From Oct. 11-24, 2012, we -- a historic delegation of
twenty-three leaders from the nonviolent U.S. Civil Rights movement of the
1950s and 1960s, younger civil and human rights leaders, social justice
activists, peace builders and educators -- traveled to East Jerusalem and the
West Bank to meet with leaders of the Palestinian grassroots nonviolent
resistance movement and their Israeli allies. In the long tradition of
inter-racial, inter-generational and inter-faith coalitions for freedom and
justice, we were African-Americans and Jewish Americans; ministers and rabbis;
prominent scholars and organizers. We ranged in age from 30 to 83. The
delegation was sponsored by the Dorothy Cotton Institute (DCI), as part of its
Palestinian/Israeli Nonviolence Project. It was planned and led by Rabbi Brian
Walt, DCI Palestinian/Israeli Nonviolence Project Fellow, and DCI Senior
Fellows, in partnership with Interfaith Peace Builders (IFPB).
We traveled to meet, engage with, learn from and encourage
Palestinians and their Israeli allies who have committed themselves to
nonviolent direct action to end occupation and oppression. The
Palestinian nonviolent resistance movement which dates back to the tax revolts
and general strikes against the British Mandate in the 1920s and 1930s, was
used as the primary form of organizing during the First Intifada in the late
1980s and continues today. Although it is not well known in the U.S., we
believe it is one of the most important tests of nonviolent principles and
practices in the 21st Century.
We sought to develop ongoing relationships and solidarity
with those in the nonviolent resistance movement; increase the international
visibility of this movement; learn more about the practice of nonviolent direct
action; and encourage and support efforts to bring justice, security and human
rights to all people in the region. We also committed to help inform people in
the U.S. about the situation and to bring attention to the role the U.S.
currently plays in perpetuating the unacceptable status quo and, alternatively,
could play in promoting a lasting peace with justice.
We had many life-changing
encounters with Palestinians and Israelis who shared with us the history and
realities of this region, as well as their hopes and fears and determined
non-violent resistance to injustice. What we experienced and witnessed was both
deeply troubling and profoundly inspiring. It was also frighteningly familiar
to injustices in our own country, both past and present. We returned home with
a deeper understanding of the struggles in this region and a powerful
commitment to support our Palestinian and Israeli sisters and brothers working
for a solution that ensures justice, equality and security for everyone who
lives on this beautiful land.
What We Learned
First
and foremost, we are inspired by the many people we met who exemplify
the Palestinian commitment to sumud
("steadfastness") and the Jewish commitment to tikkun olam ("repairing the world"). They are working courageously, creatively and
non-violently, not only to end domination and
injustice, but to bring into being a new society based on justice and the
humanity of all.
Our
own history teaches us that changing seemingly intractable realities is
possible. Those sisters and brothers we met are developing their own movement,
unique to their time and place. At the same time, they are fundamentally
connected to the ongoing universal struggle for justice and human rights.
They challenge with nonviolent
direct action; participate in boycotts; document, witness and film; defend
those who are detained, mistreated, and denied human rights; heal and empower,
challenge lies with truth in their newspapers and blogs, and express outrage
and celebrate hope in the graffiti that appears on the length of the Separation
Wall. Their warmth and generous hospitality made us
feel at home across culture, language and generations. Their stories and
analyses gave us personal insight into the injustices, human rights violations
and ongoing oppression that rarely enter American consciousness or discourse
about the region.
We met
young Palestinian activists in The Coalition for Dignity and Youth Against the
Settlements – many of whom have been inspired by Gandhi and King – who are at
the center of creative nonviolent direct action "occupying"
segregated roads and protecting older Palestinian farmers from settler violence
while harvesting olives, building connection to the land and understanding
across generations. We talked with the leaders of the Popular
Coordinating Committees and others in Budrus, Bil'in and other nearby
Palestinian villages who, through daily nonviolent demonstrations, succeeded in
moving the path of the Separation Wall and preserving some of their land. We shared many hours of thoughtful conversation and
uplifting song with three generations in the village of Nabi Saleh; they have
held demonstrations every Friday for more than 3 years -- in the face of tear
gas, rubber bullets, stun grenades and live ammunition -- to protest
confiscations of their land and water.
We met equally impassioned young
Israelis. Some, like the young Jewish Israelis in Anarchists Against the Wall
travel to the West Bank, often in violation of Israeli law, to stand in
solidarity with their Palestinian brothers and sisters during unarmed protests.
Others, like the women we met at New Profile have served time in Israeli jails
for refusing compulsory military service; they are counseling other
"refuseniks" and actively challenging the intensively militarized
Israeli society. Still others, through Breaking the Silence, are offering up
testimonies about the brutal work of military occupation.
We
listened to both Jewish Israeli and Palestinian human rights lawyers who work
tirelessly to win the release of Palestinians (including children as young as
twelve) who are arrested in the middle of the night, held in administrative
detentions without charge, criminalized, abused and traumatized within the
Israeli military court system.
We
grieved to learn that on the day we arrived home in the U.S., Bassem Tamimi, a
key leader in Nabi Saleh, was arrested by the Israeli military for leading a
non-violent demonstration in a settlement supermarket on the West Bank. His ribs were broken during his arrest. He
has been sentenced to 4 months in military jail, with a 3-year suspended
sentence. Bassem has already spent most of the last year in prison for his
organizing. We also mourn the death of
Rushdi Tamimi, a young man from Nabi Saleh who was shot by Israeli soldiers
during a village protest against the Israeli attack on Gaza (Operation Pillar
of Defense) and later died.
We met Palestinian Christians at Sabeel who develop
liberation theology to renew the sense of Palestinian identity and promote
peace, reconciliation and nonviolence among young people who know only
occupation. Others at the Holy Land Trust draw from their deep religious
commitment to nonviolence to create leadership development workshops to help
women engage with the "impossible" and create new paths forward.
We also visited the Nassar family at the Tent of Nations,
outside Bethlehem, who have fought continual court battles to hold onto the farm
purchased by their grandfather in 1916. In spite of being surrounded by five
Israeli settlements, Israeli army roadblocks, the settlers' destruction of 250
olive trees, repeated denials for permits to build, demolition orders and other
efforts to force them off the land, they bring youth and adults together across
cultures and nations to engage in creative, life-affirming, land-honoring
projects.
Moving Forward
Whenever we asked people "how can we help?", we
received two answers. The first was, "Tell people what is happening
here." The second was: "Talk to people in your own country about the
pivotal role of the United States in perpetuating these policies. Ask who
profits from this, and what you can do to change that."
Now that we have returned home, we are asking ourselves what
it means to be faithful to these Palestinians and Israelis working to build a
just and democratic society – both those we now call "friend" and
those we have not yet met. While we are still answering this question, our work
includes writing, blogging, media interviews, contacting the White House and
Congress, and speaking to groups and individuals to inform the U.S. public
about the situation and what roles they can play. We will share widely the
experiences of those we met – both those mentioned above, and the many more we
were not able to include here. We are
also continuing to inform ourselves about history, current realities, and the
movements working for peace, justice, and security for all.
In closing, we make the following observations:
The U.S. government provides $3 billion annually in foreign
military aid to Israel. We call for the U.S. to condition this aid on an end to
Israeli settlement expansion, occupation, and other violations of United
States, international and human rights law.
We support the United States church leaders who recently called for
conditioning aid on Israeli compliance with United States and international law
and upholding human rights and equality of all people.
We heard from many Palestinians and their Israeli allies
about the Palestinian call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against
Israel’s occupation and against international companies that profit from the
occupation. BDS is a nonviolent strategy for change widely supported by
Palestinian organizations. We will
support boycotts of and divestment from Israeli, US and European corporations
that profit directly from continued occupation and oppression. We will also
explore other actions we may undertake as individuals and/or as a group as part
of the growing BDS movement.
We are heartened that President Barack Obama, Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton and others in the U.S. and Egyptian governments played a
positive role in helping negotiate the recent cease fire in Gaza. No civilians
in Israel or Palestine should live in fear of rockets and bombs. At the same
time, arrests, detentions and violence against Palestinians engaged in
nonviolent protest have risen, and the forces of occupation, oppression and war
remain. We are paying attention to what is happening to individuals whom we met
and finding ways to actively advocate on their behalf.
We are also committed to using fully our rights and
privileges as U.S. citizens to challenge and persuade our government to end its
support for and profiteering from racism, discrimination, oppression and
occupation, in this region, here at home, and throughout the world.
Finally, we support the rights of
both Israelis and Palestinians to live with dignity and security. Like most of
those we met on our travels, we do not see these rights as being inherently in
conflict. We will continue to speak out about the humanity of all people, the
preciousness of every human being, and our belief in working nonviolently for
change.
As theologian Walter Brueggemann
observed in The Prophetic Imagination,
empires work by constricting imagination, managing reality and language, and
spreading despair. They function by having people believe there is little or
nothing they can do to change the conditions of reality.
Yet in
spite of widespread fear, grief, anger, despair and the many political
difficulties that must be overcome, our history teaches us that hope is not
only possible, but justified. As we traveled, we carried with
us our dreams of and lifelong work for "Beloved Community," an
inter-dependence that recognizes the preciousness of every human life, and
embraces and supports the humanity of all. We met
with many people -- both Palestinian and Israeli -- who are engaged in the work
of reclaiming imagination and possibility, who are struggling steadfastly to
"build up a new world" ensuring justice and the humanity of all, and
who refuse to despair. We heard that they were encouraged by our presence with
them. We were most certainly encouraged by them.
We
join with countless people -- in the U.S. and abroad -- who are already engaged
in this important work; we invite those not yet engaged to join with us as
well.
For more information, contact: Rabbi Brian Walt, DCI Palestinian-Israeli
Nonviolence Project Fellow, 508-560-0589 or rabbibrianwalt@gmail.com.
or Kirby Edmonds, DCI Program
Coordinator and Senior Fellow, 607 277-3401 TFCKirby@aol.com
For more information about the Dorothy Cotton
Institute, visit www.dorothycottoninstitute.org
Read more about the delegates and the organizations with whom we met.
Read more about the delegates and the organizations with whom we met.
About
the Dorothy Cotton Institute
The
Dorothy Cotton Institute based
in Ithaca, NY, USA, seeks "the full realization of a just and peaceful
beloved community in which all people understand, respect, protect, and
exercise full human rights." It
does this by working to develop, nurture and train leaders for a global human
rights movement; build a network and community of civil and human rights
leaders; and explore, share and promote practices that transform individuals
and communities, opening new pathways to peace, justice and healing.
Ms.
Dorothy Cotton -- who was a member of the delegation -- is the former Director
of Education for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization
led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. She was the only woman on Dr. King's
executive staff, and is now a Distinguished Fellow at DCI, the institute that
bears her name and is committed to carrying on her life work.
Delegates
Rabbi Joseph Berman
Laura Branca
Dorothy Cotton
Dr. Clayborne Carson
Richard Deats
Kirby Edmonds
Jeff Furman
Dr. Alan Gilbert
Dr. Vincent Harding
Dr.
Robert Harris, Jr.
Sara Hess
Dr. Margo Hittleman
Reverend Lucas Johnson
Aljosi Aldrich Knight
Reverend Carolyn McKinstry
Dr. Marne O'Shae
Allie Perry
Dr.
Paula Rayman
Dr. Alice Rothchild
Reverend Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou
Dr. James Turner
Rabbi Brian Walt
