The Hope Flowers school in Al Khader, Bethlehem is a beacon of hope and decency in the Mid-East sea of hate and despair, teaching tolerance and nonviolence to Palestinian youngsters. It may be the only school in the Palestine National Authority controlled areas that teaches Hebrew to youngsters as a spoken language and shows maps that include Israel. It survives because of the help of Palestinian and Israeli volunteers, and contributions from friends abroad. The school has received wide media attention in the past, especially after it came to the attention of Hilary Clinton. PEACE was distressed to learn that Israeli authorities are putting difficulties in the way of the school. To learn a bit more about this school, visit their web site at http://www.samarkand.org/Hope%20flowers/HopeFlowindex.htm

Recently school officials were summoned to   submit plans for additions to their buildings that are under construction. At a hearing held April 12, Civil Administration officials indicated that these plans would probably not be approved, meaning most likely, that the school would not be able to continue to grow.  Hope Flowers is continuing the legal battle and asks for your support in letters to the Civil Administration, as detailed below. In the letter below, they ask that you write to the Civil Administration on or soon after April 21, when they will have submitted an application for an exemption from zoning laws that would legalize current structures. They also plan to submit an application for rezoning that will allow them to expand. Likewise it will be helpful if you could write on their behalf to PM Binyamin Netanyahu and other officials.

Sample Letter

Following is a sample fax or letter, and adresses of additional officials.

Head of the Civil Administration,
c/o Subcommittee for Supervision of Building Activity,
FAX: 972-2-997-7344
Civil Administration, Beth El, Israel.

Re: the Hope Flowers School, case number B-14/99.

Dear Sir,
I understand that the Hope Flowers school has applied, or will shortly be applying, for an exemption from the zoning law, and further that the school plans to apply for rezoning as a public institution. I would like to point out to you the special role of Hope Flowers as a hopeful and inspiring example of education for peace, coexistence and nonviolence. As such, Hope Flowers enjoys wide support in Israel, and internationally, especially in the United States. I am sure you agree that it is in the interest of the Civil Administration, and of the Israeli government, and of all those who want to promote education for peace, to make every effort to encourage this project. Therefore,  I hope that you will ensure the rapid and favorable consideration of their requests, so that the school may grow and prosper, and be an example and a source of hope.

Thank you in advance.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

Additional Officials:

American Secretary of State Madeline Albright [fax: 202-736-4461; e-mail: secretary@state.gov]
Rena Gibbs - gibbsr@PANET.US-STATE.GOV
Hillary Rodham Clinton First.Lady@whitehouse.gov
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [fax: 972-2-566-4838;e-mail: pm@pmo.gov.il

Letter From Hope Flowers

The following are excerpts from the Hope Flowers school detailing the problem.

The Hope Flowers Secondary School   and Al Amal Child Care Center
P. O. Box 732, Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine, via Israel
phone, 972-2-274-0693 or -4975; fax, 972-2-274-7084

Dear Friends,

... Now we would like to provide the latest news of our ongoing dealings with the Israeli Civil Administration (C. A.) about our building.  This is the reason for the timing of our writing, our latest hearing at their center in Beth El near Ramallah having been on Monday, 12 April.   Please attend closely to this report if you can, because we would like you to write to them now on our behalf, and we will tell you how and why. 

On Monday morning there were five of us - 2 from the school, one U. S. consular officer, one U. S. embassy officer, and a close Israeli friend who knows the law.  We were greeted by four representatives of the Civil Administration's Subcommittee for Supervision of Building Activities, three of whom the three of us who had been there on 1 March had met at that time.  Those three of us were surprised and NOT delighted by what we heard.  It seemed that our hopefulness had been shortsighted, that there would not after all be a solution available to us with a narrow, simple focus.  It seemed that after all, in a sense, "push" was coming to "shove," at least in terms of administrative law regulations.

The "New Deal":   What appears to be true now, as the time closes for the decision about the fate of our outstructure-in-progress, the putative focus of the original notice to appear at the first hearing, is that this (sub)committee will NOT be able to give a permit to build for it, or for any piece of our compound.  This highly probable (98%?) position was brought to the group by the new member of their panel, a higher-ranking military person than the one who presided at the first hearing.  He did still speak in terms of probabilities, while one member of their panel did say explicitly this time that it was "not logical" for the permit to be granted, due to the zoning laws that apply.   Those zoning laws may be familiar to some of you, as they are the ones remaining from the British Mandate period, set in 1942 to regulate development then, and often invoked controversially in recent years to justify demolition of houses built without permits in the Jerusalem area.

These regulations are sometimes referred to as the "Green Laws," defining most of the areas not already inhabited in 1942 for agricultural use - Green Areas - as opposed to "public" use.  So, like so much else that had not been built on then, the land where the school and its whole neighborhood now stand is all deemed agricultural-use, "green" land.

Our early-received assurances that the Israeli authorities were not focussing on our main school building, but only on the outstructure, had let us hope that we might not need at this time to confront the full implications of the ultimate conflict between our location and this law.  But it now seems very clear that our case will not be spared from the "logic" of this conflict.  As things stand now, the C. A. will almost certainly not issue a permit for the outstructure as a result of the current building-application procedure that we are now in.  Still we agreed to return for another hearing on this application on 24 May, before which time we must submit yet another architectural drawing.  But more important for our real chances are the other options that the C. A. panel outlined in our meeting on 12 April.  These are the ones where we would like your active suppport, and they are described below:  Request for Exemption, and Application for Re-zoning:   .  We will now pursue these options to the extent of our abilities.   First we will write a letter to the head of the C. A., requesting an exemption from the regulations requiring us to get a permit.  His granting such a request would mean that our buildings couldstay as they are without need of further permit applications; however, simply doing this would also mean that we would have no right either to complete the "kitchen" outstructure, nor to complete any of the building plans on the rest of the compound, even when there might be funds to permit doing so.  This would not provide well for the future that we hope our school and peace education will have here.  But it could prevent anything from being demolished, too.

We will also pursue application for a zoning change for the school property.  This will require going through our engineer, and his firm's coordinating with a specialist as well as with the engineer on the C. A. panel.  It will require submission of a specially drawn map of the local area, siting the school among the other structures of the neighborhood. This will involve a cost that we would much rather not bear - approximately $3,800 - except for its offering a chance for the school to exist and grow legally into the future...We will make this application as soon as possible.  The engineer has already agreed to begin the process, and we hope to have the application under submission before the hearing on 24 May.

How You Can Help, and Please Do:   We believe that your letters to the C. A. might improve the chances of success for our request for exemption and our application for re-zoning.  We expect to have our request for exemption in the committee's office by 21 April.  Best would be to send your letter of support to them on or soon after that date, by fax to 972-2-997-7344, and addressed to Head of the Civil Administration, c/o Subcommittee for Supervision of Building Activity, re: the Hope Flowers School, case number B-14/99.  If by post, then address the same, but adding Civil Administration, Beth El, Israel.  Please tell them that you are supporting on our behalf their approval of our request, owing to the nature of our school and the work that we have done on behalf of helping to build the bridges of peace between the peoples - or whatever words you might like to use about why we are deserving of their positive consideration.   Please say also that we will be applying for re-zoning of our property from agricultural to public use, and that you would like them to approve our application so that we can continue to serve the peace of the region through our apporach to peace education. Of course, we will let you know specifically when we make that application, but we think the time for action is now.  If you do write to them now, or soon, please save a copy, in case we might need to ask you to send again at a time in the near future.   And if you will, please let us know that you have sent something; it will help us in our dealings in May.  We also believe that communications with governmental representatives will be appropriate and useful at this time, and would encourage you to write on behalf of positive action on our request and application to American Secretary of State Madeline Albright [fax: 202-736-4461; e-mail: secretary@state.gov] and to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [fax: 972-2-566-4838;e-mail: pm@pmo.gov.il].  We are very grateful.  Thank you.

Those wishing to support Hope Flowers: Contributions may be sent directly to us at the above address, by registered letter.  And in the States, American friends can again get verification of their tax-deductible donations to the school by sending checks to the Orange County Middleast Peace Fund, P. O. Box 5891, Orange, CA   92863-5891.

Thank you for your consideration.                               

The Hope Flowers School,        

15 April 1999

Presented by the PEACE Mid-East Dialog Group and Mideast News Service

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