Special Newsletter to Friends of the School and of Middle East Peace Feb 17 1999 Dear Friends:

Warm greetings to you from Bethlehem, in the name of the peace that we are all seeking. May your winter turn into a full and blessed spring in the right time for your best well-being.

The school's well-being is experiencing severe threats again in these days, and we want to inform you of the facts. We are aware that many of you have already begun to hear rumors about our having received an order for demolishing the school. We are sorry for a delay in our sending you information directly, but we have wanted to be sure of our status legally (and in regard to the general push toward demolitions being faced now on the West Bank) before we addressed the matter with you. And as you probably know, seeking such clarification takes time in this region. In fact, our process of fact-finding is still not complete, but far enough along that we can confidently report about what follows. We will be asking that you remain alert for other bulletins from us within the next weeks, because we might be needing to request your support in terms of letters on our behalf to the Israeli Civil Administration, and to others who might call attention to our situation in ways that would help us to survive this latest threat to our existence. We are grateful for your awareness and caring about our predicament.

The central fact: On the afternoon of Wednesday, 27 January, school director Hussein Issa returned from our Palestinian-Israeli agricultural cooperation project with the Jerusalem Waldorf School [with whose third grade class our own third graders meet weekly], to receive an official notice from the Israeli Civil Administration. The notice was one of 12 delivered by Israeli Army troops that afternoon, pertaining to structures, mostly houses, in our south Bethlehem village of al-Khader.

The notice orders us to appear at a meeting in the Beth El office of the Civil Administration (C. A.) near Ramallah on 1 March at 9AM, to show that we have applied for a building permit. If we do not apply for one - or in the end, if the application is denied by the authorities - the notice states that the top 2 floors of the school building, as well as a partially constructed out-structure at the base of the school property, will be demolished. [In effect, this would mean the demolition of the entire school structure. If you have ever seen a demolition as practiced in this area, you know there is no subtlety exercised in its implementation. The only alternative to complete demolition by the army, if it came to such, would be for us to dismantle the top floors ourselves, an impracticable as well as completely unthinkable option, which would take at least 6 months to accomplish with care and would cost at least $50,000.]

Some background information: Most of you may know that the school is in the part of the West Bank still designated as Area C, where there is exclusive Israeli control and administration of most aspects of organized life. The categories Areas A, B, & C that came into existence with the Oslo Accords, also meant Area A to designate areas under full Palestinian control, and B under joint Israeli-Palestinian control. Because the school area has been traditionally Palestinian for generations, and because it is within 2 kilometers of portions of Area B and Area A, it had seemed likely for 5 years now that this area would eventually be designated as either one or the other, A or B, in the due course of continuing pullbacks by the Israeli army called for by Oslo and agreed to in principle by both sides. As with many other assumptions in life, this one proved groundless as the progress of the peace process defied its name and became stalled. The point here is this: As long as it seemed likely that our area would come under Palestinian control, we were not in danger of an assertion of power over our building by the C. A. in Area C. The service of this demolition notice means that the current Israeli government has decided that this area will not be considered for such re-designation into Area A or B, but will continue to be claimed unilaterally as Israeli territory. Hence the assertion now of authority over the school property, along with the entire neighborhood.

It is true that the school does not currently have a permit for any part of the building, even the lower floors not referred to in the notice. Considering the above context, the director chose at the time of its initial construction not to apply for a permit - because of the seeming likelihood of a redesignation of the area, and primarily because of the general situation about Palestinian applications for building permits anywhere. Sad to say, it is well known throughout the Palestinian areas that it is only the extremely rare occurrence for a Palestinian application to be approved. So most people never make an application, since the likelihod for approval is practically zero and the application nevertheless costs much money.

Need Number 1: Now, however, on legal advice from an Israeli attorney who is a friend of the school, and in consultation with our local friends, we will make the application as soon as we can, so that we can go to the meeting on 1 March to show that we have applied. This is the first place where we need assistance. For in order to make the application, we must submit architectural drawings of the building. They have been prepared, but we cannot afford to pay for them. The engineer will release them for one-half of the cost, but even that is $4,500 [high by Western standards, but based on floor area, which is now large here, and at a standard rate]. The next obstacle to us, because of our impoverished state, is the application fee, which will be at least $500. These costs come at a time when we are not even able to pay our teachers, due to the disastrous economic situation in general and to the risks that we took with our construction program that did not produce well yet. So we are needing urgent help with these costs.

Need Number 2: Please stay tuned to this channel and ready to respond with letters of support to the C. A., and others, when we will inform you of the need and the contact information. This could come very soon, to ask letters in support of our application for the permit, or it could come as soon as the application is denied, if it is, in support of our appeal of the denial through the legal recourse that our application opens to us.

In the meantime, please look for information to be sent to you about the general situation of increased land expropriation/confiscation that is threatening much of the remaining Palestinian land in Area C in these days. Until we let you know specifically to whom to write on behalf of the school, we are recommending to our friends to become active in protest against these unilateral, uncooperative acts of fear-based greed. As we have said before, we are not politicians, and we are not against anyone. But we are human beings, and we are for cooperation and against the injustice. And we see dangerous indications that, between now and the Israeli general elections in mid-May, a spirit of aggression against Palestinian basic rights may be seizing many Israelis living already in settlements in the occupied territories.

Rather than respecting the spirit of negotiated agreement as the preferred approach to differences, many have already violated the documented ownership rights of their Palestinian neighbors by simply seizing land as if the settlers' rights are the only rights. As educators, we know that simply ignoring others' existence is not an effective means to any end in the long term. We are asking our friends to remind the Israeli government - Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Sharon, Mr. Arens - that such treatment is no way to win friends. And in our case, we consider ourselves the best friends of Israel as we try to build understanding and peaceful relations between the peoples - and such treatment is not a way to keep friendship either.

In this connection, we are choosing to ally ourselves with the efforts of several Israeli and Palestinian peace and human rights organizations as they mount a major campaign to bring the land confiscation issue to the attention of the concerned international community. Please look for information to be sent to you about places and persons to write if you would choose to encourage cooperation and respect and patience, and to protest the actions and mentality of seizing the land. Thank you.

In other news (Need No. 3): Our financial picture is extremely grim. As you know, our enrollment is down from previous years due to pressures inside the society. Our unique approach is the most open-minded you will see on the West Bank, but we have suffered this temporary decline in registration because of it. And of those students with us, most of their families can afford to pay little. With the obstacles of closures, and the parents' unemployment, and the costs of our attempts to complete our self-support projects in the absence of grant moneys, our ability to meet our operating costs has become very much compromised. We acknowledge the assistance of many kind friends for their support, but we are needing to ask again for urgent help with this aspect of our survival also. Please consider that we are the only Palestinian school, and one of the very few Palestinian institutions, that is devoted to this relational approach to building the peace from the ground up across the borders. In our absence, a whole way of expression for peace would go under, leaving separatist and fundamentalist views unchallenged by any other solely dedicated educational institution. Please consider that with your donation at this time, you are helping to preserve a way that can be a model for the future peace, if it can survive to fulfill this potential. Please help this to be, if you will and can.

We will be very glad to hear from you and to respond to any questions. And do look to hear from us again soon, because we will be urgently needing your letters at a coming point in our fight against the demolition of the school and for its very life. Again thanking you for your concern, your support, your prayers, and your cooperation with us on behalf of creating a generation of peace - Sincerely, the Hope Flowers School

Addresses for donations:
By Registered Mail:
THE HOPE FLOWERS SECONDARY SCHOOL
P. O. Box 732 - Bethlehem - Palestine - via Israel
Telefax - 972-2-274-0693 Fax - 972-2-274-7084

Bank Transfer:
To Hope Flowers School bank account, number 118451,
Mercantile Discount Bank, Manger Square, Bethlehem, Palestine, via Israel.
(Bank transfer information will be supplied if requested.)
In US:
American friends can make a tax-deductible donation to us by sending to the
Orange County Middleast Peace Fund,
P. O. Box 5891,
Orange, CA 92863-5891.