Remarks of Mayor Raji Zeidan at HCEF

Dear Friends

It is an honor to be here with you today at the ninth international conference of the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation. I very much appreciate this great opportunity to speak before you as a representative of my Palestinian people and the Christians of my town, Beit Jala.

I would like to start by introducing my town. Beit Jala lies just to the West of Bethlehem, about two miles from the Church of the Nativity, the birth place of our Lord, Jesus Christ. The name, Beit Jala, comes from Aramaic meaning the land of grass and flowers.

Today there are about twenty thousand people living in harmony in Beit Jala. More than two thirds of them are Christians from the orthodox, catholic, and protestant denominations served by five churches, all located around its historic center. The rest are Moslems who are served by two Mosques.

Beit Jala has several educational institutions, and two major hospitals serving the entire Bethlehem area. In addition, Beit Jala is home to several charitable and civil organizations that provide wide range of services to the public including the elderly, the physically challenged, children and women. Some of these organizations also provide cultural, artistic, and sport activities.

Dear Friends

Beit Jala is home to about thirteen thousand Christians. Throughout the world, and mostly in South America, there are over 100,000 Christians that trace their roots back to Beit Jala. Most of these immigrants, their children and grandchildren live in Chile, and many in Peru, Honduras, Australia, Canada, and Europe.

Even though, immigration is a phenomenon that occurs throughout the world under different conditions and for different reasons. As for my people what they have faced over the past 100 or so years was the main reason behind this immigration. To be specific, I would like to mention some of the underlining causes of the immigration of the Palestinians:

· Poverty and economic instability
· The ongoing conflict, political crises and instability
· Social instability and insecurity due to lacking civil rights, freedoms, and the waves of discriminations, which occur from time to time.

Over the past ten decades, these conditions were the reasons behind the immigration out from Beit Jala. Now, what I fear most today is that such conditions exist in Palestine, and in Beit Jala, which could lead to an increased immigration, especially, of the young who feel the most insecurity at all levels. The ongoing conflict and the continued occupation of over 40 years, and the closures and restrictions on access and movement increased the levels of poverty and unemployment to unprecedented levels.

.In addition, the rising social insecurity and the lack of any hope of a decent future aggravate the problem even further creating the miserable conditions for many to immigrate.

Dear Friends

The existence of the Palestinian Christians in the holy land is original and authentic, and their steadfastness is a part of the steadfastness of the Palestinian people under occupation. We have to work to ensure that the existence of Palestinian Christians in this land will not be adversely impacted by the dire political and economic conditions faced by all Palestinians. Further, protection and support should be provided through all those responsible and those who care about the Christian existence in Palestine, the birth place of Jesus Christ.

In this regard, I would like to stress the important role of our expatriate community in supporting their families at home and enabling their steadfastness and stability. They also have an essential role in building the future Palestinian state, especially, through private sector investments, which will be profitable to them, support building the Palestinian economy and creating much needed job opportunities.

For this purpose, the Palestinian government is working on developing the necessary laws and regulations to protect investments and the rights of the investors, and to provide the required incentives to encourage investments.

Another important role for our expatriate community involves the strengthening of relationships of friendship, cooperation, and the exchanges of expertise and culture between the Palestinian people and the peoples of their chosen new homes. This essential role is important at all levels, economic, political and cultural.

Here, I would like to take the opportunity of this important conference to call upon all those concerned to ensure the rights of our expatriates to retain or regain their Palestinian citizenship in addition to their existing citizenship. This will ease their movement, residence in Palestine, and encourage their investment.

Dear Friends

The Christian existence in my town Beit Jala, the Bethlehem district and throughout Palestine is facing a new serious challenge due to the construction of the Israeli Separation Wall. This wall has had severe consequences on our lands in Beit Jala. It has grabbed most of our fertile agricultural lands, which is a source of income to many families. The continued Israel construction of this wall through our lands will isolate almost half of Beit Jala and the entire open space available for future expansion and growth leading many to immigrate.

To be clear, this wall will limit the total land area of Beit Jala to one square mile without any room for future development to meet the growing needs of the Christian population of Beit Jala.

Dear Friends

Make no mistake; this wall is a collective punishment to our people and a violation of the most basic human rights. It places any peace efforts in jeopardy and it is in contradiction to international laws, UN resolutions, and the ruling of the International court of Justice.

Our people demand the construction of bridges of peace and understanding instead of the walls of apartheid and separation, land confiscations and settlements. The ending of occupation, in accordance with international laws and legitimacy, will be the surest guarantee for peace, prosperity, security and stability for all peoples in our region. Real and just peace, which my people need most, ending this occupation, remains our lost right and just demand.

The continuation of the conflict and occupation means continued instability, violence and increased terrorism and crises. As such, we call upon the international community to strive to resolve the conflict by pressuring Israel to end its occupation leading to the establishment of a viable Palestinian state on all lands occupied after 1967 including East Jerusalem as its capital, living side by side in peace and dignity with Israel. In addition, we need to have a just and agreed upon solution to the refugee problem in accordance with UN resolution 194.

I call upon you dear friends to work with our people to help us achieve our dream of ending the occupation. We have no doubt that this occupation is the cause of instability in our region and the world, and is a serious threat to the Christian existence in Palestine.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to visit Palestine and to stay in my town Beit Jala. I would like to ask you to encourage tourism to my country to support the economy and to strengthen friendship and cooperation between our peoples.