By Joe Winter
Catholic Herald correspondent
Local peace activist visits West Bank, Gaza
LUCK -- A fact-finding mission to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza by longtime peace activist Mike Miles was so fruitful, that he didn't even consider a 40-minute audience with Yasar Arafat one of the highlights.
The highlight would perhaps be a long talk with a former Palestinian peace house director who now feels duty-bound to be a military commander arranging guerrilla attacks and suicide bombings.
Miles, who lives in a Luck peace commune, said he wanted to get information beyond sound bites. He had to work hard to get into some places that visitors are hardly ever allowed, like refugee camps, and was questioned upon his coming and going from Israel. His notes even had to be mailed home to avoid confiscation.
Since his return he has taken to the road to share what he saw with groups around the Midwest.
"There was no ill will against us, being Americans," Miles said, even during his time in Gaza. "Everyone said, 'Go home and tell people what you've seen.' There were times they could have done us serious harm, but they weren't interested."
Miles spent two weeks touring through the Middle East Childrens' Alliance from Berkeley, Calif. He had to certify he was with a non-governmental organization and still, two tries were needed to have the necessary paperwork accepted. Miles devoted 17 hours each day to talking to people -- and a brief portion of that time was at Arafat's home.
"He thought he had us pegged as Christians," Miles said, adding that Arafat spoke in English and as an attempt at persuasion showed many photographs of wartime atrocities.
A photo on his wall was of Rachel Corrie, an American student killed by Israeli troops when they were looking for a man suspected of terrorist activity. Another photo Arafat showed Miles was of a statue of the Virgin Mary atop a hospital. The statue had been shot up by gunfire.
"He showed us Christian and Catholic religious symbols that had been wantonly destroyed," Miles said, adding that Arafat gave the impression as someone who is a historical figure, but now is "at best a figurehead."
Arafat openly expressed admiration for Barbara Lubin, who has worked for peace in the Middle East for 16 years and is a friend of Miles.
Another stop was at a refugee camp in Jenin, at the north end of the West Bank, where there has been fierce fighting since last April as one part of a three-year-old regional conflict.
There are 120 Palestinian fighters, compared to 5,000 Israelis who have hundreds of jeeps and tanks, and three helicopters, Miles said. He found, by talking to people, that 56 camp residents have been killed and 2,000 displaced among its population of 12,000. They have long asked for international observers, Miles said.
Miles learned that before this war, people on both sides of the battlefield had enough access to speak with one another. "Literally everyone we talked to said the hope (for peace) was in a lot of contact back and forth," he said.
One of his sources of information was the former peace house director and now military man named Zachariah, who said that at this point he couldn't imagine another way of living. Zachariah said he doesn't do what he does out of hatred or hope of a heavenly reward, "but to visit the suffering of our people on the Israelis. For 55 years, no one in the world has paid attention to us."
Many, like Zachariah, feel distraught, Miles said. "(Violence) is the only way (we feel) we can get people to listen," he said, quoting Zachariah. Still, because of that, Zachariah doesn't consider himself a "good Muslim."
Miles also visited a farming region in the northwest where a wall with razor wire had been completed to surround a city of 40,000, where Israelis suspect there may be housing of suicide bombers. The wall cuts so deep into Palestinian territory that it is much like annexing a big chunk, and the acquired territory has the best aquifers, Miles said.
A military checkpoint is the only way to get in or out -- even for people to get to their often non-contiguous farmland. The permits to move about are given arbitrarily and only for brief periods of time, Miles said.
"This was a moving time for me, being from a farm," Miles said. "I could not imagine being at the point of a gun and working the fields."
Written permission from the military was needed to get into Gaza, where thousands of people can only find work by traveling daily and building settlements -- which are illegal -- in the occupied territories.
"I'd call it a penal colony or a ghetto," Miles said of living conditions. "It was like going back to jail."
Miles was even invited as a guest to witness the anniversary celebration -- complete with guns being shot into the air -- of a group fighting the Israelis. Miles said he did not feel threatened as this went on. "We as Americans need to choose not to be afraid," Miles said.
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2004