Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation
It is difficult to reconcile the popular notion of Bethlehem, depicted in the words of the carols and the images of the sentimental Christmas cards, with the reality of the West Bank today. Where is the peace of which we all sing? The oppression continues, the conflicts intensify, and the illusory `peace process` seems farther and farther away.
It is a measure of the seeming hopelessness that politicians speak glibly of a `two-state solution` without acknowledging that the facts on the ground deny any such possibility. `Palestine` is getting smaller all the time and is now down to less than 20% of its historic land area. Even that is divided into numerous small enclaves separated by Israeli checkpoints, which deny life and livelihood.
More and more people, of all faiths or none, are beginning to recognise that in the long term the answer can only be that of a single state, in which all citizens, irrespective of religion or race, have equal rights – the sine qua non in fact of any civilised society.
Much has to change. As South Africa has shown, this depends essentially on reconciliation. On World Peace Day 2002, Pope John Paul II expressed it concisely: `No peace without justice. No justice without forgiveness`.
And where does this reconciliation come from? We hear of little but conflict. The media, the profiteers, and – it sometimes seems – the governments, thrive on it. What goes largely unrecognized is the work of groups all over the Holy Land and in the wider diaspora which continue to work for peace and justice. They include Israeli peace groups and information exchanges, Christian churches, schools and social services, and mosques and Muslim cultural organizations. The three communities lived side by side for centuries and one day can do so again.
Hampstead Parish Church is privileged to support one such organization. The Bethlehem Arab Society for Reconciliation is a Christian foundation which began as a Leonard Cheshire home in 1960. The specific needs of the region, intensified by the two intifadas of 1987 and 2000, led it in a very particular direction, that of mending the physical and mental wounds of a society in conflict.
It soon became a centre of excellence in the Middle East in offering physical rehabilitation, prosthetics, physiotherapy, psychotherapy, audiology and speech therapy and the treatment of visual impairment. Women and children are the focus of the centre`s work, but no-one, of whatever gender, age, race or belief, is turned away. `Every patient`, says the centre`s inspirational director Edmund Shehadeh, `is first and foremost a human being`.
The huge demands exceed the hospital`s ability to deal with them. As a result it has developed a `holistic` approach, in which the patients` families and local communities play a key part, not only in the rehabilitation of the patients, but also in dealing with Illness through health education and community support. Paediatric follow-up services, a social services unit giving support to families, community-based day-care, and vocational training all play a part.
BASR`s annual budget is some $10 million, but there is never enough money to do what needs to be done. It has an international support network, in France, the UK and Jordan, which helps to get money into the country, but this depends on people`s willingness to give. Hampstead Parish Church supports BASR through its planned giving programme, but every donation, however large or small, whether of money or of goods, is always gratefully received, Edmund is very happy to be contacted for advice about what or how to donate. Email him at [email protected] or visit BASR`s website at www.basr.org.
Or if you want to talk about BASR, you can contact Bill or Christine Risebero. Best of all, you can go to Bethlehem and see the inspirational work of fellow Christians who, in Edmund`s words, find themselves in `one of the most troubled areas in the world`, but are working hard to `make one of those small gestures that make a difference`. You will get a warm welcome.