Monona pastor found himself in Arafat's office
10:23 PM 12/01/02
William Wineke Wisconsin State Journal

Just about the last place Monona's Rev. Bruce Burnside expected to be two weeks ago was in Yassar Arafat's private office.

He says he was as surprised as anyone else when he was allowed to join a WABC television crew from New York City and walk into the Palestinian leader's office in the bombed-out Ramallah compound.

Burnside, pastor of St. Stephen's Lutheran Church in Monona, was in Palestine as part of a group of 10 in the "Olive Harvest Campaign," an effort to protect Palestinians as they harvest olives near Israeli settlements and to draw public attention to their grievances.

"So, one day (it was Nov. 18), I was standing outside Arafat's compound when I saw this camera crew and asked them what they were doing. One of them said they were going in to interview Arafat. I asked if I could go along and one woman said 'Just carry a camera and join the crew across the street that's about to go in.' So, that's what I did and they let me right in."

Arafat, Burnside said, "is a small man in stature. I was taken by how very old he looks."

The television interview was about 15 minutes long and "very formalized," Burnside recalled.

Since he was supposed to be with a television crew and not interloping, Burnside said he didn't say a word and left with the crew.

Burnside has been to the Israel-Palestine area five times and plans to return next spring.

"I don't consider myself a radical type at all, but I'm really very passionate about what's going on there," he said. "There are deep human stories there. It isn't just an issue between Palestinians and Israelis but between people who are for peace and those who are not."

Burnside shipped back a number of olive wood manger scenes from Bethlehem. His congregation is selling them to raise money to help Palestinian refugees. Information is available from St. Stephen's Lutheran Church, 5700 Pheasant Hill St., at 222-1241.