Colin and Kathy work in the Quaker schools in Ramallah.
They wrote recently:

“Just half a mile from our school there are Israeli tanks.  Families in this area are not allowed to go out of their homes for 48 hours at a time, and when they are allowed out it is for no more than 2 hours. Remember that most young people and adults are not allowed to leave this town and visit Jerusalem just 10 miles away..They may not travel to visit one of the most sacred mosques or to visit the old city which is drenched in Christian history….The stink of death and the scar of physical and emotional injury is all around us.  These are not happy times and this is the life of our children.”

Colin and Kathy reflect on the events of September 2001 and on their lives in Ramallah as members of the Society of Friends. 

It is September 2001.  It will be some weeks before the first rain arrives in the hills surrounding Jerusalem and Ramallah after the long dry spring, hot summer months and cooler autumn. Ramadan is approaching and will be with us in just a month and the discipline of the fast will set another tone to the mood of the days ahead.  It is the time for olive picking and the villages will empty during the day, where they can, to harvest their fields.

El Kuds - Jerusalem

I can't help thinking  of the words of Psalm 137, 'How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem,may my right hand forget its skill.'  These words resonate for many an Israeli and many a Palestinian too. They sound in different cadences for the Muslim, the Christian and the Jew and they beckon as a siren call to people the world over. The persecution of a people, whether it be in Europe before 1945 or in Palestine after 1947, has deepened the fissures in which this angst echoes down through the ages. It is David's capital city of  Israel, it is the site of Solomon's temple, it is the place which Jesus visited as a child, in which he lived those fateful last days on earth and  in which the Nicene creed reminds us 'he died, was buried and rose again according to the scriptures'. it is the birthplace of the early Church,   it is the place where Mohammad was transported spiritually at his death only to be taken into Heaven from the Temple Mount. The prophets of old are the prophets of Judaism and Islam and their stories in this 'Holy Land' are stories shared by Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Myth and story blend and  inextricably weave truth and fiction as we all struggle to understand the simplicity of God's revelation and guidance through the complexity of  human history. The blood of many a martyr has been spilt on the stones of Jerusalem in the name of truth.

Tony Benn and George Washington

Every violent conflict has, it seems, its underground resistance movement, freedom fighters, martyrs and terrorists as well as its armies. It seems possible in the mind of some of us to take the lives of others in the name of any of these with some impunity. If we plan to kill other human beings or plan to reach our military objective even if sadly we know we may have to kill others who happen to be in the way or who resist the achievement of our objective, are we better than a terrorist? If we plan it in public, if we do it openly and if we do it in the name of law and order, are we better than a terrorist? Tony Benn, the now retired Labour MP, has said, “Even George Washington was a terrorist.”  Today we have a 'coalition against terrorism' ironically promoted by the US Rebel  State and supported aggressively by the past Imperial power, Britain.

Principalities and powers hold sway in matters of armed conflict because we, the people, let them. So ingrained in each of us is the instinct to recover from damaged pride, to strike out when struck, to harbour revenge when hurt, to demonstrate dominion over others, to justify our feelings regardless of any one else's, that armed conflict is easily understood and justified and easily made compatible with these baser   instincts of our human personality.

No other way but Love

Someone once asked me why I often refer to Jesus of Nazareth rather than Jesus Christ. For me the mystery and the humanity of the Man is heightened by reference to his home town.  This is now re-inforced by getting to know Palestinian people and realizing how important their home town is to their identity and how seminal is the birthright land beneath their feet. It is this Jesus of Nazareth who teaches us that ultimately there is no other way but Love.

This is in flat contradiction to our instinct to retaliate and to punish for wrongs perpetrated on us. The primary evidence that Love is the only long term solution to inner conflict or conflict in our relationships with one another is in our personal experience of the power of forgiveness in our daily lives and perhaps the success of healing hurts in therapeutic community and within movements towards non-retributive justice in domestic disputes. It is at a personal level that the truth of mending hurts through Love can most often be made transparent. There were and are elements of the South African movement towards democracy and majority rule that were founded in those same principles of forgiveness and reconciliation that worked to remarkable effect. It could be argued that South Africa was exceptional in the same way that any set of causes and effects is unique, but it is also possible to point to other local and international problems that others are best able to describe which were led towards peace and justice by the same principles.

Military  solutions and the real battle within

The evidence for military solutions rests on assumptions that once a peace treaty is agreed or the cessation of military action is a fact on the ground that peace has been achieved. The end of the Second World War is now at an historical distance in our minds and the death of my mother helps complete for me that chapter of memories that haunts my family in their experience of living as British citizens under German occupation on the island of Jersey. My father escaped incarceration in a concentration camp in Germany by the fact that he was the only pharmacist left on the island. Granted that even that experience pales into insignificance compared with the Nazi Pogrom to destroy, as so many diseased cattle, the six million Jews, it is an indication that peace is not achieved by the cessation of war.

The Holocaust is a living memory and is a continuing running sore that fuels and feeds international insecurity today in the Middle East. Arguably the Holocaust is a root cause of the present instability; of the disaster of the twin towers, of the present vendetta against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden and the potential world wide catastrophe of an Islamic/Christian axis to international dispute. To argue that World War Two achieved peace we would have to come to terms with this unresolved legacy of the Holocaust. The creation of the state of Israel and the defence of the Israeli government as perpetrators of systematic and continuing violence by the United States, Great Britain and other countries in the 'Christian' sphere of influence is one such legacy of matters unresolved by the cessation of the Second World War. War leads to the cessation of war but not to peace. When the bombing of Afghanistan is over and a labelled terrorist is brought to justice, dead or alive, the distrust, pain and anger that has been generated by this action will live on and it is unlikely that food drops along side bombing raids will act as any salve to the wound that has been opened. 'An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind', Gandhi said.

The military solution is easier intellectually and emotionally than a struggle for justice by non-violent means. There is no evidence, however, that the easier solution brings reconciliation and a more permanent peace. The real battle for a permanent solution is in my heart and mind, overcoming the base instinct towards revenge and punishment with Love as the most powerful tool in my armory against evil. It comes down, in the final analysis, to our trust in a Loving God. Do we really believe in a Loving God and are we prepared to act as though we believe in a Loving God who ultimately and finally will triumph? That should be straightforward for the Christian believer but it is clearly not. It is rather a costly and heart searching commitment that demonstrates that the road to salvation is narrow and steep.

Friends Schools - a 'Haven of Peace'

My thoughts and prayers as you might expect are with Friends Schools in Ramallah, El-Bireh which are located both in the reality of the West Bank of Israeli Occupied Territory and in the heartland of Palestine. Our young people are caught in the complexity of many unresolved disputes, in their uniquely politicized lives, which are escalated in their impact by violence on all sides. Friends School is served by many loyal friends on the staff and in the community who understand, respect and support the position of the Religious Society of Friends in the principle of resolving disputes by non-violent means. The Religious Society of Friends has been well served by its witness to tolerance, equality and the non-violent settlement of disputes and its gentleness and understanding in serving the communities as they have become predominantly Muslim over the last hundred years. The Schools this year re-opened with calm and resolution. The Schools have gone about their business with an efficiency and determination that defies an easy explanation in the face of such uncertain times.

Final Thoughts

This last month has changed the face of the world and much rests on our sense of justice and our search for understanding and peace. We are at a cross-roads.   We are all in need of repentance and restitution. I hope that we can all take stock and draw conclusions that will lift us out of this deepening black hole. I hope that we move toward a world with a greater commitment towards international justice and a more apparent observance of international justice. Let us be careful of our young and help them to learn from our mistakes, otherwise these dangerous games that we now play may lead to our destruction. World faiths have a key role in our future. Let us be clear and unequivocal about the power of Love and its fruits of Compassion, Truth and Justice which together can change the world. Now is the time to be clear and firm about how that same God of Love can and does work and abide in all of us.