First-Hand Reports
Head of Home for the Elderly
Condemns Israel’s Wall
by Sr.Marie Dominique Croyal
Directress of the Home of Our Lady of Sorrows
East Jerusalem/Abu Dis
January 15, 2004
I would like to inform you about what is happening in our
neighborhood and around our house concerning the construction of the
new wall of separation, 9 meters high (30 feet), which began on
January 11, 2004.
It replaces a much lower wall that allowed people to climb over it
once they were no longer permitted to go from Bethany and Abu Dis to
Jerusalem.
This first so-called security wall was built in August 2002. It
disorganized and deeply affected the life of the population as well
as our own.
Separating Jerusalem from the West Bank and running along the road
leading to our house, it passes in front of the main entrance to our
property.
Thousands of people have climbed over this first wall: children,
students, mothers with their babies, elderly people, etc. Many
people have fallen; some have even died from their fall. Two months
ago, we had to call the ambulance for a man about 65 years old who
fell on his head and lost consciousness. It took the ambulance more
than a half-hour to get here. As it reached the Bethany
intersection on its way to the hospital, the army searched the
ambulance and forced the wife of the injured person to get out,
thereby further delaying arrival at the hospital. The things that
happen in front of this wall have become intolerable!
Hundreds of persons have passed through our property on a daily
basis over a period of many months, climbing over our fences in
order to escape military control, because many of them work in
Jerusalem but do not have the required permits.
The people around us live in fear: fear of being arrested, fear of
being tear-gassed, and fear of being mistreated, as so often
happens. Tension is constant for the entire population whose living
conditions have become more and more miserable.
It’s a daily struggle for these people who are constantly humiliated
and assaulted. We really feel alone and helpless in the face of
generalized inertia.
We want to be spokespersons for these voiceless people who, each day
for more than two years, have had to fight their way to reach their
workplaces, schools, etc., to say nothing of all the sick who die
for want of medical treatment.
In trying to accomplish our own mission, we too meet up with many
difficulties when it comes to hospitalizing elderly people from the
West Bank because Palestinian ambulances do not have the right to
enter Israel. We must therefore find a way of getting these people
to the other side of the wall without crossing any checkpoints so
that their families can then bring them to the hospital.
The same problem arises when someone dies. The families must shift
for themselves to bring the bodies back to the other side. Life has
become very complicated these last two years, and things are about
to get worse with the construction of this new wall.
Elderly people who are still able to get around have not been able
to run their errands for the last several months because all the
shops are on the other side of the wall. Very often, they have been
obliged to call merchants to the front of the wall and place their
orders through an opening between two cement blocks.
Many of our elderly patients from the West Bank are very lonely
because their families can no longer come to visit them.
Since the construction of the wall, we have had to be more vigilant
than ever about the security of our elderly people.
We have had to change suppliers. This represents an increase in the
cost of our overhead because life is more expensive in Jerusalem.
Today, we do not really know what will happen if the construction of
this wall is completed because the majority of our elderly people
and of our personnel come from the West Bank. Of our 18 employees,
only three have a Jerusalem ID card. For two years, they have had
to climb over the wall and constantly change their route in order to
avoid the checkpoints because, even with a laissez-passer, the
soldiers do not always let them come to our house.
This wall of 9 meters (30 feet) will oblige us to:
- Hire new personnel from Jerusalem and, at the same time,
fire the majority of our present personnel.
- Stop receiving elderly people from the West Bank, i.e. to
say, the poorest among them.
We are worried. Also, thousands of people are anguished as they see
the wall being built without anyone resisting or protesting on the
construction site itself.
We were not apprized of the government’s plans, and our house is now
more isolated than ever because of the condition of the road.
Everyday we must pick up our personnel at various places because the
neighborhood has become a military zone. Purchasing supplies has
become extremely complicated, and we spend our time trying to manage
the unforeseen. Given the terrible condition of the road giving
access to our property, we hope that we won’t have to hospitalize
any of our elderly persons during the current rainy season.
This week many journalists and photographers have visited the
neighborhood to see this land of desolation and humiliation. We all
hope that the interviews they’ve conducted for the various
newspapers, radio stations and TV networks will alert public opinion
and stir the consciences of politicians.
We hope that you in turn will become our spokesperson and call for
the destruction of this wall of shame. We count on your prayers so
that a dialogue can resume between the responsible parties involved
on both sides. Also, we count on your taking action, thanking you
in advance for diffusing this information.
Sr. Marie Dominique Croyal
Directress of the Home of Our Lady of Sorrows
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