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24
February 1 2007
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Bethlehem said, echoing Elhanan's feel-
ings when he joined the IDE
"I saw the bad things that happened
on the ground that were done by the
Israel military, Israeli intelligence and
the Israeli settlers',' Al Hamri said. He
was arrested and spent 1 1/2 years in the
military jail in Hebron.
When the Israelis prevented him from
studying abroad, he attended Bethlehem
University. At his first demonstration,
a friend was killed. When the first
Palestinian intifada (uprising) started
in December 1987, he joined right in.
"We decided to fight and resist;' he
said. Arrested again, he spent three
years in the Ketziot maximum security
prison. "It was the hardest period of my
life he said.
Al Hamri said he was inspired when
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
visited the prison, and supported the
Oslo Accords. "We [Fatah] were ordered
to facilitate that atmosphere for that
peace agreement',' he said. But, he says,
Rabin's assassination was a "disaster."
"I saw the killings, that of innocent
people killed here and there, on both
sides," Al Hamri said. "We heard the
right-wing leadership in Israel say there
was no partner for peace, and we heard
the Palestinians say the same."
He recalled the first meeting of the
group that would become Combatants
for Peace, saying they all were scared,
thinking it was a trick, but that they
found "a common agenda and a com-
mon way of looking at things."
"We decided to work together. We
had paid the price. We spent most of
our lives in the prison and the Israelis
lost brothers and friends',' he said.
"Nobody won the war. Israel was still
an unsecure place, and the Palestinians
are still here and there, and don't have
any kinds of rights."
Mixed Reaction
Spirited questions and answers fol-
lowed. "Are you trying to tell me that
Israel is the cause of everything?" was
the first question, and Elhanan was just
as straightforward in his response.
"Yes, this is what I'm trying to say','
he said. "The source of the violence
is the occupation; that is our working
assumption:'
When another questioner asked
why he was being one-sided, Elhanan
responded, "I don't think I'm one-sided.
I'm very aware of the pain of both sides.
It's true that terrible things are being
done on the other side, but let's look in
the mirror."
He offered to be a "human shield"
for those criticized for supporting
Combatants for Peace. "No one can call
me traitor:' he said. "I speak for the
security of Israel."
Program organizer and Ameinu
leader Jeremy Salinger of Southfield
thought the give-and-take was valuable.
"I disagree with some of the details of
their analysis of the conflict between
Israel and the Palestinians, but I strong-
ly agree with what I understand they
are trying to do',' he said, noting that
they want to end the violence and break
down stereotypes and the distrust that
halt progress.
"I approve of their effort to promote
the idea that violence will not bring the
two sides any closer to a settlement of
the conflict," Salinger said. "They want
to pressure all of the leaders to continue
their negotiations and to develop an
agreement both sides will find accept-
able."
Twyla Meyer of Hamtramck said she
found the presentations moving.
"I think this is a real monumental
evening for me',' she said. "It needs to be
heard and understood that the occupa-
tion is dangerous for everyone. I have a
lot of respect that they can carry their
non-violent message because there is
such a violent society there, and in this
country, too."
The Rev. Fran Hayes of Littlefield
Presbyterian Church in Dearborn
recently returned from a Presbyterian
peacemaking trip to Israel and the West
Bank. She said, "I think it is important
to hear these two voices. I am hopeful
that there are people that are renounc-
ing violence and crossing the lines and
working together in dialogue."
David Rabens of West Bloomfield
said, "It is a dangerous program
because they were deceptive in the
material they presented." He said their
insistence that they just want peace and
have no political agenda "rings hollow:'
"They promoted a far-left ideology
that blames Israel for everything. Israel
is always at fault. The occupation is at
fault. If you try to stray from that, he
[al(' says I'm an Israeli and I love my
country. You can't analyze everything in
a historical vacuum."
Eugene Greenstein of Farmington
Hills says they did the same earlier
that day in a program at Wayne State
University in Detroit.
"I'm all for peace and I'm all for talk-
ing to the Arabs': he said. "You need
to minimize hatred and recognize
them as human beings, but all they
did was blame everything on Israel,
and there was no accountability on the
Palestinian side." I__