration.

Nevertheless, contrary to what Woodward claims, permission is routinely granted to Palestinian Christians (and Muslims) to enter Israel to worship. This past holiday season, thousands of such travel permits were issued to Christians in Bethlehem. Similar permits were even granted to Christians in Gaza--at a time when the Israeli government has no official contact with the Hamas government there.

Also false is Woodward's claim that travel in the opposite direction is "banned" by Israel. Israelis are indeed discouraged from entering hostile Palestinian areas--the day after Christmas, an Israeli driver who took a wrong turn narrowly escaped being lynched in Ramallah--and Israeli Jews require a special permit from the military to enter Area A. But Israeli Arabs, Christian and Muslim alike, can for the most part pass through freely. Thousands of Israeli Christians traveled to Bethlehem over Christmas without incident.

As for the "whims" of Israeli soldiers, this is another slander. Border policies are made by the government and passed down the chain of command. Soldiers on duty at checkpoints are under stringent orders, enjoying a measure of discretion only when it comes to halting suspicious cargo and the like. They may no more restrict passage on a whim than nap or play cards.

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A final insult, writes Woodward, is that “urban Bethlehem finds itself encircled by Israeli settlements.” “From the Church of the Nativity, Christians can . . . look out on Har Homa (‘Wall Mountain’), a verdant Jewish settlement on a hillside that was formerly Christian land."

Jewish settlements near Bethlehem are neither new nor "encircling." The territory south and east of the city is overwhelmingly Area A--i.e., Palestinian. Jerusalem lies several kilometers to the north; to the west is the Etzion Bloc, which contains a number of Jewish villages as well as Arab ones. The Jewish population in the bloc, resettled shortly after the Six Day war, has grown over the years, but title to the land on which Jewish villages are built is not disputed. Nor does the bloc flank Bethlehem: the terrain is hilly and open, and urban Bethlehem is barely visible from most points.

As for Har Homa: though the subject of much artificial controversy, it is part of the Jerusalem municipality, it is not "verdant," and the hilltop on which it is situated was acquired by the Israeli government through eminent domain, upheld by Israel’s Supreme Court. Most of the acreage belonged not to Christians but to Jews, and none of it was farmland or dwellings. The owners were all compensated.

According to Woodward, Israel's security wall "is being completed around Beit Jala, separating this Christian village from 70 percent of its lands, which are mostly owned by Christian families. Some of the families are attempting to contest the confiscations in court, but construction--and the confiscation--goes on." Likewise, "the Franciscans, the Sisters of Charity, and other religious groups both Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox have had property confiscated and Christian housing destroyed."

The reason Beit Jala is being walled off from Israel is that it has been the source of repeated mortar attacks against the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. The requisitioning of land for the security fence is no different from what happens in any country when a road or a railway is built, and the owners, who retain title, are being compensated by the government. Israel's civil administration also ensures that landowners have daily access to land on the opposite side of the fence, and has not received complaints on this score.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:13 PM