Between ballots and barbed wire : accompanying elections under occupation
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“I would like to express my thanks to this group of Christian leaders and volunteers who are here to promote the principles of the prince of peace,” said former US president Jimmy Carter. Present in the region as an international monitor for the Palestinian elections, Carter was speaking at a 10 January gathering in Jerusalem of members of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), local church leaders, and local Jewish and Muslim partners. Also attending the gathering was US congresswoman Lois Capps who, like Carter, had served as an election monitor.
Presenting a report entitled "Accompanying elections under occupation: between ballots and barbed wire", EAPPI members shared their observations of the recently-concluded Palestinian elections, while Carter, Capps and local church leaders praised the work of EAPPI and its volunteer "ecumenical accompaniers" in helping to bring peace to both Palestinians and Israelis.
“You have been our eyes and ears here," said Lutheran Bishop Munib Younan. "And when you return home, we hope you will be our mouth too, and express yourself in your own countries and churches.”
Capps emphasized the church's efforts to show that justice for the Palestinians does not entail the opposite for the Israeli people. “You don’t suppress one and lift the other,” she said. “You keep both up in harmony. You are not wishing ill on one side.”
“Don’t be pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli. Be pro-justice, pro-peace, and pro-reconciliation,” added Bishop Younan, underlining Capps’ words.
The ecumenical accompaniers were present in various locations throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem during the election process. In Jayyous, they escorted the eligible voters in a Bedouin family which lives on land cut off from the village by the “Separation Fence" across and then back again so that they could vote.
Describing the election day scene in the town of Beit Sahour near Bethlehem, an accompanier from Great Britain, Brian Shackleton, noted that: "It was the younger generation which expected the most. Because they want peace, not violence. Because they want to build a community. Because they want security and to end corruption. Because they want their children to go to school, not in fear. Because they want to visit their cousins when they choose. Because they want to farm their fields which are now on the other side of the Wall."
Katja Tolstrup, an accompanier from Denmark, reported on the unusual ease of travel through the Kalandia checkpoint, the main barrier between Ramallah and Jerusalem, on election day. One day later, “The checkpoint was closed for around two hours, and when the huge crowd finally was allowed through, the firing of a sound grenade[…] underlined the truly terrifying and dangerous conflict.”
Voting in the Jerusalem area was complicated by the fact that it is annexed territory. Some Jerusalem residents refused to vote because they were afraid the Israeli authorities would use that as an excuse to strip them of their rights in the city. In fact, voting in East Jerusalem had to be done at Israeli post offices, with ballots having to be filled out in front of Israeli postal workers. Some residents found that they could not vote due to problems with their registration. These potential voters could have travelled to a West Bank polling station, but were not always informed of this possibility.
Skepticism about whether the election would change much led some Palestinians to decide against voting. Reporting on a conversation with a man who had refused to participate in the democratic process, “His view was that the presidential candidates were not representing the Palestinian people but outsiders,” said Lydia Gall, an accompanier from Sweden.
But amidst the skepticism and the refusal by many to vote, there was also a flush of pride in the spirit of democracy exhibited by the Palestinian people. The only democratic elections ever held in the Arab world have just been held in Palestine - a fact in which the Palestinian people take great pride.
Capps was particularly impressed by the fact that two-thirds of those eligible voted despite the many difficulties. She was inspired, she said, "by people in an occupied land going across a separation barrier and great obstacles, knowing what the outcome [of the election] would be. […]The election was a belief in the power of people to govern themselves.”
With members of the Jewish and Muslim communities present at the 10 January gathering in Jerusalem, there was also discussion on the work the three faiths can do together towards the common goal of peace for both peoples.
“I take my hat off to the ecumenical accompaniers for all the work you do," said Gila Svirsky, a member of the Israeli peace groups Women in Blackand Women’s Coalition for Peace. "I know how important it is for you to return and be ambassadors for peace in the countries you come from. […] I believe in the importance of the liberation of Palestine. It is not only important for Palestinians, but important for the liberation of Israel and for Israel to be the country we always wanted it to be. Everyone’s success here [with EAPPI] is our success.”
Mahdi Abdel Hahdi, the director of the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, issued a challenge to Muslims and Christians to join forces to represent the people of East Jerusalem in legislative elections upcoming this summer. “I am looking for a priest and a sheikh to run for the legislative elections in East Jerusalem in July,” he said. “I want the church and the mosque to be visible, to help represent the Muslims and the Christians and all East Jerusalem.”
More information on the role of EAPPI accompaniers during the Palestinian elections, and the texts of speeches by President Carter and Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah at the 10 January gathering, is available on the EAPPI website :www.eappi.org
High resolution photos available in the EAPPI photo gallery:www.eappi.org/eappiphotos.nsf
