Concerning the Crisis in Gaza and Southern Palestine-Israel--TRAGIC!

This short meditation on GAZA and Palestine-Israel was written 15 years ago during another war:-(

But, here now, in the 21st century, both sides are even more extremist, more self-centered, prideful, intolerant, unjust, war-gung-ho, abusive, dismissive of civilians' lives--all in the name of orthodox Judaism and orthodox Islam or at least cultural religion...

Please stand up for the True and the Compassionate when it comes to Palestine/Israel,
where the slaughtering by both sides is punishing the innocent as well as the guilty.

Photo of Ramallah Friends School

Hold all people in the Light.

The whole situation of Palestine/Israel in the last 150 years is so very convoluted and complicated.

NO ONE has any quick answers or solutions for the extremely complex tragedy.

NO HOPE IS POSSIBLE UNTIL BOTH SIDES CHOOSE to FORGIVE and agree to compromise!

The ultimate irony is that both the Palestinians and the Israelis genetically come from the same ancient peoples of the region!
What divides these multi-millions of haters isn't biological but religious and political and cultural.

It was tragic when I lived in Palestine/Israel in 1974, worked on a Jewish kibbutz, stayed briefly with a Palestinian Muslim family who befriended me in Nablus. And for many years since, I've followed the daily news there and read many books from the perspective of both sides.

Please support some of the groups that seek to bring light and reconciliation there-- the Quaker/Friends School in Ramallah, Palestine for the last 100 years.

And in the past, Christian Peacemaker Teams and Brother Andrew's involvement in bringing Jew and Palestinian Muslim together, even going to HAMAS to share his perspective with its leaders (when the government of Israel had dumped them midwinter into Lebanon years ago.

Support Eli Chacour a Palestinian/Israeli Palestinian priest who shares the true, the good, the kind, the just with both warring sides. Chacour has worked with and started a school/university for all peoples of the area--Christian, Muslim, Druse, and Jew. He has also befriended seculaerists and non-theists.

That is a start.

Here are several books that might assist in helping everyone to better (and more historically accurate) understand the complexity, hatred, intolerance, of the area:

Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life by Sari Nusseibeh and Anthony David

Blessed are the Peacemakers
by the former assistant mayor
of Ramallah, Audeh Rantisi who co-wrote it along with Ralph Beebe of George Fox University and Northwest Yearly Meeting.

Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour
We Belong to the Land by Elias Chacour

Chacour's father, a Palestinian Christian said that they needed to love
the Jews (when the Jews were escaping lethal violence in Russia and Europe to the M.E.).

Yet later
the Israeli army kidnapped him and Chacour's brother
and dumped them in a foreign country.

Then the Israeli Army blew up
their Palestinian Catholic church and drove all of the Palestinians
out of their homes and town.

The Israeli government has never allowed Chacour and other Palestinians to come back to their home.

Yet Chacour still shows love to the Jewish people, and to Muslims, Druze, and all others.

Sounds like the "Lamb's War--a war of love, justice, and peace! --the only war worth having.

Peace in the LIGHT--the Caring, the Good, the True, the Just,

Dan Wilcox
http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/

Who Owns the Land? By What Right?

“According to Beinin and Hajjar, the Turkish census for 1878 listed 462,465 Turkish subjects in the Jerusalem, Nablus and Acre districts: 403,795 Muslims (including Druze), 43,659 Christians and 15,011 Jews. In addition, there were at least 10,000 Jews with foreign citizenship (recent immigrants to the country), and several thousand Muslim Arab nomads (Bedouin) who were not counted as Ottoman subjects.”

“By 1946, Jews had purchased 6 to 8 percent of the total land area...” *

How then has a Jewish state, Israel defined by the current Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, come to “own” most of this area and control all of the area?
How have Arabs such as Sari Nusseibeh, whose family has lived in the area since the 7th century, been left with no country? (Once Upon a Country: A Palestinian Life by Nusseibeh)

It’s long and complicated, convoluted, hate-filled, prejudiced, violent, genocidal, discriminatory, unjust, unmerciful, unloving, and ungodly. Most people know of the Jewish side, how many of the Arabs sided with the Nazis!, how some fanatic Arabs repeatedly rioted and killed innocent Jewish civilians…

Not as many know of the Arab side, but one can read a moving account in Eli Chacour’s short autobiography, Blood Brothers, which tells of how his father emphasized that they as Christian Arabs should help and love the Jewish people. But then the Jewish army kidnapped this loving man and a couple of his sons, blew up their church, and destroyed their town!

I’ve read thousands of pages about this area, the unending conflicts going back thousands of years, and lived and worked there the better part of one year. Then for many years taught the history and selected literature of the area to high school students.

How can this question “Who Owns the Land?” be resolved? How can contrary different religions get along? How can people learn to share?

My Cliff Notes version for those who hate long blogs: There are no easy answers. Skip to the poem for the best answer.

For Part #1 of the long answer:

In the last few thousand years this area, this land, has been ‘owned’ by the Phoenicians, Canaanites, Hebrews, Babylonians, Arabs, Turks, British, French, Jews, etc.

So who gets it now and upon what basis?

Here are eight possible views of land ownership:

#1 Historic Right

#2 Worldview/Religious Claim

#3 Present Possession

#4 Military Might (The most popular view with most people in most of history.)

#5 Best Use

#6 Diplomacy/Compromise

#7 Legal Claim

#8 Visitor Status (No one group, nationality, religion “owns” the land. Humans are merely visiting. We must share.)


Three Sons No Longer Fight

Disking the rock strewn
Objected earth near Bet Shean,
Underneath the Middle Eastern sky
Rows of mean earth riven by the blades,
We cut away our anger, hate, and pride,
Stopping to drink, not from the liquor of
Fanatic corruption but from the
Precious water welling up,
Our oasis of Jacob'd sharing,
In this Hanukah season
Of Christ's mass after
Ramadan.

We three sons of Abraham,
Muslim, Jew, and Christian,
Fight the true battle
Not each other but
To be found worthy
In compassion
Giving,
And purity--
The true
Submission
To God
Over
All.

Previously published in outwardlink.net

* http://www.mideastweb.org/
“The major goals of MidEast Web are:
Popularizing Humanitarian Values
Building a Common Reality
Building a Human Network
Amplifying the Work of Others
Reaching Everyone
Building Friendships and Skills
Humanizing the "Enemy"
The Future Must be Better than the Past”

To be continued…

In the Light of God,
Daniel Wilcox