GOOD BYES
Timothy Rothermel
Special Representative of the UNDP in
Jerusalem
From The PalestineChronicle, October 30, 2002
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (PINA) - In the past
five days, I've said good-bye to friends in two extraordinarily different ways,
but both have relevance to life in the
Middle East in the current situation and both illustrate the
tragedy that is taking place here - for
all concerned.
The first goodbye was to Michael, over
a good lunch and with the warm
reminisces that have characterized a friendship of over two
decades. Michael and his charming and
highly intelligent wife, an internationally
recognized professor of biotechnology,
both in their 80s, have left Jerusalem
for a new life in Australia. Michael had served as a senior civil servant in his government, holding
Ambassadorial ranks in important
countries as well as in his Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem. They had a
comfortable retirement life from a material point of view, enjoying the cultural, climatic and social life of a
country in which they were both born-in
Tel Aviv before the creation of the State of Israel. Both decided that the conditions to which Palestinians, from
within Israel and, more importantly,
those under occupation were treated, as
well as other internal social developments in their country made emigration an imperative.
The second was to Mrs. Shaden Abu
Hijleh, whose face I saw yesterday on
her burial pyre as she was carried to her final resting place in Nablus,
a city now under Israeli curfew for almost a hundred days. She was the mother of a good colleague, a respected
pillar in her community and an emblem
of human rights and decency. Her only crime, last Friday, was to be enjoying the evening breeze with her
family, working on embroidery, on the
terrace of her home when the bullet fired by an Israeli soldier passed through her neck, killing her
instantly.
Both good-byes were so unnecessary,
products of despair that has overtaken
the Israeli/Palestinian situation during recent months when exemplary citizens, willingly or
unwillingly, and from both communities are no longer a part of their societies.
Having spent most of my professional
life in seeking to support peace and development in the region, it is tragic to bid farewell to good
Israeli and Palestinian friends.
Seen from Jerusalem, it appears that
the world perceives this human tragedy through blinders: the Israelis are
obviously the 'good guys' or it's the
Palestinians who are suffering in complete innocence. Perhaps it reflects a little of both opinions. But
before there are more painful
good-byes, it may be time to remove these blinders; to see the situation with dispassion rather than compassion, to
apply international law in an even
handed manner and to permit the children of Israel and Palestine to face a
future of peace rather than death and despair.