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Aug 26

Letter from Beit Jala

From Nabil Saba’s terrace there is a clear view of the Wall snaking its way around Beit Jala. Sitting underneath his family’s vineyard, enjoying the protection it offers from the afternoon sun, the peace is sometimes interrupted by the sound of construction work.

For Nabil, history has a habit of repeating itself. At the beginning of the 1970s, he was still living with his family in their ancestral home on Ras Beit Jala, the highest point in the town. But in 1972 the Israelis came to the house and offered to buy the land from Nabil’s father.

“We refused. So almost every day and night they would come to the house, to threaten us, to intimidate us. They would take me and my brothers to jail. They falsely accused us of supporting the guerrillas with 300 dinars, which was a lot of money in those days. They beat my brother in jail.” Read more

May 1

Jerry and Sis Levin at UK’s Cambridge University

Internationally renowned advocates of non-violence Jerry and Sis Levin, spoke at Cambridge University’s Churchill College March 11 on “Peacemaking in Palestine and Iraq.” Their talk, organized by the college’s Phoenix Society, drew a large audience of students and fellows, and was the first of a string of engagements across the UK.

The Levins have a unique perspective on the conflict in Israel and Palestine. The couple moved to Beirut in 1983, when Jerry was appointed CNN Middle East bureau chief. A mere three months later, however—on Ash Wednesday 1984—Jerry was kidnapped by Hezbollah while driving to work. This ended Jerry’s career climbing the ladder of media success, and launched Sis’s peacemaking work, as she negotiated her husband’s release and battled against the hypocritical rhetoric of her own government. Read more

May 1

Before Moses: the midwives’ resistance

Heavy emphasis on personal spirituality can often mean missing out on the powerful way the Bible speaks about the nature of political power in human society. The Israelite exodus from slavery in Egypt has inspired oppressed people throughout history, and numerous tropes of the story have been adopted by liberation theologies. But although the Sunday school story starts with Moses in the bulrushes, the first chapter of Exodus is a fantastic resource for understanding the nature of power, evil, and divinely-ordained resistance.

Exodus starts where Genesis left off, with the death of Joseph. An old era has passed away, and there is now a “new king” (v8) on the throne. Like all new rulers, elected or otherwise, this one is keen to assert his power and consolidate his position. What is more, the new king is ignorant of the nation’s history, and its debt to one particular Israelite. Read more

Apr 29

The need to ask why

On the day the World Trade Center was destroyed, George Bush declared, “America was targeted for attack because we’re the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world.” In the wake of the bombings in Madrid, Tony Blair stated that contemporary Islamist extremism is “driven not by a set of negotiable political demands, but by religious fanaticism”.

Bush and Blair here are seeking to address the fundamental question of ‘why’. For both of them, their respective nations are under threat because of their very nature as ‘free’ and ‘civilized’. The enemy is defined by his opposition to these values. It is this assumption that fatally undermines Western policy in the Middle East and strategy in ‘the war on terror’. Read more

Apr 1

Cambridge hosts Jewish-Palestinian dialogue event

King’s College, Cambridge, UK, played host Feb. 8 to a Jewish-Palestinian dialogue, attracting students, university staff and members of the public alike.

The event, attended by almost 50 people, was jointly organized by the Cambridge-based group Kolot Shalom (Voices of Peace) and the Cambridge University Palestine Society (CUPal), and chaired by Kolot Shalom’s David Bilchitz and Samira Barakat, president of CUPal.

After introductory remarks by Bilchitz and Barakat, four scheduled speakers spoke briefly on what Israel/Palestine means to them. From the Jewish perspective, the group heard from Cambridge student Miriam Feldmann and Amir Paz-Fuchs, an Israeli currently working on a D.Phil. in law at Oxford University. Read more

Jan 23

It’s not all about the oil

In the lead up to the war on Iraq, two slogans dominated both marches and anti-war rhetoric: ‘Not in our name!’ and ‘No blood for oil!’ The former attacked the undemocratic way the war was being forced on an unwilling population, and the latter proposed to expose the real nature of the sacrifice being demanded by our leaders. Oil remains the most popular reason why the US went to war amongst opponents, and even some supporters, of the campaign. Read more

Sep 11

Letter from Bethlehem

Since the start of the intifada most Palestinians have greeted the various peace efforts with weary scepticism or downright pessimism. However, some refuse to let the vicissitudes of political manoeuvring affect their vision for the future. Daoud Nassar’s story is one of both hope and despair, where injustice meets inspiration.

Daoud lives with his wife and children in Bethlehem, and his family owns a piece of land southwest of the city. One Friday morning, in the summer sun, I stood with Daoud looking out across his fields and beyond, up the hill towards the Neve Daniel settlement. Read more

Oct 21

An Interview with Milan Rai

By now the signs are familiar. A build up of rhetoric and demonisation of the ‘other’. Documents and dossiers on horrible threats. Newspapers fill their pages with battle plan graphics. War is looming.

At the same time as citizens in Baghdad wait for the bombs to start falling, and government spokesmen prepare to wrap their tongues around that poisonous phrase ‘collateral damage’, some in Britain are marching to a different beat. Read more

Mar 19

Bomber Blair

It is a fact that when a politician says something you must carefully analyze why it was said. The grander the statement the closer the scrutiny must be. This is because messianic visions and courageous vows are not usually followed by accompanying actions. Unfortunately, in the happy coincidence that deed matches rhetoric, it is often when implementing xenophobic immigration policies, proclaiming new infringements on civil liberties or trumpeting new crusades against the oppressed.

Tony Blair is, perhaps, more prone than most to discrepancies in promise and delivery. But his recent war mongering towards Iraq has the ring of sincerity and there is a sad inevitability about Blair’s involvement in Bush’s war. Read more