The Trust receives daily communications
from people from all walks of life who are witnesses to and are part of
the on-going suffering that blights this Holiest of places. Many of the
emails and letters we have received are too upsetting to publish but we
would like to share with you the words of some of our correspondents:
Fr Iyad Twal writes from Bir Zeit:
‘We don’t have running water and have had to bring in supplies and
wait. We are under a very hard siege and no one can reach us or leave. I
am very worried about the children and young adults for serious side
effects, which could damage many virtues and attitudes for the future. It
is a critical, dangerous period, either we survive or not.’
Bomb damage to the church at Bir Zeit
Dr Maria C. Khoury is a teacher who wrote to us about the regular
harassment of children, priests and nuns at road blocks and checkpoints.
She included some messages from her students:
‘The people of the Holy land have become victims of the absence of
peace. If I had a wish, my wish would be to live in peace forever.’
Maha Jarrar 7th grade Zababedeh.
‘I don’t feel that I’m safe. I always feel that I live in fear and I’m
disappointed because there’s no stability..so I wish peace would be coming
one day.’ Mary Sayez 6th grade Bir Zeit.
‘My house was hit twice by the Israeli soldiers. I just cried and
couldn’t sleep. So if I had a wish, I would say and scream to every
responsible person in the world to give us our childhood and stop the
tears flowing from the mothers’ eyes for losing their children and
husbands and the tears of little children who lost their mothers and
fathers, the war is bad, evil and painful, the war is now in my lovely
homeland in Palestine.’
Mariam Abu Amsha 6th grade Beit Jala.
I want to be safe from all these things, all day blood and damaged
houses and fire. Who can help my friends and me? I wish to be safe just
one day. I want them to go away from my dreams.’ Loudy Shaheen 6th grade Birzeit.
Colin Brooks, a pilgrim to the Holy Land, wrote to us about the lack of
teaching materials in schools and shared his impressions of some of the
children he met: ‘In Palestine the pupils at some of the sites were in
stark contrast with the ones we had seen in Jordan – similar children, but
the bright eyes were replaced by glazed looks. The happy smiles had
changed to grim frightened mouths. The teachers told us that when asked to
draw pictures even the little ones draw either tanks or guns. One six year
old had had the lower part of his arm blown away when a tank shell
exploded near him. Another boy was grieving for his brother, who was
killed by a sniper – the youngster couldn’t understand who had taken him
away and where he had gone.’ |
