Emergent Village
Today
There are three big things in my cultural-religious mind going on today. Today is St Patrick’s Day. It is also Lent. And it’s Israeli Election Day. 
First, St. Patricks’s Day. With a maiden name like Riley O’Brien, each year on this day I try to feel a sense of connection to my Irish roots. And I never do. I’ve never been to Ireland and I don’t even drink. Instead, observance of St Patricks Day for me is usually something closer to shuffling into my closet and thinking, “Shoot! Why don’t I have a green tee-shirt?!” I may not have any green clothes, but I have a daughter with stunning red hair. Alas, the gene pool speaks.
Today is also one of the 40 days of Lent. Not having grown up in a liturgical tradition, I don’t feel much connection to observing Lent, or Ash Wednesday, or Maundy Thursday. Truth be told, I usually end up forgetting it is Ash Wednesday until its too late. And my liturgical calendar ignorance spills out as I say, “Hey, you’ve got something on your forehead…right. here.” And the words slip out before I realize that it was put there on purpose. With holy, solemn, intention. Right. Oops.
Today is election day in Israel-Palestine. Now here’s something that means something to me today. Today is the day when, polls suggest, the Likud President Netanyahu may be supplanted by the center-left Zionist Union party. Not sure they’ll do much better, but so many are ready for a change. The Israel- Palestine conflict is something that I care about deeply. And a change in leadership there is something that I am eager to see. Especially since Netanyahu’s press conference last July 15th when he said that he would never accept Palestinian sovereignty in the West Bank. Since then, he has bluntly revealed, in so many ways, that he is not interested in real peace-making. You didn’t hear about this because his remarks were only spoken in Hebrew, and they did not get widely reported. But they should have been. (For larger quotes translated and comments by David Horovitz, see the Times of Israel article here: Netanyahu finally speaks his mind | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-finally-speaks-his-mind/#ixzz3UfyIw1Fr ). Or the Youtube video. Heart-wrenching. Time for change.
Lent
The word “Lent” comes from a root word meaning “lengthening,” like the lengthening hours of sunlight in spring. This holy season leads us up to a celebration of the resurrection of the Light of the world. Even here, in Minnesota, it sends us on our way to the warm days of summer. Last year during Lent I was in the “Holy Land”, or Israel and Palestine. And this was certainly an experience that lengthened me. Let me tell you about that experience. It actually ties in with Lent.
I wasn’t there on a typical “Holy Lands Tour”. I was there on something more of a dual-narrative tour where we traveled with and heard Palestinians (both Muslim and Christian) and also Jewish Israelis (some pro-Israeli settlers and some pro-Palestinian activists, all pro-peace) speak from the heart. Of the people we talked with, those who were intentional peace-makers, told us stories about how and why they are waging peace in their lives and communities.
I undertook this holistic experience, spanning several months, with a fabulous peace-making organization called The Global Immersion Project, in order to learn more about peace-making amidst this particular conflict. Our two-week long trip to Israel-Palestine was part of the final “Immersion Phase” of our Learning Lab on the topic of Peace and Reconciliation. We immersed ourselves into the concept of ‘how to be an everyday peace-maker’ in the hardest of circumstances, where it actually means something – something quite threatening to the status quo – to be a person of reconciliation. Yes, we went for the jugular. We sought out the experts. We asked the hard questions to people living on both sides of a very real and deeply entrenched conflict as they live amidst what some call a military occupation, what others (like Nelson Mandela) call apartheid. Yet, the peace-makers we came alongside went around this, refusing to be “enemies” with others in their lives.
In Jerusalem, like so many before me, I was a pilgrim far outside my comfort zone, in the middle of a modern-day war zone. We saw what it meant to live lengthened lives. We heard the hearts of people hoping for, seeking, and bringing in new light to dark places. What’s more, we saw them succeeding. We saw the light winning, spreading, warming the hearts of the people on a grass roots level, far beneath the political party lines. This was true Lent. These were real people pushing beyond the status quo of merely co-existing amidst immense peer pressure to be enemies. They were lengthening, stretching, reaching across the fear and the miles of cultural and religious difference, in order to make a better future together.
These friends were taking the lengthened path, the road less traveled, for the high calling of waging peace. They were refusing to be enemies. They were building bridges of love and communication. Like many things, it is simple – but not easy. It brought home the truth that, as is so often the case, making peace started in the heart. It involved listening, empathizing and humanizing the “other”. This heart posture, this disposition, is not easy. But it IS effective. I’ve seen it in action and I’ve seen it working in the hardest of places.
Our peace-makers shared with us stories of brokenness, and put-back-together-ness. Stories of pain and suffering, and, ultimately, of deciding to make a heart change in their lives. Amidst this change, they began to conspire for good in courageous, clever and creative ways. In many of their stories, there was a crisis-point, a moment of decision.
Benyamin, of Bereaved Parents Circle, is a father of a female IDF soldier who was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomb. He said that after his daughter’s death, he stayed in his apartment for two weeks trying to decide whether or not to use his own gun to go to a near-by construction site and take-out several Palestinian construction workers. That was what his first instinct of anger and revenge made him want to do. But in thinking things through, he came to this point, amidst his brokenness, when he realized that,
“What good would that do to their parents? The color of our blood runs the same. The salt of our tears tastes the same.” Responding in a violent way would solve nothing about his pain. It would only create the very same pain he was feeling in many other parents. And where would that leave him? Only perpetuating pain and violence as those parents fought, and maybe gave into, the same urge to turn to violence, revenge and bitterness. Benyamin chose the way of peace and forgiveness. As he did this, a green shoot of healing sprung up in his life.
Benyamin responded to a friend’s invitation to join other parents – both Israeli and Palestinians – of the Bereaved Parents Circle. This is a group of people on both sides who also lost children and spouses in the conflict. They come together and support each other in choosing forgiveness and even reconciliation with the “other” that killed their loved one. In doing so, they tear down walls and res
urrect hope, life and healing. Incredibly hard stuff.
We also met Palestinians who were living under the harsh realities of occupation. They have lived their whole lives being treated as far less than equal to Israelis. For example, we couldn’t drink water or flush the toilet in their homes because they are only given a ration of water one day per month. Meanwhile, the Israeli neighborhoods next door have a regular flow of water, swimming pools and lawn sprinklers and irrigation. The Palestinians are not allowed to vote in many cases. They don’t receive services like garbage removal. But they are required to pay taxes like the Israelis. And numerous other kinds of laws, regulations, and disruptions to life and inequalities toward any attempt to make a normal economy.
The Palestinian experience was both so heart-breaking and also SO DIFFERENT from what it is portrayed to be in American media, that I almost doubted it could be true. But what made hearing these injustices undeniable, what really brought it home, was hearing about them from Conservative and Orthodox Jewish friends – the very people who were taught not to see this their whole lives, and the ones who one would think would minimize these events. But that was not the case. Several of them came to be particularly outraged by the injustices toward Palestinians because of their own sense of justice that they see in Torah. And they went into careers working for the government or military with high hopes of doing good and justice. But then they came to know and see otherwise.
Our friend Yahouda, of Breaking the Silence, was a Sergeant in the IDF. He got out, like a “conscientious objector” because he realized he objected to what he calls “the immoral and illegal military occupation” after being forced by his superior to kill a child in front of many people in order to make an example of him and scare his community into compliance. After realizing that this was not a stand-alone event, but a characteristic part of the military culture, as he claims, he began talking to many other men and women who felt that acts like this were wrong too. But they were SCARED to talk, and had no one to tell, no one who would listen, care, protect them or act to change the violent and unjust culture. So Yahouda started the organization called Breaking the Silence.
The “silence” is the lack of acknowledgement and conversation in Israel, among the military, politicians and media in particular, about the unjust treatment of Palestinians. Breaking the Silence supports people through their decision to withdraw from the IDF, to document their testimonies of unchecked brutality and killing of innocents, and tries to talk to the press about what is happening. Breaking the Silence has captured over 1000 testimonies (with photos and videos), some of which are on their site) of people showing how the military culture is not, in actuality, the security-keeping mission it claims to be. The Israeli equivalent of “60 Minutes” has covered their story and others continue to too, as their message gains traction. The US of course is not picking up these stories, but you can hear them for yourself on Youtube.
Yahouda said that when working on the inside of the military you come to realize that it is common knowledge that the 50 year-long Occupation was actually designed to be permanent. That the main purpose of the many disruptions to Palestinian life, like check-points, regularly breaking into civilian homes, making it illegal to have locks on the doors of their homes, or to own any weapon, of course, is not just for security, but to intimidate and scare the people inside, including children. The goal, Yahouda said, was to make life so hard for the Palestinians “that they all leave or die trying to stay” (which several leaders have been quoted saying as well). And that you can see this by looking at things like where the check points are built, which, Yahouda says, again, are not as much for Israeli safety, like we are told, but for disrupting Palestinian life, like going to work or to the hospital.
For example building a check-point between a community of 60,000 Palestinians and their place of employment, turns what was once a 40 minute commute into a 12 hour commute, so they are all now unemployed. So an entire community is made poor, depressed, bitter and angry. In the name of “security” a slew of innocent civilians are raising children with no feeling of security, no safety, no economy, no water, no jobs, no nutrition, no healthcare, and for the thousands in refugee camps, constant supervision by teenage soldiers with automatic weapons from an 80 foot wall, no education and worst of all, NO HOPE for any improvement in their future. They see and experience acts of violence, shame and disempowerment toward them and their parents and only know that they don’t want the same inevitable sentence when they grown up, simply for being born Palestinian. Then these communities are criticized for not making a “successful economy” like Israel. And people wonder why their teenage boys get plucked off by extremist groups offering them six figure salaries, power, excitement, a sense of belonging, purpose, hope and …revenge. And the cycle continues.
Yahouda said that one thing that contributes to the problem is that the whole Occupation is run by 18 – 19 year old kids who have absolute power. It’s something that we here in America have a hard time imagining. We think of adult cops or security guards. But they are kids with automatic weapons in civilian areas. And they have serious weapons, like grenade machine guns. I mean, who needs grenade machine guns in civilian areas? Many of these teens have been taught their whole lives that Palestinians are all dangerous, even children are only terrorists waiting to happen. So this justifies pre-emptively striking. Yahouda told of the story of when the Palestinian president was going to meet with the Israeli Prime Minister and how a 19 year old wouldn’t let him though the check point arbitrarily. How someone just decided that one nationality is so superior to the other that a 19 year old kid in the military has all the power and a Palestinian President has none.
Several times during his sharing about the IDF culture of violence Yahouda yelled, “Who the hell gave us the right to do this to these people? Who?!”
Yahouda was one of many people we met who were awakened out of a slumber one day, and decided to live the rest of their lives in light of newfound compassion. Israelis and Palestinians have been successfully kept separate by physical barriers like huge cement walls (called the Separation Barrier, or Apartheid Wall), and separate roads, communities and policies. But what has kept people separate just as much are the barriers in their minds and hearts. Like fear. Most Palestinians and Israelis feel afraid of and angry at “the other” and they live and act out of this fear and anger. But oh the freedom and personal peace of the people I have seen who have somehow chosen to live in a reality not fueled by fear, hurt or anger. They’ve chosen a different path, one that is not easy. It’s considered radical, disloyal and invites rejection and even violence from one’s own people. Yet these true peacemakers, they have successfully decided to live in peace and compassion. They are seeking dignity and equal justice for all who share this land.
So many more stories of hope and peace abound. The people we met, like Benjamin and Yahouda, are my new heroes of Lent. Might that I could lengthen my heart and my courage like they have. They are living lives that have died to a certain part of themselves – their lower selves, as we might call it. They are being made new, resurrected into new people of deep compassion, understanding and forgiveness. They see the “other” around them as being connected to themselves now, and they live in a new light, like a coming out of tombs so to speak. That’s one journey that I admire and hope to be on myself. They are people living in what we Christians might look at each other and call “resurrection power”. It seems that they are doing it without even knowing it. They are bringing in a “newness of life” that is making the world new, and creating space for people to flourish.
I love the humble reminder to live in a posture as one who learns from all, when non-Christians show me what it means to embody Christ-like ideals. Such was the case in the journey and stories above. The stories above also remind me to pray for the peace of Israel and Palestine this Lenten season. May peace be lengthened there.
Here are other amazing everyday heroes and peace-makers in Israel-Palestine. Check them out!
Eliyahou (Conservative Jewish peacemaker) and Ibrahim (Palestinian Muslim) of Jerusalem Peacemakers who work together for peace
Daoud from Tent of Nations
Yahouda from Breaking the Silence
Benyamin and Moira from Bereaved Parents Circle
Mahmoud, in Nablus in Balata Refugee Camp
Prof. Salim Muniyar, scholar and director of Musalaha Reconciliation Ministry
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