"It ain't easy," to paraphrase Mark Twain.
For instance, take a look at the AFSC's stand which got it banned this week from entering Israel-Palestine, by the Netanyahu government.
What do truth-peace-and-justice seekers do when a nation-state such as Israel flouts International Law, continues to build thousands of houses on stolen Palestinian land, tears down orchards and destroys Palestinian buildings, etc.
while at the same time the leaders of Palestine such as Fatah and HAMAS continue to praise murderers as "martyrs" and heroes and deny human rights to people simply because they are Jewish?
"Specifically, AFSC affirms the right of both Israelis and Palestinians to live as sovereign peoples in their own homeland, a right that encompasses the possibility of choosing two separate states...Both parties should be guided by an ethic of reciprocity: what holds true for one side in a conflict should hold true for the other as well."
https://www.afsc.org/story/principles-just-and-lasting-peace-between-palestinians-and-israelis
1. BUT there is the seemingly insurmountable difficulty. In this particular tragedy of injustice, it's not one of nonviolent King Blacks opposing violent KKK,
but
of Netanyahu violent settlers versus violent HAMAS-Fatah jihadists.
When both sides are led by KKK-Black Panther types, extreme true believers in the very bad sense of the Eric Hoffer term (from his powerful analysis, The True Believer), HOW DOES anyone concerned with truth and justice go about
being a witness to both warring sides?
"Specifically, AFSC affirms the right of both Israelis and Palestinians to live as sovereign peoples in their own homeland, a right that encompasses the possibility of choosing two separate states...Both parties should be guided by an ethic of reciprocity: what holds true for one side in a conflict should hold true for the other as well."
2. Besides AFSC's overt methods against the unjust government of Israel such as BDS: "AFSC spokesperson Kerri Kennedy: 'We answered the call for divestment from apartheid South Africa and we have done the same with the call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions from Palestinians who have faced decades of human rights violations.'"
-- what can concerned people do in the way of overt methods against the terror government of Palestine for supporting, arming, and praising the slaughter of innocent civilians?
3. Another way toward speaking truth to power is that of active listening to both wrong opposing sides. Consider the way of Quaker Gene Hoffman: "She has engaged in efforts to seek out the deep, psychological causes of violence and to help bring about healing and reconciliation through a process she calls “Compassionate Listening.”
Though, of course, "compassionate listening" is no quick fix. Gene went to Libya in 1989, yet Libya, if anything, is worse off now as a country even than 30 years ago:-(
Gene listened to both Palestinians and Israelis extensively and published books such as Pieces of the Mideast Puzzle (1991).
Gene has a "Masters in pastoral counseling from Goddard College and worked with Ben Weininger, a “Zen-Hasidic” Rogerian psychiatrist. With her background in counseling, Gene came to see all parties in a conflict as “wounded,” as having suffered psychological traumas that need healing."
“The call, as I see it, is for us to see that within all life is the mystery: God. It is within...the Israeli, the Palestinian, and the American. By compassionate listening we may awaken it and thus learn the partial truth the other is carrying, for another aspect of being human is that we each carry some portion of the truth. To reconcile, we must listen for, discern, and acknowledge this partial truth in everyone.”
http://www.compassionatelistening.org/store/books/2918/compassionate-listening-and-other-writings-2
YET, at present, Israelis and Palestinians seem much farther apart than ever, each claiming they have the whole truth, and the only truth.
--
When I lived in Palestine-Israel in 1974, I listened attentively to both sides of the conflict, amazed and disconcerted at how the people on each of the opposite sides could be so compassionate, sincere, kind, generous, and moral,
YET
justify the injustice, intolerance, theft, and killing of those on the other side!
And it's only gotten much worse in the many years since! Despite endless efforts by well-meaning peace-workers to try and bridge the hostile chasm.
Only when both the Israeli settlers and the Palestinian jihadists are willing to widen their circle of care and concern beyond their own religions/ideologies
will there be hope.
4. AFSC wrote, "All people, including Palestinians, have a right to live in safety and peace and have their human rights respected. For 51 years, Israel has denied Palestinians in the occupied territories their fundamental human rights, in defiance of international law. While Israeli Jews enjoy full civil and political rights, prosperity, and relative security, Palestinians under Israeli control enjoy few or none of those rights or privileges.
It's true that at base, Israel is a reverse-racist society and government, BUT tragically, so is Palestine!
And some of the Israeli injustices such as the immoral wall that Israel has built came about because of horrific terror attacks by Palestinians funded and supported by the Palestinian leaders!
from the AFSC site:
"Quakers pioneered the use of boycotts when they helped lead the “Free Produce Movement,” a boycott of goods produced using slave labor during the 1800s. AFSC has a long history of supporting economic activism, which we view as an appeal to conscience, aimed at raising awareness among those complicit in harmful practices, and as an effective tactic for removing structural support for oppression."
"The AFSC, like the other organizations on Israel’s odious list, knows that peace can only come to this land when the essential injustice that occurred 70 years ago is justly addressed, and when the human rights of all are recognized and respected."
Brant Rosen
Brant Rosen is AFSC’s Midwest Regional Director and formerly "a congregational rabbi for over 20 years. He is the co-founder and co-chair of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council and the founder, with Rabbi Brian Walt, of the Jewish Fast for Gaza. Author of Wresting in the Daylight: A Rabbi’s Path to Palestinian Solidarity, Just World Books, 2012
https://www.afsc.org/blogs/acting-in-faith/quakers-jews-and-israel%E2%80%99s-bds-blacklist
"AFSC, in its support for peacemaking, has sought reconciliation between antagonists, endeavoring to help create the conditions of genuine peace that are based upon the preservation of basic human rights and the restoration of justice. In its role as peacemaker as well as peace builder, AFSC has operated from a nonviolent ethic of care that acknowledges and embraces the humanity on all sides of those in conflict."
"The Middle East policy of the United States and most of the rest of the Western world, as well as the policy of the Israelis and Palestinians, has for too long accepted the myth that only violence and the threat of violence can produce stability and create peace. The reality is that violence has not brought peace, and the threat of violence has only exacerbated the conflicts."
https://www.afsc.org/story/principles-just-and-lasting-peace-between-palestinians-and-israelis
WHAT MORE THOUGH CAN WE DO without siding with either the unjust Israeli government or the terror-based Palestinian government?
In the difficult Light of working for the Good, the Just, and the True,
Daniel Wilcox
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