Nathan Musselman arrived home in Roanoke, Va., on May 27 after more than three weeks of imprisonment by Israeli authorities. A member of the Oak Grove Church of the Brethren in Roanoke, he had been detained May 2 following his participation in a nonviolent witness outside Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.

Musselman had been studying Arabic at a West Bank university in Ramallah prior to his detention. He was also a participant in the December Church of the Brethren General Board delegation to Iraq, and before that was a member of the Child Exploitation Study Committee of Annual Conference and the Youth Peace Travel Team.

In a letter sent to friends and family, Musselman wrote, "I can't possibly thank all of you enough for your thoughts and prayers and letters and phone calls and support and solidarity." The Church of the Brethren Washington Office and others had urged such support and advocacy for Musselman in recent weeks.

Barred from re-entering the Palestinian areas, Musselman is as yet uncertain about his immediate future. He says he is very interested in sharing his story and his feelings about the Israeli occupation of Palestine with congregations. Writings from his experiences are below, where there is also contact information to arrange speaking engagements.

Nathan Musselman is a member of Oak Grove Church of the Brethren in Roanoke Virginia. He currently resides in the West Bank village of Birzeit in Palestine where he studies Arabic at the local Palestinian university. The following are updates and stories from Nathan concerning the situation around him. Nathan may be reached at nathanmusselman@yahoo.com and welcomes any questions or comments.

April 8, 2002

Hey everyone,

A number of you have e-mailed me asking how I'm doing and about the situation. I'm sorry I'm responding with a mass e-mail but I don't have time to write all of you. The Israelis have lifted the curfew for a few hours and I managed to get to a friends house that has Internet. I'm in Bethlehem now because immediately before the Israeli incursion into Ramallah I had to go to Jordan to renew my visa (bad timing) and when I returned I couldn't get back to Ramallah. So I came to Bethlehem and joined the foreigners who are here now because a campaign of nonviolence happened to be planned months ago at the precise time the Israelis decided to invade all the Palestinian cities (good timing). So I'm living in a Palestinian refugee camp in Bethlehem with a family who requested foreigners to stay with them because they are afraid of Israelis coming to the house and because the house is near an entrance to the camp that the tanks and stuff drive by all the time, shooting and such. Us foreigners are also accompanying Palestinian ambulances, going out to find food for people, walking Palestinians here and there for various reasons and doing media stuff. We've done some marches as well, none of which have been truly successful because the Israelis are so brutal. There was one in Beit Jalla that at least one of you heard of where some of us foreigners were injured by Israeli fire. But I wasn't. I'm afraid I won't get into discussing the political situation or how the Palestinians are doing in the various cities because I don't have time. When the situation improves I'll try to write some stuff to you. Suffice it to say, don't trust the US news, it and the Israelis are always distorting the truth and/or leaving out important parts of the story. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, I really appreciate it. If you can find a way to do something, some little thing, about this mess over here or elsewhere in the world that's even better.

Love,
Nathan

March 8, 2002

Hey everyone,

I remember about a year ago I was thinking to myself that the situation in Palestine could not stay the way it was very much longer. The volatile combination of the Israeli siege on the Palestinian Territories, assassinations of Palestinian political leaders and activists, and attacks on Palestinian towns and cities, along with Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the Territories and Israel proper seemed bound to disintegrate from suppression of rebellion to outright conquest and destruction. But here we are, almost a year and a half into the Intifada, and the Palestinians are still standing, the resistance to the occupation is still alive. The comings weeks may be their greatest challenge yet. The past two have seen some of Israel's most deadly attacks yet, in the streets of Palestinian refugee camps. Its absurdity really, gargantuan Israeli tanks trying to maneuver the streets of the refugee camps, menacing Apache helicopters and F-16s (both made in the USA) raining death on the most destitute of the Palestinian population, who were expelled from their homes in what is now Israel over fifty years ago. Is this why Americans pay their taxes? So that US defense contractors and the Pentagon can arm Israeli soldiers against people who have nothing left to lose but their lives?

If I had any doubt as to how destructive an F-16 can be, I was assured during my recent trip to Bethlehem. In the center of the city is (was) the compound for the Palestinian National Authority for the district, which has come under fire from F-16s the past four nights. I've seen pictures of such destruction from American bombing in Iraq and Afghanistan, but never first hand. The large compound is now completely leveled to the ground, with the exception of the large building Arafat uses as a home when he is in the city, and many surrounding houses and stores are destroyed from shrapnel and flying chunks of stone and metal. Families nearby have now abandoned their houses, even moving furniture and other valuables to houses of family members, in fear of further attacks. It's hard to imagine any reason for the attacks other than to threaten Arafat and further destroy the infrastructure of the PNA, a project Sharon has been working on since he was elected. I ran into a young Palestinian police officer (the closest thing the Palestinians have to a soldier) who I knew from my time living in Bethlehem. He said that all the employees and police in the compound had abandoned it in fear after Apache attacks the night before the first bombing by the F-16s and no work whatsoever was going on there. Remind me again Sharon, how does destroying the Palestinian security apparatus help the PNA arrest those activists that are giving you such trouble? And how does it convince the PNA that they should work with you in the first place rather than encouraging them to join forces with the militants against you? And remind me again, because my memory must be faltering, why do you refuse to offer the PNA any reason to believe you have an actual political program that could lead to serious negotiations and continue to give the impression that you want to destroy them?

I returned to Birzeit after a sleepless night of bombing and shelling in Bethlehem by Israeli forces. As I was lying in bed I tried to think of myself being it the houses that were on the receiving end of the missiles and tank shells. Even after being here this long it is still sometimes hard to believe that what I am hearing is human beings killing other human beings.

It still shakes my little moral universe that still hasn't quite come to grips with a situation that is vastly different than that which I grew up. Though I never heard any Palestinian shooting, I was told that by morning Palestinians had mustered up what resistance they could to the invasion in the refugee camps, which were again the Israelis' primary targets.

The Bible College was again luckily not damaged, as was often the case when I lived there. I thought I was going to be stuck in Bethlehem a while (the last invasion of the city lasted about two weeks) when the tanks occupied the street outside my building. The whole half of the city that the Bible College is in was dead quiet, even the stray cats seemed to be hiding. But I did manage to get out and back to my apartment in Birzeit, where I learned that today 50 Palestinians were killed in various areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. And the day is not yet over. A friend of mine told me that that brings total to over a hundred Palestinians dead in the first nine days of this month.

The situation nonwithstanding, I continue to be doing well here. I am into my second semester of Arabic classes, which are proving to be challenging, but rewarding when not overwhelming. Some days I feel I am progressing well and during others like I will never achieve the level I want. I think I'll have to pull back on some other things I've gotten myself into and concentrate on studying. I'm living with a few Palestinian students now and were all hoping that the University will be able to function this semester after an incredibly difficult time last semester. Classes are supposed to start this week, but most of the students are still in their villages and have not returned from there break because the roads are so difficult and dangerous to travel on. One of my housemates is stuck in Nablus and we are unsure of his return. But that's how it goes. As Palestinians normally end conversations on such subjects: what can we do?

I hope all you family and friends of mine are doing well.

Love,
Nathan

March 2, 2002

During this weekend of February 22nd Muslim Palestinians celebrated one of the high Muslim holidays, the Day of the Sacrifice, commemorating the event of Abraham offering up Ishmael for sacrifice. It is a celebration when Muslims gather together with their family, feast, exchange gifts, and generally have a good time. As is typical of college towns anywhere, the days previous to holidays are met with a mass exodus of students from Birziet to the villages and cities from which they come. Unlike students in other countries however, Palestinian students must overcome the Israeli occupation in order to reach their homes. That requires navigating through a complex maze of Israeli military checkpoints and roadblocks. These checkpoints have divided the West Bank and Gaza Strip into scores of isolated Palestinian ghettoes, which are surrounded by the Israeli military. Israeli soldiers control the roads in and out of each area and Palestinian travelers are subject to their every humiliating or cruel whim. The inevitable result is that many students fail to find a way to their families and are forced to spend the holidays in Birziet.

I currently live with three Palestinian students in an apartment in the center of Birziet village. One, Hussein, is from Nablus, a Palestinian city to the north. If the roads were open Hussein could take a public taxi from Birziet and arrive in Nablus 30-40 minutes later. His trip to Nablus the other day for the holiday took eight hours. But with common Palestinian patience and resolve he made it home. However, no degree of determination can help my other two housemates, Riziq and Nader, from Gaza. Visiting family is out of the question for students from the Gaza Strip. The West Bank and Gaza Strip are separated by Israel and since the beginning of the Intifada the passage between them has been completely closed to Palestinian traffic. It has been about a year and a half since they have seen their families. It would be easier for me to fly back to the US for the weekend than for Gazan students at Birzeit to visit Gaza. Thus, I spent the holiday with Riziq and Nader and some of their friends from Gaza. We had a wonderful meal of Mensif, a traditional Palestinian dish, that Nader prepared with some meat that the Birziet University Student Council donated for free to the stranded students. Nevertheless, the Day of the Sacrifice did not feel like much of a holiday.

The siege upon the West Bank and Gaza Strip has virtually every aspect of Palestinian life within its grasp. And the grip is only getting tighter. The recent announcement that the Israeli government would allow some Muslims to go Jerusalem to pray in Al-Aqsa for the holiday is but one of several PR ploys the Sharon government will surely conduct in the coming weeks as it reinforces and reorganizes its matrix of control on the Palestinian Territories. After a succession of relatively successful Palestinian attacks on Israeli soldiers and settlers in the Territories, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon will be taking measures to ensure that his soldiers will be safe while defending the illegal Israeli settlements. This may include actions like that taken at the Surda checkpoint, which guards the road between Ramallah and Birziet to the north. A soldier was killed there on February 15th in a nighttime ambush. Now, instead of stationing soldiers on the road, the Israelis have simply destroyed the road by digging a large ditch across it. The soldiers now overlook the roadblock from a Palestinian house they have taken over on a nearby hilltop, their guns trained on the road below. Once in a while, the soldiers will drive down in a jeep to harass and beat the pedestrians before heading back up the hill. In Arabic, the soldiers have written on concrete barriers in the road "Forbidden to pass. He who enters will be shot at." Some Palestinians brave the road anyway, determined to complete the daily tasks of life that require travel to and from Ramallah.

It does not take much experience with Israeli checkpoints to realize that their primary effect is to make daily life difficult and humiliating for Palestinians and that they most likely increase Palestinian militancy by instilling feelings of powerlessness and anger. The checkpoints are a central part of the occupation that Palestinians are fighting to free themselves from. If Sharon continues to believe he can bring security to Israel by caging Palestinians in their towns and cities he will find Palestinians all the more willing to fight.

February 2002
The images that dominate world news concerning Palestine are of overt violence: shelling, shooting rock throwing, and bombing. Though this violence is quite real, it does not exist in all corners of Palestine all the time. Nevertheless, the situation is actually much worse than the media ever reveals to its audience. This is because the media, particularly in the United States, does a horrible job of reporting what this conflict is actually about. The conflict in Palestine is about the hundred-year plus colonization of historical Palestine by the Zionists. The Zionists, particularly since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, have worked to create a convoluted political and legal machine, in a symbiotic relationship with the brute military force of the region's most powerful military, while at the same time masking their colonial ambitions in a veneer of democratic legality.

Since 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip, this system has dominated the lives of Palestinians in 100% of historical Palestine. The small enclaves in which the Palestinian National Authority is present are little more than large cages in which Palestinians are allowed the freedom to collect their own garbage and put out their own fires. In contrast to overt violence, which at least some Palestinians can avoid if they are careful and lucky, the covert violence of the colonial system is both inescapable and far more destructive to Palestinian freedom and justice.

There is not one Palestinian who has not been affected by the system of occupation. One example is the Jones-Nassar family, friends of mine who live in Beit Sahour, a Palestinian village next to Bethlehem. Alison, from Richmond, Virginia and George, from Bethlehem, were married in 1991 and have three young daughters.

On the week that they were married the Israeli government, in collusion with Israeli colonists (or settlers), first tried to declare parts of George's family farm as "state land." The declaration of an area of Palestinian land as "state land" (i.e. Jewish land) is a primary method by which Israel confiscates land for the expansion of Israeli colonies. The entire duration of Alison and George's marriage has been haunted by the specter of confiscation.

George's grandfather acquired the family land (a total of more than 100 acres which covers an entire mountain top between several colonies) in two separate parcels in 1924 and 1925. Both George's grandfather and father earned their livelihoods primarily from the land, and most of George's memories of his childhood and his father are framed within the context of the farm.

The Nassar family challenged the declaration of "state land" in court, showing the titles for the land as proof of ownership and throwing a wrench in the Israeli plans. Confronted with this inconvenience, the Israeli government has opted instead for a policy of continuous harassment to force the family to give in. The military administration claims that, because the land is under litigation, it is unlawful to do any kind of work there (i.e. plowing with a tractor, repairing the fences surrounding the property, or picking ripened grapes). But for ten years they have deliberately delayed a resolution of the case, which would clearly favor private family ownership, with endless postponements and legal tricks. In the meantime, virtually every attempt to do work there has been frustrated by the appearance of soldiers (notified by the colonists, who have a clear vantage point overlooking the land) who are dispatched in order to interfere with the work. Last summer, George's brother Daher was hauled off to jail for the crime of operating a tractor.

If all this weren't enough, the heavily armed residents of the four surrounding colonies come around regularly toting their guns and interfering with any and all attempts to work the land. They have prevented family members — at gunpoint — from clearing, planting, and harvesting. They have trespassed, vandalized, and intimidated, all with the implicit support of Israeli soldiers who passively turn their heads or actively accompany the colonists and stand armed guard.

Since the beginning of the Intifada in October 2000, it has been both difficult and dangerous to attempt to even make the trip to the land. Ordinarily, it takes no more than ten minutes to reach the area by car from Beit Sahour. Now, if the journey is possible at all, it takes between 30 and 45 minutes, involves as many as four military checkpoints, and requires changing taxis three or more times.

Despite these difficulties, George's brother Daoud has, since August 2000, been overseeing basic infrastructure development of the land as part of an integrated project whose ultimate objectives include a youth exchange camping facility, an agricultural model school promoting alternative farming strategies and environment-friendly technologies like water recycling and solar energy systems, and a center for alternative tourism and Palestinian cultural heritage. The project is called Tent of Nations.**

On October 3rd, Daoud was supervising some workers who were covering an old well with a concrete cover. Previously, wooden planks that had rotted from constant exposure to sunlight had covered the well. The workers did not dig a new well, which Palestinians are prohibited from doing without a permit (colonists, needless to say, are not required to request permits for similar work). Nor did they construct any sort of edifice or building, which is also prohibited for Palestinians. They just covered the well with cement. At the court appearance, George was told by the judge (a colonist himself) that if he did not succeed in getting a permit for the work within two weeks, the whole structure including the cover AND the well itself as well as the drainage pipes, would be demolished. However, the Israelis are in control of the whole legal process and are about as likely to issue a permit for this work as they are to rule in the family's favor regarding the ownership.

Multiply all this by the thousands of Palestinian families who have similar problems of more or less severity, and one begins to get an idea of what the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip means. The covert, calculating violence of the Zionist inspired colonization is more destructive and sadistic than all the F-16s and tanks in Israel's arsenal, all the more so because it remains unwatched and unchecked by the vast majority of the world. Israel is giving the Palestinians three choices, submit to our rule, leave, or fight to the death. Some, tired and resource-less, submit. Others, fed up, leave. Is it any wonder that still others fight with whatever means is at their disposal?

** Despite the obstacles, plans move forward with the Tent of Nations project. Anyone who is interested in learning more or contributing, either financially or by coming and helping to work on the land can contact Daoud Nassar at tnations@p-ol.com

© 2002 Church of the Brethren. All rights reserved.
Please e-mail the web administrator with your questions and comments