April 30, 2007
Just peace: An orientation toward conflict transformation
characterized by approaches that reduce violence and destructive
cycles of social interaction and at the same time increase justice
in any human relationship.
–from The Moral Imagination by John Paul Lederach
Friends,
Last month I had a number of experiences that continue to shape
my thoughts, faith, and point of view. I helped rebuild some houses
that had been destroyed, served as an ccumenical accompanier in
Yanoun, and participated in a protest in Bil’in. Each experience
taught me something about what it means to work for peace, how
to live out my beliefs, how to put actions behind my words, and
when to rest within silence.
Ta’ayush
The Israeli bulldozed houses in a village south of Hebron. I
worked with Ta'ayush to help build them up again.
One weekend, I went with the Ta’ayush group to a village
south of Hebron to rebuild some structures that had been destroyed
by the Israeli Army. Ta’ayush (Arabic for “life in
common”) is a grassroots movement of Arab and Jewish citizens
of Israel that began in the fall of 2000. In their purpose statement,
Ta’ayush says that a future of equality, justice, and peace
begins today, between us, through concrete daily actions of solidarity
to end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and
to achieve full civil equality for all. Dozens of Israelis, internationals,
and Palestinians came together to build foundations, stone walls,
and rooftops. We mixed cement, formed assembly lines, and broke
bread together throughout the beautiful exhausting day.
I found it strange that the Army would bulldoze one house but
not the one next to it. It was like visiting the scene after a
tornado, a seemingly random occurrence of destruction. People
in the village did not have a permit to build, because permits
are very expensive and difficult to obtain. A villager builds
knowing that retribution will likely occur, yet a settlement outpost
was illegally built nearby, and the legal system doesn’t
seem to care about that. The villagers were quite capable of rebuilding
on their own, but they requested that Ta’ayush come so that
their struggle would become known to the outside world. I asked
one of the Israeli group leaders if this would merely provoke
the Army to destroy the building after we were finished working
on it. He said that was possible and is a risk that the villagers
are aware of, but the point of the task was to provide a presence,
to build in solidarity with the people. “Besides,”
he said, “if the building is destroyed again, then we will
return and rebuild again.”
Yanoun
Near the city of Nablus in the middle of the West Bank, not far
from the small town of Aqraba, is an even smaller village called
Yanoun. There are about 100 people living there. Starting in 1996,
Yanoun came under attack from fundamentalist Jewish settlers,
whose buildings are now visible from most points in the village.
The illegal settlement is known as Itamar. Its inhabitants are
armed and make it clear they want the villagers out. The residents
of Yanoun have suffered a number of violations, such as destruction
of the town generator, having their land and animals stolen, beatings
and harassment, the poisoning of livestock, destruction of olive
trees, and having their homes broken into.
In 2002, the residents of Yanoun reached their breaking point,
and everyone in the village packed up and fled to the nearby town
of Aqraba. This was the first instance in which an entire Palestinian
town was emptied due to settler violence. With the help of international
and Israeli peace activists, who also moved to Yanoun for extended
periods, the villagers eventually moved back. The Ecumenical Accompaniment
Program of Israel/Palestine (EAPPI) has been providing a presence
in the village since 2003.
Imhani making bread. Talking to her and learning how to make
break and cheese were one of the high points of my stay in Yanoun.
I went to Yanoun with no idea what to expect. It felt like I
was stepping back in time to the way things were centuries ago.
People earn a living by raising sheep and goats. As one of the
shepherds was returning with his flock in the evening, he invited
my friend and me over for dinner, the first dinner invitation
I’d ever received from someone riding a donkey. Imhani,
the mother of the family that we had dinner with, invited us back
the next day to help make bread in an outdoor oven and cheese
from sheep’s milk. So, after the morning walk through the
village, we went back to Imhani’s house for our first lesson
in bread- and cheese-making. Mostly we sat and chatted about the
recent news the village had heard from an Israeli soldier, who
said that the separation wall would be built between Yanoun and
Aqraba.
This news weighed heavily upon the family, because it threatened
their whole livelihood. Aqraba is where they sell their goods
and where they buy anything they can’t make themselves.
I love seeing people live off the land. Nearly everything in Yanoun
is used and reused; it makes me rethink our modern standards of
recycling. Plastic containers are used until they fall apart,
food scraps are fed to the animals, cardboard makes a good potholder,
rainwater is conserved and used to the last drop. Still, the relationship
between the people of Yanoun and Aqraba is extensive. Many times
during our Arabic conversations with Imhani, we would just pause
and look at the peaceful scenery. I found it difficult and distressful
to imagine the gray separation wall intruding on the beauty of
the area.
Bil’in
Every Friday, the people of Bil’in, and usually some internationals,
hold a demonstration protesting the building of the separation
wall. Close to 60 percent of Bil’in has been confiscated
for the building of Israeli settlements and construction of the
wall. I went to the protest, which promoted a non-violent resistance
to the situation.
However, the reaction from the Israeli Army was anything but
non-violent. The demonstration at Bil’in made me wonder:
Is this the solution? The theory of non-violence is something
that many people commend, yet the situation seemed to prohibit
a peaceful outcome. I still question the actions of both sides.
It felt like we were poking a bee’s nest, and expecting
not to get stung. I did feel the sting of the tear gas that day,
and it was something that I hope never to experience again. I
wonder what would happen if the Army didn’t show up for
our protest? We’d probably have had our demonstration and
left in a couple of hours. What would the harm have been? I also
wonder what would happen if the demonstration didn’t occur
where the Army was expecting it to take place. They would be waiting,
with all their ammunition, and have nobody to use it on.
One of the participants in Friday’s protest was Mairead
Maguire. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for her peace
efforts in Northern Ireland. She is the cofounder of the Community
for Peace People, and a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Here is her take on the demonstration that day:
We were then tear gassed, and as I helped a French woman to
retreat, I was shot in the leg with a rubber bullet. Two young
women, one from the United States and one from New Zealand,
helped me towards an ambulance. I saw an elderly Palestinian
mother carried on a stretcher into the ambulance, as she was
shot in the back with a plastic bullet. I saw a man whose face
was covered in blood and a Palestinian youth overcome with the
gas. About 20 people were injured. I was overcome with gas and
had a nosebleed, which resulted in being carried to an ambulance
for treatment.
On the road towards the village we watched two children playing
in their garden, oblivious to the nerve gas floating down on
the wind towards their home. This permeates their clothes and
their lungs, and the question has to be asked: What will the
health of these children be like in a few years?
This is not only a question of the abuse of human rights and
international laws by the Israeli government; it is a health
and environment issue. We were all traumatized by our experience,
and with the gas on the air came the words flowing back to me
of Palestinian doctor who said, “After 40 years of occupation,
all the people of Palestinian are traumatized. It is time the
international community acted to put a stop to the suffering
and injustice our people endure.”
I agree: enough is enough. It is time for action to force the
Israeli government to enter into unconditional talks to end this
tragedy of tragedies of good and gentle Palestinian people.
As I learn more about the situation here in Israel/Palestine,
I see there is no easy solution. I also see people continue to
work for a just peace, for a constructive change. I am seeking
to understand what those concepts mean and how they can be implemented
in every day life. Without faith in the life, death, and resurrection
of Christ, these would remain unreachable concepts.
I pray that Christ may continue to work in the hearts and minds
of people here and everywhere.
Constructive Change: The pursuit of shifting
relationships from those defined by fear, mutual recrimination,
and violence toward those characterized by love, mutual respect,
and proactive engagement. Constructive social change seeks to
move the flow of interaction in human conflict from cycles of
destructive relational patterns toward cycles of relational
dignity and respectful engagement.
–from The Moral Imagination by John Paul Lederach
The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 170 |
