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Hebron: Is it Normal?
Donna Hicks, Christian Peacemakers Team, Palestine
I finished my annual three month rotation with the Christian
Peacemaker Teams in Hebron in January 2008. While I was on the team I
read an essay setting out the Episcopal Church's position on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and actions to implement that policy - but
not necessarily including nonviolent direct action and public witness.
The facts on the ground, however, have led me to ask: Am I - are
we - called to more?
I am called to "strive for justice and peace among all people and
respect the dignity of every human being." It is normal to do that
in Hebron as I struggle every day to reach the humanity of those I
perceive as Other or Enemy. On the other hand, have I become
complicit in the occupation itself as I document human rights abuses and
work to convince Israeli soldiers and settlers there is another way.
Am I making the Occupation more bearable, while not making a difference
in ending it? Is the Occupation normal now?
Is it normal for Palestinian children to have to pass through a
checkpoint and metal detector and to have their school bags searched by
Israeli border police or soldiers. Is it normal to see a
five-year-old cringe from a soldier at a checkpoint because he doesn't
know if the soldier will yell at him, or take his bag and search it, or
smile and wave him on?
Is it normal for the Palestinian community to have to walk under heavy
wire mesh to keep debris thrown by Israeli settlers from hitting them?
Is it normal for Palestinian men moving through metal detectors at the
mosque gate to the Old City to have to empty their pockets, remove their
belts, and sometimes take off their jackets and lift their shirts?
Is it normal for the police to beat up a fifteen-year-old after
arresting him for allegedly carrying a knife? Is it normal to
arrest Palestinians whom settlers assaulted but let the settlers go
without consequences?
Khalas! Enough!
Many Palestinians, when asked by citizens of the U.S. what they can do
to help, say, "Change the policies of the government!" Easier said
than done. I believe the time has come for people to stand in
nonviolent public witness in the seats of power, naming to the
powers-that-be what impedes the peace and what builds it.
When we worked Palestinian agricultural land in between two Israeli
settlements, it was an act of resistance to the Israeli settlers whose
goal was to take the land for themselves. We turned swords into
plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.
In the forty-first year of the Occupation and the sixtieth anniversary
of the Nakba, let us say "Khalas! Enough of war and the Occupation!" |
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