Peace Looks Like Jesus Christ

Three weeks ago, on December 27, in response to continued mortar and rocket fire targeting Israeli settlements, Israel launched a massive air campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. More than 220 Palestinians were reported killed in the first days of the offensive. Israeli ground forces entered Gaza a week later. They surrounded and then entered Gaza City, continuing to battle Hamas with infantry, tanks, and gunships. In the last two days, Israel and Hamas have announced temporary ceasefires, and Israeli forces are slowly withdrawing from Gaza. Before the ceasefire, however, the fighting was halted for only three hours each day to allow humanitarian aid to enter the city - a gesture Human Rights Watch called “woefully insufficient.” According to Agence-France Press, medics are taking advantage of the relative calm to comb areas which had been inaccessible. Yesterday they pulled at least 95 bodies from the rubble, including those of several children. The Palestinian death toll now stands at more than 1,300.

Reading the news from Gaza, I can’t help but despair. The majority of Palestinians want peace with Israel and would accept a two-state solution (the majority of Israelis have expressed support for the same plan), but Palestinian civilians are caught between two violent and powerful forces: an oppressive nationalism in the form of the Israeli military, the fourth largest in the world, and Islamic extremism as exemplified by the terrorist group Hamas. I think also, with some shame, of how a just and lasting peace in Israel-Palestine is complicated (if not totally compromised) by churches and para-church organizations in the U.S. which offer unwavering support to Israel while relieving Israel of any moral obligation to the occupied Palestinian people. David Brog, Executive Director for Christians United for Israel, the largest such para-church organization, wrote on January 12 that “Israel will continue to be blamed for all of the bloodshed that results from a conflict it tried so hard to avoid for so long. Standing with Israel in the coming weeks will be more important than ever. And this is what we will continue to do.”

To get a different perspective on the conflict than the one so prominent in American evangelical churches and mainstream media, I interviewed Sister Elaine Kelley, the administrative officer of Friends of Sabeel - North America (FOSNA), a Christian ecumenical organization seeking justice and peace in the Holy Land through non-violence and education. FOSNA, as the name suggests, also supports the vision of Sabeel, a grassroots liberation theology movement initiated by Palestinian Christians in the early nineties. Sabeel’s three stated goals are to promote theological, moral, and legal principles for peace as outlined in its Jersualem Sabeel Document; to develop a spirituality based on justice, peace, nonviolence, liberation and reconciliation; and to promote a more accurate awareness of the heritage and witness of Palestinian Christians. FOSNA, which is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, cultivates the support of American churches for Sabeel through regional educational conferences, alternative pilgrimages, witness trips, and international gatherings in the Holy Land.

Sister Elaine Kelley, SFCC, a Roman Catholic and member of the Sisters for Christian Community, has been involved in the Palestine-Israel peace movement since 1989 when she traveled to the Holy Land on pilgrimage. She lived in Bethlehem in the West Bank for four years, learning the Arabic language, becoming part of the local Palestinian Christian and Muslim communities, and witnessing life under Israel’s military occupation. She served as development officer at Bethlehem University from 1998-2000. For six years she was a writer for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and is a contributor to the book, They Came and They Saw: Western Christian Experiences of the Holy Land. She has served as the organization’s Administrative Officer since August 2001.

BWC: What is FOSNA’s response to the current Israeli offensive in Gaza?

Official Sabeel statements about Gaza are posted at our website www.fosna.org. Briefly, we oppose all violence, whether it is Israel or Hamas, but work to educate people about the great disparity of power between Israel and the oppressed Palestinian population in Gaza. Our view is that Israel is in violation of international law, UN resolutions and human rights and bears the brunt of the responsibility because it is the fourth most powerful military in the world and has a long history of oppression of the Palestinian people.

BWC: What are you hearing, if anything, from the Christian community in Gaza about the humanitarian situation there?

Our board chair, The Rev. Richard Toll, has received communications from the Episcopal Church USA and the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, detailing the tragic situation at the Episcopal Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza. Rev. Toll visited Gaza and the hospital last April (08) with Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit. This was during Israel’s blockade of Gaza (going on 15 months now), in which the entire population of Gaza was being punished for the actions of Hamas militants. The situation was dire in April—lack of medicines, food, water, electricity, and continued under Israel’s blockade, resulting in the current crisis.

BWC: What has been the response of the Palestinian Christian communities to the latest violence?

The Palestinian Christian community is a very small minority in the Holy Land (under 2% of the total population) and dwindling still—all because of the hardships associated with Israel’s occupation. The response has been the same for the past many decades. That we need a final political solution based on international law, existing United Nations resolutions which call for Israel to withdraw to 1967 borders and give Palestinians their independent state in the West Bank, Gaza, and with East Jerusalem as their capital. The Palestinian Christian community, working with European and American church leaders, has attempted to achieve this only workable political solution that would put an end to the conflict. But lack of political will, especially in the U.S., allowed the suffering to continue, allowed Israel to continue its illegal military occupation (now 41 years), basically allowed Israel to do whatever it wanted to achieve its goal of total domination in the region, and total control over the West Bank and Gaza. There are many historical statements and documentation of the words and work of the Palestinian Christian community at our website.

BWC: Your use of the phrase “final political solution” can’t help but conjure up the specter of the “final solution.” The association was obviously unintentional, but it is a reminder of how much Israel believes it has at stake. It is understandable - though not necessarily defensible - that Israel should react so strongly, given the long history of persecution and even genocide against the Jews and the blatant threats of some of its Arab neighbors. The slogan since the Holocaust has been “Never again.”

The Palestinian people did not take part in the Holocaust; they, too, are victims of it and continue to be victimized by a political Zionism which justifies any violence to defend a Jewish state. But to destroy the lives of Palestinians for the purpose of Israeli security, to subjugate another people who live in misery under a brutal military occupation is presumptive. Israel will only be able to defend its citizens if it addresses the causes of their insecurity—the 41 year-old occupation.

BWC: I think there are still some American evangelicals who might be surprised to read that there is a population of Arab Christians living in Israel-Palestine. Can you describe for us the Christian community there? Are these Arab Christians transplants from the West or has there been a continuous population of Christians in Israel-Palestine for some time?

The Christian community is a tiny minority (less than 2% of the total Palestinian and Israeli population). These are descendants of the original Christians of first-century Palestine (who “drank tea with the apostles,” as some proudly point out). Before the creation of the state of Israel, the Christian population was more like 20%. They are the most educated population in the entire Arab World and have been the “living stones” of the Holy Land—witnesses to Christianity from its beginnings and providing a living, worshiping Christian community for over 2,000 years.

BWC: Several years ago, Sabeel convened a conference in Jerusalem which called for the rejection of “Christian Zionism” as heresy and as an ideology of “empire, colonialism, and militarism.” (You covered the 2004 conference for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and I’m quoting your article.) First of all, do you agree with Sabeel’s assessment of Christian Zionism as heresy? Secondly, is Christian Zionism, especially the Christian Zionism prevalent in many American churches, giving Israel the political cover it needs to conduct these raids into Gaza?

Christian Zionism is a modern theological heresy and political movement that embraces the most extreme ideological positions of Zionism, thereby becoming detrimental to a just peace within Palestine and Israel. Christian Zionism promotes a worldview where the Gospel is identified with the ideology of empire, colonialism, and militarism. In its extreme form, it places an emphasis on apocalyptic events leading to the end of history rather than living Christ’s love and justice today. Sabeel repudiates the more insidious form of Christian Zionism pervasive in the mainline churches that remains silent in the face of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Therefore, we categorically reject Christian Zionist doctrines as a false teaching that undermines the biblical message of love, mercy, and justice. The alliance of Christian Zionist organizations in the West with extremist elements in the governments of Israel and the United States are presently seeking to impose their unilateral preemptive strategies and militaristic rule.

BWC: How do Palestinian Christians view their brothers and sisters in the West?

Palestinian Christians make a clear distinction between western Christians and western governments that claim to be Christian (i.e. George Bush). While Palestinian Christians have extensive relationships with American and European Christians through Christian institutions long established in the Holy Land, they lament the profound ignorance, especially in the U.S., of the history and heritage Christians of the Holy Land, the stewards the Christian holy sites for over 2,000 years. Palestinians Christians, thanks to the work of Sabeel, are becoming more and more versed in a theological understanding of the political dimension of the Gospel, its clear message of preference for the poor and oppressed and its call to justice and peace. Through writings, such as Naim Ateek’s Justice & Only Justice and A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation, Palestinian Christians see the Gospel as relevant to their daily lives and the hardships imposed by military occupation. While liberation theology is seldom a subject for serious study by the privileged Christian of the West, it provides an important exegesis and much needed world view for the rich and powerful.

BWC: What do Palestinians wish American Christians knew about day-to-day life of Arab Christians in Israel-Palestine today?

Sabeel’s entire program and regional education conferences (in the U.S.) and witness trip/alternative pilgrimage is an effort directed at Christians in the West who need to “come and see” for themselves and learn about day-to-day life of Christians and Muslims under Israeli occupation. Thus, our alternative pilgrimages include visits to refugee camps, checkpoints, demolished houses, Jewish settlements, by-pass roads, bull-dozed olive groves, etc. Any human being with an active moral life will be transformed by this “seeing”. Our most dedicated volunteers are those who have participated in a Sabeel witness trip or other church-sponsored pilgrimage to witness the suffering of people under Israel’s occupation.

BWC: I read an article today in a conservative online magazine that Hamas has implemented Sharia law in Gaza and is even reinstating crucifixion for Christians? Does this report sound credible to you? How much freedom do Christians have in the Occupied Territories, including Gaza, to worship freely?

There are isolated incidents of persecution of Christians by Muslims, but these incidents get much attention from right-wing and conservative circles that are looking for reasons to discredit Islam and to put the blame for the problems of Arab Christians on Muslims. All during the time I lived in Palestine I saw predominantly a harmonious community. I lived in Beit Sahour, a town of about 20% Christian/80% Muslim. I worked at Bethlehem University, the only Catholic university in the Holy Land, which provides the only higher education available for the surrounding community and has a student body consisting of 31% Christian and 69% Muslim (a majority of them women). This describes a basic demographics of the area. Sharia is a small part of Islam. It means “path” or “way”, much as the Arabic word, Sabeel, mean “way” or “stream of water”. It has a positive connotation in Islam, but occasionally it is misused by extreme Islamists (much more in Saudi Arabic and Afghanistan than in Palestine). While there is some religious extremism in Islam, there is just as much in Judaism (and of course Christianity has its own version). Where I lived in the Bethlehem area there was total freedom of worship. Muslim and Christian honor each other’s holy days and live in respectful consideration of the others’ religious beliefs. On the other hand, Israel will not allow either Muslim or Christian Palestinians to go to their holy sites in Jerusalem.

BWC: The crisis in Israel-Palestine seems so intractable. I mean, I feel like among our duties as Christians are to hope and to pray, but is peace really possible? What does peace look like for FOSNA?

I often feel that way too. However, if we keep a historical outlook on this seemingly intractable conflict, we realize our humble role in something much bigger than ourselves. The early Abolitionists in America gave a cry in the wilderness and it took 200 more years of building an anti-slavery movement before emancipation. When I first got involved in the Palestinian peace movement in 1989, there was little, if any, interest in the churches on this issue. The churches unfortunately have been ignorant too, have given Israel unconditional support, often motivated by left-over guilt over the Holocaust, not realizing that in supporting any nation state Christians reject Jesus Christ and choose Caesar. It is one thing to say “I didn’t know” (the German excuse) and it is forgivable to not know the truth about every political issue in the world. But the bigger problem is that Christians do not know Christianity, which is profoundly subversive and anti-empire, and deeply nonviolent. First century Christians knew it was a great sin to serve in any army and would be denied Communication for that reason. What does peace look like for FOSNA? It looks like Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, whose vision of the Kingdom of God (on earth, not up in the sky), was based on social equality, justice, and nonviolence, and which was in direct and dangerous conflict with the vision of the Kingdom of Caesar, which was based on power and control and domination. The two cannot co-exist; so Jesus was crucified.

BWC: Supporters of Israel can often deflect criticism of the actions of the Israeli government by labeling it as “antisemitic.” Perhaps its naive, but I’ve thought for a while that small hope for the Israelis and the Palestinians (and, by extension, the whole region) might lie in broadening the definition of “antisemitic” to include the Palestinians, because, of course, the Palestinians are a Semitic people. Naim Ateek talks a bit about this in his book “Justice and Only Justice: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation.” An attempt to relocate the precise meaning of “antisemitic” might yield some common ground to begin conversation and maybe even reconciliation. A single-state solution - an admittedly distant reality - might involve creating a unified Israel-Palestine as a haven of justice for all oppressed Semitic peoples.

The issue is not antisemitism and we do not allow pro-Israel arguments to reduce the problem to that charge. Marc Ellis, a Jewish scholar at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, has told Christians in no uncertain terms that they are not doing Jews any favor by cowing to the fear of being called antisemitic. Israel and its supporters have succeeded in turning propaganda to their benefit with the development of a “New Antisemitism” that include any legitimate criticism of the state of Israel. To be anti-Israeli is to be antisemitic. The criticize Israel violations of international law is to be antisemitic. To condemn Israel’s Apartheid Wall and land confiscation is antisemitic. Even those Israeli Jews or American Jews who dare to criticize the Jewish state are not “real” Jews; they are “self-hating” Jews or some other kind of non-Jew that can be explained-away. Israel does not want two states - Israel and Palestine side by side; it does not want one state either, because then they would have to incorporate non-Jews inside their Jewish state and one day be outnumbered by non-Jews. They don’t want justice; they want victory.

BWC: Regardless of one’s political and theological position on the present conflict, it’s undeniable that what was a dangerous humanitarian crisis in Gaza only two weeks ago is now only getting worse. What can American Christians do to help the innocent Palestinians, including Arab Christians, who are caught in the middle of these powerful and violent forces?

They can insist that our new president change U.S. Middle East Policy. The Palestinian/Israeli issue is a very American issue, considering that Israel is completely dependent on American tax dollars, is using American-made weapons to kill Gazans, is protected in the United Nations Security Council by the U.S. veto on any resolution condemning Israel. We may as well say it outright: America calls the shots, unfortunately, all around the world, in the United Nations where it uses carrots and sticks to get its way, and in Israel where $100 billion plus American dollars has supported Israel’s military exploits against Palestinians for decades.