By Sister Marcelle Theresa, SPC

Sr. Marcelle Theresa a placid and unflappable Filipino Sister from Cagayan de Oro City, find herself in the midst of the INTIFADA: the prolonged Arab uprising in the occupied territories. She is bewildered but she trust in God and asks Him to lead her on quietly in faith.

            In 1967, a war between the Arabs and the Israelis resulted in the occupation by Israel of certain Arab territories: Sinai, Gaza, Golan Heights, the West Bank and a part of Jerusalem. Sinai has been returned to Egypt but the other territories remain under Israeli control.

MANILA TO BETHLEHEM

            On September 1, 1985, I arrived in Bethlehem, on the famous West Bank of the Jordan. In order to join the teaching staff of Bethlehem University.

TOWER OF BABEL

It was a happy university, like one big family. Basically, it was no different from those I have been used to, except that English was not the only language spoken around. I found out that Arabic was the primary language and one could also get by with French. In fact, there was many languages as there were nationalities.

PROTEST AND DEMONTRATIONS

            I also that there was, with out fail, a weekly interruption of the classes. It was a normal thing although no one could ever tell which day in the week it would happen. Most of the time it would, come from the student leaders. After a while, I got used to this phenomenon that I must admit I would be looking forward to it, and I thought a week with out interruption would really be a boring week! It was filled with excitement and, sometimes, one had to run for one’s life, especially when the interruption would turn into confrontation between the students and the Israeli soldiers. But that is not the point. I marveled on how the students had tremendous coping abilities: their being able to concentrate on their lesson and on getting very good marks and at the same time be burning with zeal for their Palestinian cause. I really admired them; I have not seen this kind of the challenge placed in the front of the Filipino students not in this way.

ABNORMAL NORMAL

            After two years of this abnormal’ normal years,’ which in fact managed to comply with the course outline, my own exposure changed from teacher to office worker.

UNIVERSITY CLOSED DOWN

            In November, 1987 the University was closed by the Israeli Military Government for an indefinite period. At first I thought it was the end of ‘our mission here, that we could pull out and go somewhere else, in my case perhaps to where our own sister are, like Peru or Africa.

CHANGE OF ROLE

            Seeing that the University would still be functioning as an entity, I applied for the finance office and, because of my professional training and background. I got the job of accountant. And so