CREATING A JUST PEACE IN PALESTINE-ISRAEL
2000 CHURCHWIDE GATHERING OF PRESBYTERIAN WOMEN
LOUISVILLE, KY
July 18, 2000
by Naim Ateek
Greetings and thanks
Dear Sisters in Christ,
I bring you greetings from your sisters and brothers in the Holy Land. I bring you greetings from Bethlehem where our Savior and Liberator was born, and from Nazareth where Jesus Christ first proclaimed the jubilee to all people. Incidentally, I was brought up in Nazareth. When I say this, some look at me and ask, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" I usually reply, "Come and see!"
I bring you greetings from Jerusalem where Jesus Christ was crucified and died; and where he was raised from the dead. I bring you greetings from the city of Jerusalem where Mary Magdalene was the first to bear witness to the reality of the resurrection. I also bring you greetings from Sabeel, the Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center.
I would like to begin by expressing gratitude to the organizers of this Gathering for inviting me. It is a great privilege and honor to be with you tonight. I would like to thank the Presbyterian Church for its commitment to the ministry of the Church in the Middle East, especially in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Palestine. It has been faithful in its witness for Christ in these and other areas of the Middle East for more than 170 years.
In our own specific area of the Holy Land, I would like to express my gratitude to the Rev. Dr. Victor Makari for his unceasing support and commitment. I would like to express my thanks for your help in supporting Sabeel's women's programs. I would also like to thank all of those women's delegations who have come on fact-finding visits and who have stood in solidarity with us in the struggle for a just peace in Palestine. Thank you for the volunteers whom you have sent to Sabeel. We have been blessed by their presence with us. Tonight, I am filled with gratitude to God for this wonderful gathering and for your witness to Christ. Thank you for choosing to be on the cutting edge of the ministry of the Church.
Introducing Sabeel
What is Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center? Sabeel is an Arabic word that has two meanings. It means the way, reminding us that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. According to the book of Acts (9:2), the early believers in Christ were known as the people of the way. They were people of purpose, a people that were marching on in history; a people who had a revolutionary message that could change society and the world; a message of salvation and liberation that they were going to share with others. They were a people who were ready to witness to the love of God in Christ and if need be, to suffer for their faith.
Sabeel also means a spring of living water. Again reminding us that Christ is the living water and the fountain of life. Sabeel is a grassroots Christian movement in Palestine and Israel which is making the Gospel of Jesus Christ applicable and relevant to people who live under occupation and discrimination. In its local programs, Sabeel works primarily with clergy, women, and youth. We believe that when we influence and impact these three segments of society, we impact the future of the community. Our objective is to bring up a new generation of Palestinian Christians, both clergy and lay, who will take a greater responsibility for the ministry of Christ in our country.
Sabeel is an ecumenical movement that cuts across denominational barriers and reaches to Christians on the ground. So far as the Middle East is concerned, Sabeel's ministry is limited to the area of Palestine and Israel. Indeed, it is the Middle East Council of Churches that has been active ecumenically since 1974 among the 14 million Christians of the Middle East; and we thank God for its ministry. I am amazed that many Christians in this country do not know that there are Christians in the Middle East. They ask us, "When did you become Christian?" They assume that we must have been Muslim and were later converted to the Christian Faith. So we answer, "two thousand years ago at Pentecost." It amazes me how embedded it has been in people's mind that Christianity is a western religion. As if Christ was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania! The church was established in Jerusalem, Palestine on the Day of Pentecost by the power of the Holy Spirit and in a very inclusive way. The words of Christ to his disciples still ring true, "…you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses…."(Acts 1:8).
For the last 2000 years, Christians in the Middle East have borne that witness in good and bad times. Unfortunately, the earliest divisions within the church took place in the Middle East itself. Ever since the early centuries, Christians have lived denominationally. Indeed, they have survived against great political and religious odds; but the pressures were not always external. Sadly, much have come from internal conflicts that left a residue of deep pain and resentment. In our humble ministry at Sabeel, and by the Grace of God, we try to restore love and bring about healing and reconciliation within the same household of faith and the one fragmented Body of Christ.
This year, in our celebrations of Christ's 2000 birthday, we have been going to the villages and towns in the West Bank and Galilee to mark this wonderful event with the local Christian community. We celebrate ecumenically regardless of denominational affiliation. It has been a tremendous witness to see hundreds of people come together to honor Christ and to have their faith rejuvenated.
Sabeel is a prophetically oriented ministry. We work for justice, peace, and reconciliation in our country. By the power of the Holy Spirit we speak the truth to the powers that be. Thank God we are not alone in this ministry. We are joined by many people in this and other countries, Friends of Sabeel, who are carrying on the work of advocacy for a just peace. Together we have committed ourselves to being faithful to God. Our faithfulness is not to any political party or leadership, but to God alone. To be faithful to God is to be faithful to justice for the oppressed people of this world because God is a God of justice. Faithfulness to God takes precedence over faithfulness or loyalty to any individual, institution, or country. We work for justice for the Palestinians in order that Israelis and Palestinians will experience a life of security and peace.
Sound the trumpets, proclaim jubilee
Your theme for this Gathering is well chosen, "Sound the trumpets, proclaim jubilee". I am here to ask you to sound the trumpet and to proclaim jubilee for the Palestinians. As Christians we must live a life of perpetual jubilee. In other words, our life and action must always exhibit our concern for justice and peace. In the words of the prophet Micah, God expects us as human beings to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before God (Micah 6:8). Some people have reversed God's order. They are content to do mercy and love justice. They are content to do merciful acts, to give to charity, and to be engaged in philanthropic activities. They only love justice from afar, sit back and merely talk about how good and nice justice is. Please do not misunderstand me. It is important to do mercy and to be engaged in acts of charity and kindness. But God's order is of utmost importance. Do justice and love mercy. When we do justice, we realize that mercy must accompany justice; for without mercy, justice can be harsh and even unjust. Mercy without justice, however, is absurd, cheap, and never endures. That is why in the biblical concept of jubilee, God expects that injustice be redressed. The slaves must be set free, the debts of the poor must be forgiven, and the land must be returned to its lawful owners. Furthermore, Jesus Christ set his agenda for ministry when he proclaimed in the Nazareth synagogue, good news to the poor, release to the captives, and freedom for the oppressed (Luke 4:18-19).
Every now and then I hear about the friction between liberal and conservative positions within our churches. On the one hand, the liberals tend to emphasize the importance of fighting systemic evil in society and in the world. They see the structures of domination everywhere that enslave and oppress people. On the other hand, the conservatives feel that they must focus on winning people to a personal faith in Christ. They say that when people turn from sin and follow God's commandments and believe in Jesus Christ as their personal savior, things will be much better in the world.
I would like to maintain that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not either/or of these two positions. It is both/and. Indeed, we must continue to preach the good news of Jesus Christ our liberator and pray that the Holy Spirit will draw people to faith in him. In our experience in the Middle East, this is better done through people's life than their words. Those of us who live as religious minorities in the midst of other religions know the significance of a Christian witness in one's daily life. Action always speaks louder than words. Having said that, we cannot blind ourselves to the presence of the destructive structures of evil which operate in the political, economic, social, and even the religious realms to oppress, humiliate, and dehumanize people. We must struggle against those with the same passion we have to win people for Christ. This too is an important part of our God-given mandate.
Justice for the Palestinians
You notice that I have been using the word "Palestinian" frequently. Who then are the Palestinians? When we use the term Palestinians today, we refer to a people who are Arabs, both Christians and Muslims who claim Palestine as their country of origin and homeland.
How then can we briefly explain the political problem today? In 1948, the Jewish Zionists, coming from outside the country, committed a grievous injustice against the indigenous Palestinian inhabitants, the Christians and the Muslims. Their intention was to create a Jewish state in Palestine. They were successful in displacing three quarter of a million Palestinian women, men, and children from their homes, in the destruction of their villages and the denial of their historic rights in their land. On the ashes of Palestine, the Zionists established the state of Israel. (Some of you know my own family story and how we were expelled in 1948)
In those days, the story of the Palestinian catastrophe was not heard. It was overshadowed by the story of the Jewish holocaust carried out under the Nazis during the Second World War. The sympathy of the world was with Jews who had suffered terribly. Most people in the West, as well as in the rest of the world, were unaware of the great injustice committed against the Palestinians by the Jewish Zionists. Since then the holocaust has been used by many Zionists to justify what they did to the Palestinians. The Palestinians paid the price of European anti-Semitism. One scholar said that the Palestinians are the victims of the victims of Europe. We know, however, that from its inception the Zionist movement intended to expel the Palestinians from their homes and take over their country. Almost 50 years before the tragedy of the holocaust, the founding father of Zionism, Theodor Herzl had written, "We shall try to spirit the penniless (Arab) population across the border….Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly". (John Quigley, Palestine and Israel: A Challenge to Justice.) So in 1948, and in accordance with Zionist policy, the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians was carried out. The tragedy was repeated in the 1967 war when over 300,000 Palestinians were displaced.
Over the last 50 years, the state of Israel refused to implement United Nations resolutions regarding Palestine. Time and time again it repudiated them with impunity. It did not only rebuff the international community, it went further in its injustice. Its occupation of the Palestinian territories was brutal and repressive. It confiscated large areas of Palestinian land and built exclusively Jewish settlements in contravention of international law. It occupied and annexed East Jerusalem in 1967 and changed its status, again contravening United Nations resolutions. It legislated laws that deny Palestinians the right to live in their homeland. It started a policy of demolishing Palestinian homes and depriving them of their residency rights. To put an end to this terrible conflict, the United States and Russia brokered a peace process in the early 1990's on the basis of UN Resolutions 242 and 338.
Our hope has been that this peace process will lead to a just peace where Israel will withdraw from all the territories it occupied in 1967, allow the Palestinians to establish their own sovereign state, so that the two states of Israel and Palestine will live side by side in peace. Although the peace process has produced some positive results, it has not been able to lead us to a just peace. Two weeks ago, President Clinton invited the leaders of the two sides, Arafat and Barak, to meet with him at a Camp David summit in order to help them achieve a final status framework for peace. They are still meeting at this time.
In a recently produced document, Sabeel outlined seven essential principles for a just, comprehensive, and lasting peace. I would like to commend this document to you. It is short and precise and can found here. We believe that in order for a just peace to be achieved, Israel must admit that it has committed an injustice against the Palestinian people and take responsibility for that. Israel must accept the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state on the whole of the Gaza Strip and the whole of the West Bank including East Jerusalem. Israel must accept the sharing of the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem cannot be the exclusive property of Jews and remain under the sole sovereignty of Israel. It is equally holy to Christians and Muslims. According to international law, East Jerusalem is still considered an occupied city. The sovereignty over Jerusalem has to be shared between Israel and Palestine. (Please sign the petition for a shared Jerusalem outside this plenary hall to be sent to President Clinton.) Furthermore, Israel must accept the international principle that Palestinian refugees have a right to return to their country. They are also entitled to full compensation and reparation. Moreover, Israel must accept that all the settlements built on confiscated Palestinian land are illegal under international law and must be part of the state of Palestine. Jews who want to live permanently in Palestine are free to do so but must become Palestinian citizens.
In the Jerusalem Sabeel Document we have been careful to demand for Israel what we demand for Palestine. We want Israelis to live in peace and security as we wish for Palestinians. But we believe that peace cannot be built on exclusive rights. It cannot be built on the confiscation of land. It cannot be built on discrimination against Palestinians and their humiliation. It cannot be built on an apartheid system that will keep Palestinians living in bantustans under the hegemony of Israel. Bantustans are homelands, ghettos, cantons, reservations in which the apartheid government of South Africa wanted to place its black citizens. We believe that peace must be built on the basic principle of sharing the land. The Holy Land is God's gift to Palestinians and Israelis. They need to share it, enjoy it, and live in peace on it. Unless we live together as neighbors with equality and mutual respect, we are doomed to destroy each other.
Christian Zionism
In the political struggle for justice, we have been up against many forces that have obstructed the way. As many of you know, there are many Christian Zionists in this country who have an exclusive biblical theology of land. These extreme fundamentalists believe that this world is quickly coming to an end. They blindly support the state of Israel and believe that God stands on Israel's side. They believe that many Old Testament prophecies have to do with current events in the Middle East. They support Israel in its occupation of Palestinian land. They even believe that it is all right if Israel oppresses the Palestinians and violates their human rights because it is obeying higher divine rights as written in the Bible. Many of these fundamentalists believe that Israel must destroy the Dome of the Rock, and rebuild the temple in order to usher in the Second Coming of Christ. They believe in a violent end of the world and look for the great battle of Armageddon. They use the Bible as a jigsaw puzzle where all the different prophetic pieces must fit regardless of issues of justice and morality.
We say to them this is not the same Bible we read. At the center of the Bible stands Jesus Christ. He is the key to biblical understanding. The God who was revealed to us in Jesus Christ is the God of mercy and love. Christ says to us, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God" (Matthew 5:9). God does not call us to be advocates of a violent end to this world when millions and millions of people will be destroyed. This is bad theology and a wrong interpretation of the Scriptures. Instead of despairing of this world and so wait for its violent destruction, we need to work together for "One New Humanity where Justice is at Home". This, incidentally, is the theme of Sabeel's Fourth International Conference in Bethlehem next February in which, I hope, some of you will participate. Injustice strips people of their God-given humanity. By working for justice, we work to restore people's humanity and give them back their dignity. Indeed, we do not promote a violent end of this world. Our constant prayer is that God will use us as God's instruments for peace with justice for all.
In his teaching, I believe that Jesus Christ emphasized three important points: Using today's vocabulary, Christ de-zionized God, the people of God, and the land. To begin with, God for Jesus Christ does not belong to one nation or people only. God is the God of all the world, creator, redeemer, and sustainer. Secondly, the people of God are no longer limited to one nation or one group of people. God's people are made up of all the nations of the world, regardless of race, ethnicity, or color. Thirdly, the land of Palestine is only a symbol and a prototype of the way God expects people to live in every land as good stewards of it, living in perpetual jubilee of justice and peace. In Christ, the whole world has become holy and sanctified. People, in every land must live together in love and harmony with one another. Any doctrine that dehumanizes people and discriminates against them and encourages the domination and control of one powerful party over another is a heresy and we must oppose it. On the other hand, any doctrine that promotes freedom and liberty, respects the humanity of every person, we believe in it and support it.
Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Justice for the Palestinians is the door that will open the way for peace and reconciliation to take place between them and the Israelis. Our work for justice must be seen as a way of honoring all people. Love is the other side of the coin of justice. When we love we want to be fair and just. In the final analysis, injustice is a sin against love. The injunction to love one's neighbor as one's self is for us an inclusive concept that includes loving even our enemies. Once we honor the oppressed with justice and restore to them their God-given humanity, forgiveness must follow. A just peace must, therefore, lead to forgiveness and reconciliation. These constitute the basis for a life of security and stability.
What can you do to help?
The Christian community in the Holy Land needs you. Stand with us, work with us, and support us so that God will be glorified in the doing of justice, peace, and reconciliation.
May God fill your hearts with joy, peace, and love. Amen.