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2009-01-20 issue:

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Prayer and action for Gaza

by Timothy Seidel

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This time of year we often hear stories of Bethlehem coming from Palestine. But in recent weeks attention has been shifted from Bethlehem to a place that has been invisible for a long time: the Gaza Strip. 

Say what you will, but the military strategy that marked Israel’s “Operation Cast Lead,” clearly only hurt Gaza’s civilian population. With much of the water supply and sewage system dependent on electricity, and the impact on hospitals and limited supplies, the damage to civilian infrastructure raises serious medical concerns and unmasks this campaign of collective punishment of the Palestinian people, actions clearly in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. And with more than 1,300 Palestinians killed, tens of thousands wounded and homeless, Gaza’s children severely traumatized, and Gaza’s population without reliable water or electricity, the obvious disproportionality of the Israeli military response only underscores its unacceptability.

Gaza is home to roughly 1.5 million Palestinians, and with a land area of just 140 square miles the Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated places in the world. The majority of Gazans are refugees, living in refugee camps. With the past twenty years seeing limited economic access and opportunity due to Israeli closures leading to a debilitating process of what one scholar has labeled “de-development,” today some 80 percent of Gazans live below the poverty line, as many dependent on food aid.

Despite its “disengagement” in 2005, Israel has continued to maintain complete control over the Gaza Strip, creating what one Israeli human rights organization calls “one big prison,” and leaving the state of Israel still very much an occupying power over Gaza. Palestinians have had no control over movement in and out of Gaza, no control over borders (land, sea or air), no open access to needed services and viable economic opportunity, and have lived constantly under the threat of Israeli military incursions, shelling, and “targeted assassinations” that leave entire Palestinian families murdered in the streets.

Despite the optimism that has accompanied the various “peace process” over recent years, the expansion of Israeli domination over Palestinian life and land and the story of Palestinian dispossession have continued.  Whether it has been through more land being expropriated for the construction of the 430-mile separation barrier cutting through the West Bank, the dramatic growth of illegal settlements, including around Jerusalem, the proliferation of checkpoints and roadblocks that obstruct mobility, the demolition of homes and other forms of collective punishment, the one-big-prison-status of Gaza, or the continuing state of dispossession of seven million Palestinians refugees worldwide, Palestinian livelihoods continue to be devastated by military occupation, their experience of dispossession unabated.  Not a very optimistic scenario.

I continue to struggle with not being cynical about the situation in Palestine and in Gaza in particular. It is not a healthy place for me to be, spiritually or emotionally. But the Gaza Strip is a heart-breaking catastrophe in so many ways and the people there have been suffering for so long. It makes me think about the ways that we in the United States are irrelevant—in the sense of giving us pause and humbling us to the reality that we are not gods. And that it is less about what we need to do and more about what we need to stop doing (i.e., honestly looking at the ways in which we, the United States, have made Gaza into a prison). 

Honesty in our self-reflection should lead us to confession and repentance of our own histories of violence and injustice on this continent. I once heard quoted a Native American who argued that the best way for people from the United States to address the terrible conflict in Palestine-Israel is to deal more seriously with our own history of colonization, dispossession and displacement and work for justice for the indigenous peoples in the United States. This would not only address a serious and ongoing historical sin but in the process more effectively help our Palestinian and Israeli brothers and sisters suffering in that broken land. This manner of systemic analysis recognizes that work for justice in Gaza should be part of the work for justice everywhere.

One example of reflection and action that continues to be discussed in many church circles has to do with the nature of our investments and how they do or do not contribute to justice and peace, revealing the ways in which we participate in conflicts around the world when perhaps we do not even realize it. In fact, it is due to the seemingly ineffective nature of international political or legal mechanisms to find a just peace for this land that a growing conversation about exploring alternative mechanisms has developed. One of these continues to be the consideration of economic pressures. Indeed, it was on the one-year anniversary of the International Court of Justice 2004 ruling condemning Israel’s separation barrier as illegal that Palestinian civil society lifted up a nonviolent method to resist the Israeli occupation and colonization of Palestinian land by launching a boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign.

In 2005, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) produced “Peacebuilding in Palestin/Israel: A Discussion Paper,” meant to contribute to this conversation in communities here in North America about stewardship, morally responsible investment and economic justice.  This paper pointed out:

“Palestinians and Israelis working for a just resolution of the conflict lamented that decades of appeal to international law and resolutions have failed to end this story of dispossession, with Israeli power routinely trumping appeals to the power of law. Palestinian Christian partners, in particular, urged Christians in the West to take a stand for justice, peace, and reconciliation for Palestinians and Israelis alike, a stand that markedly differs from Christian Zionist theologies that deny Palestinians a secure place in the land. These trusted partner organizations urged MCC to consider ways in which Christians from Canada and the United States might invest in a future of justice and peace for both peoples and to examine ways in which our money either promotes justice, peace, and reconciliation in Palestine/Israel or contributes to the ongoing dispossession.”

And in May 2007, a Mennonite Church USA sponsored delegation visited Palestine-Israel, formed “to have common experience around issues that relate to investment policies.”

Throughout the tour, this delegation met with many of MCC’s Palestinian and Israeli partners, including the Wi’am Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center, the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, the Applied Research Institute—Jerusalem, the Badil Resource Center for Residency and Refugee Rights, the Zochrot Association, and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, as well as meeting with people Christian Peacemaker Teams in Hebron.  In these meetings, we heard their perspectives on the current realities on the ground and on how they see the role of churches in the Global North in this situation in Palestine-Israel—particularly how it relates to the call from both Palestinians and Israelis for “morally responsible investment.”

In addition to this, the group made several field visits to see first-hand the reality on the ground, such as: the impact of the Wall and of Israeli colonization of Palestinian territory all around Jerusalem and in places like Hebron; the situation in Palestinian refugee camps; the remains of Palestinian villages destroyed in 1948 and 1967, learning more about the importance of the refugee issue to a durable solution for a just and lasting peace.

An important element of this experience was to hear the voices of Palestinian Christian as it relates to these issues. For example, in our meeting with our friends at Sabeel we heard about their work and about how Sabeel is involved with the call for morally responsible investment.

Reflecting on how Mennonite churches should respond in our pursuit of a peace born of justice for all, where everyone will sit securely under vine and fig tree with no one to make them afraid (Micah 4:4), delegation participants wrote “An Open Letter to Mennonite Church USA Congregations: Becoming Peacemakers in Israel/Palestine” that was presented at the Mennonite Church USA 2007 convention in San José (http://peace.mennolink.org/resources/palestineletter/). In light of the disconcerting realities they witnessed, this delegation in their open letter encouraged, among other things: 

• Mennonite Church pastors and leaders to visit Palestine-Israel and to deepen their understanding of the current situation in this region and congregational groups and Sunday school classes to use study courses that might counter the distortions of land and promise found in Christian Zionism.

• Church institutions to gain greater understanding of their investments in this region and to avoid investments which violate international law and promote violence; they encourage exploring ways our investments and our role as investors can be used to provide hope and promote peace in this region.

• Congregations and agencies to challenge U.S. military and economic support for the Israeli occupation of Palestine and to advocate for justice and protection of human rights for all people in the region.

The situation is very difficult. It is very discouraging. In fact, to be completely honest with you, there is nothing encouraging or optimistic about the direction this situation is currently moving. 

In such a context it is easy to feel forsaken by God and by humanity.  Struggling with the tensions of feeling a God-forsakenness while seeking a “critical hope” is a great challenge.  Discovering our role as one of listening to the cries of despair seriously while being a witness to critical hope begins with seeing our inextricable connectedness—it begins with us not forsaking each other.

As we take time to pray for a peace born of justice in this and in other lands, may our prayers lead us in action to heed the call of Micah to pursue justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. 

Timothy Seidel, director for Peace and Justice Ministries with Mennonite Central Committee U.S. He was a peace development worker with MCC in the Occupied Palestinian Territories from 2004-2007 and a contributing author to Under Vine and Fig Tree: Biblical Theologies of Land and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict (Cascadia Publishing, 2007).