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~MY VOICE…
By Glenn Edward Witmer
Looking Into Their Eyes
“…as long as soldiers are blocking the entrance to our city, I will not return their greetings.”

An Israeli soldier once explained to his colleagues that he didn’t have very much trouble with “shoot to kill” orders. “I just don’t look into their eyes,” he explained, “and then it’s no problem.” It’s a mentality that affects many of us, albeit in less obvious or violent ways.

When we get to know someone, it’s harder to demonize—or marginalize —them. We begin to care about them, we share their feelings and respond to their needs. Even those whom we feel justified in ‘hating’ or opposing may become more ‘human’ and likeable when we look into their faces, and begin a conversation. Art Gish’s experience [article on page 5] is a classic example—even the objectionable soldiers of Hebron started to bring out a compassionate side. That doesn’t mean that one needs to accept their manners and methods, but it does serve to remind us that even a violent soldier is made in the image and likeness of God.

I recently questioned the statement of a Palestinian who made a point of stating publicly that she refused to acknowledge what she herself described as “an unusually well-behaved” soldier at a checkpoint when he wished her a good day. When she refused to speak to him he tried again and added more intentionally, “Have a splendid day!”

“With a heavy heart,” she wrote in defense, “I had decided that as long as soldiers are blocking the entrance to our city, I will not return their greetings.” Knowingly or not, she had done to them what they are accused of doing to others: lumping everyone together and assigning collective guilt. I wonder what positive impact she might have made on him if she had instead engaged him in a brief conversation, demonstrating personal interest even while deploring the national policies beyond that soldier’s control. The way Jesus used to do it.

Jesus regularly dealt with people whose individual behavior he could never have accepted, but he still looked for the ‘human’ aspect within. Some articles in this issue pick up on that theme. Rabbis for Human Rights, Christian Peacemaker Teams, and others are struggling against one’s natural instincts of hating, and classifying, and generalizing… by trying to personalize people, and celebrate their humanity. Surely their efforts will, in the end, prove much more effective in breaking down barriers than will any damning or dismissive reactions.

There’s no doubt that it is the harder way, but it is the one that seems to replicate best the model that Jesus demonstrated for us: by looking into their eyes, he saw their soul.—GEW

~OTHER VOICES…

By Jimmy Carter
Don’t Punish the Palestinians
The election of Hamas candidates cannot adversely affect genuine peace talks, since such talks have been nonexistent for over five years.

In my conversations with their representatives, the spokesman for Hamas claimed, “We want a peaceful unity government.” If this is a truthful statement, it needs to be given a chance. During this time of fluidity in the formation of the new government, it is important that Israel and the United States play positive roles. Any tacit or formal collusion between the two powers to disrupt the process by punishing the Palestinian people could be counterproductive and have devastating consequences.

Unfortunately, these steps are already underway and are well known throughout the Palestinian territories and the world. Israel has moved to withhold funds (about $50 million per month) that the Palestinians earn from customs and tax revenue. Perhaps a greater aggravation by the Israelis is their decision to hinder movement of elected Hamas Palestinian Legislative Council members through any of more than a hundred Israeli checkpoints around and throughout the Palestinian territories. This will present significant obstacles to a government’s functioning effectively. Abbas informed me after the election that the Palestinian Authority was $900 million in debt and that he would be unable to meet payrolls during February.

“The likely results will be to alienate the already oppressed
and innocent Palestinians, to incite violence,
and to increase the domestic influence
and international esteem of Hamas.”

Knowing that Hamas would inherit a bankrupt government, US officials have announced that all funding for the new government will be withheld, including what is needed to pay salaries for schoolteachers, nurses, social workers, police, and maintenance personnel. So far they have not agreed to bypass the Hamas-led government and let humanitarian funds be channeled to Palestinians through United Nations agencies responsible for refugees, health and other human services.

This common commitment to eviscerate the government of elected Hamas officials by punishing private citizens may accomplish this narrow purpose, but the likely results will be to alienate the already oppressed and innocent Palestinians, to incite violence, and to increase the domestic influence and international esteem of Hamas. It will certainly not be an inducement to Hamas or other militants to moderate their policies.

The election of Hamas candidates cannot adversely affect genuine peace talks, since such talks have been nonexistent for over five years. A negotiated agreement is the only path to a permanent two-state solution, providing peace for Israel and justice for the Palestinians. In fact, if Israel is willing to include the Palestinians in the process, Abbas can still play this unique negotiating role as the unchallenged leader of the PLO (not the government that includes Hamas).

It was under this umbrella and not the Palestinian Authority that Arafat negotiated with Israeli leaders to conclude the Oslo peace agreement. Abbas has sought peace talks with Israel since his election a year ago, and there is nothing to prevent direct talks with him, even if Hamas does not soon take the ultimately inevitable steps of renouncing violence and recognizing Israel’s right to exist.

It would not violate any political principles to at least give the Palestinians their own money; let humanitarian assistance continue through UN and private agencies; encourage Russia, Egypt and other nations to exert maximum influence on Hamas to moderate its negative policies; and support President Abbas in his efforts to ease tension, avoid violence and explore steps toward a lasting peace.

Former president Carter led a team from the Carter Center and the National Democratic Institute that observed the recent Palestinian elections. This was excerpted from an article in The Washington Post.

By Uri Avnery
“The Zionist movement was born because
Europe was becoming a hell for the Jews.”
Does the Peace Movement Even Have a Chance?

When we try to analyze the struggle, we have always to come back to the essence of the matter: In this country, there live two peoples, two nations, and the aim of our endeavors is to create peace, peace based on justice. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not resemble any other struggle in the world. It is not a repeat of the South African ordeal, nor a second edition of the Algerian War of Liberation. This is a unique conflict, brought about by unique circumstances.

A famous historian described it this way: A person lives on an upper floor of a building in which a fire has broken out. To save his life, he jumps out of a window and lands on top of a passer-by, who is grievously hurt. Between the two, a mortal enmity ensues. Who is in the right? The person who jumped out of the window to save his life? Or the second person, who was hurt and ruined without having done anything wrong?

The Zionist movement was born because Europe was becoming a hell for the Jews—fifty years before the Holocaust, the terrible Holocaust that killed millions of Jews, and in the wake of which the State of Israel was founded. The first Zionists believed that the country was empty. Their main slogan was: “A country without people for a people without a country.” When the Zionists discovered that there was a population already living in this country, they tried to push it out.

This effort continues until this very day, and so does the tenacious struggle of the Palestinian people for its existence and its land. That is the reality of the conflict—two peoples living in the same country and fighting each other. The struggle against the Wall that is stealing its land is a part of this historic conflict.

“Arafat instructed two senior Fatah leaders to contact us.
Both were later murdered by
the enemies of peace and the enemies of Arafat.”

Thirty-two years ago, right after the Yom Kippur War, the Ramadan War, Yasser Arafat drew the conclusion that there is no military solution to this conflict. He resolved to seek a political settlement. A small group of Israeli peace activists decided to join this initiative. We set up the Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace. Arafat instructed two senior Fatah leaders, his emissaries, to contact us. Both were later murdered by the enemies of peace and the enemies of Arafat.

You may indeed ask: What has the Israeli peace movement achieved? On the face of it, nothing. On the contrary, since the Oslo agreement, the situation of the Palestinians has worsened from year to year. The economic misery is deepening even further. Every day, people are being killed. The construction of the monster Wall is continuing. The racist settlements are spreading rapidly. Just now we learned that the Jordan Valley—a third of the West Bank—is being cut off from the Palestinian territory and practically annexed to Israel.

All this is happening in plain view. The victory of Hamas in the Palestinian elections is a result of these actions. But below the surface a contrary process is at work. Fifty years ago, only a handful of people in Israel and around the world recognized the existence of the Palestinian people. Even 32 years ago, Golda Meir could declare that “there is no such thing as a Palestinian people.” Nowadays there is no normal person in Israel and the world who denies the existence of the Palestinian people and its right to a state of its own. That is a victory for the tenacious Palestinian struggle, but also for the Israeli peace movement.

Twenty years ago, when we called for negotiations with the Palestinian Liberation Organization, we were a small band. We were told that Arafat was a murderer, that the PLO was a terrorist organization, that the Palestinian Charter called for the destruction of Israel—exactly the same phrases which are now being used about Hamas. But a few years later, the State of Israel recognized the PLO, negotiated with it and signed an agreement with it. That was a victory for the tenacious Palestinian struggle, but also a victory for the Israeli peace movement. I am convinced that peace will win, justice will win.

A few weeks ago I was in Berlin. In the shops there, pieces of the Berlin Wall are on sale. I paid 2.50 Euros for one of them. The day will come when here, in the free State of Palestine, one will be able to buy pieces of the Wall that we are fighting against today.

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For the second time Israel has produced a winner for this prestigious prize. Abuna Elias Chacour of Ibillin also won the Niwano award for his peace and justice work.

“[It is] our belief that…religion can and must contribute
to the struggle for peace and human rights.”
Rabbis for Human Rights to Receive Peace Prize

The Niwano Peace Foundation, one of the world’s leading foundations contributing to the realization of world peace and the enhancement of culture, has announced that in May it will award the twenty-third Niwano Peace Prize to Rabbis for Human Rights of Israel. The prize is awarded annually to a living individual or an organization that is making a significant contribution to world peace through promoting inter-religious cooperation.

The Niwano Peace Prize screening committee made up of religious leaders of international stature selected Rabbis for Human Rights from among candidates nominated by religious leaders and other persons of intellectual stature around the world. In the nomination process, some 1,000 people and organizations, representing 125 countries and many religions, were asked to propose candidates. The prize includes a cash award of about $175,000.

In selecting Rabbis For Human Rights, The Niwano Peace Prize screening committee stated, “At a time when religious fundamentalism and extremism receives so much publicity in the Middle East, the Niwano Peace Foundation, with its Peace Prize, wants to honor Rabbis for Human Rights as a unique voice of compassion, care for the other, love, and justice that is at the heart of Judaism and indeed of all other religions…

This unique organization of Rabbis and rabbinical students in Israel is committed to promoting human rights, justice, and compassion for all the people in the region. In a critical moment in the Middle East and elsewhere, it is of great relevance to highlight such values that are at the heart of Jewish tradition but are marginalized for “security.”

Rabbis for Human Rights responded to the Peace Prize Committee by stating, “We are honored because we see this prize as a confirmation of our belief that, although religion is often seen in our region and around the world as a major factor contributing to conflict and strife, religion can and must contribute to the struggle for peace and human rights.

“We are humbled because we know that we alone can not take full credit for whatever modest contributions we have made in educating about Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and human rights, advocating for economic justice for Israelis and restoring Palestinian human rights.”
—For more information, see www.rhr.israel.net

By Art Gish, Christian Peacemaker Teams
“Santa doesn’t bring me anything, because I do bad things.
Soldiers do bad things.”
Soldiers and Olive Trees

Two recent encounters with Israeli soldiers in occupied Palestine give a small picture of how the occupation traps even those who are orchestrating the oppression. Many Israeli soldiers ask me about Santa Claus, probably because of my bushy beard and red Christian Peacemaker Teams hat. Apparently, they think of Santa Claus when they see me.

Recently an Israeli soldier in Hebron stopped me and asked me if I knew Santa. “Yes, he is my brother,” I told him. I then asked him if Santa brought him good things. He replied, “No, Santa doesn’t bring me anything, because I do bad things. Soldiers do bad things.”

Recently a group of Israelis associated with Rabbis for Human Rights came with olive trees to the Palestinian village of At-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills. They intended to plant the trees in a neighboring Palestinian village. In a large show of force, over twenty Israeli soldiers declared the whole area a closed military zone, and ordered everyone to leave, preventing Israelis and Palestinians from planting olive trees together. Somehow, the Israeli military saw those olive trees as some kind of threat.

The soldiers were behaving in a nasty manner. I approached one soldier who had also been nasty in the recent past, and told him that olive trees are symbols of peace and not a threat to anyone who wants peace. He responded to me by saying, “I know, I know, but I have to take orders. It is a complex situation and a personal dilemma for me.”

In both these encounters, the soldiers made themselves vulnerable to me, and in turn, I felt a lot of compassion for them. My heart goes out to soldiers everywhere who feel trapped, who are forced to do things they will regret the rest of their lives. We can and must break this cycle of violence. It is not true that we simply have to follow orders. We are responsible for our actions.
—from a CPT Release

By Rev. Clarence Musgrave
“And the Walls Came Tumbling Down”

As a child, I can remember singing with great gusto in Sunday School a song about someone called Joshua who fought a battle at Jericho, as a result of which some walls came tumbling down. I had little real idea what the story was about, but it was a good story, not least because of the way in which the walls did not stop Joshua and his people.

Now that I have been living in Jerusalem for a few years, I have had time to think again about walls. In particular there are those walls which can be seen from St. Andrew’s Scots Church in Jerusalem, where I work. Close by there are the famous walls built by the Sultan Suliman the Magnificent. In the distance, to the south-east, there is the infamous wall built by Ariel Sharon’s government. However, they are but two of the many walls that have been built to protect Jerusalem. What sort of a job did they do?

In the City of David, down by the side of the Kidron Valley, there are the remains of the Jebusite Wall dating back to the 18th century BCE. Modified and strengthened 1,000 years later, it provided protection for the city for another 200 years—and then came the Babylonians. Old as it was, strong as it had been built, it was unable to provide protection for the City, and in 586 BCE Jerusalem was captured. That Wall failed its test. For the Jewish people, the Babylonian Exile was the result.

“The Walls designed to protect Jerusalem proved inadequate,
and a new Diaspora was the result.”

Around the city of Jerusalem that Jesus knew, walls were also built. The threat this time came from the West, in the Occupying Forces of the Roman Empire. In the final battles for Jerusalem in 70 CE, the Third Wall was breached, the Second Wall was unable to withstand the Roman attacks, and the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus took place. The Walls designed to protect Jerusalem proved inadequate, and a new Diaspora was the result.

The most recent conflict in Jerusalem was in 1967. Behind the Walls, familiar to people all over the world, the defenders prepared. Outside the Walls, the attackers got ready. The result is known, and many readers of Cornerstone will have been personally affected by it. The Gates were breached and the City captured. A new wave of displacement took place, different from previous ones in that it was caused by Jewish forces and affected others, rather than being caused by others and affecting Jewish people.

And now we have another wall. Designed, according to its supporters, to protect the people of Israel from attacks by Palestinians, it snakes its way across the land, colorless and lifeless, joining a long list of other walls designed to offer protection to those inside them. No doubt, many of you will have seen the Iron Curtain, possibly the most recent example of a Wall built to divide peoples and to perpetuate the power of the builders. By 1990, it had joined the list of those Walls that had ultimately been futile.

So what dare I say about the current Wall that is dividing Jerusalem, a Wall that is depriving people of their lands and their livelihood, and that is disfiguring the city and country through which it passes?

There is the Bad News: >From their own history, the Jewish people have ample examples of the failures of Walls to protect them. Will this Wall prove any different from those of the past? It is doubtful if it will. So the leaders of the Jewish people are offering to them a Recipe for Safety which has failed in the past, and will turn inevitably into a Recipe for Disaster. The Wall offers little hope for the future to those who see it as their Salvation.

“Expect the Wall to come down,
but do not expect it to come down tomorrow.”

There is the Good News: Walls have always fallen. Will this Wall prove any different from those of the past? It is unlikely that it will. So what is denied to people now by the Wall, will in the future become available to them once again. The big problem is that there is no way of knowing when this will happen. So the Good News is tempered with caution. Expect the Wall to come down, but do not expect it to come down tomorrow.

So what can be done, what needs to be done? The Wall is the product of fear. We must address the fears of its builders and help them to overcome them. The Wall creates hopelessness. We must confront the hopelessness of the peoples on both sides of the Wall, and help them to find ways of having hope.

The Wall leads to poverty, of body, mind and spirit. We must offer the resources to people to enable them not only to feed themselves and stay alive, but also to stimulate their minds and imaginations, so that ways can be found to enable people to think new thoughts and dream new dreams.

The Wall is a blight on humanity, and represents a failure for the whole of the human family. We must help the world community to recognize its failure, and work with it to achieve solutions to the questions of Israel and Palestine.

We must remember those strange words in the Gospel: it was when Jesus died that the Curtain of the Temple was torn, a barrier was broken and Reconciliation was achieved.

—First published in Cornerstone, published by SABEEL, and used with permission.

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The following item is taken from the February issue of The Word on the Street,
a new e-zine from First-century Nazareth Village.
To request your own monthly e-mail copy

You Cannot Go Home Again
“Are you working for the Romans too?
Just who do you think you are?”

It sure didn’t take long for the enthusiastic home crowd to turn against him! Their high praise would soon become a damning judgment and cause to expel him from their midst.

Those rave reviews Jesus was getting in the news reports spreading through Galilee had been heard up in his hometown as well, so it’s not surprising that he got such a warm welcome from his old friends and acquaintances when he arrived back in Nazareth again. This local construction worker from the old shop up the hill had really done well for himself.

“Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked, admiringly. Whoever would have thought it!

Everyone was praising him. As a person with a public name already, Jesus’ return to his village home was eagerly anticipated. As was his custom, the next Sabbath he joined the local families gathering in the synagogue. As they always did for a special guest, they invited him to read the prophetic portion of the week’s assigned readings. That was a real honor. The attendant handed him the Isaiah scroll containing the Scripture portion, and Jesus unrolled it to the section for that week.

What happened next in the synagogue would later produce mixed reports. From all accounts, things had started out well. When the Scripture reading was done, Jesus sat down to explain the meaning before the discussion began. He even made the point of saying it had been ‘fulfilled’ that day, whatever he meant by that. Clearly the reports of his healings and powerful preaching were what they were expecting to witness too, and now he was saying that he had been appointed [some thought they heard anointed] to heal the sick and blind…

“You’re waiting for a show now, aren’t you?
You want me to perform healing miracles
like you heard about from Capernaum?”

There was a wonderful reaction to what had taken place, but then he added something else. Maybe he had not been sure of the reception he would get when he returned home. Some of the people thought he had just been away looking for work—a lot of new construction projects were underway in the area.

“You’re waiting for a show now, aren’t you? You want me to perform healing miracles like you heard about from Capernaum?” But then Jesus added an old saying they didn’t expect to hear: “‘No prophet is accepted in his hometown!’—I cannot perform them here!”…

…the story continues in The Word on the Street—www.nazarethvillage.com
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More articles—with photos and art illustration—are available on the Nazareth Village website. Go to www.nazarethvillage.com and click on the home page icon for The Word on the Street.

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