We have much to learn from Mideast peace process
Last week, I wrote how young people have changed society when they set their minds to it. This week, I hope to show how people our age in Israel are changing a seemingly hopeless situation by doing nothing more than saying no.
We have all seen on the evening news images of the ongoing violence between Israelis and Palestinians. It has become so common that we Americans no longer pay much attention to it. We have come to accept bombings, shootings and neighborhood demolitions as normal, the products of an inexplicable conflict we Americans convince ourselves that we are blessedly free of all responsibility for.
In this escalating cycle of violence and counter-violence, with each act justifying the next, bigger outrage, a few voices, both Palestinian and Jewish, have been raised in opposition. These voices have grown louder in response to the growing death toll, now exceeding 1,000 over the past year and a half, and the increasing extremism of the leaders of both sides.
There are a small number of Israelis living in the West Bank and Gaza actively resisting the military occupation. They should not be confused with Israeli settlers living in armed camps. They live among the Palestinian people and walk unarmed. One of the more famous of these people is Neta Golan. She lives in the town of Hebron in the West Bank. Her principal activity is putting herself between Israeli soldiers’ guns and Palestinians who are trying to live their lives. She escorts children going out to play. When army bulldozers try to destroy olive trees in Palestinian neighborhoods, she and others climb up the trees. She documents home demolitions and unprovoked shootings. In a very real sense, the simple fact that she is a Jew prevents many people around her from being hurt or killed because of soldiers’ fear of injuring her in the process. Through these simple acts, I feel she and those like her do more to protect the security of Jews and Palestinians than all the tanks, guns, and planes in either government’s arsenal.
Voices from within the Palestinian leadership have spoken out recently against violent retaliation on Israeli civilians. Hanan Ashwari, a congresswoman on the Palestinian Legislative Council, said recently “why and when did we allow a few from our midst to interpret Israeli military attacks on innocent Palestinian lives as license to do the same to their civilians? … How did we allow ourselves those modes of behavior that we abhor or condemn in others?”
There is also a rapidly growing resistance movement within the Israeli Defense Forces to the occupation. Two hundred forty four reservists have signed a statement saying that they will no longer serve in the occupied territories, saying “we shall not continue to fight … in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people. We … shall continue serving … any mission that serves Israel’s defense … The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose – and we shall take no part in them.” In 1982, when Israel invaded Lebanon, some reservists refused to serve. Their refusal contributed to the government’s decision to pull out of Beirut shortly after, and out of Lebanon altogether a few years ago. Hopefully this new wave of refusals will prompt a peace settlement or at least temper the violence.
After Sept. 11, many people felt the U.S. should pattern its homeland defense strategy on Israel’s. I note that for all of Israel’s security, by far the tightest of any country, on a near-daily basis someone or other manages to slip through that security to kill or wound Israelis. Israel’s air attacks in response haven’t stopped the attackers either. This tells me that neither walling ourselves inside a “Fortress America,” nor carrying out massive retaliation after an attack, nor a combination of the two, will make us safe.
We all need to think critically about this “war on terrorism.” If people in Israel, a nation whose security is much more tenuous than ours, whose military power and options are much more limited than our own, can find the courage to say no to violence, why are we so silent? If some Jews and Palestinians are willing to risk jail or death to end the violence, why can’t more Americans simply speak out against our government’s supplying billions of dollars of arms to Israel, not to mention billions more in arms sales to the rest of the Middle East? Over the next few weeks I will sketch out some ways in which I think we can start moving towards a what I call a real national security, one that rests firmly upon peace and justice instead being held up precariously by the threat of violence and overwhelming force. I hope to show that our security can be more wisely ensured by increased international cooperation and peacemaking rather than military buildups and foreign intervention.
Brian Marks