Peacemaker
12/08/15 07:27
I’ve been reading Elias Chacour’s memoir, “Blood Brothers,” during this vacation. Chacour is a Palestinian Christian minister. He was a young boy during the first seizures of Palestinian land by Israel in the 1940’s. When it was time for him to enter theological seminary, he couldn’t obtain permission to go to seminary in Jerusalem, so ended up studying in Paris. When he was ordained he came back to the small villages of his childhood and began to serve. He was admitted to graduate study at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and was there during the six day war.
He got to see the birth of the modern state of Israel from a Palestinian perspective. His father’s fig orchard was confiscated. His home town was at first seized by the Israeli army and then destroyed when they won the court battle to have the land returned. The church of his childhood was literally blown apart by fire from an Israeli tank.
The events of his life, remarkable as they are, are not, however, what makes his story so compelling. What makes the story so engaging is that somehow, in the midst of incredible injustice and violence he has been able to maintain his quest for peace and engage in work for reconciliation between Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Holy Land. He started many schools in the rural villages of displaced Palestinians, and made the showing of “The Diary of Anne Frank” a part of the curriculum so that children could grow up knowing that the people who are seen by Palestinians as oppressors have a story of being the victims of gross injustice. He has arranged peace marches with thousands of participants where Jews, Christians and Muslims walk side by side through the streets of Jerusalem and camp out on the steps of the Knesset.
Chacour never formally studied with Ghandi or Martin Luther King, Jr., but he certainly embodies the principles of nonviolence. He has the ability to speak truth to power in ways that communicate not threat, but rather hope.
And the region where he lives has been rather short on hope for most of his lifetime.
Reading his story has gotten me to thinking about the process of ideas and communication. I’m a big fan of ideas. I try to think clearly every day and to wrestle with concepts that are big. I try to learn as many facts as possible and to use those facts in a quest for the truth. I enjoy engaging with others who study ideas and who want to discuss and debate concepts. I really enjoyed my times of academic study and found the university to be a stimulating and empowering setting. I read a lot of books and I try to write ideas every day.
But I know that ideas alone do not solve the problems of the world.
Having the right idea - even being able to win an argument - is insufficient in the face of deeply entrenched conflict. And ideas alone do not provide the pathway to the future for people who are caught in cycles of violence and injustice.
At a fundamental level, there are conflicts in the world where people can’t even agree on what is. The history of Israel looks different from a Palestinian perspective than it does from the perspective of a Jewish immigrant from Europe. Some people see freedom fighters. Others see terrorists. Some feel that security requires walls and fences. Others find the walls and fences to decrease the security of the people. And, like another modern democracy, the people of Israel do not all agree on the actions that their government should take.
And if we are unable to agree about what is, getting to a common vision of what should be is even more difficult. It has often seemed impossible in the really entrenched conflicts of our world.
We ask questions: “Can Israel live peacefully with its neighbors?” “Is a two state solution viable?” “Do the lands have to be divided by religion?” But our questions don’t really get and the long history of conflict and violence and they don’t provide a way for Jew, Christian and Muslim to live side by side in peace in a part of the world with a rapidly-growing population and limited resources. Issues of water rights and distribution of food, of jobs and currency, of investment funds and schools and health care all complicate the process of discovering solutions.
And in the midst of the struggle, people are capable of senseless violence and have the power to inflict permanent pain on one another.
Chacour has found the inner strength to live as a peacemaker in the midst of this incredible turmoil. Somehow he has not allowed the experiences of his life - even experiences of injustice and prejudice - to shape his world view or to dim his hope.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”
Of course all of the people of Palestine and Israel are children of God. They are children of God regardless of their religious affiliation or their rejection of religion. Their lives, however, have put them in a position where they are unable to see that their neighbors are also children of God. They see people with whom they disagree as problems to be solved or even eliminated instead of as gifts of God.
I’m not yet mature enough to recognize the challenges and problems I encounter - the resistance to change, the inability to share, the pettiness, the gossip - as gifts of God. I keep wanting to use my ideas to eliminate conflicting ideas. I keep wanting to win the argument.
Instead of identifying the source of our conflict, Chacour invites us to discover the place where we can meet - the commonness we share as humans and the possibilities of hope for a different future. More than the incredible witness of this remarkable man, perhaps his greatest gift is his ability to inspire others to also become peacemakers.
His story has touched me deeply and reminds me of my calling in the place where I serve.
He got to see the birth of the modern state of Israel from a Palestinian perspective. His father’s fig orchard was confiscated. His home town was at first seized by the Israeli army and then destroyed when they won the court battle to have the land returned. The church of his childhood was literally blown apart by fire from an Israeli tank.
The events of his life, remarkable as they are, are not, however, what makes his story so compelling. What makes the story so engaging is that somehow, in the midst of incredible injustice and violence he has been able to maintain his quest for peace and engage in work for reconciliation between Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Holy Land. He started many schools in the rural villages of displaced Palestinians, and made the showing of “The Diary of Anne Frank” a part of the curriculum so that children could grow up knowing that the people who are seen by Palestinians as oppressors have a story of being the victims of gross injustice. He has arranged peace marches with thousands of participants where Jews, Christians and Muslims walk side by side through the streets of Jerusalem and camp out on the steps of the Knesset.
Chacour never formally studied with Ghandi or Martin Luther King, Jr., but he certainly embodies the principles of nonviolence. He has the ability to speak truth to power in ways that communicate not threat, but rather hope.
And the region where he lives has been rather short on hope for most of his lifetime.
Reading his story has gotten me to thinking about the process of ideas and communication. I’m a big fan of ideas. I try to think clearly every day and to wrestle with concepts that are big. I try to learn as many facts as possible and to use those facts in a quest for the truth. I enjoy engaging with others who study ideas and who want to discuss and debate concepts. I really enjoyed my times of academic study and found the university to be a stimulating and empowering setting. I read a lot of books and I try to write ideas every day.
But I know that ideas alone do not solve the problems of the world.
Having the right idea - even being able to win an argument - is insufficient in the face of deeply entrenched conflict. And ideas alone do not provide the pathway to the future for people who are caught in cycles of violence and injustice.
At a fundamental level, there are conflicts in the world where people can’t even agree on what is. The history of Israel looks different from a Palestinian perspective than it does from the perspective of a Jewish immigrant from Europe. Some people see freedom fighters. Others see terrorists. Some feel that security requires walls and fences. Others find the walls and fences to decrease the security of the people. And, like another modern democracy, the people of Israel do not all agree on the actions that their government should take.
And if we are unable to agree about what is, getting to a common vision of what should be is even more difficult. It has often seemed impossible in the really entrenched conflicts of our world.
We ask questions: “Can Israel live peacefully with its neighbors?” “Is a two state solution viable?” “Do the lands have to be divided by religion?” But our questions don’t really get and the long history of conflict and violence and they don’t provide a way for Jew, Christian and Muslim to live side by side in peace in a part of the world with a rapidly-growing population and limited resources. Issues of water rights and distribution of food, of jobs and currency, of investment funds and schools and health care all complicate the process of discovering solutions.
And in the midst of the struggle, people are capable of senseless violence and have the power to inflict permanent pain on one another.
Chacour has found the inner strength to live as a peacemaker in the midst of this incredible turmoil. Somehow he has not allowed the experiences of his life - even experiences of injustice and prejudice - to shape his world view or to dim his hope.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”
Of course all of the people of Palestine and Israel are children of God. They are children of God regardless of their religious affiliation or their rejection of religion. Their lives, however, have put them in a position where they are unable to see that their neighbors are also children of God. They see people with whom they disagree as problems to be solved or even eliminated instead of as gifts of God.
I’m not yet mature enough to recognize the challenges and problems I encounter - the resistance to change, the inability to share, the pettiness, the gossip - as gifts of God. I keep wanting to use my ideas to eliminate conflicting ideas. I keep wanting to win the argument.
Instead of identifying the source of our conflict, Chacour invites us to discover the place where we can meet - the commonness we share as humans and the possibilities of hope for a different future. More than the incredible witness of this remarkable man, perhaps his greatest gift is his ability to inspire others to also become peacemakers.
His story has touched me deeply and reminds me of my calling in the place where I serve.