hope persists

I found these words of Desmond Tutu to be extremely encouraging and strikingly reflective of my own heart right now. I could not have said it better myself...

"Whenever I am asked if I am optimistic about an end to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, I say that I am not. Optimism requires clear signs that things are changing -meaningful words and unambiguous actions that point to real progress. I do not yet hear enough meaningful words, nor do I yet see enough unambiguous deeds to justify optimism.
However, that does not mean I am with out hope. I am a Christian. I am constrained by my faith to hope against hope, placing my trust in things yet unseen. Hope persists in the face of evidence to the contrary, undeterred by setbacks and disappointment. Hoping against hope, then, I do believe that a resolution will be found. It will not be perfect, but it can be just; and if it is just, it will usher in a future peace...

From my experience in South Africa I know that truth-telling is hard. It has grave consequences for one's life and reputation. It stretches one's faith, tests one's capacity to love, and pushes hope to the limit. At times, the difficulty of this work can make you wonder if people are right about you, that you are a fool.

No one takes up this work on a do-gooder's whim. It is not a choice. One feels compelled into it. Neither is it work for a little while, but rather for a lifetime - and for more than a lifetime. It is a project bigger than any one life. This long view is a source of encouragement and perseverance. The knowledge that the work preceded us and will go on after us is a fountain of deep gladness that no circumstance can alter.

Nothing, however, diminishes the fear and trembling that accompany speaking the truth to power in love. An acute awareness of fallibility is a constant companion in this task, but because nothing is more important in the current situation than to speak as truthfully as one can, there can be no shrinking from testifying to what one sees and hears.

What do I see and hear in the Holy Land? Some people cannot move freely from one place to another. A wall separates them from their families and from their incomes. They cannot tend to their gardens at home or to their lessons at school. They are arbitrarily demeaned at checkpoints and unnecessarily beleaguered by capricious applications of bureaucratic red tape. I grieve for the damage being done daily to people's souls and bodies. I have to tell the truth: I am reminded of the yoke of oppression that was once our burden in South Africa.

I see and hear that ancient olive trees are uprooted. Flocks are cut off from their pastures and shepherds. The homes of some people are bulldozed even as new homes for others are illegally constructed on other people's land. I grieve for the land that suffers such violence, the marring of its beauty, the loss of its comforts, the despoiling of its yield. I have to tell the truth: I am reminded of the bitter days of uprooting and despoiling in my own country.

I see and hear that young people believe that it is heroic and pious to kill others by killing themselves. They strap bombs to their torsos to achieve liberation. They do not know that liberation achieved by brutality will defraud in the end. I grieve the waste of their lives and of the lives they take, the loss of personal and communal security they cause, and the lust for revenge that follows their crimes, crowding out all reason and restraint. I have to tell the truth: I am reminded of the explosive anger that inflamed South Africa, too."

-Desmond Tutu, former archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, to see his full article published in the Boston Globe click here

watch, wait and pray

In Hebron today a group of 200 orphaned girls are anxiously waiting. They are waiting for the footsteps of the soldiers. They waiting for a verdict:
Will they be evicted from their only remaining home?

Israel has ordered that the orphanage, run by the Islamic Charitable Society, be closed on April 1st (an eviction notice was given just 30 days ago). Israeli soldiers have already conducted several raids of the supply warehouse that contained food for the orphans and the offices of the Charitable Society, taking with them an estimated $200,000 worth of supplies. Several shop keepers who rent space from the Islamic Charitable society are also threatened with losing their livelihood. The Islamic Charitable society offers social services to over 7,000 children- services that are all subject to threatened raids and closures.
The orders for closure are based on the claim of suspected links between the Islamic Charitable Society and Hamas, although this claim has been refuted by the board members of the Charity.
There is an appeal currently going through Israeli Supreme Court that will run out in 2 days.
Here I truly recognize my inability to understand. I do not understand why orphans should be collectively punished for the actions of extremists. I do not understand the type of fear that enslaves Israel to make it possible for those in power to justify actions such as these in the name of "security."
Some of my fellow international friends from the Jerusalem area and members of the Christian Peacemaker Team in Hebron spent last night with the girls and their teachers, in solidarity with them and in protest of the threatened eviction. When they arrived they met over 100 yelling women and girls followed by the men, protesting in the streets. If the situation continues through the week I hope to join them.
Are we not to plead the case of the orphan?

Right now the courts remain silent.
Please join me in prayer for this situation, for these little ones, that justice and mercy will prevail.
For more on this story...
Palestinian-orphans-protest-after-their-facilities-are-raided-by-Israeli-troops April 1, 2008

When Charity Ends at Home (Haaretz.com)

An opportunity for my dear friends in the Philadelphia area to listen to a narrative that has been silenced for too long...
Students For Justice in Palestine present Palestine Awareness Week:
http://www.pennsjp.com/iWeb/Palestine%20Week/Palestine%20Week.html

Blessed are the peacemakers...

It is scary to try to see the world through the eyes of the "other." What is even more frightening is realizing, not on a surface level, but in your inner core, that you truly do not understand his point of view. It is when you realize that the bias or lens through which you see the world prevents you from knowing exactly what it is that the other person is saying, that dialogue can begin.
It is far better to know that you do not understand, than only to educate yourself about the other, believing that by education you have the perfect ability to see the situation as they do. It is at this point that you realize your ears have been closed to what the other is truly saying, in spite of now being able to list the facts of his grievances by memory. You have only reacted to his narrative- you have not digested it and felt it with him . It takes great vulnerability to reach this point of knowing your inability to understand. But this does not mean you have to abandon your roots or beliefs to get there. In actuality you must know yourself very well to realize how great you are lacking in knowledge and understanding.
In other words, it takes great humility to work for peace with an enemy and even greater humility to love him.

a day of mourning.

I woke up early today and headed to Old City to attend a service at the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer. It was quiet in the Old City this morning, Arab shops were all closed in mourning and in solidarity with the people of Gaza. The death toll has risen to 100 in Gaza and others were hurt and killed in protests today throughout the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.
We heard report sent from one of the parishioners who is working as a surgeon in Gaza and the news is devastating. She reported the difficulties of tending to the dead and wounded in Gaza with limited resources available after Israel has blocked entry of goods to Gaza since July. She told of one Palestinian man who was tending to his goats when he was hit causing him to lose his legs. He is young, newly married with young children. It will be very difficult, if not impossible for him to receive any kind of prosthesis, to regain any sort of livelihood.
The current raid on Gaza cannot be called anything but horrific, it MUST stop. I am thankful that finally the international community is beginning to open their mouths, but to what avail I do not know. Is it enough just to speak of justice?
A rabbi who was attending the service as a tour guide for a Christian group from the UK stood up at the end of service and stated that he found the church was remiss for not including the residents of Sderot in the prayers today. (The residents of Sderot and the surrounding region have endured Hamas rocket attacks for the past seven years leaving them in a constant state of fear and anxiety, killing and wounding some.) I am glad he stood up. We must remember while we mourn and pray for our bothers and sisters in Gaza today, that the Israeli people too are mothers and fathers and sons, daughters, friends, sisters and brothers.
My mind is swimming and I can't even begin to focus on schoolwork. My classmates and have been talking about changing our bus commute (we spend about two hours a day commuting across the city on Egged lines) so that it is not during rush hour.
I do not want to proceed, however, in a spirit of fear.

reality.

I spent this Sabbath day lounging in the sun, reading for my nursing classes, determined to truly rest and purposely did not turn on my computer. It was a beautiful day. However, I got back from a nice jog this afternoon only to read the news of massive Israeli attacks on Gaza today that left over 45 Palestinians dead including civilians and children. I read the report on NPR (from the AP), the Jerusalem Post and Aljazeera-all have a slightly different twist but all three reported the possibility of a massive ground IDF attack on Gaza in the near future. The words "genocide" and even "holocaust" are being thrown around on the ground and it makes me wonder when the outside world is going to listen.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia said Palestinian leaders, including President Mahmoud Abbas, recommended suspending peace talks at a meeting Saturday in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

"I think it will be suspended," Qureia said. "What is happening in Gaza is a massacre of civilians, women and children, a collective killing, genocide," Qureia added. "We can't bear what the Israelis are doing, and what the Israelis are doing doesn't led the peace process any credibility." (for full NPR story go to http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18323622)

Israel is waiting for Hamas to stop rocket fire into southern Israel before they will stop their attacks on Gaza, while Hamas says the same in reverse. When will they both realize (or at least care) that they are destroying the lives Palestinian and Israeli civilians caught in the crossfire? It is not a zero-sum game, but everyone acts like it. If this ground attack takes place there is going to be a huge backlash and I can only pray that it is a peaceful uprising.
God have mercy.

Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace!

I have been living here in Jerusalem for over a month now. I have opened up my blog to post about ten times to no avail- I am simply overwhelmed with the weight and number of profound experiences here that I cannot seem to find a place to start to spill them on paper-let alone on the internet.
How might I describe this place I am in? Jerusalem, Israel, Palestine.- It is a beautiful city, a heavy city- weighed down by tension- political tension, religious tension, a collision of faiths, a collision of the secular with the holy. Continually I must ask where my place is in all of this as an international observer, a student, a nurse, a follower of Jesus. I have been swinging between great despair and frustration and great hope in the face of the situation here, to the point that I feel slightly bipolar. Seeing the reality of checkpoints, the separation wall, the weary eyes of those who have endured here for so long, the great fear and ignorance that oppresses even the oppressors, just makes me so upset that I want to run away from it all- only to find that I cannot be silent about it.
Therefore, I will speak about what is going on here in Israel, or at least around this area of Jerusalem. This is what I see and hear, what I have learned and experienced- there will be many holes in it, for it is an immensely complex situation, but I will share my thoughts in hopes of getting a word out about what is going on here.

***

I am taking a class on conflict resolution at Hebrew University. I am not sure what to expect from it but I am at least finding the reading interesting, despite being mostly theory based...

“Classical conflict resolution, in some views, applies only to symmetric conflicts. In asymmetric conflicts the structure is such that the top-dog always wins, the under-dog always loses. The only way to resolve the conflict is to change the structure, but this can never be in the interests of the top-dog. So there are no win-win outcomes, and the third party has to join forces with the under-dog to bring about a resolution...From another point of view, however, even asymmetric conflicts impose costs on both parties. It is oppressive to be an oppressor, even if not so oppressive as to be oppressed. There are costs for the top-dogs in sustaining themselves in power and keeping the under-dogs down. In severe asymmetric conflicts the cost of the relationship becomes unbearable for both sides. This then opens the possibility for conflict resolution through a shift from the existing structure of relationships to another." (Miall, Ramsbotham, Woodhouse, Contemporary Conflict Resolution)

I find myself asking, has it yet become unbearable for both sides? Are we at a point here in Israel and Palestine where the conflict must be transformed and existing structures challenged?
Apparently, "Conflict Transformation" is not the mainstream way to approach the field of conflict resolution in Israel, it is considered on the more "radical" end of the spectrum because it challenges existing power structures. There is division among peace groups who are critical of each other's method of approaching the struggle for peace. Should we challenge the attitudes of society, the cultural violence (prejudice, justifying the violence)? Or is it best to go straight for combating the structural violence (the marginalization, policies of power that oppress)? What about simply trying to stop the physical violence?
In the apartheid struggle in South Africa, success came in the ability of all of these groups to work together, recognizing that all these facets of conflict must be addressed.

I believe in transformation here.

Today I stopped on my walk home from class to pray. Looking out on the night scape from Mount Scopus, over the sprawling city, the Dome of the Rock reflecting the city lights, I prayed a prayer for hope, not despair, for courage to speak truth in love, for justice and mercy to prevail in this city and for the first time in a few days I felt great peace.