By World BEYOND War, August 29, 2024
World BEYOND War board member John Reuwer is participating in a delegation of 25 Christian, Muslim, and Jewish leaders, to witness events happening in Jerusalem and the West Bank and urge a cease fire and arms embargo to end the genocide in Gaza. Hosted by Sabeel, a Palestinian Christian organization, he is meeting with religious leaders, scholars, and Palestinians who have lost their homes or been otherwise displaced.
On July 28, the delegation visited the Shuafat Refugee camp in East Jerusalem, which is occupied Palestinian territory (illegally under international law). It was established in 1965 when residents were forced out of the old city. As you can see from this picture, the original simple buildings have become massive to house the 80,000 refugees currently living on less than two square kilometers. Note the apartheid wall that keeps the residents from enjoying Jerusalem or visiting their relatives, even though they pay taxes to the city. In the background is a mural that bestows beauty on an ugly situation.
Inside, we were shown one of the dozens of schools run by UNRWA (. Decreased funding makes maintainence more difficult, such as not repairing the bullet holes seen in the walls of the school. We were told by locals that frustrated Israeli soldiers would shoot randomly at the school.
Checkpoints in and out of the camp were easy the day we were there, and things seemed placid, with kids playing and people going about their daily business. Today, however, our host sent us the video below showing one of the frequent incursions, seemingly random, made into the camp by the Israeli Occupation Forces the day after our visit.
A lesson here is that the current slaughter in Gaza did not start on October 7. Palestinians have been suffering displacement for 76 years, and illegal military occupation for 57 years. Rather than argue over who has a “right to defend themselves”, World BEYOND War appeals to everyone to urge their governments to obey international law that makes occupations illegal and demands diplomatic solutions to conflicts.
