 May/Summer 2000 (XXXVIII 3) |
leven Friends from seven Meetings attended the first meeting of a Middle East interest group in January. The new group defined its mission as twofold: 1. to educate, by lifting up social, political and economic issues pertaining to two areas of the Middle East: Palestine-Israel and Iraq, and 2. to give project support to Ramallah Friends Meeting in its efforts to rehabilitate its property and to build a program commensurate with Quaker values and the historic role it has played in Palestinian community life.
The Middle East interest group will foster discussion of the Israel-Palestinian peace process, bringing insights from the personal experiences of its members. It will also address issues of human rights, not only in Israel and the occupied territories, but also as Arabs and Muslims experience bias against them in the United States. The group will have a concern for the worsening situation in Iraq, as sanctions and almost daily bombing by the United States continue. The group will wrestle with the thorny issue of a Quaker response to military sanctions and disarmament as applied to Iraq.
Of special and personal interest to Friends is the situation of the Ramallah Meeting House and the Ramallah Monthly Meeting on the Palestinian West Bank. Jim and Debbie Fine, sojourning members at Falls Meeting (PA), spent last year as directors of the Friends Schools in Ramallah and are members of Ramallah Meeting. Ramallah Meeting is independent of the Friends Schools in Ramallah and of Friends United Meeting, which supports those schools.
With only two families of Palestinian Quakers remaining, the Ramallah Meeting is mainly attended by transient foreigners/internationals. A typical meeting for worship will include 5 to 20 persons. Its members looked into the possibility of selling the meetinghouse on the main street of Ramallah, since the property is quite valuable. The community objected to the sale of what it considered an important symbol of Quaker presence, a part of Ramallah's history, and one of the last bits of not-overdeveloped space in the center of the city; and the Ramallah city government invoked historical preservation law to block the sale. Though Ramallah Friends fought against this ruling at first, they now accept it. They are looking for money for restoration of the dilapidated building and the overgrown grounds; even more importantly they are seeking a new use for their meetinghouse which will restore the vital role they are expected to play in the area.
The Middle East interest group invites interested persons to attend group meetings at 7 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month at Friends Center, 15th and Cherry Streets, Philadelphia. To confirm date or if you have questions, contact Jim Fine, jsfine@pobox.upenn.edu, or Mary Arnett, mary92@worldnet.att.net.
Mary Arnett
Central Philadelphia Meeting
Last modified: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 08:19 AM