Italian Missionary Fr. Moschetti writes from the Holy Land

FROM THE HOLY LAND, A MISSIONARY WRITES… (English translation by MISNA)

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES - 9/1/2009 12.06
“There is a lot of confusion and we are horrified and grieved at the outpour of reports and footage. A carnage that appears endless”, writes from Jerusalem the Comboni missionary Daniele Moschetti, reflecting on the war in the Gaza Strip. As follows is a long letter-document, a rare testimony, a grieved reflection that imposes a bitter reflection on the news of these past two weeks: “I watch the Al Jazeera TV at a friend’s house nearby and they report certain “truths-numbers-stories”. I watch the Italian TV or local Israeli news broadcasts and the “truths-numbers-stories” appear different! But where is the truth? And we Europeans and westerners take sides without really knowing…! European politicians that take sides with Israel because however “it is legitimate defence. Israel has the right to defend itself from Hamas rockets!” How many times have we heard this phrase from European and American politicians! So much hypocrisy from our own and the international politicians, and also the mass media that uses such biased and ambiguous wording. And I ask myself: “But have these people ever spent more than a week in this country without body guards or accompanied by Israeli or Palestinian diplomats? Have they ever heard the cries of pain of so many innocent people suffering in this Land called Holy?” Father Moschetti continues: “For me it was like reliving Christmas of 2007. December 27th of 2007 was the long-awaited day of general elections in Kenya. I lived in Korogocho in Kenya, among the largest slums of the capital Nairobi. The same exact day that the Israeli government decided to attack the Gaza Strip and Hamas in 2008. If you remember, in Kenya it was a war that touched me and us and for two months the tension, divisions, death and bloodshed were a daily occurrence for the Kenyan population. Korogocho was among the epicentres of this battle and cruel story. In the end the toll was of over 1,500 dead and more than 350,000 displaced in the country”. These memories of a year ago are tied to the present: “But all the Palestinians living in Israel (more than a million people with Israeli passports) and in the Occupied Territories by the Autonomy saw that Israel took advantage and continues in the years to take advantage to occupy Palestinian land careless of the Geneva convention and applies double standards in the occupied territories. The new settlements and arbitrations are undoubtedly a grave obstacle to peace. There will never be peace without mutual respect and understanding. The occupation has lasted for over 40 years and in these past years the situation has worsened, since Israel from fear of suicide-attacks in its territory built a 734km wall (7 meters high) in East Jerusalem, delimiting the entire territory of the Palestinian autonomy of the West Bank and Gaza Strip with thousands of checkpoints everywhere, small and large, where abuse, humiliation, disrespect (toward Palestinians and at times foreigners) and the show of power of very young inexperienced Israeli soldiers rule. They already lived in a nation at war and occupied for a long time! However, with all these checkpoints, thousands of soldiers throughout the country, visible weapons everywhere in Jerusalem and the entire Israeli territory. There will never be peace while building walls, using force, humiliating, killing. Opening to dialogue and especially guiding their populations toward a peaceful coexistence is the only path for a lasting peace process”.

Fr. Moschetti also helps us to understand some aspects that are unclear from far: “But also Israel is not just Olmert, Netanyau, Sharon, Tzipi Livni, Peres, Barak. Also here I refuse to believe that the voice of the Jewish population is their politicians or Jewish religious extremists that exist like in Palestine and the Islamic world. The voice of an Israeli population that is not all for the war. Other of Olmert’s nationals working in Israeli peace organisations who without hesitation say: ‘We are responsible for the desperation of a population under siege. For weeks Hamas had declared that the truce could be renewed under the condition that Israel reopened the borders to allow the entry of humanitarian aid. The government of Israel chose in full awareness to ignore Hamas and cynically chose, for electoral aims, the path of war’. Even a minority of Jewish Rabbis condemn the attack in Gaza and recognise that it is contrary to any religion. In the past days in New York there was even a protest of anti-Zionist Orthodox Jews, staged to demand an end to the massacre in Gaza. The famous Rabbi Michael Lerner, in a long letter, slammed the Israeli government for using the rockets fired by Hamas as a pretext to justify a new war after that conducted against Hezbollah two years ago. As there are other Israelis and Jews that want real peace and not only around the world. It must be noted that those who declare themselves pacifists and seek dialogue and peace with the Palestinians in this Jewish world are considered traitors. Michael Lerner also condemns the Hamas attacks, but insists in saying that war is however not an appropriate reaction, more so if unleashed by the government for political and electoral aims. An opinion that the world public opinion knows very little about”. He adds: “To date, the Israeli army claims to have successfully and totally eliminated more than 750 Hamas military targets. Though these targets are not only sites of the Hamas movement, but mosques, hospitals, clinics, schools, civilian homes, refugees camps and many others. Are they all armed? Are they all Hamas militants? Are Palestinians all terrorists? And the children? Are the children also terrorists, like the doctors, women and sick people? No... don’t tell me that this is what war is and that these things happen!” Among the many considerations in Fr. Moschetti’s letter, MISNA chose a passage that goes well beyond Gaza: “This reflection doesn’t intend to take sides, though it is difficult not to. I am and always will be on the side of the innocent, the children, women and poor who around the world, and not only in Gaza, have always been massacred by short-sighted policies, poverty or wars of interest”.