"May we no longer be silent"

Reprinted by Permission from Friends of Sabeel

The Episcopal Bishop of Washington DC, The Rt. Rev. John Bryson Chane, delivered a powerful sermon Sunday, October 5, at St. Columba Church, the largest Episcopal church in DC, on the topic of his recent trip to Palestine/Israel.

Karen and I recently returned from a 10 day journey to Palestine, Jordan and Israel. This trip was not your usual pilgrimage to the Holy Land but rather an opportunity to spend time with the new Episcopal Bishop of Jerusalem, Bishop Suheil Duwani whose diocese has jurisdiction in Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Syria and Palestine. Some of you may have spent time visiting sites in the Holy Land but I can assure you that what I saw, heard and experienced has brought me to a place where I can no longer sit back and assume that in time all will be well in that troubled part of the world.

Looking backwards for a moment to 2003, Jim Wallis of Sojourners and I, along with two Anglican Primates, five Church of England bishops and leaders from four mainline US Christian denominations met with Prime Minister Tony Blair at #10 Downing Street urging him not to support the United States effort to undertake a pre-emptive military strike against Iraq. We urged patience, the use of soft power and the further support of high level diplomatic talks. We were not successful. But the Prime Minister begged us to return to the United States and urge President Bush to aggressively move forward with leadership in engaging the Road Map for Peace, an effort to solve the Israeli Palestinian conflict. All of us agreed that without solving this conflict, the Middle East would forever be a seething caldron of war, discontent and would also be a breeding ground for the growing forces of indiscriminant, global terrorism. Upon our return to the US, the President refused to meet with this broad, representative religious community to discuss the Road Map and the rest is a history that we are living with today.

We as a nation pride ourselves on being a great democracy, a "city built on a hill." And we generally focus on several key ingredients that define a democracy; living by the rule of law, respecting and upholding human rights, and the freedom to worship as one chooses. My trip to the Diocese of Jerusalem and the current condition of Palestinian Christians in particular makes me deeply concerned about the universal understanding of basic democratic principles that our nation holds as sacred and that we as a democracy should hold Israel accountable to as our trusted, democratic ally in the Middle East.

The West Bank, as occupied Palestinian territory continues to experience the illegal building of Israeli settler housing. Almost 1000 new units are being built in Maale Adumim. In Givat Zeev which is a settlement that rings Jerusalem, a new 750 unit building project has been approved. Requests are on the table with the Israeli government to build 350 new homes in Beitar Illit very near Jerusalem. Literally hundreds of new homes are being added to already existing settlements in the West Bank; all illegal, all on occupied, Palestinian land, and all built while the Israeli Government casts a blind eye. These settler houses are visible by their handsome construction, their stout, red tiled roofs, their manicured lawns and their suburban feel that resembles a California housing sprawl. Driving between Jerusalem and Jericho, huge apartment complexes can be seen, rising high on a hill in occupied Palestinian land; again a painful reminder of broken promises. These settler houses and apartment buildings, constructed by Israel on occupied land are a violation of international law. The 1907 Hague Convention clearly states that; an occupying power may expropriate land only for the public use of the occupied population. Taking West Bank land indiscriminately as Israel has done is a clear violation of international law. I ask the question; "is this the behavior of a democracy that lives by and cherishes the rule of law?"

Karen and I visited the land owned by Daoud Nassar and his family; over 100 acres that have been in his family since 1916 when purchased by deed from the Ottoman Empire. The Nassar family has legal right and claim to the property located about 6 miles southeast of Bethlehem in Palestinian occupied territory. It is now in the middle of an area that in 1991 was declared by the Israeli Government as State Property. A large illegal Israeli settlement less than 1000 yards away has emboldened Israeli settlers to come onto the Nassar's property brandishing rifles and shotguns, firing them and threatening the owners with death if they do not move out. Settler bulldozers have plowed a road through a portion of the Nassar's olive grove, and have blocked the only road entrance to their house and property with huge boulders. And with the support from the Israeli authorities the settlers have prevented the Nassars from being able to drill wells for water, or connect to available electricity. The settlers say the land is theirs because God gave it to them, and not to the Palestinians. Known as The Tent of Nations, the Nassar's small farm is a now a center where pilgrims gather to support the Nassar family in their quest to end Israeli harassment and the daily threat of a land grab. Having spent an afternoon at the Tent of Nations and hearing the story of abuse and constant harassment over property that is legally owned and deeded, I ask the question; "is this the behavior of a democracy that lives by and cherishes the rule of law?"

While visiting Gaza, on an Israeli permit issued to the Bishop of Jerusalem, I was exposed to a Palestinian territory cordoned off like a prison for those who live there. I have visited many countries in Africa and Latin America steeped in poverty. Gaza is equal to them all. Donkey carts now are beginning to outnumber motor vehicles, as gasoline and diesel fuel is rationed by the Israeli's through the Hammas government to ten liters by permit every two weeks. Our Episcopal Hospital in Gaza is short of medicines because of Israeli prohibitions, and the hospital can only operate on electricity for 8 hours a day because of shortages. I celebrated the Eucharist in a church next to the hospital that still has a gaping hole in the roof left by an Israeli rocket that exploded in front of the altar and left the interior strewn with lathing and plaster. In my protest to the Israeli embassy I was informed it was an unfortunate accident of war. There would be no compensation for damages. The hospital administrator informed me that last year 8 patients from the hospital waiting to cross from Hammas controlled Gaza into Israel for emergency medical care died while waiting hours for clearance from Israeli immigration to cross the border for treatment. I ask the question; "is this the behavior of a democracy that lives by upholding and cherishing human rights?"

If you are a non Jerusalemite Palestinian Christian wishing to enter into East Jerusalem for religious worship or pilgrimage you must have a permit and those permits are difficult to get. Because of prohibitions against Muslims as well to visit the TempleDome of the Rock and Al Aksa Mosque, three million Christians and Muslim Palestinians are being denied rightful access to their holy sites in Jerusalem even during religious high holidays. Because of restrictions and the obscenity of the building of the wall, Bethlehem has become a ghost town, with shops and businesses shuttering their doors and with religious pilgrims from other countries the majority of those who walk the streets and eat in the restaurants. I ask the question; "is this the behavior of a democracy that lives by protecting and upholding religious freedom and the right to worship as one pleases?"

I am appalled that the Palestinian Political movements of Fata and Hammas play off against each other at the expense of Palestinians and their welfare. And their power struggle to control so much of so little is short sighted and certainly not the way to raise up and strengthen Palestinian political leadership in order for Palestine to be an active player in negotiating a fair, two state peace settlement with Israel. The fracturing of Palestinian political leadership and the failure of the United States to work with Israel in brokering a two state solution, claiming Jerusalem as a shared holy city for Jews, Christians and Muslims and supporting land swaps for the Palestinians in places where illegal settlers have moved is a moral failure of the human heart and will.

Jews, Christians and Muslims have the moral obligation to denounce violence as a solution to any and all disputes between Israel and Palestine. No one has the right to take the life of another in the name of God, and no one has the right to take another persons land in the name of God. Palestine must have the right to be established as an independent state that is in possession of territory that is contiguous with Israel. And Israel has the right to exist as a Jewish state contiguous with Palestine. Israel must return to the 1967 land borders established by the United Nations with appropriate compensational territory granted to Palestine for land not returned to Palestine in the peace agreement for reasons acceptable to both parties. The holy city of Jerusalem must be a shared holy city for Jews, Christians and Muslims. Anything less violates the ancient traditions of these three Abrahamic faiths and violates their histories as contained in their holy books.

Politicians seeking the highest office in the land who wait on the results of the November 4th Presidential election must have the courage to not just speak out in their unequivocal support of Israel but must also speak out and condemn violations of human rights and religious freedom denied to Palestinian Christians and Muslims.

I support with conviction the right of Israel to exist as a free state, unencumbered by indiscriminant violence and the threat of attack engendered by those who would wish to do her harm. But I am appalled that there has been little or no discussion by politicians seeking the highest office in the land about the devastation of the Palestinian economy as a result of the construction of the security Wall by the Israeli government. I am as a Christian unwilling to remain silent as Palestinians are humiliated, their human rights are violated, their lands taken from them and are too often forced to immigrate to other countries because they feel that they and their children have no future in their ancient homeland. For faithful Jews, Christians and Muslims and our politicians not to speak out on these unacceptable conditions is to find them guilty--guilty of the greatest crime of all--the crime of silence!

There is contained in the Gospel lesson for this morning an ominous reflection. The parabolic teaching of Jesus about the landowner and the vineyard contains not only a message about the stone that the builders rejected but calls us all to remember the following; Matthew 21:43-44. "Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the Kingdom. The one who falls on the stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls."

The Right Reverend John Bryson Chane D.D.
Bishop of Washington
October 5, 2008

Click here to listen to his sermon online.
(This is an online audio that may take a few minutes to load.)

Cross-posted at Booman Tribune and Street Prophets

Drought in South Hebron Hills worsened by Israeli occupation

The West Bank is facing a severe drought this summer, made even worse by the long-standing control and abuse of water-resources by the Israeli Government. According to B'tselem:

The 2008 drought, the most serious drought in the area in the past decade, aggravates the built-in, constant shortage of water in the West Bank. Rainfall this year in the northern West Bank was 64 percent of average, while in the southern sections of the West Bank, it was 55 percent. As a result, the water stored from rainfall has already been used. The Palestinian Water Authority estimates this year’s water shortage in the West Bank at 42 to 69 million cubic meters. The total water consumption in the West Bank is 79 mcm. The PWA has already requested Mekorot – the Israel Water Company – for an emergency supply of eight mcm.
...
Israel holds complete control of the water sources shared by Israel and the Palestinians, primarily the Mountain Aquifer, and prohibits by army order any Palestinian drilling of wells without a permit. At the same time, Israel draws from the West Bank, primarily from the Jordan Valley, some 44 mcm, five million more than it supplies to the Palestinian Authority. Israel allocates to Palestinians only 20 percent of the water from the Mountain Aquifer, and prevents the PWA to develop additional water sources to enable greater water supply for Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israel’s obligations under international law

As the occupying power, Israel is required under international humanitarian law to ensure public order and safety in the occupied territory, without discrimination. In addition, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which Israel ratified, ensures access to clean drinking water without discrimination. International human rights law also ensures the Palestinians’ right to utilize and enjoy freely their natural resources.

A recent release from CPT shows the various ways that the Israeli occupation exacerbates the drought conditions in the everyday lives of rural Palestinians:

23 July, 2008

At-Tuwani and neighboring villages are in the worst drought-affected area of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT): only 13% of the expected rainfall came in the Hebron area in the winter of 2007-08. Lower than required levels collected in local wells and cisterns. At-Tuwani villagers told Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) that there is only around one week's supply of water left in the village.

Drought-related problems are made worse by the Israeli military roadblocks (see Releases: 27 June & 5 July 2008), that restrict access to the nearest Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) filling point. However, the capacity of the PWA is insufficient to meet local needs. The Oslo II Peace Agreement of 1995 called for "the equitable utilization of joint water resources": this has never happened. Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem reports that the per capita consumption of water of Palestinians in the West Bank is 66 liters, whereas the average daily water consumption in Israeli cities is 235 liters.

A few families in At-Tuwani have purchased water, but the Israeli military roadblocks mean that water tankers have to take longer routes, thus raising the price. NGOs who recently brought water to the area told CPT that it cost 35-40 NIS per m3 (1m3 = 1000 liters), three to six times higher than Israeli households pay. The World Health Organization estimates that the average, minimum daily water need per person is 60 liters. In addition, the villagers must provide water for their flocks, and a sheep requires a minimum of 5-7 liters of water per day.

Access to grazing land near At-Tuwani is limited by Israeli settlers from illegal settlements and outposts. The settlers steal and build on grazing land and attack and harass Palestinian herders. The low winter rainfall adversely affected the growth of the natural vegetation, and the planted crops, like barley and wheat, produced a very low harvest. The Palestinians, therefore, are forced to buy additional fodder for their animals: in the past 12 months fodder prices have tripled, while the market price for a sheep has nearly halved.

Palestinian access to grazing land is relentlessly restricted by the Israeli occupation. Since the occupation began in 1967, 21 percent of West Bank grazing land has been declared Israeli military zones and another 8 percent deemed nature reserves.

Palestinians, with support from a Spanish NGO, are building a new cistern in At-Tuwani to supply water to villages in the area in future years. The Israeli military issued a 'stop work order' (the first step in the demolition process) on 26 June, 2008. Representatives from the village met with the Israeli military authorities last week requesting that this order be rescinded. They have told CPT that they will appeal to the Israeli High Court if necessary.

CPT continues to accompany Palestinian herders as they graze on their traditional lands and resist Israeli army and settler harassment. Local and international NGOs are working to meet the humanitarian needs in the area by supplying water and fodder.

The UN's projections for the long-term effects of this year's drought on herding among Palestinians are severe:

The drought has had the most serious impact on the herd-dependent communities in the southern and south-eastern Hebron Governorate, the arid slopes east of Bethlehem and Jerusalem, and the Jordan Valley (no less than 2500 households).

Families in these communities, and to a lesser extent herders everywhere in the West Bank, face deepening poverty and food insecurity, they are heavily in debt and therefore are under increasing pressure to sell their livestock Most herders report that even if they sold all their sheep at current prices they would not be able to clear their debts. Selling up would also mean they would have no source of future income. Prices for good quality barley fodder are at record high levels and cheaper alternative types of feed cause animal malnutrition resulting in a variety of health problems including high abortion and young lamb mortality rates. In addition to fodder, sheep need plentiful water and as the drought continues extra water must be bought.
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Unless there is immediate support to herders with subsidized feed and water, many will be forced out of herding and the livelihood system that has supported them for centuries will be lost. They will no longer use traditional grazing lands and thus risk loosing access to them. ...
If herding as an option is not maintained, the majority of herding families will join the long aid lists. Given the limited skill range of most of the herders, the high levels of unemployment and general economic recession, the likelihood of such families returning to economic independence in the fore-seeable future is slight.

Report from Christian Peacemaker Teams Reprinted with Permission

Cross-Posted at Booman Tribune and Street Prophets

Summer Days in the South Hebron Hills

Reprinted with Permission from Christian Peacemaker Teams

AT-TUWANI REFLECTION:
Summer Days in the South Hebron Hills
by Jessica Frederick

What are summer days like here in the South Hebron Hills? It depends.

On a good day, we sit with Palestinian shepherds as they nonviolently resist Israeli settlers, who have tried to violently seize land. The Palestinians graze sheep on lands where Israeli settlers have attacked, stoned, shot at, and threatened Palestinian shepherds. We sit, listen to the shepherds tell us stories of life on the land before the Israeli occupation. We laugh together, and the shepherds teach us how to flick tiny pebbles between our two index fingers.

On a bad day, the Israeli military builds a roadblock on the main road to Yatta, the nearest city in the area – a crucial road for medical services, education, and water aid in a year of severe drought.

On a good day, the Palestinian villagers work together to remove the roadblock.

On a bad day, Israeli settlers, sometimes masked, come to land where Palestinian shepherds are grazing, and they throw stones, or attack and hospitalize, the shepherds.

On a good day, we join Palestinian children as they graze their sheep – and then the children climb up fig trees and throw to us their delicious fruit. We join their family for a fabulous lunch of bread, eggs, and olive oil, followed by juicy slices of watermelon. And we laugh and joke and have lessons in Arabic, English, and Italian.

On a bad day, the Israeli military issues demolition orders on five homes in the area, and the village cistern in At-Tuwani.

On a good day, we sit and talk late into the night with our Palestinian friends, laughing with the funniest women in At-Tuwani, and listening to ways in which the village is organizing its nonviolent resistance.

These days blur together – they are often sweet and bitter simultaneously. Yet, on good days – I renew my belief that children and stories, love and watermelon, courage and nonviolence, will eventually triumph over military and propaganda, hate and weapons, cowardice and violence. On good days, I am amazed and inspired by the strength and devotion to nonviolent resistance of the Palestinian villagers here in the South Hebron Hills.

And, on good days, I know that, no matter what happens, the Palestinian people are more powerful than the Israeli occupation.

And these good days are every day.

The Birth of Jesus and the Occupation of Palestine

Reprinted from Christian Peacemaker Teams with permission

REFLECTION

At-Tuwani: The Birth of Jesus and the occupation of Palestine

25 December, 2007

by Art Gish



It was a beautiful, warm, sunny Christmas day in the mountains of Palestine in the South Hebron Hills. My Christian Peacemaker Teammate and I spent the morning with an At-Tuwani villager and his children plowing and sowing wheat with two donkeys. There were flocks of sheep on the hills around us, an ideal setting for thinking about the birth of Jesus.

We were there to protect the people from possible attacks from the occupiers, from the people with guns, from those who wield worldly power. We were standing with the shepherds, with the dispossessed, people like those to whom the angels announced good news 2,000 years ago.

We were working in a narrow valley just below the village of Sarura, which the villagers abandoned in 1999 because of repeated attacks on the village from Israeli settlers. Since Sarura originally was a Roman village, I thought of the Roman occupiers at the time of Jesus. The Roman caves are still there, as are the ruins of Roman houses. The Romans are long gone. The family we were accompanying lived in that village before settler violence forced them to leave. The father showed us the cave he used to live in and a Roman coin he found there.

What has changed since the Roman occupation of Palestine? In spite of God’s revelation in Jesus, people still rely on violence and oppression, still reject the promise of peace on earth as a gift from God. People still seek to dominate and control. The donkeys were given a break and a snack of the wheat they were helping plant. We broke bread and drank tea together and experienced a bit of God’s peace in the midst of conflict over land and resources.

Easter Greetings from the "Holy Land"!

American Mission Workers from Mainline and Peace Churches live and work alongside Palestinian Christians and Muslims. Their reports give American Christians a clearer picture of the day to day realities of occupation than we see through the Mainstream media. One such organization is the MCC - Palestine:

(MCC) is the relief, development, and peace agency of Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches in North America. MCC seeks to demonstrate God's love by working among people suffering from poverty, conflict, oppression and natural disaster. MCC serves as a channel for interchange by building relationships that are mutually transformative. MCC strives for peace, justice and dignity of all people by sharing our experiences, resources and faith in Jesus Christ. MCC has worked in Palestine for over fifty years, providing relief aid and development assistance. Arriving in 1949 to provide material assistance to Palestinian refugees driven from their homes in 1948, MCC stayed to work alongside Palestinians in their search for freedom and dignity. Since the Israeli occupation began in 1967, MCC has also focused on how to promote reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis on the solid foundation of justice. Today MCC works in partnership with several Palestinian and Israeli organizations, which promote sustainable development, strive for justice and peace, and strengthen the witness of the Palestinian church.

Timothy and Christi Seidel are current Peace Development Workers for Mennonite Central Committee - Palestine. I am reproducing Timothy Seidel's Easter reflection with his permission:

Easter Greetings from the “Holy Land”!

Al-Masiih Qaam! Haqaan Qaam!
Christ Is Risen! He Is Risen Indeed!

This Arabic greeting will be commonly heard this week as Christians from across the world travel to Jerusalem to experience Easter. It is truly an exciting experience. Yet at the same time, we witness with sadness the realities that our Palestinian sisters and brothers continue to face.

This week has already been quite a full week, here in the “holy land.” This past Sunday, Palm Sunday, was marked by a huge procession from the historical town of Bethphage, where Jesus began his donkey ride 2000 years ago, up and over the Mount of Olives, and then back down again up to the old city of Jerusalem. Many languages could be heard along the Mount of Olives as people from all over the world traveled here to participate in this procession. Though it was great to see so many people, our Palestinian friends and neighbors told us that it was not nearly the size it used to be seven or ten years ago, before Israeli incursions into the Occupied Territories. We can only hope that so many people will return to their homes with a deeper knowledge of the oppression of this land, and tell what they have seen. Unfortunately, few of the internationals we saw on Sunday will take the time to even come to Bethlehem to meet their Palestinian brothers and sister. This is a discouraging and, as a U.S. Christian, an embarrassing witness on our part to the Christians of this land.

I suppose this is one of the reasons why we do not often talk about the biblical sights we are seeing on a daily basis. Though it is an incredible privilege to walk in the steps of so many before us, it honestly can be difficult feeling present in a spiritual sense. It is hard standing in the Church of the Nativity, or in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, or up on the Mount of Beatitude overlooking the Sea of Galilee and not also be confronted at the same time by the injustices and the suffering that plague this land, especially as a Christian who believes that when Jesus walked this land his heart was also broken by the injustices and the suffering of those around him, living as they did also under (Roman) occupation.

Knowing that Palestinian brothers and sisters here in Bethlehem will not even be able to travel the short distance of six miles or ten kilometers to worship at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre—the site in Jerusalem’s Old City where tradition holds Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected—on Easter Sunday morning is heart-breaking.

For this is also a special time of remembrance for our Jewish friends. This is the time of Pesach or Passover, when Jews remember their liberation from slavery and oppression in Egypt. But in this place, the celebration of liberation from oppression for Jews becomes a time of increased restrictions imposed on Palestinians. Beginning on April 1, a week long general closure was imposed by the Israeli military on the West Bank due to the Jewish holiday of Passover. This will undoubtedly affect those Palestinians who were fortunate enough to receive special permits to celebrate Easter in Jerusalem. As is often the case during Israeli military closures, no Palestinian can move in and our of their walled-in communities, often-times even if they have a permit.

This was the case for one of our neighbors who, along with a women’s group from her church, were all stopped at the Bethlehem checkpoint trying to go to Jerusalem this past Sunday. The permits they were all carrying were useless. As a sign of protest, they ripped up their permits in front of the Israeli soldiers who would not let them pass through the checkpoint.

Pointing out this disconnect between remembering past oppression and imposing oppressive measures today, our friend Zoughbi often asks, “why does the right to exercise freedom of religion for Israeli Jews mean collective punishment for the Palestinian people?”

And yet our Palestinian friends respond with such grace. As we were sharing our experiences on Palm Sunday in Jerusalem, one friend here in Bethlehem who is a Palestinian Christian (and who has not been “allowed” to go to Jerusalem for about eight years now because the Israeli military will not issue him a permit) responded not with bitterness or hate, but instead told us that though he was not allowed to be there, he was experiencing it as we were telling of our experiences. “I was just now there with you,” he said, thinking back to when he was young and walked in that procession. I almost broke out into tears.

But so many Christians who do travel to this land, seldom take the time to meet with the people, especially with Palestinians. This land is marketed and sold as a pilgrimage destination, a land full of “holy sites” and “dead stones” with little to no attention paid to the “living stones”—those Christian communities that feel most forsaken.

This is why Palm Sunday is such a paradoxical remembrance, for only five days later, those singing the praises of Jesus and the God he bore witness to 2000 years ago were calling for his crucifixion. Indeed, Jesus felt forsaken in more ways than one. This is a great challenge to me and to all of us: how are we complicit in crucifixions even today as we sing Palm Sunday praises?

Nonetheless, we do still appreciate and take the time to be present in a very spiritual way in this “holy land.” Many events throughout this week—Holy Week—are keeping us busy and keeping our minds and hearts reflective. On Good Friday morning there was another procession. This one began at 6:30am in the Old City of Jerusalem, and walked along in prayer through the Stations of the Cross, the “Via Dolorosa,” beginning at the site where Jesus was condemned by Pilate and ending at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. On Sunday, we will return to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to remember, pray, and give thanks for the resurrection of our Lord. We will do this later in the morning, after a 5:30am sunrise service on the Mount of Olives, looking out over the Jordan Valley to the see the sun rise, shining down on the evil and the good, the righteous and the unrighteous—a poignant reminder as a concrete wall snaking through the hillside separating Palestinian from Palestinian is illuminated by the sun’s light, that we are to strive to love and pray for all in this broken land. (Matthew 5:45)

For us what has been most meaningful though, has been those time we spent here in Bethlehem, with friends and colleagues of organizations MCC works with. One example was during Holy Week last year, when the staff of the Wi’am Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center (http://www.planet.edu/~alaslah/) in Bethlehem met every morning to read and reflect upon Scripture. For me, this was more meaningful than even visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Easter Sunday morning. For this is where Jesus truly walks among us today, among the poor and the oppressed and those forgotten and forsaken.


Peace to you all,

Timothy Seidel

cross-posted at Street Prophets