This is a recent letter from Anna Baltzer, a
Jewish-American activist for peace and justice in Israel/Palestine, whose voice
and rhetoric are prophetic--bound to prod, challenge, and provoke those of us
who have not seen ourselves to the sort of clarity and purposefulness with
which she lives:
Dear friends,
Here are some excerpts from a sermon I delivered in
Minneapolis last Sunday, combined with some recent events:
This week, our country celebrated Martin Luther King
Day and the official end to segregation and racial discrimination in this
country. As we celebrate certain historic advances, we mustn’t forget that
these policies are far from over in this country, and that as we struggle
against one injustice we are perpetuating another system of discrimination and
segregation on the other side of the world in Occupied Palestine, a land where
there are separate roads, schools, hospitals, neighborhoods, and legal systems,
access to which depends on one’s ethnicity or religion.
In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Dr. King “wept”
from disappointment with the laxity of the church and its leaders in taking
action against the status quo for fear of being considered “nonconformist.” I
recently met a young Palestinian Christian dancer (one of those censored in New
England last December) who echoed similar frustration with churches around the
world who are doing nothing to ease the suffering of Christians and others in
the Holy Land. She spoke to a group of church-goers in Old Lyme, Connecticut:
“My name is Mary Qumsiyeh. I am an English teacher
from the little town of Bethlehem. My husband works in tourism and I have met
many groups that said `We are here to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.’ But are
they acting the way that Jesus did?
“Our churches are now like museums. Tourists visit,
take pictures, and leave. What about the living stories? Jesus in his time was
living under the Roman occupation. Today, after 2000 years, we are still living
under occupation—now the Israeli occupation that has confiscated 88% of Bethlehem’s
land. If Jesus were alive today, would he permit this to happen? Jesus helped
the oppressed and the ones in need. He made the blind see.
“I ask you all to see how many times in the Bible the
word justice is mentioned. And remember that Jesus did not avoid politics.
Please spread our message, a message of joy, happiness, and justice, a message
from youth full of life, willing to live and die in the little town of
Bethlehem.”
Thankfully, churches eventually stepped up to play a
large and historic role in the civil rights movement, and it’s worth
remembering how: It was not simply by hoping for change, or by praying for
change,or even by voting for change. It was by making change happen, by
Christians stepping out of their comfort zones and challenging the status quo
even if it meant going to jail or being ostracized.
Making change happen is never comfortable. It’s what
Dr. King called “tension.” He confessed, “I am not afraid of the word `tension.’
I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive,
nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.”
Notice the word “necessary.” This necessity is often
hard for people of privilege to grasp. We think, “if only we educate our
leadership,or the Israeli government, they’ll come to their senses...” How much
more comfortable it would be if it were just a matter of waiting, and
listening, and sharing! But we forget Dr. King’s clear wisdom:
“We have not made a single gain without determined
legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that
privileged groups seldom give up their privileges [until they have to]...
Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the
oppressed.”
Today in Gaza, Palestinians demanded freedom from the
Israeli siege that has endured for years since the so-called “disengagement”
and before. After several days under even tighter isolation by Israel,which had
sealed the borders of the small strip and cut off electricity, food, medical
supplies, and other lifelines, Palestinians blasted through a wall of their
collective prison and flooded into Egypt in search of medicine, soap, fuel,
cement, and other desperately needed supplies.
Some might call blowing up a wall “extreme.” In fact,
just about any action taken unilaterally for Palestinian liberation is
portrayed as such. Martin Luther King was also called an “extremist,” and
eventually embraced the word, calling on others to join him in creative
extremism. Criticism of the status quo will always be dismissed as ideological
or extreme, and that’s what makes challenging power structures so
uncomfortable. We would prefer to affect change through consensus and the
blessing of communities that have traditionally supported the status quo, like
mainstream Jewish temples and US legislators. But, my friends, this is
unrealistic; these groups will hopefully become a part of the movement someday,
but they will not lead the movement today. And while it would be nice to wait
until a day when it feels more convenient, remember that change will never be
convenient for those who are profiting off of the way things are.
Let us not forget that Palestinians, like people of
color in Dr King’s time (and still today), have not had the luxury waiting and
choosing a convenient time... Indeed, there is no convenient time. But
inconvenience and discomfort are a small price to pay for justice.
Remember that prophets have always been scorned in
their own time.
In Palestine, that inevitable discomfort—or tension,
as Dr King calls it—has taken the form of popular nonviolent resistance met
with army brutality, checkpoints, roadblocks, invasions, curfews, house
demolitions, and mass imprisonment. In this country, that inevitable tension
has taken the comparatively mild—but admittedly unpleasant—form of moral
blackmail: anyone who dares criticize Israel’s violations of human rights and
international law is labeled anti-Semitic. But this is absurd. Occupation,
oppression—these things have nothing to do with Judaism, and to oppose them in
Israel,Palestine, or anywhere else in the world is simply not anti-Semitic. On
the contrary, it is in line with the Jewish tradition of critical thinking,
open debate, and social justice, which have been a source of pride for Jews
through history.
The Israel/Palestine struggle is portrayed in our
media and elsewhere as an endless religious rivalry, but it is no more a war
between Jews and Muslims than the civil rights struggle was one between
African-Americans and Whites. This is a struggle for justice, one that affects
us all and in which we all play a part. In the words of Dr. King, “Injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable
network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”
This mutuality is clear in the collaboration today
between Palestinians and the Israelis who support their struggle, working
together towards an end to discrimination and the Occupation, towards a common
future of integration and coexistence. In the United States, churches are once
again taking the lead. The United Methodists, the Presbyterians, and others
have started campaigns calling for boycott,divestment, and sanctions against
the Israeli government until it complies with international law. This is a
crucial campaign not only because it has the potential to be successful in
conjunction with Palestinian resistance (after all, it was Black South African
resistance supported by international solidarity and divestment that ultimately
contributed to the end of Apartheid there), but also because it was called for
by Palestinian civil society. This is a Palestinian struggle, and we need to be
taking our lead from Palestinians. They have been reaching out for support
through the years, particularly this week in Gaza as they were cut off even
further from the world. We need to reach back.
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