May/June 2002

ARTICLE TOOLS

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The Darkest Hour of the Soul

After reading your interview with Hanan Ashrawi ["The Darkest Hour of the Soul," March/April], I wonder how many Palestinian Christians go along with the Muslim hatred of Israel out of fear. Here is a portion of the testimony of Senator Connie Mack (R-Florida), who decried the condition of Christians under the Palestinian Authority's jurisdiction, after a trip to the Middle East in early-1999:

[I met] an energetic man, in his early 40s, at the end of the table. . . . He had many children and very little money. He converted to Christianity in 1993.-He clearly loved God, and hg loved to tell

people about his conversion. He described to me how in 1997, the Palestinian Authority asked him to come to the police station for questioning. When he arrived, he was immediately arrested and detained on charges of selling land to Jews. He denied this charge, since he was very poor and owned no land. He was beaten. He was hung from the ceiling by his hands for many hours.

After two weeks, he was transferred to a larger prison where he was held for eight months without trial. He was released in February 1998, after his family borrowed thousands of dollars to pay off the local authorities. And even though he is free, they are keeping his father in prison. They believe it is for his son's beliefs. He feels his father is being held hostage to prevent him from talking with people about his faith. Needless to say, these Christians met With me at considerable risk. They conveyed to me a message of fear and desperation. But their mere presence in the room with me demonstrated their hope, and it also caused me to ask, how can the people of Israel find peace with the Palestinian Authority while the Palestinian Authority engages in coercion and torture based upon religious beliefs.

(www.senate.gov/~mack/issues/StatementFP.htm)

And Ashrawi wants us to believe that all Christians in Palestine support Arafat and the Muslims wholeheartedly? And she wants us to believe that Israelis can live in peace with these murderers?

Roger McKinney, Tulsa, Okla.

More letters can be found at www.booksandculture.com.