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August 14, 2000
Dear Family and Friends,
Instead of a letter, this time I’d like to share with you
excerpts from an essay I co-wrote and edited with a group of expatriate
Christians who work in Jerusalem. They are from a variety of faith
traditions, including Baptist, Mennonite, Lutheran, and Methodist.
The essay has been edited for space. We call the essay, "Peace
in Palestine/Israel: A vision and a lament."
As Christians working and living in the Holy Land, believing
God wills justice and peace for all of God’s children, both
Palestinian and Israeli, we feel compelled to lift our voices
in lamentation. The time has come for people of faith to declare
that the Oslo process has tarnished what should be a sacred word—"peace."
As Israel and the PLO conduct negotiations over a permanent status
agreement, we present a vision of the things that would make for
peace in Palestine/Israel; a vision betrayed by the Oslo "peace"
process.
A Vision
Our hope as Christians is rooted in the coming of God’s
kingdom. Through Jesus Christ, God breaks down dividing walls
of hostility (Eph. 2:15), incorporating different peoples into
a new creation (Gal. 6:15). It is our vision that the Holy Land
might prefigure God’s boundary-breaking kingdom, serving
as a place where people who were once enemies might be reconciled
with one another and live together in peace. The foundations for
such reconciliation and peace are justice and righteousness (Isaiah
32:16-17). God wills the joy of jubilee for His creatures, a jubilee
which allows God’s children to live together on the basis
of justice (Luke 4:16-22; Isaiah 61:1-2; Lev. 25). God delights
not in might, but in justice (Jer. 9:23-24), and calls all to
do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly (Micah 6:8). It is our
hope and prayer that Palestinians and Israelis might live together
in a peace built on the foundations of justice, and that Israel/Palestine
might truly serve as a light to the nations.
We believe that practical ways can be found for Palestinians
and Israelis to share the Holy Land in a just and equitable manner.
Jerusalem, for example, can and must be a shared city, open to
all. United Nations resolutions, which guarantee the right of
return to Palestinian refugees and call for an Israeli withdrawal
from the occupied territories in exchange for peace, provide a
workable framework for a just and lasting accord. On such foundations
of justice and equality lie the hope for a peace of reconciliation
between the Palestinian and Israeli people.
A Lament
We lament that, whether intended or not, the Oslo negotiations
have promoted a peace of coercion rather than a peace of reconciliation.
We lament that the Oslo "peace" process has proven an
instrument with which Israel has increased its control over Palestinian
people and land. Rather than bringing Palestinians and Israelis
together into a new relationship of justice and equality, the
Oslo process has instead resulted in a regime of separation best
characterized as apartheid. Seven years of the "peace"
process have reinforced this Holy-Land apartheid through several
disturbing trends. These include territorial fragmentation, house
demolitions, land confiscation, and settlement expansion.
The peace process has not brought about a jubilee for Palestinians,
who have become increasingly less secure in their homes and on
their land. The Oslo agreements have broken up the occupied territories
into a bewildering array of disconnected cantons. These bantustans
of Palestinian autonomy lack territorial contiguity. We fear that
while the ongoing negotiations might alter the percentages of
land under Palestinian control, the basic framework of territorial
fragmentation will remain.
Israel seldom grants permits to Palestinians to build homes on
their own land, issuing demolition orders for "illegally"
built houses: hundreds of Palestinian homes have been destroyed
since the signing of the Oslo accords. House demolitions are accompanied
by land confiscation, which has also continued unabated since
1993. In a manner sadly reminiscent of King Ahab’s confiscation
of Naboth’s vineyard (I Kings 21), the Israeli military seizes
thousands of acres of land from Palestinians, and then uses this
land to expand Israeli settlements in the occupied territories
(illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention). Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Barak, despite his image as a "peace" leader, has,
according to Peace Now, accelerated settlement growth to four
times its previous level under former Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu. These settlements are being connected by a matrix of
by-pass roads whose construction is being financed by U.S. government
aid, costing U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars. Together, the
settlements and the by-pass roads rob Palestinians of their land,
deprive farmers of income and restrict the growth of Palestinian
population centers.
Since 1993, Palestinians have found their freedom of movement
increasingly limited. Palestinian travel between the West Bank
and the Gaza Strip is strictly regulated by a permit system. The
opening of the much-heralded "safe passage" between
the West Bank and Gaza has not, in fact, resulted in free travel,
as thousands of Palestinians have been denied the necessary permits
by the Israeli military authorities. Israel’s control of
the land surrounding Palestinian population centers in the West
Bank also means that it can imprison Palestinians within their
respective cantons, trapping Palestinians in their villages and
cities and crippling the Palestinian economy. Such artificial
separation of the Palestinian people from one another does not
contribute to peace.
The prophet Isaiah envisions Jerusalem as a joy, where the sound
of weeping shall be heard no more (65:17-19). Unfortunately, Palestinians
of the holy city have little cause for joy. For seven years Israel
has imposed a closure on Jerusalem, requiring Palestinians from
the occupied territories to obtain permits to visit the city.
The Israeli closure of Jerusalem denies the vast majority of Palestinians
access to Christian and Muslim holy places and prevents access
to Jerusalem’s medical, cultural, and academic institutions.
Palestinian Jerusalemites are continually uncertain of their
right of residence, as the Israeli Ministry of the Interior threatens
to strip them of their Jerusalem identity cards if they cannot
prove their "center of life" is in the city. Thus, thousands
of Palestinians can no longer reside in the city of their birth.
While a shared Jerusalem might become a beacon of reconciliation
for humanity, the Jerusalem shaped by the Oslo process has become
one of the most poignant examples of Palestinian alienation from
their heritage and their holy places.
The millions of Palestinian refugees living in Palestine/Israel,
the Middle East and beyond carry the burden of dispossession in
their bodies and souls. While all Jews eligible under Israel’s
Law of Return can move to Israel or the occupied territories,
Palestinian refugees remain in exile, denied their internationally
affirmed rights of return and compensation. Any agreement between
Palestinian and Israeli that does not uphold the Palestinian right
of return will be ephemeral and short-lived.
Within weeks or months, Palestinian and Israeli negotiators might
well sign some form of agreement. Perhaps it will be a permanent
status agreement, addressing all of the outstanding issues, including
borders, water, settlements, refugees and Jerusalem. Or perhaps
it will be a partial agreement, deferring some issues, like refugees
and Jerusalem, to a later date. Or perhaps no agreement will be
reached, and the present intolerable situation will drag on. Regardless
of what transpires, we affirm that justice is the foundation of
peace and reconciliation. As the international media and world
powers clamor "peace, peace" when there is no peace,
we invite Christians worldwide to join us in praying and speaking
out for a peace built on reconciliation, not coercion. May this
land called "holy" yet provide Palestinian and Israeli
with a foretaste of God’s kingdom here on earth.
Doug Dicks
The 2000 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 139
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