By Munther Isaac in Sojourners

“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!”

Palestine and Israel are back in the news. So again, we Palestinians hear this common
refrain. But such calls for prayer are no longer enough. I say this as a Palestinian pastor
who believes in prayer, leads prayer services for peace, and genuinely values your good
intentions.

But good intentions are not enough.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus didn’t say, “Blessed are the peace prayers.” He said,
“Blessed are the peacemakers.” (Matthew 5:9, emphasis added).
​
Peacemakers of every faith pray — and they discern what’s really happening, call things
by their names, then speak truth to power. Here’s how this works.

Call things by their namesPeacemaking begins by refusing to repeat the common descriptor of what is happening in Palestine and Israel: a conflict. Palestinians are not experiencing a conflict between two parties. We Palestinians are experiencing an occupation: one nation controlling another; the laws, policies, practices, and military of one state oppressing the people of another, controlling nearly every aspect of our lives. Palestinians in Jerusalem are not facing evictions from their homes. They are experiencing ethnic cleansing, which the U.N. has described as “a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.”

Non-Jewish citizens of Israel are not just enduring discrimination. They are experiencing apartheid. Israel’s infamous 2018 nation-state law — which, among other things, stated that Israel’s right to “exercise national self-determination” is “unique to the Jewish people” — along with other policies and practices, has transformed de facto discrimination into racism de jure.

The more than 2 million people living in Gaza are not choosing to experience hardship, food deprivation, a lack of clean water, and consistent energy. They are confined to the world’s largest open-air prison where — unable to come and go, import and export, or even fish in the open waters off their shore without Israeli permission — Israeli snipers pick off their children and Israel’s air force bombs their city indiscriminately.

READ: U.S. Christians Can't Ignore Israel's Ongoing Occupation of Palestine

For over 70 years, Palestinians have not been arguing over who owns what land. No, we have experienced the terror and loss that comes from settler colonialism, the systematic removal and erasure of native inhabitants from their land, most recently in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem.

Calling things by their names is a necessary step toward resolving any conflict. Using the words racism and apartheid may cause pause — but these are the descriptors that define our daily lives.

Do not take our word alone for it.

Read the January report issued by the respected Israeli human rights organization B’tselem, “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid.” Read the April report from Human Rights Watch, “A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution.” Read Nathan Thrall’s analysis in the London Review of Books.

Until peacemakers use terms that accurately describe our realities, the opportunities for peace remain distant.

Don't misuse Christian-Jewish dialogue

For years, Christian-Jewish dialogue was misused as a tool to silence criticism of Israel. In the 1990s, Jewish theologian Marc H. Ellis wrote about a significant, unspoken “agreement” between Christians and Jews. He observed that the “ecumenical dialogue” between liberal Christians and Jews had turned into what he described as an “ecumenical deal”: repentance on the part of Christians for having aided in or having failed to speak out against the atrocities committed by Germany, and the prospect of an ongoing conversation devoid of any substantive criticism of Israel.

While the “deal” has broken down in many Christian denominations in the U.S. and in many quarters of the Jewish community, it is still used to silence Palestinian Christians, labeling us antisemitic when we criticize the state of Israel or speak out against the secular project of Zionism.

It is time Christians begin engaging new Jewish partners. Listen to groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, B’tselem, Yesh Din, Rabbis for Human Rights, Breaking the Silence, and others who challenge the occupation. Listen to and dialogue with people like Marc H. Ellis, Mark Braverman, Rabbis Brant Rosen and Alissa Wise, and others who defend Palestinian rights out of their Jewish beliefs and convictions. Take the word of Bernie Sanders, who recently challenged the racist policies of the state of Israel.

Reexamine the church’s theology

For years, Western Christian theology has been part of the matrix that empowers the Israeli occupation. It’s a theology that describes God’s unique faithfulness to Israel, the fulfilment of prophecy, and the “return” of Jews to “their” land. Adherents embrace the myth that the land was devoid of people when the state of Israel was created, or worse, that it was occupied by the enemies of God.

It is time for Christians in some communions to confess and repent from their total disregard for the existence of Palestinians. It is time to change the theological narrative that renders the state of Israel invincible to errors and beyond any judgment.

Theology matters. And if any theology trumps the ethical-biblical teachings of Jesus on love, equality, and justice, then we must rethink that theology. If any theology produces apathy to injustice, it must be re-examined.

Don’t describe Palestinian Christians’ efforts at creative resistance as criminal: We believe the call for sanctions, economic measures, and our nonviolent demonstrations are justified resistance. To insist on our dignity and God-given rights in our own land is not antisemitic; even the recent Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism, a statment produced by more than 200 scholars of antisemitism and related fields, acknowledges this.

Some have accused Palestinian Christians of hating Jews and of rejecting the right to nationhood for Israel. Though they have gone unacknowledged or been rejected as disingenuous, our statements have clearly rejected antisemitism and racism of any form. Our hope, our desire, is to live side by side with our Jewish neighbors in a reality of a just peace.

My plea to fellow Christians

I call upon you to share — both in word and action — our vision of a reality in which we both end the occupation and live together in peace with our Israeli neighbors.

We do not hate Jews. We do not seek to destroy Israel. We want our freedom. We want to live in dignity in our homeland. We want to live in a reality where all the people of the land, Palestinians and Israelis, Jews, Muslims, and Christians, have the same rights and live under the same laws, regardless of their faith, nationality or ethnicity.

Many years from today, when our descendants look back on the long misery of the Palestinians, they will not judge kindly the willful neglect of the global church. We Palestinian Christians will not let you pretend that you did not know.

You will either take a stand to end the oppression of the Palestinian people or continue to be part of the matrix that allows it. The words of Elie Wiesel in his 1986 Nobel Prize acceptance speech cannot be more true today:

​We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.

In a new book, “Apartheid South Africa! Apartheid Israel!” Brian J. Brown, a South African Methodist minister, calls on Christian churches, not just to recognize that Israel is an apartheid state, but to declare that total opposition to that apartheid is mandatory for any person or church that claims to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. Brown’s lifelong war against apartheid has been driven by the conviction that it is utterly incompatible with any Christian theology faithful to the social teachings of Jesus Christ.

His position was true in South Africa and it’s true in Israel-Palestine today, he says, offering a detailed comparison of the two regimes; but in the case of South Africa the churches saw the light more easily and took a stern line more quickly. Faced now with the cresting consensus of the human rights community that Israel is an apartheid state, mainline churches in the U.S. and around the world are finally hearing Palestinian church leaders’ clarion calls to action, such as the 2020 “Cry for Hope” declaration from Jerusalem. Brown’s own passionate cry makes clear why Western liberal churches can no longer temporize on the question of apartheid or fail to understand its profound significance to them as followers of Christ’s teaching.

​Brown began fighting apartheid in the 1960s, helping to lead the radical, multiracial Christian Institute of South Africa. In his book he recalls that most members of the CI came to believe that “support for apartheid was not just evil but heretical.” Today, this is becoming the view of many church-based Palestinian solidarity activists. That means that as mainline denominations continue to move rapidly to condemn Israel as an apartheid state – a forced move really, given the irrefutable reports – they will find themselves not just lending support to the long-suffering Palestinians but in an existential struggle for “the very being of the Church, the integrity of the Christian faith, and the credibility of the Gospel,” to quote “Cry for Hope,” which Brown reprints in his book. 

2021-10-28

Dear Friends, 

Your urgent help is needed. We’re asking you to spare 2 minutes out of your day in support of Mission & Service partner Defense for Children International-Palestine and five other Palestinian human rights defenders who are under serious, immediate threat from the Israeli government.
 
Six leading, respected Palestinian civil society and human rights organizations have been extraordinarily and suddenly designated as “terrorist organizations” by the Israeli government. Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP is a Mission & Service partner) is one of the six organizations. This means all their activities are now banned, and it authorizes the Israeli government to close their offices, seize their assets, and arrest and jail their staff members. It also prohibits funding or even publicly expressing support for their activities.
 
Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem (also a Mission & Service partner) has called it an “act characteristic of totalitarian regimes”.  

These groups provide vital services for Palestinians living under military occupation. They support some of the most vulnerable communities including women and girls, children, political prisoners, child detainees, and civil society activists. The six groups are: 

• Defense for Children International – Palestine  
• Al-Haq 
• Addameer 
• Bisan Center for Research and Development 
• The Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees 
• The Union of Agricultural Work Committees 

These human rights defenders need your solidarity urgently.  
 
Here's how you can take action today: 
 
1. Join in today’s international day of action to #StandWithThe6 
The six are organizing an international day of action on Thursday, 28 October. They are asking us to get involved in the following ways: 

• Show your support on social media: explain why you #StandWithThe6 organizations - tweet or make a video! 
• Retweet/share posts from the 6 organizations 
• Organize / join local rallies, events, panels, conversations!
• Social Media storm is organized for 10 AM Pacific, 1 PM Eastern, and 8 PM Jerusalem time. Lots of images and resources here

    Toolkit:  bit.ly/standwiththe6  #uccan  #standwiththe6


2. Ask Foreign Affairs Minister The Hon. Mélanie Joly and your MP to speak out now!
Send an email to Minister Joly asking her to condemn the designation and to express public support for these organizations. The UCC letter to Minister Joly is attached. Write a similar letter to your MP condemning the designation and asking them to use their platform to express their public support for these organizations. Doing so will help increase the pressure on the Israeli government to reverse its decision, and provide much-needed public protection for these threatened human rights defenders.
 
Here are some of the statements you can send. You can pick out some key quotes from them to add into your email: 
 

• Statement from Defense for Children International-Palestine 
• Joint statement from 16 UK-based humanitarian, human rights, development and faith groups 
• Joint statement from Christian organizations in Palestine 
• Statement from the United Nations 
• Joint statement from dozens of Israeli human rights organizations  

 
  3. Speak out to support these organizations
Share the statements above with your own networks and on social media using the hashtag #StandWithThe6. 
 
And importantly, learn about and amplify the important work that these six organizations do. Explore their websites (linked in the list above), follow them on social media, and share their voices with those around you and online. Their work is vital and must be allowed to continue. 
 
Thank you, as ever, for your support.  
 
Wendy, Beth and Lori
 

Beth Baskin (she/her)
 
Network Coordinator, Identity and Mission
The United Church of Canada / L’Église Unie du Canada​
3250 Bloor Street West, Suite 200 Toronto, ON M8X 2Y4

Attachement: Letter to Minister Joly

​I am a proud Canadian Palestinian. Palestine is my homeland and Canada is my adopted country. I love both.

Interestingly, Canada equipped me with tools and concepts to help me process my Palestinian experience and understand it more deeply. Canada's welcome of refugees showed me that there is no shame in being the grandson of Palestinian refugees.

Welcoming and assisting refugees gave me firsthand appreciation to what Jiddo and Tata (Grandpa and Grandma) might have gone through when they fled the onslaught of the Jewish militias on their neighbourhood in Haifa in 1948.  

When I hear of the hopes (unrealistic as they may be) of some new Canadians to return to their countries of origin for even just a visit, I understand why my jiddo refused to buy a house in the diaspora. He always wanted to go home. 

My grandparents did not willingly choose to leave Palestine, they were forced to, and they never got over it.

I also acquired vocabulary. Thanks to the amazing resilience and powerful sharing of Indigenous Canadians, I became more able to explain my own experience and that of my family.

After a ceasefire following 11 days of violence last month, a family stands in front of what was left of the building that housed the offices of The Associated Press and Al Jazeera in Gaza. 'Original experiences of being turned into refugees overnight … losing loved ones to war, feeling threatened in your very existence, all percolate through the decades,' says Elbakri. (Stephanie Jenzer/CBC)
I learned about intergenerational trauma, which aptly explains some of the experiences of our family, from grandparents who witnessed the Nakba (or "catastrophe" — the term Palestinians use for the uprooting that occurred after they fled or were driven out in the 1948 war) onto great-grandchildren growing up dispersed in the diaspora. 

Original experiences of being turned into refugees overnight, raising families in poverty, yearning to return to the homeland, losing loved ones to war, feeling threatened in your very existence, all percolate through the decades and manifest themselves through successive generations of Palestinian families who grow up loving Palestine and living with the burdens of that love.

Another term is colonial settler violence, which truly centres the Palestinian experience in the context of Western colonialism, which created and still enables the state of Israel. 

This also makes me realistically pessimistic about change coming on the heels of successive Israeli elections. A settler-colonial system will perpetuate itself and change will not come because there is a change in who the Israeli prime minister is. A settler-colonial system will only yield ground when it is resisted.


'I have learned to self-censor'

Not everything Canada taught me was positive. I have learned to self-censor and muzzle. I cannot speak frankly and honestly through my pain and the pain of those I love. 

Oppressed and dispossessed people cannot be raw and unfiltered. Our audience holds us to a higher standard than others. Our raw and real experiences can get too uncomfortable for our audiences, and the accusatory label of antisemitism is just a press release or social media post away. 

We are expected to affirm all our oppressor's rights while never getting the recognition of our pain and suffering, let alone our rights.

Victims across the world get names and personalities, but not us.… We 'are shot,' 'injured' or just 'die.' Too often, no one will tell you who shot us, injured us, or made us die. ​​​​​​- Idris Elbakri

Western politicians, for example, will not typically speak about the right of the Palestinians to exist or to defend themselves, as they usually unequivocally affirm for Israel, let alone recognize the 1948 onset of our Nakba, the ongoing catastrophe of ethnic cleansing and dispossession.

Israeli historian Ilan Pappé documented the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the 1948 war, as part of what was called Plan D, and ever since there have been systematic and consistent policies, such as confiscation of land to establish settlements and gradually emptying Jerusalem of its Palestinian residents. 


Imperfect, but 'Canada also gives me hope'

In Canada I also learned to be faceless and nameless. When the government expresses "concern" when our suffering gets uncomfortable for people, one cannot tell who it is concerned about.

It is all left very ambiguous. Typically in Western media, we are not identified when we are victims. Even CBC will use polite terms like "police tactics" to refer to militarized police storming a house of worship or "eviction" for forcible expulsion of families from their homes.

Victims across the world get names and personalities, but not us. We are commonly referred to in the passive voice. We "are shot," "injured" or just "die." Too often, no one will tell you who shot us, injured us, or made us die. To my knowledge, not a single Canadian newspaper published the pictures of the 67 children who were killed by the recent Israeli bombing of Gaza. An Israeli newspaper had to do it.

But Canada also gives me hope, imperfect as it is. I speak to my Palestinian friends of the Canadian model, a confederacy inclusive of several nations that celebrates its multiculturism and is grappling with its wrongs of the past. I am inspired by Indigenous Canadians who repeatedly put a mirror in our face and confront us to correct the wrongs of the past.

Maybe at some point in the not-too-distant future, a Jewish child will get up in her school built over the ruins of a Palestinian village destroyed by her predecessor generations and state her own land acknowledgement: 

"We acknowledge that our school stands on the homeland of the Palestinian people. We acknowledge the Palestinian Nakba and the harms of Zionism and commit to nurturing reconciliation with Palestinians based on the principles of justice and truth." 

BY MUNTHER ISAAC
MAY 19, 2021
​
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!”

Palestine and Israel are back in the news. So again, we Palestinians hear this common refrain. But such calls for prayer are no longer enough. I say this as a Palestinian pastor who believes in prayer, leads prayer services for peace, and genuinely values your good intentions.

But good intentions are not enough.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus didn’t say, “Blessed are the peace prayers.” He said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” (Matthew 5:9, emphasis added).

Peacemakers of every faith pray — and they discern what’s really happening, call things by their names, then speak truth to power. Here’s how this works.

Call things by their names
Peacemaking begins by refusing to repeat the common descriptor of what is happening in Palestine and Israel: a conflict. Palestinians are not experiencing a conflict between two parties. We Palestinians are experiencing an occupation: one nation controlling another; the laws, policies, practices, and military of one state oppressing the people of another, controlling nearly every aspect of our lives. Palestinians in Jerusalem are not facing evictions from their homes. They are experiencing ethnic cleansing, which the U.N. has described as “a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.”

​Munther Isaac

Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac is the pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, academic dean at Bethlehem Bible College, and the director of the Christ at the Checkpoint conferences. His latest book is The Other Side of the Wall: A Palestinian Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope.
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Source: Sojourners