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Home of Peace Education in the
Middle East This is our goal at Al Amal, to infuse
our children with the importance, beauty and necessity of peace. Hussein Ibrahim Issa |
Arrest of Ibrahim Issa - December
2002
The arrest of Ibrahim
Issa by Israeli authorities in December 2002 mobilized support for Hope Flowers
School in Israel and around the world. Our heartfelt thanks to everyone
who answered the calls of the Issa Family and MidEastWeb to offer aid and
to help secure Ibrahim's speedy release, and to those who, like James Bennet,
helped to publicize Hope Flowers and the plight of Ibrahim Issa.
Arab Coexistence
School Falls Victim to Uprising
By JAMES BENNET
New York Times December
21, 2002
EL KHADER, West Bank, Dec. 19 Even as it withers, the pink-and-white
Hope Flowers school here on Bethlehem's outskirts is drawing at least a handful
of Israelis and Palestinians together, if for a troubling reason. The school
was founded 18 years ago by a Palestinian refugee, Hussein Issa, who hoped to
teach the importance of coexistence and democracy along with Arabic, English
and Hebrew to Palestinian children. But the joint field trips held with
Israeli schools ended with the start of the conflict more than two years ago.
The collapsing Palestinian economy bit into tuition payments. The roadblock
erected by the Israeli Army on the only route to the school halted the school
bus. And for many Palestinians, the enduring conflict made the idea of
coexistence seem increasingly Pollyannaish, if not disloyal.
Then, before dawn on Tuesday morning, Israeli forces arrested the
principal, Ibrahim Issa the founder's son and accused him of harboring two
terrorists. Mr. Issa's family said he was duped by a man who claimed to be
renting an apartment for innocent purposes.
Desperate pleas from the family to contacts at the American Consulate in
Jerusalem halted the demolition of the Issa home near here, though not before
an Israeli bulldozer destroyed the garage and gouged out the garden. Some Israelis
with ties to the school from before the conflict have been badgering the
Israeli government for news of Mr. Issa; some have been checking on the family
and offering support. "Oh, boy, those people were great," said
Benjamin Waxman, who visited Hope Flowers just before the conflict began in
September 2000. "First of all, they were nice, extremely nice. Secondly,
what they were trying to do was to run a school where they teach people that
coexistence is possible, the Zionists aren't the enemy. It's refreshing."
He wanted to set up a computer lab at the school, but the conflict intervened.
Mr. Waxman's interest and his reception at the school were particularly
striking because he is an Israeli settler, living in Efrat, just a short
distance from Hope Flowers but far across the deepening Israeli-Palestinian
divide. On Monday, two Democratic members of Congress, David E. Price of North
Carolina and Jim Davis of Florida, visited the school. "I was quite
impressed," Mr. Price said in a telephone interview. He met with Mr. Issa,
28, and said he was "baffled and dismayed" by the news of the arrest.
Mr. Price's church in Chapel Hill has sent at least one volunteer to help at
Hope Flowers.
Hind Issa, 52, the widow of the founder of Hope Flowers, said the school's
goal was to "decrease the suffering of both peoples."
"Even now, we are convinced of the need for a peace process,"
she said. "Violence hasn't led to results for anyone." During that
conversation, in the family home on Wednesday, a Palestinian just released from
the same prison where her son Ibrahim was being held telephoned to convey a
request: Because Mr. Issa, an engineer trained in the Netherlands, had been
taken away in his pajamas, he asked that his family send warm clothes and his
medicine, for an ulcer and allergies. Eventually, an Israeli friend of the
family helped deliver the clothes and medicine across the army checkpoints. The
Israeli asked not to be identified for fear of being criticized for helping a
jailed Palestinian. Capt. Sharon Feingold, an army spokeswoman, called the raid
on Tuesday morning a "pinpoint operation based on intelligence." She
said the soldiers had found what they were looking for a commander of Al Aksa
Martyrs Brigades, the violent group affiliated with Yasir Arafat's Fatah
faction, and another militant from that organization. Ghada Issa, Ibrahim's
sister, said that her brother rented an apartment to a stranger two days before
the army arrived and that the stranger had said he was a night guard in
Bethlehem. "Ibrahim was deceived," she said. Ami Isseroff, an Israeli
software consultant and a friend of the Issa family, has been sending out
e-mail alerts about their predicament to friends on Internet sites devoted to
dialogue about the conflict. In an essay he posted at the Web site
www.Mideastweb.org , Mr. Isseroff lamented what he called a lack of due
process. He reported that it took a day even to find out where Mr. Issa was
being held.
When he visited Hope Flowers in 1999, Mr. Isseroff was amazed to see an
Israeli flag painted on an outside wall, beside the other flags of the world.
Even before the conflict, such seemingly trivial recognitions of the
adversary's nationhood were rare.
Israeli soldiers removed the roadblock outside the school just last
week. But today the school was shut down because of a curfew imposed on all of
Bethlehem. Israeli armored vehicles clanked through the streets, occasionally
pelted with stones thrown by children. From a high of about 500 children in
1998, enrollment has fallen to about 120 now. Mr. Issa's friends say he was
considering borrowing against the school's bus to pay the monthly operating
costs of about $7,000. The Israeli flag was gone today from the mural; there is
a blank white spot directly below the flag of Iraq. Ghada Issa, 25, said that
an offended painter had covered it up, and that because of the Israeli
closings, the family had not yet hired someone to restore it.
Another Israeli flag can be seen on a poster of "Flags of the
World" in the school's entrance way. Nearby hangs an article from The
Jerusalem Post of Jan. 26, 1999, before the conflict began. It describes how,
on most Tuesdays, third graders from Hope Flowers joined with counterparts from
an Israeli school to learn about agriculture. Suleiman Salah, a 5-year-old
kindergarten pupil at Hope Flowers, wandered through the empty grounds today as
the school's guard, his cousin Khaled Salah, 37, showed some visitors around.
Suleiman said he had learned the English words for "bird" and
"cat." He said that he liked Hope Flowers, and that it was closed
because "they arrested Ibrahim." His cousin asked Suleiman if he knew
why the Israelis imposed a curfew. "Because they want Al Aksa and
Jerusalem, "Suleiman replied, in a reference to Al Aksa mosque. Asked if
he would play with an Israeli, he said: "I don't like them. They shoot
people."
But what about an Israeli boy who was not armed? "An Arab?" he
asked. A Jew, he was told. "No," he said. ------
Copyright 2002, New York Times and James Bennet. Reprinted by
permission. Presented by MidEastWeb - http://www.mideastweb.org/
This article originally appeared at http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/20/international/middleeast/20MIDE.html
Helping Hope
Flowers
Hope Flowers is saddled with tremendous debts. and cannot continue its work without your support.
In the U.S., you can make a tax- exempt donation to: Orange County Middle East
Peace Fund, P. O. Box 5891, Orange, CA 92863-5891. Mark your
donation "For Hope Flowers School." You can also give money directly
to the school:
Chase Manhattan Bank-New York
A/C Arab Jordan Investment Bank
Amman Jordan Chips ID 136008
SWIFT AJIBJOAX
A/C Palestine Investment Bank
For Further Credit of "the Hope Flowers
School"
A/C NO. 73535
Bethlehem Branch 76-411
Palestine
You can also help Hope Flowers by volunteering. The
school welcomes the help of volunteers from all over the world - a rewarding
experience you will not forget.
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You only
understand when it happens to someone you know
12/18/2002 Yesterday (December 17) my friend was arrested. He is being held
without charges. It took an entire day to find out where he is being held.
"Not possible" you say, "We live in a democracy." It is
possible, and it happened. My friend is a Palestinian. He is not likely to be
a terrorist. He helps run the Hope
Flowers school that has become an
international byword for peace and coexistence. Nonetheless, his house was
nearly destroyed. Tonight he sleeps somewhere in a jail in Gush Etzion. His
worried family in Bethlehem will not sleep. Israelis are not aware that beyond the green line, in the occupied
territories, there is no rule of law. Our media do not tell us. Nobody is
willing to believe it. You only understand when it happens to someone you
know.
Where did it happen? Was it a scene out of a novel by Franz Kafka? A
Gothic tale of medieval horror? A tragedy of the third Reich? A day in the
life of Ivan Denisovitch? A barbaric societal atavistic aberration in a
benighted Islamic Republic? No, it is nobody's imagination, and it did not
happen in the USSR, or in Germany or in an Islamic Republic. It happened in
Israel, less than 50 kilometers from where I live. It happened to my friend,
a man of peace, Ibrahim Issa of Hope Flowers school in El Khader. It did not
happen long ago. It happened just now, December 17. It is not a unique
occurrence. It happens every day, to many people who are less lucky than
Ibrahim Issa, who may have no friends in Israel and the USA to vouch for
them, to alert the US Embassy to stop the bulldozers from destroying their
homes. Ibrahim Issa and his family run the Hope Flowers school, which has a
sterling reputation for upholding values of democracy and coexistence even in
the very worst conditions (see http://www.mideastweb.org/hopeflowers).
The school was cited as an example of the hope for peace by Hillary Clinton,
in the long ago day when the peace process was still alive, and there was
still hope for Palestinians and Israelis. By all indications, Issa made an innocent mistake. He rented a room to
one Bilal, who said he was a night watchman from Yatta. Billal gave the keys
to his room to Tanzim terrorists. When the IDF caught the terrorists, they
decided to mete out punishment and ask questions later. Most people are
scarcely aware of this nightmare reality. Israelis are insulated from it by
media that do not report it, by the will to ignore reality beyond the green
line, and by the invisibility of Palestinians to the Israeli mindset. The
near-destruction of the Issa home rated one or two lines in reports in the
media. That is an exception. There might have been no report at all, but for
the fact that intervention by the American Embassy prevented destruction of
the house at the last moment. Issa's arrest and detention were not reported
at all. How many other Ibrahim Issas have been detained without trial? How
many families have lost their homes for no reason? How many people have lost
life or limb? Not by the hands of vile terrorists or by accident, but by the
operation of our Israeli army, of which we are so justly proud. We are doing
these things - we and our sons and our daughters. This is the reality of occupation in the West Bank and Gaza. No due
process, no judicial oversight until after the fact, if ever. It is the
reality experienced by millions of Palestinians each day. "Justice"
administered by young officers who are judge, jury and executioner. Ibrahim's
"justice" was meted out by a soldier in the border guards, let's
call him Uzi. Uzi may have no idea what Hope Flowers school is about. He may
not know that Hope Flowers is a favorite project of Hillary Clinton, and that
his actions are embarrassing Israel as well as punishing an innocent family.
For all we know, he may have no idea who Hillary Clinton is. Every day, Uzi
and his friends are generating more innocent Palestinian victims, more
Palestinians for whom "peace: is a dirty word. Every day, they are
turning out more and more, enemies of Israel in new and better models: a man
whose house was destroyed; a woman whose four year old son was shot for no
reason; a child who was shot and paralyzed while standing on his porch. These
days, enemies may be Israel's most "productive" industry.
Certainly, this industry has monumentally important consequences for the
future. Enemies are our most important product. |
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I have to be concerned when yet again the
actions of the Israelis are compared to **** Germany. I have to be concerned when this article is so
slanted it doesn't even show surprise that Ibrahim Issa didn't know he was
harboring a commander of the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade. I have to be concerned that nowhere in this
article is there a condemnation of the terrorists who duped him for their own
evil ends and directly caused his house to be destroyed by the IDF. Apparently the terrorists can do no wrong and
the IDF can do nothing right. Posted by Hank @
01/15/2003 02:56 AM CST So few in the west realize that Israel is
virtually a torture/police state. The incident of Issa indicates this and is
only one of many--and all or most go unreported in America. This is not to
exonerate the suicide bombers but to say that those on the hard right in
Israel are also guilty of long-ago turning plowshares into swords. Still, the
most pressing problem for us in America is for the mainstream media to report
such atrocities as Issa's and not sweep them under the carpet. Mark Grimes Posted by Mark
Grimes @ 01/08/2003 07:14 PM CST Some of your comments talk of terrorists. In
Palestine who is a terrorist? I was a child in World War 2. Then:- the heroic
heroes, of the occupied countries, worked and fought in the "underground".
In Israel things are happening similar to what
happened then. The underground blew things up and people were killed. This
happens in war and Sharon has said it is war. The Nazis executed their
opponents so does Sharon, often killing many by-standers at the same time. In an occupied country the people have the right
to resist. This been so, why are the Palestinian resisters classified as
terrorists? This is a propaganda campaign aimed at hiding
the crimes commited by the IDF Posted by Joan
Miller @ 01/07/2003 11:28 AM CST Ibrahim Issa was released Friday December 21.
Thanks to everyone who has helped Hope Flowers and MidEastWeb. Ami Posted by Moderator @ 12/22/2002
05:54 PM CST Is Ibrihim released now? Posted by Eli Kaufman @ 12/21/2002
04:33 AM CST I hope that Ami does not think that I was
punishing him for his comments. He raises a good point about not being able
to mention in every article all of the prefaces that lead up to a point. This
is such a divisive and emotional issue that can be argued from so many sides.
I do commend Ami and his organization on its intentions and I respect what
Mr. Ibrahim has done in the past. Posted by Jason @ 12/21/2002
04:03 AM CST Its sad when someone like Issa is ferretted
out and punished for doing something with zero malicious intent. What Issa
and the Hope Flowers School is doing is good work. They are trying to create
an environment where kids can learn about good. It is unfortunate that this
conflict will continue for generations due to a lack of understanding of each
other. No one is right and no one is wrong in this conflict there is just a
lot of pain. Posted by Rama
Karipineni @ 12/20/2002 06:58 PM CST Hello, I know that Ibrahim Issa's troubles will be
exploited by apologists for murder and terrorism, but I had to speak out. The
Issa family and Hope Flowers have been abused and harrassed by the Israelis
and the Palestine Authority in approximately equal measure. They spend their
time shuttling between the Israeli authorities to stop the latest demolition
order or get tanks removed from the entrance to the school, and enjoying the
hospitality of various branches of the Palestinian secret police, where they
are invited to explain why they teach Hebrew in their school and have an
Israeli flag on the wall. To those who think the article was just
another mindless anti-Zionist bash - look again. I am an Israeli and a
Zionist. These days I am doubly ashamed. When I tell
people I support peace in the Middle East, I must be ashamed of those who
apologize for suicide bombings in the name of "peace." I am ashamed
of people who slander Hilary Clinton for no reason. Hilary Clinton stopped
the house demolition. What did you do? As an Israeli, I have to be ashamed of the
lawlessness of the IDF, the opportunism of the government, and the cruelty of
some settlers. In the sad reality of the Middle East
controversy, partisans of each side learn nothing at all from events. They
just assimilate them into their own propaganda ideas, and concentrate on
being part of the problem. The Zionist bashers can be counted on to say
"Apartheid" "war criminal" etc. The extremists on the
other side can be counted on to be self-righteous about known terrorists and
self-defense. It is impossible of course, to say again in each and every
article, that the occupation is wrong and that the terror is wrong, that the
occupation is doing Israel no good, and that the tribulations of the
Palestinians were brought upon them by the policies of their leaders. It
should hardly be necessary to point out that people like Ibrahim Issa cannot be
held responsible for the insanity of the Palestinian leadership, and that
innocent children, even "settler children" and Palestinian
children, should not be punished for the sins of their parents. Posted by Moderator @ 12/20/2002
12:16 PM CST It strikes me as odd that some of the people
posting opinions on this matter are not recognizing the fact that the people
who were being harbored by Mr. Ibrahim were known terrorists. There was a
commander of the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade there in the house. According to the
NYTimes; "Ghada Issa, Ibrahim's sister, said that her brother rented an
apartment to a stranger two days before the army arrived and that the
stranger had said he was a night guard in Bethlehem. "Ibrahim was
deceived," she said" Stranger or not she admitted to the fact that
these people were being harbored. Now, I am not saying that Mr. Ibrahim knew
of their dealings with murderers nor am I saying that he is not a respectable
man who deserves a lot of credit for bridging these two peoples together. The
fact of the matter is that this is war and these were killers and they were
in his house. What do you want the Israelis to do, buy him an ice cream cone
for harboring killers. They must arrest and ask questions later. If nobody
had contact with him for a day, too bad, he was caught in a serious and grave
situation that must be explained by him not the Israelis. One should not
expect the Israelis to just overlook this. They must investigate and Mr. Ibrahim
must be afforded his rights as well but the fact of the matter is that he was
harboring these people. Ami Isseroff's dramatic and poignant rambling never
mentioned the fact that Ibrahim was guilty of harboring these people even if
it was not on purpose. Isn't that a major omition on Ami's part? Isn't that
even the slightest bit relevant? Come on? Putting strong emotional statements
are just that if the truth is not in it. I would even put this question by
everybody. If all of these Palestinians who are having similar things happen
to them for what Ibrahim did, shouldn't they all be arrested at first and
questions should be asked later? I know that a lot of these cases are not the
same but if Ami is correct than I think that his argument does not hold and its
almost laughable. Posted by Jason
Sternchos @ 12/20/2002 08:47 AM CST The Israelis and Palestinians working for
peace are the bravest people on the face of this earth. Karen Posted by Karen @ 12/20/2002
01:34 AM CST This particular person had known associations
with terrorists whether he knew it or not. It does not surprise me that he
was questioned as a result. It had to be determined if he was knowingly
involved or not. As for his home, I do believe that is going to far.
Thankfully the US Embassy intervened and he was not punished before
determining guilt or innocence. The Israeli army may be overly aggressive but
this may be a result of the violence from both sides. Posted by Tim in
America @ 12/19/2002 10:44 PM CST Most of the world would see your letter as
additional proof that the occupation must end. But when Israel tried the
tactic of pulling out of West Bank towns throughout 2001, the consequences
were worse for all: Israel suffered more terrorist attacks, and the
Palestinians suffered the horror of war each time Israel re-occupied. If the
curfews are now becoming less stringent and the roundups more targetted, then
the situation is at least stabilizing. The honest conclusion to be drawn is
that Israel now needs to reinstate a full military occupation infrastructure,
including administrative courts. As long as Israel just wants to stop the
terrorists and get out again, both sides will continue to suffer. Ultimately,
peace will come when Palestinians like Ibrahim Issa take the reigns from the
current leadership (both local and international) in order to set an agenda
of coexistence. Posted by Jonathan
Kagan @ 12/19/2002 07:34 PM CST You chose to amplify one case into a norm,
wrong in your eyes. I dont know enough to agree that indeed it is the norm,
and not wise enough to conclude that it is wrong. In one thing I am sure
about: zooming in on one event regardless of the bigger picture and the
legacy leading to this event is shortsighted at best. Posted by
zvigoldman@hotmail.com @ 12/19/2002 03:56 PM CST This is a terrible case of bad judgement on
the part of individuals in the Israeli Army and casts great shame on all of
us Israelis. The fact that there is such a severe travesty of justice is to
be condemned in the strongest possible terms. This is further proof that the occupation
corrupts the Army and the citizens of Israel. We have reached a situation
whereby we are losing our sensitivity towards innocent human beings whether
they are Palestinians or not. This kind of behaviour is reminscint of the
evil apartheid years in South Africa, which are still strong in my memory
where similar despicable acts occurred against innocent people who opposed
racism. Posted by Shimon
Z. Klein @ 12/19/2002 03:35 PM CST Just one more travesty that shames me as a
Jew. I would not hold my breath waiting for a hypocritical opportunist like
Hillary Clinton to lend a hand. It is up to the Israeli peace movement , the
nonviolent Palestinian resistance, and people everywhere who are concerned
with human rights to demand that the Occupation and all its attendant abuses
and atrocities ends ASAP Posted by David
Howard @ 12/19/2002 09:16 AM CST Add A New Comment |