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The InterVIEW

Bethlehem U. still providing education in Holy Land

A regular feature of The Catholic New World, The InterVIEW is an in-depth conversation with a person whose words, actions or ideas affect today's Catholic. It may be affirming of faith or confrontational. But it will always be stimulating.

 

Christian Brother Neil Kieffe has spent the last 17 years at Bethlehem University in Palestine, but he spent most of his career in the Chicago area. He began teaching in 1961 at De La Salle Institute and served as principal of St. Patrick High School in the early 1980s. In between he was a faculty member and administrator at Lewis University in Romeoville, Ill., serving for most of that time as chairman of the aviation maintenance department at Lewis. He was also acting president for one year. Before going to Bethlehem, Kieffe served as the assistant provincial and then provincial of the brothers’ Chicago Province.

He now serves as director of instructional technology at Bethlehem University, a small (2,788 students) school providing education to Palestinians under the very difficult situation of the Israeli occupation. During its 35 year history the university did not complete an academic year on schedule until four years ago. The Israeli occupation, the “Wall,” the numerous checkpoints, the faltering economy all continue to make life for Palestinians very limited and uncomfortable, Kieffe said.

He corresponded via e-mail with assistant editor Michelle Martin.

Catholic New World: What hardships does Bethlehem University face in its dayto- day operations? You mentioned that no one is shooting at you any more, but I don’t get the impression that life is easy.

Brother Neil Kieffe: First of all, Bethlehem, as all of Palestine, is still very much under illegal Israeli occupation. Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights in 1967 and is still here 41 years later. After World War II, the U.S. was out of Germany in five years and Japan in seven. It is obvious that Israel is not interested in peace, but in eventually having all of Palestine as part of Israel.

Even the Palestinian towns are really not under Palestinian control. The towns are isolated from one another by Israeli checkpoints and Israeli roads and settlements so that they cannot function as a unit. The residents of the Palestinian towns are, in effect, prisoners in their hometowns. They need Israeli permission to travel into Jerusalem and even to move within the various parts of the West Bank.

Over the years there has been the slow, but steady appropriation of more and more Palestinian land. An example is the “Wall,” which is rarely on the border between the West Bank and Israel, is never within Israel, and is almost always within the West Bank, taking much Palestinian land that is now on the Israeli side of the Wall. “Israeli only” roads crisscross Palestinian land and provide routes for settlers and at the same time divide the West Bank into many small enclaves and often separate Palestinian homes from their farm land.

Given this situation, Bethlehem University has to function in an environment in which its students are almost all from the immediate vicinity of the university instead of drawing from the entire country as once was the case. Even more troublesome is the effect on the availability of faculty members. Since travel is so difficult and limited almost all faculty members have to come from the Bethlehem area, which is a very small pool from which to draw an academic staff for a university.

The tight control of access to and from the West Bank by the Israelis seriously limits any development of industry in Palestine. In the name of “security” Israel makes everything extremely difficult for the Palestinians. Because the economic situation is very difficult, the university has not been able to increase its tuition for eight years.

Last year the average student at Bethlehem University paid only $410 a year for a university education (less than one credit hour at most American universities). It costs the university about $3,600 for each student. This puts a horrible fund-raising burden on the university. Fortunately, our friends throughout the world have been generous and we have been able to continue functioning even under the difficult financial situation.

CNW: How do you overcome those difficulties?

Kieffe: In order to have faculty that live in the area, we have been identifying promising young Palestinians from Bethlehem and helping them find graduate programs overseas where they can obtain advanced degrees and then return to Bethlehem and join our faculty.

In order to overcome the financial difficulties we have relied on fund raising among those who believe in the mission of the university and are willing to help us to make a Christian education available to our young Palestinian students. The university also has a dedicated staff of Palestinian women and men who believe in the mission of the university and work hard to help it achieve its goals.

CNW: How are the activities of daily living different for people like you, an American living in Palestine, and the Palestinians with whom you live and work. Do they face additional restrictions that you do not?

Kieffe: In most ways the brothers and the other expatriates working at Bethlehem University live in the same environment as our Palestinian teachers, students and employees. However, the big difference is that those with foreign passports are much more free to move as they wish while movement by Palestinians is extremely restricted. I can go to Jerusalem whenever I want by showing my American passport at the checkpoint. I may have to stop and open the trunk of the car to the soldier to show that there are no explosives in it, but for me it is just an inconvenience that adds 15 minutes to a half-hour to the trip in each direction.

One of our Palestinian faculty members would have to apply days in advance to the Israel military to get permission to go into Jerusalem. The permission may or may not be granted. If it is permitted it would specify the day and would require him/her to be back in Bethlehem by 7 p.m. on the same day. And even if they obtain permission the soldier at the checkpoint can on his own authority deny the person entry or even tear up the permission slip. Since he has the gun he has the authority.

As a result of this inhumane process, many of our faculty members have not been into Jerusalem, a distance of about 5 miles, in three or four or more years. People do not apply for permission unless it is absolutely necessary in order to avoid the humiliation entailed in asking for permits and facing sullen 18-year-old soldiers at the check points. A good number of B.U. students have never been to Jerusalem.

What I find particularly difficult is that I, as a foreigner, can come and go into Jerusalem as I want, but Palestinians who were born and lived all their lives here are not allowed to go into the city that has been the capital of their country for years. I feel the horrible unfairness of the situation every time I drive through the checkpoint.

CNW: How has the Christian population of Bethlehem (or, if you can’t speak to that, the Christian enrollment of the university) changed? We hear reports that Christians are leaving the Holy Land in large numbers. Does your experience bear that out?

Kieffe: The proportion of Christian students at Bethlehem University has been in the range of 30 to 33 percent over most of its 34-year history. In fact, the overall average for the 34 years is 33 percent. For the fall 2007 semester 31.7 percent of the students were Christian so there has been no dramatic change in the religious make-up of the student body.

The overall Christian percentage of the population of Bethlehem is dropping primarily because the Muslim population has a substantially higher annual growth rate (2.9 percent) than that of the Christian population (1.9 percent).

It is true that Christians are leaving the Holy Land and it is probably particularly true of young people. It is also probably true that Christians are leaving at a higher rate than Muslims, but Muslims are also leaving. However, I do not sense anything like a panic fleeing.

CNW: If Christians are leaving, why, and why a larger proportion of them than non-Christian Palestinians? Where are they going?

Kieffe: If Palestinian Christians are leaving in larger numbers than Muslims it is because they have more overseas connections. Palestinians have been leaving the Holy Land for well over 150 years. They started leaving while Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire in order to avoid serving in the Turkish army.

There are many Palestinian communities around the world including the USA, Chile, Honduras, Canada and Australia. When you talk to Palestinians in Bethlehem you quickly learn that every family has relatives overseas, often in large numbers and in a variety of locations.

Since those who have gone before are of the courageous, energetic, risk-taking variety they are almost universally successful as well. That means when they get a call from a relative from Palestine saying, “I can’t take it any more. Can you help me get started in _____?” the answer is almost always positive.

CNW: Do you find any blessings living in Bethlehem that people living in the U.S. might not expect?

Kieffe: There are a number of advantages to living in Bethlehem. One of the most unexpected for me is the wonderful variety of people I have met who are visiting the Holy Land. At the university and at the dining room table of the Brothers’ Residence we are visited by people from all over the world — friends of the brothers, educators, church people, government officials, people genuinely interested in helping the Palestinian cause and as well as generous people of good will who do not even know that there is a problem between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and on and on.

It is good to be able to help the Palestinian people who have been unfairly treated for centuries, but especially in the last 60 years, since much of their land was lost in the creation of the state of Israel. They are a warm, friendly people, wanting only an opportunity to create a small country of their own and get on with living their lives in peace. They are a people strongly committed to their families.

Despite the difficult conditions you see no homeless or starving Palestinians in the West Bank. If they are in trouble the family comes to their rescue.

I have also been impressed by the quality of generous expatriates that I have met who come here to make whatever contribution they can to help improve life. This includes religious and lay people, single and married, very young and old who together make up a remarkable group whom I admire and whose company I genuinely enjoy.

Finally, there is something about living in the land where Jesus lived that changes life. It is hard to put into words, but I find that often, especially in the early morning, I reflect that these are the hills and the valleys, the towns and villages that Jesus visited.

For the first 50 and more years of my life I never dreamed that I would ever visit Bethlehem, much less live here. Bethlehem, the town which played such a prominent part in my life as a child, was more of a myth than a place were real people lived.

Now every morning I wake up in Bethlehem and I have to tell myself as I look at the golden stone buildings, the sparse green trees and the unending blue skies that I am really in Bethlehem. Then I have the task of going to work and trying to do whatever it is that God wants me to do here in this historic town this day.

It is a challenging, but good place to do God’s work.