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The
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From the
editor, Charles Robideau
Poison in the well of peace
At first glance, this issue of The New People
might appear to be strongly pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli. The April 20
demonstrations in Washington, pictured herein, voiced harsh criticism of Ariel
Sharon and the Israeli army's invasion of Palestinian lands. In addition
to that report, we carry eye-witness dispatches from Palestine by Calista Weichel and Kathy
Kelly, as well as a report from England by Sarah Maguire, telling of her last
phone conversation with Zakaria Mohammed, the celebrated Palestinian poet,
as he and his family awaited the destruction of their home in Ramallah.
These are hard to read, because they describe such senseless suffering.
We have no corresponding reports from Israel, describing the
effect of suicide bombings, such as the bombing of the Passover Seder in Netanya on March 27, which prompted the Israeli invasion. That omission does
not mean that we accept such bombings. To the contrary, we recoil with
horror from such attacks, as well as non-suicidal shootings like the recent one
that killed a five-year-old Israeli girl.
These deaths are deplorable, especially because they are so
needless and so futile. At the end of the day — or night — both sides will have to
live together, and their failure to accept that is cause for great sadness.
For the Palestinians, we are sad that they are unable to breathe free, to enjoy the land on which they've lived for thousands of years.
For the Israelis, we're sad that as they become more militarized,
and more the oppressors of the native Palestinians, they are losing the
essence of the dream that Israel represented, not just for Jews, but also for
Christians and probably for some Arab Muslims, who trace their heritage to
the same Abraham.
"Jerusalem is for Muslims, Christians and Jews," said one banner
at the April 20 demonstration.
Jerusalem, indeed Palestine, is like a well in a desert oasis,
providing sustenance and relief to all thirsty travellers, no matter what their color
or faith. When the well is poisoned, no one survives.
Some U.S. politicians, like Congressman Tom DeLay, say the
Christian world owes Israel unqualified support in reparation for the
Holocaust. DeLay is right — to a point. But it's well to note that the Palestinians did not
cause the Holocaust, and therefore do not deserve to be victims of
Euro-American Christian guilt.
Nor should Christian guilt mandate acceptance of the
fundamentalistic concept that Israel is only claiming land that was given by God to
Abraham and his seed, in perpetuity. The New York Times recently told of a
Jewish settler who claims his house sits exactly where Jacob dreamed of the
ladder to heaven (Genesis 28: 10-22).
Such claims indeed throw poison in the well of peace.
The New People Table of Contents, May 2002