theologies and cultures Vol. XI, No. 1, June 2014
A Moment of Truth Struggles of the Occupied People for the Right to Life
Editor M. P. Joseph
Editor [Chinese] Yatang CHUANG
Associate Editors Chhong-fat CHEN Po Ho HUANG Jui Hsiang LIANG Augustine MUSOPOLE Chong-yiau Wong Fuya WU
Consulting Editors Mark BURROWS, USA/Germany Wentuan CHEN, Taiwan Enrique DUSSEL, Mexico Virginia FABELLA, Philippines Dwight N. HOPKINS, USA Chi Li HUNG, Taiwan Abraham, K.C, India Yong-Bock KIM, Korea Jessi MUGAMBI, Kenya Michael NORTHCOTT, Britain Teresa OKURE, Nigeria Choan-Seng SONG, Taiwan/USA Elsa TAMEZ, Costa Rica Lieve TROCH, Netherlands Yen Ren TSAI, Taiwan WONG Wai Ching Angela, Hong Kong
theologies and cultures Vol. XI, No. 1, June 2014
A Moment of Truth Struggles of the Occupied People for the Right to Life
THEOLOGIES AND CULTURES is an academic journal dedicated to inter-disciplinary research and scholarly exploration in the field of theology and its interplay with the social, economic, political and cultural dimensions of people. The journal is committed to promoting engaged dialogue of different faith traditions and theological formulations in view of creating communities of justice and mutual understanding.
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Contents
Preface 5
Guest Editorial The Myth of the Promised Land Ranjan Solomon 7
The Struggle for Truth Kairos Palestine: A Faith-Based Instrument of Political Transformation and Justice Rifat Odeh Kassis 14
Kairos: Exploring the Idea of Justice in Palestine From a Woman’s Perspective Nora Carmi 32
Responses towards the Struggle for Truth The Moment of Grace and Opportunity: The Global Kairos Movement For Justice in the Holy Land Mark Braverman 42
Liberative Justice – A Brazilian Response to Kairos Palestine Felipe Gustavo Koch Buttelli 84
Kairos Palestine: Some Reflections from Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme for Palestine and Israel Manuel Quintero Perez 97
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement against Israel: A Call for Justice Bisan Mitri 111
Towards viable alternatives International Law and Standard: Setting the Scene for Durable Solutions In Palestine Amjad Alqasis 125
Appendix. A moment of truth: A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering 138
Preface
The struggle of the people in the occupied land of West Bank and Gaza for their right to life is the focus of this issue of THEOLOGIES AND CULTURES. The war to legitimize occupation threatens the very existence of the construction of a peaceful world. As Michael Ben-Yair, who served as the Attorney General of Israel from 1993 to 96 has observed “We (Israelis) enthusiastically chose to become a colonial society, ignoring international treaties, expropriating lands, transferring settlers from Israel to the occupied territories, engaging in theft and finding justification for all these activities. That oppressive regime exists to this day.” The ongoing war in the region is to legitimize the colonialism and its never ending greed for expansion. Shulamit Aloni, the former Israeli minister of education under Yitzhak Rabin acknowledges that the practice of the state of Israel reminds atrocious form of Apartheid practiced by the racist South Africa. She says, “Through its army, the government of Israel practices a brutal form of Apartheid in the territory it occupies. Its army has turned every Palestinian village into a fenced in or blocked in, detention camp.” This injustice, rationalized by an erroneous and deceptive reading of the Biblical history continues for decades. But what is new is the determination of the Palestinian people to resist and to speak against the grave injustice and humiliation that they were made to suffer for long. Essays in this volume attempts to articulate the crisis of the occupied people from their perspective and the responses from Christian and Jewish groups from around the world. As Sabeel has reiterated, this attempt is informed by the desire of the people of the region--Palestinians and Israelis—to establish lasting peace, and security. “With peace and security in place, bonds of acceptance and friendship can grow. It is no service to either community to promote a peace which flouts international law, ignores justice, and ultimately cannot endure since this will lead to continued bitterness and violence.” Editorial team of THEOLOGIES AND CULTURES wishes to express its gratitude to Mr. Ranjan Solomon, consultant for the Palestine-Israel Ecumenical Forum/WCC for his contribution to bring out this volume.
If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.
If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
theologies and cultures, Vol. XI, No 1 June 2014, pp. 7-13
Editorial
The Myth of the Promised Land
At the time of writing this preface, over 640 Palestinians have been arrested in less than ten days. These include released prisoners from the exchange deal of 2011, pre-Oslo prisoners - bringing up the number of pre-Oslo prisoners in Israeli jails to 41, and 11 Members of Parliament, bringing up the number of imprisoned parliamentarians to 22. Around 170 of the Palestinians arrested over these 10 days are now held under administrative detention, the worst form of arbitrary detention, bringing up the number of administrative detainees to over 350. This wide arrest campaign has brought the number of Palestinian prisoners to over 5800. This is not all. Gaza is being pounded by Israeli rockets and airstrikes. It seems as if Israel gets easily restless when they are unable to attack Gaza or strangulate its economy when the military attack is done with. It does not end there either. Israeli police have deployed in large numbers around Jerusalem to restrict Palestinian worshipers from entering the Aqsa compound on the first Friday of Ramadan when tens of thousands of Palestinians come to pray. Israel has unilaterally blocked off Palestinians who hold permits from crossing some 300 check points around Hebron. In other places, there are clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians. Israeli soldiers are shooting rubber-coated bullets, tear-gas canisters and stun grenades at youths, while the 8 theologies and cultures
youths threw rocks and empty bottles and shut nearby streets with garbage containers. In short, Palestine is under assault. Palestinians face the ignominy of severe collective punishment. And all because three illegal settlers were abducted and found dead. There is not an inch of evidence that it was Palestinians who were responsible. The UN has demanded that Israel provide evidence for their claim. Israel has provided none. It probably knows there is no evidence on offer and that the real facts behind the deaths lie in completely different realities- a huge distance away from what is being alleged. In fact, there are several theories about who might have done the killings and many of these points to extraneous factors- not Palestinian militancy. For some weeks, Israel has been uneasy about the unity government involving the PLO and Hamas. Israel has stubbornly refused to accept this government as legitimate. It rejects any form of government which involves Hamas thus denying Palestinian democratic processes to define how Palestine is governed. The situation I am now writing about it is not an uncommon one. It is an almost ipso facto Israeli prerogative to keep the Palestinians in some form of unending political volatility. Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands began in 1967 and that adds up to 47 years of occupation. The history of occupation had its roots in the formation of Israel. It began in the late 1800s when Europe was growing increasingly anti-Semitic. Jewish thinkers planned an escape from the region seeing this as the only way to escape persecution. The ideology of Zionism has its roots in this persecution. Only after the British mandate (brokered by the League of Nations), when Britain took control over Palestine, did the notion of a Jewish state gain currency. Until then, Palestine had no more than 4% Jews in its population. It was predominantly Muslim with a 10% Christian population. Between 1882 and 1928, a huge wave of Jewish migration into Palestine took place Editorial 9
and more than 250,000 more Jews followed from 1929-1939 - (the time of the Nazi holocaust. By the end of the Second World war, over a half million Jews escaped into Palestine and that created an uprising of the indigenous Arab population. The conflict that ensued and the British abandonment of the area brought about UN intervention. The partition plan that followed assigned 56% of the territories to the Jews (then a mere 30% of the population) and just 44 % to the Arabs. Still unsatisfied with this generous, though unjust partition plan, the Zionist elements gathered the Jewish population into a military confrontation and, with their superior military strength, won that war. By mid 1948, the State of Israel was proclaimed on 78% of the land leaving Palestinians with a mere 22%. Ilan Pappe Professor of History, Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies and Co-Director for the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies categorizes events leading up to the dispossession of Arabs as the “ethnic cleaning of Palestine." The ‘Nakba’ (Arabic for catastrophe) removed hundreds and thousands of Palestinians from their lands. It was a merciless war which entailed depopulating villages and cities; massacring innocent victims; committing rapes and other atrocities; burning, bulldozing, blowing up or stealing homes, property and goods; and preventing expelled Palestinians from returning. In all, systematic terror expelled about 800,000 Palestinians, killed many others, and destroyed 531 villages and 11 urban neighbourhoods. It was genocidal ethnic cleansing. Under international law today, it would be categorized as a crime of war and against humanity for which convicted Nazis at Nuremberg were hanged. If you understand the roots of Israel's 1947-1948 war goals, you also recognize the patterns of continuing oppression. Israel took birth in an unjust framework and is sustained via unjust policies and practices. To illustrate:
They expropriated land and deprived the Palestinians 10 theologies and cultures
They dispossessed and dehumanized people They expelled and killed leaders so as to leave leadership vacuum;
David Ben-Gurion (Israel’s first Prime Minister) leader of this movement had said: "We have come and we have stolen their country....We must do everything to insure they never do return." Other Israeli leaders were of an identical mindset. Golda Meir stated: "There are no Palestinians" and Nobel Peace laureate Menachem Begin, referred to Palestinians as "two- legged beasts," saying Jews were the "Master Race" and "divine gods on this planet." The ongoing ‘Nakba’ - Occupation multiplies Palestinian woes. The 1967 six-day war ended in Israeli capturing huge territories from the Arabs, and emerging as the dominant factor in the Middle East. The Israelis acquired total control of Palestinian territories. Repeated UN resolutions have not deterred Israel from holding on to these lands illegally. Instead, they have gained a stranglehold by expropriating Palestinian land through settlement activity, and confiscation of lands for military infrastructure and Israeli control. Under 47 years of occupation as of this June; Palestinians still experience daily institutionalized persecution with no power over their daily lives. They face economic strangulation; collective punishment, loss of basic freedoms, especially in Gaza under a virtual siege; enclosures by separation walls, electric fences and border closings; obstructions to livelihoods activities; regular curfews, roadblocks, and checkpoints; bulldozing of homes, crops and orchards threatening food security; and arrest, imprisonment, and torture. At the whim of Israeli authorities, they must also endure assaults and extra- judicial assassinations; punitive taxation; and denial of basic services essential to life and well-being, including healthcare, education, employment and enough food and water. The whole idea is to destroy their will to resist. Editorial 11
Blessed are those in the margins-they shall inherit the earth In my travels to Palestine, I have often been stopped along with my Palestinian friends at a check point just before one enters Jericho. The subject of discourse while we waited and watched would invariably be the parable of the Good Samaritan and the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Watching what happens at a check point can be heart wrenching because you see Israeli army personnel meting out cruelty and barbarity as if it were a virtue. In one of the more intense discourses, a Palestinian lectured us on how many international visitors seemed to be keener to invest in humanitarian initiatives than in human rights. “We do not need more and more relief and social services on the road to Jericho or, for that matter, anywhere in Palestine. Invest in justice, not relief! We aspire for a transformation of the road to Jericho itself.” The victims of racism and unjust structures of society suffer two serious deficits. Firstly, they must contend with the way they are disempowered and consigned to the margins. And secondly, they must vie with a broader community who are often apathetic to their plight. Justice is essential to the teaching of Jesus, that God requires us to “do justice.” Reinhold Niebuhr said that as Christians we are called to struggle with the impersonal social structures of an “immoral society” and the structural, institutional violence of the world. It is about enabling and empowering people in the margins to reclaim the spaces they have been stripped off. It is about restorative justice. An ancient Greek saying goes something like this, and I paraphrase: “Justice will come when those who are not injured are as indignant as those who are injured”. Archbishop Desmond Tutu speaks of his certainty that justice will come to those who are dealt injustice: “I come from a tradition that knows of a biased God. People often speak of God being even-handed. God is not even-handed. God is biased, in favour of the weak, of the despised.” 12 theologies and cultures
The Kairos Palestine Document written by Palestinian Christians and endorsed by the heads of Churches in Jerusalem urges the international community to stand by the Palestinian people who have faced oppression, displacement, suffering and clear apartheid for more than six decades. The writers say: “The suffering continues while the international community silently looks on at the occupying State, Israel. Our word is a cry of hope, with love, prayer and faith in God.” Kairos calls on “churches and Christians in the world… to stand against injustice and apartheid, urging them to work for a just peace in our region, calling on them to revisit theologies that justify crimes perpetrated against our people and the dispossession of the land.” Palestinian Christians declare that the military occupation of their land is “a sin against God and humanity, and any theology that legitimizes the occupation is far from Christian teachings because true Christian theology is a theology of love and solidarity with the oppressed, a call to justice and equality among peoples.” In an important affirmation, Kairos states that “non-violent resistance to this injustice is a right and duty for all Palestinians including Christians.” On the question of land, the Kairos document says: “Our connectedness to this land is a natural right. It is not an ideological or a theological question only. It is a matter of life and death. There are those who do not agree with us, even defining us as enemies only because we declare that we want to live as free people in our land. We suffer from the occupation of our land because we are Palestinians…In face of those who use the Bible to threaten our existence as Christian and Muslim Palestinians; we renew our faith in God because we know that the word of God can not be the source of our destruction”. This issue of THEOLOGIES AND CULTURES brings together reflections on the Kairos document from a variety of perspectives. It also includes two sharply focused articles from a secular perspective. One on The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement against Israel: A Call for Justice and the second on International Law and standard standards: Setting Editorial 13
the scene for durable solutions. They are included among theological and reflections from other faith groups because it is important that churches seek to work in the broader arena of civil society and with people of different faiths in addressing what has become an issues that requires all people of goodwill, those who seek justice regardless of their religious identities to work together. At the end of the booklet, we have also reproduced the Kairos document itself because it is the frame of reference from which flow all the reflections. It is my hope that this collection of articles will enable readers to re-think their theological assumptions, their pre- conceived notions of what the Israeli claims are and the legitimacy of the Palestinian counter-claims.
Ranjan Solomon Guest Editor
Mr. Ranjan Solomon is a widely experienced NGO/ecumenical leader with varied experiences in organizational transformation and creating social change through advocacy, communications, and issue education. His main areas of focus in his 40+ professional involvements have been on issues of development, justice, peace, and human rights. He also specializes in providing advice and support to organizations working in conflict situations. Mr. Solomon is also the founder/Director of Alternatives- Badayl, an India/ Palestine based consultancy, which seeks to support and build capacities of churches, NGOs and Civil Society groups that wish to effect authentic and insightful changes for a just society.
theologies and cultures, Vol. XI, No 1 June 2014, pp. 14-31
Kairos Palestine: A Faith-Based Instrument of Political Transformation and Justice
Rifat Odeh Kassis1
An Introduction to Kairos Palestine In December 2009, the Kairos Palestine Group – a group of Palestinian Christians, both clergy and laypeople – launched a document called “A Moment of Truth: A Word of Faith, Hope, and Love from the Heart of Palestinian Suffering.”2 This document gives voice to Palestinian Christians: it is their word to the world about the reality of Israeli occupation and a call for support in establishing peace and equality in our region. More than just a text, it seeks to be a living initiative, the bedrock of a movement working to end the unjust Israeli occupation and the creation of peace with justice, both for Palestinians and for all peoples. While the Kairos Document is a call of pain and desperation, it is even more fundamentally a call for hope, one borne of love, prayer, and faith in God. It is, then, addressed first of all to ourselves, and then to the churches and Christians of the world, as well as to the international community at large. With the Kairos Document, we reach out and express the gravity of the situation in Palestine and Israel; we stress that our rights, our dignity, and our lives are at stake;
1 Rifat Odeh Kassis is a Palestinian Christian who was born in Beit Sahour, in the West Bank. He is an active human rights and political and community activist who is also a well known author and speaker. Mr. Kassis has been arrested and imprisoned several times by Israel. 2 “A Moment of Truth” on Kairospalestine.ps. Kairos-A Faith Based Instrument 15
we ask all peoples, political leaders and decision-makers to pressure the Israeli government to end its oppression and disregard for international law; we declare that resistance to injustice is a right and a duty for all Palestinians, including Christians; we discuss nonviolent struggle as our chosen means of resistance; and we urge the global community to realize that they, too, can contribute to securing a just peace in our region. The Kairos Document also addresses itself to those churches whose theology justifies the occupation and does not include the Palestinian Christians. Such misguided and destructive theological reasoning must be revisited, reevaluated, and changed. The Kairos Document maintains that occupation is a sin against God and against humanity, distorting the image of God in the Israeli who has become an occupier just as it distorts this image in the Palestinian living under occupation. Likewise, theological justifications that attempt to vindicate this occupation – this sin – are themselves sinful and must also be changed. Another key objective in issuing this document was to challenge the widespread belief that the conflict is fundamentally between Muslims and Jews. Instead, we wish to show that the conflict is thoroughly political: a conflict between occupiers and occupied, regardless of their faith. Kairos Document seeks to show that religion can and should play an active and positive role – not a passive or destructive one – in the conflict and its resolution. Most importantly, we wanted to add a fully human vision to the conflict, a vision that focuses on the image of God in all people, by overcoming the differences between occupiers or occupied. The Kairos Document is a call to regain our collective humanity, reminding people that our role before God has never been and will never be to fight in his name for territorial or political benefit. What about our vision of responsibility, accountability? When it comes to the bloodshed in our region, it is the people who pay the price, and we must all – all individuals and communities of good faith – work to end it. Indeed, both Israelis and Palestinians are responsible for experiences of suffering. But as the occupiers, as the strongest party, it is the Israelis who bear the greatest accountability; they possess collective responsibility for the anguish of the Palestinian people, and they must work directly toward ending the occupation they have imposed. 16 theologies and cultures
Palestinians bear responsibilities as well: to take care of themselves and each other, to answer to their community. They have both the right and a duty to end the injustices afflicting them; in other words, they may resist, but they must do so with love instead of hatred, with peaceful strength instead of violence. In order to effectively and lovingly resist, they must also end their internal divisions and resolve their political disunity. 3 The Palestinian Authority must combat its own corruption, respond with more courage and immediacy to its peoples needs, and prevent external political pressures (primarily from Israeli and Western “supervisors”) from downplaying their rights and compromising their integrity. As Christians, too, we bear accountability, no matter what our country of origin may be. We must remember that we are one body: “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26). The Kairos Document emphasizes this unity, calling for global Christians to more fully understand the plight of their Palestinian brothers and sisters – and for Palestinian Christians and Christians elsewhere to join hands in a shared struggle for peace with justice. And the world overall? We feel that the responsibility of the international community is not so simple as having merely overlooked Palestinian suffering. The fact is that this oppression could not have continued unabated for so long if it weren’t for the world’s historical betrayal of Palestinians. The conflict arose from the deliberate convergence of colonial powers at a certain time – with the acceptance of nations all around the world. Specifically, the decision to divide historic Palestine between Jews and Palestinians did not assess the best interests, let alone the rights, of the community that already lived there as its home: Palestinians. Instead, the resolution was hastily passed in order to placate the Zionist movement and its allies. Since then, the international community has virtually forgotten that the 1947 partition resolution4 sought to establish two distinct states – not one state with impunity and an apartheid system under its control. The whole world helped lay the groundwork for this situation – and then washed its hands of it. This, then, is why the world remains involved, why it remains responsible.
3 DeVoir, Joseph, “The Palestinian Civil War,” Palestine Monitor Factbook 2012, p. 8. 4 DeVoir, Joseph, “The Nakba,” Palestine Monitor Factbook 2012, p. 2. Kairos-A Faith Based Instrument 17
In this paper, I intend to 1) discuss critical factors in Palestinian reality that have led to the current crisis point, 2) elaborate on key problems that the international community and churches have failed to act upon and which we must address before any more time passes, and 3) explore the Kairos Document in greater detail, as well as Kairos Palestine’s overall vision, as an instrument of political transformation and justice.
The Current Crisis Point: How Did We Get Here? The Palestinian people have suffered dispossession at the hands of the Israeli state for 66 years, as well as 47 years of direct military occupation on what remains of historic Palestine. During the forcible establishment of Israel in 1947, over 530 Palestinian villages5 were destroyed and between 750,000-900,000 people (more than half of the population at the time)6 were expelled from the country, forcing them to become refugees dispersed across the globe and lacking any substantial international recognition of their right to return. Prior to 1948, Jews constituted less than a third of the total population and owned less than 7% of the land; the partition resolution granted them 55% -- but the nascent Israeli state actually captured a full 78% of the land in the 1948 war.7 The historical and ongoing “geocide” of Palestinian land is rarely discussed as such. But since the direct military occupation began in 1967, Palestinians have faced continual dispossession and confiscation of their land – and, simultaneously, the ever-increasing construction of illegal settlements on that land. Currently, over 125 government-sanctioned settlements and 100 “settlement outposts” in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) – not including East Jerusalem and settlement enclaves in Hebron, which rapidly raise the tally – contain over 515,000 illegal settlers.8 The roots of apartheid dig farther into the ground as settler-only roads – that is, Palestinians are expressly forbidden to use them – are designated and implemented. The Separation Wall, moreover, over 700 kilometers in
5 Bartlett, Eva, “Living the Nakba in Gaza”, in Electronic Intifada. 6 Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, BADIL, p. xxii. 7 DeVoir, Joseph, “The Nakba,”Palestine Monitor Factbook 2012, p. 2. 8 “Statistics on Settlements and Settler Population,” B’Tselem. 18 theologies and cultures
length,9 has confiscated over 40% of the oPt since 1967. About 62% of what is referred to as the West Bank is under direct Israeli control.10 Israel’s persistent land-grabbing is part of a larger and even more sinister strategy: the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Such policies have been part and parcel of Palestinian life since before the Israeli State was even created, and the Absentee Law of 1950 passed them into legislation: when, in and after the 1948 war, tens of thousands of Palestinian Jerusalemites were expelled and their villages destroyed, this law transferred the lands they had “left” to the Israeli State. 11 Policies of land confiscation continue, and so does the rampant discrimination that accompanies them – both against Palestinians in the oPt and Palestinian citizens of Israel. Even in the face of this reality, Israel, and much of the Western world, wants the Palestinians to “compromise” on the small fraction of what has been left to them. And it wants them to compromise on Jerusalem, while scores of Palestinians continue to be evicted from their homes and from the city; while Palestinian houses are continually demolished (approximately 26,000 from 1967 through the present day in the oPt, including East Jerusalem12); while Palestinian ID cards are revoked for not proving that their “center of life” is in Jerusalem (e.g. if someone lives in Jerusalem but works in Bethlehem, the Jerusalem government will confiscate his ID and refuse to reissue the residency permit he needs to stay).13 The list of injustices continues. Palestinian prisoners, numbering around 8,000 at the end of January 201414 (and including both women and many children under 18), endure severe conditions, legal violations, and harsh mistreatment, including torture. Palestinian refugees – over 7.4 million of them, representing 66 percent of the
9 “Statistics on Settlements and Settler Population,” B’Tselem. 10 DeVoir, Joseph, “Area C and the Jordan Valley,” Palestine Monitor Factbook 2012, p. 43. 11 “There’s Never Enough Absentees,” BADIL. 12 No Home, No Homeland, ICAHD, p. 1. 13 “Residency Status of Palestinians in East Jerusalem,” East Jerusalem: Humanitarian Concerns, OCHA, p. 14. 14 “Statistics on Palestinians in the custody of the Israeli security forces,” B’Tselem. Kairos-A Faith Based Instrument 19
total Palestinian population15 – await their return in many countries around the world, and many families have endured decades of dismal conditions in refugee camps. And Palestinians inside Israel face diverse forms of discrimination, receiving no reparations for the historical crimes committed against them. In the face of these historical and contemporary outrages, Palestinians have attempted many means of resistance, none of which have gained any ground. Palestinian rejection of Israel’s crimes against and humiliations of their homes and dreams is almost categorically written off as terrorism. The dozens of UN resolutions,16 passed in order to curb Israeli violations of international law, have been inadequately enforced. The endless political negotiations have reached a stalemate; there is no sign that the so-called “peace process” will advance, and much less that it will reach any kind of truly just outcome. These dead-ends are made even more frightening by the fact that, in recent years, the Israeli State and society have shifted wildly to the right – the ultra-right, veering towards fascism. New Israeli laws outlaw boycott and attack freedom of expression.17 The deadly 2010 attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla,18 in which nine activists were murdered and dozens wounded by Israeli military forces in international waters, left little to the imagination in terms of Israel’s commitment to crushing dissent. In a clear attempt to segregate the Palestinian reality under occupation from international eyes, Israel continues to deny Western travelers entry into Israel and Palestine. And recent years have witnessed a dramatic increase in silencing center and center-left media sources in Israel, part of widespread efforts to muffle and punish critical voices from within civil society.
What Have We Failed to See and Do? How Can We Change? Over time, the international community has ignored, neglected, misunderstood, or underestimated many factors that have, by this point, severely damaged concrete prospects for peace with justice in
15 Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, BADIL, p. 3. 16 “List of the UN resolutions concerning Israel and Palestine,” Wikipedia. 17 Lis, Jonathan, “Israel passes law banning calls for boycott,” in Haaretz. 18 Black, Ian and Siddique, Haroon, “Q&A: The Gaza Freedom flotilla,” in The Guardian. 20 theologies and cultures
Palestine and Israel. These prospects could remain immobilized if we do not join together and make full-fledged, courageous, nonviolent transformations, which is precisely what Kairos Palestine seeks to do. And, indeed, just as we must ultimately share responsibility for our equality, peace, and wellbeing, so too must we share responsibility for the crisis point we have reached.
Together, we have failed to fully grasp that: 1) Israel’s persistent settlement construction and land confiscation entail nothing less than the death of the two-state solution. Even more frightening is the gradual collapse of any possible way to solve this conflict peacefully. The so-called peace process perpetuates the myth – or what is now, realistically, a myth – that, if the Israelis and the Palestinians could simply stop bickering and make some agreements, then a clean line could be drawn down the middle of the land, with Palestinians on one side and Israelis on the other. This is no longer possible. As I commented before, there are now over 200 Israeli settlements and over 650,000 Israeli settlers living on land that, as far as the hypothetical two-state solution is concerned, would ultimately fall under Palestinian jurisdiction. And they keep building: for instance, on February 6 of this year, Israel approved construction permits for over 550 settlement units in East Jerusalem. 19 This is certainly a slap in the face to the peace process, to the Palestinians, to the international community, to everyone: but it isn’t just a slap in the face. It is a death knell.
Kairos Palestine believes that we must protest the construction of these facts on the ground so that a just solution to the conflict may be found – one that is both conceptually equitable and physically possible – whatever form this solution may take. Kairos Palestine calls for dismantling the physical apparatus of apartheid: halting illegal settlement construction, ceasing the unjust separation of Palestinians from each other by means of the Separation Wall and bypass roads; permitting Palestinian access to Jerusalem; equalizing the staggeringly discriminatory distribution of water and other key resources between Israeli and Palestinian communities; and so on.
19 Khadder, Kareem, “Israeli approves permits for new settlements in East Jerusalem,” in CNN. Kairos-A Faith Based Instrument 21
2) The international community has focused an enormous amount of time, energy, and attention on the subject of Israel’s right to exist. But very little has been invested on Palestinians’ right to live. The fact that only the former is viewed as a worthy and acceptable subject of discussion, but not the later, is harmful and unjust.
Kairos Palestine advocates changes in our discourse and an expansion of our focus, emphasizing the inalienable importance of Palestinian rights.
3) “Resistance” is a much-misunderstood word. Under international law, Palestinians, as an occupied people, technically have the right to resist by all legal means, including armed struggle. The vast majority of Palestinian resistance has been and continues to be nonviolent: peaceful protests, boycott, media campaigns, and so forth. Weak parties tend to resort to violence when their voices remain unheard.
Kairos Palestine calls for a) acknowledging the difference between violence and terrorism, as they are not always the same; b) recognizing that oppressors, in possessing the power within a conflict, are the ones who publically get to decide which kinds of resistance are legitimate, which is in itself unjust; and c) lending our support and our joint efforts to nonviolent actions like boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS, discussed further below).
4) Palestinians used to have strong relationships with the Israeli left – even the “Zionist left,” which I see as a contradiction in terms. These relationships were founded on the fact that we used to have an overall conceptual framework in common; our differences lay in the details. But over time, as some prominent voices from the Israeli left objected to the complete implementation of UN resolutions and tenets of international law (such as Palestinians’ right of return and the dismantling of all settlements), and as they said nothing to condemn the wars on Lebanon and Gaza, our relationship soured and the sense of a truly shared cause diminished.
Kairos Palestine asserts that human rights cannot be divided or selectively applied. Rights are rights. Respect for and commitment 22 theologies and cultures
to fundamental equalities, both for Palestinians and for all people, must be the bedrock of our joint work.
5) Most “dialogue” and normalization projects are part of an industry – and a profitable one at that. In the late 1990s, hundreds of organizations were created in the name of normalization. Ultimately, none had any real impact and most vanished once the money dried up. These projects managed to conceal the root causes of the conflict, stabilizing and strengthening the occupation rather than helping people perceive the oppressive, racist infrastructure of the Israeli state.
Kairos Palestine feels strongly that working relationships with Israeli organizations must be based on a shared, justice-centered struggle; they must not be forged just to satisfy donors or other people who would rather see Israelis and Palestinians dancing and picnicking together and then forget about the occupation. Further, we believe that normalization is a state of mind born of hope, self-trust, and genuine satisfaction. It is a process of truth and recognition, not a process of mutual back-batting and obligatory forgetfulness. Peace will lead to normalization, not the other way around.
6) The BDS movement came into being after the Palestinians had tried almost everything – armed struggle, diplomatic and political struggle, even terrorism – to no avail. It emerged, too, after a long silence from the world: 66 years of continuous Nakba (catastrophe) and 47 years of military occupation stifling what was left of Palestine. In this way, it serves as a reminder to all of us: a reminder of the international community’s failures, and the failures of international mechanisms like the UN, to hold Israel accountable. In other words, BDS and the anti-normalization movement is not only the most powerful tool of nonviolent resistance available to the Palestinian struggle for justice and self-determination – not to mention the most powerfully direct form of solidarity available to participants in this struggle around the world – but also the only remaining way for the left to gain momentum in Israel. The pressure from the growing BDS movement will provide enduring support to truly principled, justice-minded opposition.
Kairos-A Faith Based Instrument 23
Kairos Palestine urges churches and other communities around the world to join the BDS movement, raise awareness on its philosophy and methods, and launch specific boycott campaigns. At a time when bloodshed has been a primary strategy, diplomatic negotiations result in frustration and humiliation, and the international community has remained highly passive, BDS is an effective, peaceful tool that strengthens and unites Israeli, Palestinian, and international peacemakers – in a way that is both consistent with and enabling of democratic rights and responsibilities. Kairos Palestine also believes that the struggle against injustice is a personal, moral and ethical responsibility. BDS is not fundamentally about the Palestinian cause; it is about our cause as humans, defending the rights that connect us all. Further, BDS is not an end unto itself; it is, rather, an instrument designed to be used as long as Israel refuses to honor its obligations under international law. By affirming this tactic, we reject violence and revenge, emphasizing peaceful means of ending the occupation and strengthening international solidarity in the name of equality for all.
7) The mainstream Zionist discourse has appropriated religious messages, as well as the Bible itself, with the goal of excluding other peoples and cultures from the land and their rights. Indeed, Israel relies heavily on the Old Testament to exert and uphold its control over the land, focusing its state rhetoric on the concept of purity; a pure religion (Judaism), a pure nation (exclusively Jewish), and a pure race and ethnicity (the Jewish people). This narrative insists that all of these identities have never changed throughout history; it insists, too, that such purity denies the very presence, not to mention the rights, of any other communities in “their” land. Such rhetoric, moreover, does not open itself up to any discussion of sharing this land; the official tactic has been to slowly and steadily oppress the Palestinian people, the eventual goal being to wear us out and thus to drive us out. Why bother directly evicting Palestinians when it is possible to make life difficult enough for them to “transfer” themselves? This strategy, and its underlying mindset, is the foundation of Israeli apartheid.
Kairos Palestine rejects the appropriation of the Bible and its messages as instruments of political gain or geographic monopolization, and we work to deepen our forms of intellectual 24 theologies and cultures
and theological resistance. By this, we mean the need to change not only the physical systems of oppression, but also mentalities of oppression, which are systems in themselves. We encourage our Christian brothers and sisters around the world to engage in worship, reflection, and faith-based activism that prioritize the universality of God’s love, the equality we all deserve as human beings, and the right to tell our own stories as we have lived them.
8) This is a critical moment: the last chance for a peaceful solution in our region. The Cold War has resumed. The past few years have ushered in a new Arab World, a new Middle East; soon, too, a new Palestinian national movement will be formed. The only way to achieve a true and lasting peace will be through securing equal rights. This reality requires us all to understand a simple fact that decades of simplistic rhetoric and political fear-mongering have obscured: Palestinian rights are the channel of Israel’s continued existence. Today, the only parties who staunchly support the hegemony of Israeli occupation are the Zionist and Christian right-wing lobbies. Accordingly, the actors who are best positioned to truly confront them are the global church and Palestinian Christians together.
Kairos Palestine calls on the global church and all other communities of conscience to remember that the only genuine peace is peace with justice. To achieve this goal – this necessity – we must act swiftly, strategically, and concretely. We need to form a solid lobby of our own: the Peace with Justice Lobby.
And 9) As a general point of reflection: between the Israeli governments, the Palestinian governments, multiple international governments, and international bodies like the UN, no one has managed to make significant headway in bringing peace with justice to our region. But this reality should be a call to action, not just a lament. We, the people, must do what regimes have failed to do.
With Kairos Palestine, Palestinian Christians have tried to begin: the Kairos Document is meant to provide a platform, an impetus, a continuous call for solidarity and joint action towards the just peace we can only reach together.
The Main Pillars of Kairos Palestine: Faith, Hope, Love Kairos-A Faith Based Instrument 25
The Calls of the Kairos Faith, hope and love are like the steppingstones of our path toward a just peace: the substance not just of our faith, but also of our rights, resistance and future. We know that true justice – and true peace – is impossible without these three elements to guide us. But these word cans mean many things and can lead us in many directions. Here, I will discuss some of their implications for Kairos Palestine. Faith. We believe in one God who created all human beings in his/her image. In this way, we are all equals – Palestinians, Israelis, and everyone else – in our humanity and dignity; we are all equals before the justice, fairness, goodness, and love of God. Certainly, however, our belief in God does not mean that we passively depend on him as if our own human work were irrelevant or finished. Instead, we believe that we must work with God towards ending the injustice and oppression of our people. This, to us, is the very definition of faith in action. We believe in the Old Testament as well as the New, and we believe that God’s words can give all people hope and life; we refuse to believe that this hope and life should only apply to some countries or cultures while being used to sow despair and death in others. We reject the use of theology to justify ethical and spiritual crimes; occupation is nothing short of a sin, and attempts to justify it are tantamount to heresy. We believe that the Bible must never be used as a political program or a tool for domination, and we are outraged and concerned about the ways in which this has happened and continues to happen as a result of the Israeli occupation. We must remember that our conflict is a political one, and one that must be solved according to international law, UN resolutions, and universal human rights principles. In other words, we must take care not to misconstrue this conflict as a religious war, or to tolerate religious justifications of oppression. Hope. Hope, far from wishful thinking, is a vigorous, living force. Hope is fueled by action, and hope fuels action. Hope is a refusal to fall into the paralysis of despair. Despite our decades of oppression and loss, we see countless reasons to be hopeful. To name just a few: our people remain steadfast, working and resisting together. Our youth continue to study and advance, driven to learn and expand their possibilities, and they are active participants in church life and community projects alongside older generations. While the Palestinian emigration rate, including that of Palestinian Christians, is high, many 26 theologies and cultures
young, qualified Palestinians are coming back, wishing to invest their skills at home and working toward a strong, shared future. On the international level, more and more people in other countries are adding their voices against the injustices of occupation and in support of Palestinian rights; among these voices are those of churches and church communities around the world. The BDS movement is continually expanding and gaining momentum. More deeply principled Israeli organizations and individuals are working in solidarity with Palestinians, despite the shunning they receive from their own government. More Palestinians from different regions and circumstances – inside Israel, inside the oPt – are working together and reminding the world that our struggle is a shared one, and more Palestinians in the oPt are urging political unity between the two factions of Palestinian government. How could we despair in the face of such growth and change? We keep hoping, and we know that hope begets hope. Love. When we wrote the section of the Kairos Document entitled “Love,” we intended to emphasize the reality of love as a decision, as a task, as a challenge, and we placed this challenge before our community. For a long time, the Israeli propaganda machine has accused Palestinians of “speaking two languages”: one discourse in English (for an international image) and another in Arabic (for each other); publicly crying for peace and privately promoting hatred. We are aware of these accusations and we do not want our emotional and political realities to be defined by them. And so, in the Kairos Document (in Arabic), we sought to challenge our people with the very most important commandment: love your enemy. But how? is the frequent response. How can the oppressed love their oppressors? Ultimately, this challenge is not particular to Palestinians. It is a challenge for churches everywhere, for Christians all around the world, to Israelis, to humanity itself. It is a challenge born of Palestinian Christians’ insistence on the power of love, as expressed in the Kairos Document, and on the need to love equally, honestly, and openly. The challenge works in several directions. An oppressed people challenge their fellow humans, too, by practicing the belief that we must always find God’s image in the face of our oppressors and we must love them. Loving them does not mean that we stop suffering, or forget this suffering, or condone oppression. On the contrary: loving Kairos-A Faith Based Instrument 27
them means that we must demand the end of oppression. Both oppressor and oppressed will be liberated by helping the latter cease its cruelty. And, in the process, we must resist oppression so that they may see both their own humanity and ours. Love is responsibility: the responsibility of the oppressors to stop oppressing, the responsibility of the oppressed to resist oppression, and the responsibility of the world to love both: to practice that love by abandoning double standards and working to end the evils of occupation. If love is a commandment from God, then resistance is necessarily part of it – as both a duty and a right. Kairos Palestine stresses, however, that we advocate a particular kind of resistance: loving, creative resistance, one based not on hatred or vengeance, but rather on respecting the fundamental dignity and humanity of all people, including those who have hurt us. This is a resistance that honors the power and possibility in every life.
Onward As we move forward, guided by these beliefs, we can clearly see how many diverse and powerful tools are available to us in ending the occupation. The global BDS campaign. Churches’ work in revisiting, rethinking and reflecting on their theologies with respect to the conflict in Palestine and Israel. Responsible, solidarity-minded travel through the “Come and See,” an opportunity offered by Kairos Palestine and our partners to visit our communities, talk with Palestinians about their experiences, and see reality in the ground (I will further discuss the “Come and See” campaign below); to plant an olive tree as participants in the project led by the YMCA/YWCA Joint Advocacy Initiative (JAI) 20 ; to engage with church organizations, youth groups, or academic communities in contacting and lobbying governments and politicians about the occupation and its oppression. These are just a few manifestations of loving resistance, and there are countless within reach: we must support each other in acting on them. In the end, Kairos Palestine is concerned both with changing actions and policy and with changing a narrative and a mentality: both the concrete mechanisms and the sweeping environment of justice. To put our convictions into practice – and then to transform this practice into enduring collaborative efforts – we have undertaken and
20 Olive Tree Campaign, http://www.ycareinternational.org/get- involved/campaign/olive-tree-campaign/ 28 theologies and cultures
developed a wide range of events, activities and tools on many levels: local, national, and international. These events are the manifestation of our faith, hope and love in action: 1) Kairos Palestine has formulated a national Kairos movement comprising a diverse range of individuals and communities: young people; adults, both men and women; community-based and ecumenical organizations; and clergy members. This movement – working in direct cooperation with other Christian organizations and churches, as well as with other national groups, both faith-based and secular – works to raise the voice of Palestinian Christians. It is drawn from and focused on Palestinian Christians’ steadfastness, courage and creativity, and seeks to expand their role in the overall struggle for a just peace. 2) We are also establishing an international “Kairos for Global Justice” movement. The seeds of this movement were sown at a conference held in Bethlehem in which 60 representatives from over 15 countries agreed to organize themselves toward mobilizing churches and Christian organizations to work for a just peace in the region. Today, the movement primarily works to support BDS campaigns; advocate against some churches’ blind loyalty to Israel and against their silence in the face of oppression; and lobby such churches to stop investing, both directly and indirectly, in the occupation of our land. 3) In cooperation with the World Council of Churches’ Palestine- Israel Ecumenical Forum, we established a group called the PIEF/Kairos BDS Task Force: this will be the instrument for inviting and encouraging more churches to join the global BDS campaign. 4) As mentioned above, Kairos Palestine and its partners have organized and continue to develop the “Come and See” call, working to mobilize tourists as advocates and ambassadors by encouraging them to undergo “Pilgrimages of transformation” and implement the Code of Ethics launched by the Palestinian Initiative for Responsible Tourism. The “Come and See” call is a concrete way of celebrating, defending and disseminating Palestinian narratives: narratives that have been systematically silenced by Israel’s hegemonic historical, religious and cultural discourse. 5) Kairos Palestine is launching various campaigns, both national and international, to lobby and advocate for Palestinian rights, challenging the theological and political justifications adopted by Kairos-A Faith Based Instrument 29
some churches to neglect or deny the oppression of Palestinians. These campaigns include product-specific boycotts; researching some churches’ social investments and inquiring as into whether they financially contributing to companies that support occupation; approaching church tour operators and assessing the historical fairness of their presentations; advocating the importance of patronizing Palestinian businesses in the oPt; and urging global churches to designate one day of the year as a “Day of Kairos,” raising awareness about events in Palestine and Israel and encouraging solidarity. Another important campaign is found in the Christmas Alerts we have issued during the past two years, and which we will continue to undertake: these alerts raise awareness about the specific situation facing the Bethlehem area, the ongoing (and increasing) damage dealt to this place and is inhabitants by the policies and infrastructure of occupation. This year, too, we will start issuing Easter Alerts to highlight the specific plight of Jerusalem, as well as the lack of access to this city’s holy places and other harsh measures levied against Jerusalem and Jerusalemites. And 6) we are using all ecumenical forums available – such as the Vatican, the World Council of Churches, and other regional faith- based bodies – and exhorting them to lobby governments around the world so that they, in turn, will pressure Israel to comply with international law.
Conclusion Kairos Palestine believes that true activism consists not only of summarizing and re-describing reality, but also of regenerating it. In other words, our campaigns on ending Israeli apartheid seek not only to end something, but also to create something else: to dig up injustice by the roots, to plant the seeds of peace with justice in its place, and tenderly cultivate what blossoms there. The metaphor of growth and new life is indeed the most appropriate, I feel, because it is impossible to freely flourish amid oppression: only when apartheid is eradicated will we, both Palestinians and Israelis, be able to fully live. Our goal, after all, is life.
Bibliography
BADIL, “There’s Never Enough Absentees,” on BADIL: Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. Spring 2005. 30 theologies and cultures
http://www.badil.org/en/youth-education-a-activation- project/item/901-there's-never-enough-absentees
BADIL, Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, 2010-2012, Volume V. Ed. Nidal al-Azza. On BADIL: Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. 2012, p. xxii and 3. http://www.badil.org/phocadownload/Badil_docs/publications/Survey 2012.pdf
Bartlett, Eva, “Living the Nakba in Gaza,” in Electronic Intifada. 23 May 2010. http://electronicintifada.net/content/living-nakba-gaza/8838
Black, Ian and Siddique, Haroon, “Q&A: The Gaza Freedom flotilla,” in The Guardian. 31 May 2010. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/may/31/q-a-gaza-freedom- flotilla
B’Tselem, “Statistics on Settlements and Settler Population,” on B’Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. Updated 8 August 2013. http://www.btselem.org/settlements/statistics
B’Tselem, “Statistics on Palestinians in the custody of the Israeli security forces,” on B’Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. Updated 23 February 2014. http://www.btselem.org/statistics/detainees_and_prisoners
DeVoir, Joseph, Palestine Monitor Factbook 2012, on Palestine Monitor. Palestine Monitor – Exposing Life Under Occupation and HDIP – The Health, Development and Information Policy Institute: 2012. pp. 2, 8, 43. http://www.palestinemonitor.org/list.php?id=h1gqifa85y5xjb7ml8k
Kairos Palestine Group, “A Moment of Truth,” December 2009. http://www.Kairospalestine.ps/?q=content/document
Khadder, Kareem, “Israeli approves permits for new settlements in East Jerusalem,” on CNN. 6 February 2014. Kairos-A Faith Based Instrument 31
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/06/world/meast/israel-new- settlements/
Lis, Jonathan, “Israel passes law banning calls for boycott,” in Haaretz. 11 July, 2011. http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy- defense/israel-passes-law-banning-calls-for-boycott-1.372711
“List of the UN resolutions concerning Israel and Palestine,” on Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_UN_resolutions_concerning_ Israel_and_Palestine
OCHA, “Residency Status of Palestinians in East Jerusalem,” in East Jerusalem: Humanitarian Concerns. OCHA: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, occupied Palestinian territory. March 2011, p. 14. http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_jerusalem_report_2011 _03_23_web_english.pdf
Schaeffer, Emily, No Home, No Homeland: A New Normative Framework for Examining the Practice of Administrative Home Demolitions in East Jerusalem, on ICAHD: The Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions. 1 January 2012, p. 1. http://www.icahd.org/node/237
theologies and cultures, Vol. XI, No 1 June 2014, pp. 32-41
Kairos: Exploring the Idea of Justice in Palestine From a Woman’s Perspective
Nora Carmi1
In the introduction to the Kairos Palestine document entitled “A Moment of Truth”, the fifteen Palestinian Christian co-authors clearly declared that a word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering was a “call to justice and equality among all peoples” starting from the region torn apart by injustice and apartheid, that still prevails as a result of: 1. Theologies that justify crimes perpetrated against our people and the dispossession of the land, and 2. Disregard for international law that should be able to put pressure on Israel to put an end to its oppression.2 The ultimate aim of Kairos is therefore justice for “All”. Now more than ever, we have a responsibility to find ways of redressing injustice in Palestine/Israel. Knowing the obstacles to a just peace, as mentioned above, how do we face the challenges and what are the tools needed to ensure that justice prevails? But, what is justice and what is it really that we are exploring, as a people, and more concretely as women? Before I go further into the exploration of the concept of justice, a universal idea with various nuances and different understandings,
1 Ms. Nora Carmi is Project coordinator, Kairos Palestine, Coordinator, Kairos Global and was formerly Community Builder with Sabeel Ecumenical Theology Center 2 Adapted from Kairos Palestine document: A moment of Truth, 2009 , p.2 Kairos- Palestinian Women’s Perspective 33
allow me to share with you what the three women, who were involved in the writing of the Kairos document, expressed: Justice to me is to apply the Golden Rule: Do to others what you would that they should also do to you (Cedar Duaybis) To me justice is upholding rightfulness and lawfulness of the Palestinian cause, our ‘chronic’ cause. Justice is the concept, an ethical principle where all people are ruled by country laws that provide safety, security and equality. Unfortunately, this is absent under the Israeli occupation that the occupiers refer to as ‘a benign occupation’. (Nora Kort) Justice is a feeling that my voice is heard. I have the right to choose my own way of life, away from coercion of patriarchal society. I aspire to practice my free participation in social public life and to contribute in building my society, side by side with the male counterpart, based on equal partnership respect and gender equity. I also look for the day to be free from the (Israeli) occupation and live in a free independent country based on Human Rights, where women rights are respected. (Lucy Thaljieh). This study looks into justice as understood from a faith perspective, since this land is the cradle of three monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, which, if lived and practiced truthfully in a prophetical way, and not only preached through words, can become an effective guiding measure for harmonious living among peoples. This is no way a total, comprehensive study, hence I will present: 1. Some general definitions of justice 2. The requirements of Justice in the Palestine/Israel context as understood by Palestinian women NOW.
What is Justice? The Greek philosopher Aristotle defined justice as refraining from pleonexia, that is refraining from gaining some advantage for oneself by seizing what belongs to another’s property, reward, office: or by denying a person that which is his or her due- the fulfillment of a promise, the repayment of a debt, or the showing of proper respect.3
33 John Rawls, Theory of Justice (Harvard: The Belknap Press, 1971) p.10
34 theologies and cultures
Webster dictionary defines it as the quality of being righteous; impartiality; fairness; The quality of being right or correct. A third definition on Wikipedia net has the following:
Justice is the concept of moral righteousness based on ethics, rationality, equity and fairness. Justice takes into account the inalienable and inborn rights of all human beings and citizens, the right of all people and individuals to equal protection before the law of their civil rights without discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, color, ethnicity or religion4
We gather that Justice is an ethical concept, inclusive of social justice, and is very much in accord with the definitions of the above mentioned female co-authors. In chapter 5 of Palestinian liberation theologian, Naim Stifan Ateek’s5 “Justice and Only Justice”, there is a detailed analysis of the understanding of justice in Hebrew scriptures connected directly with God, clearly advising the rulers of Israel then and today which path to walk. I refer to only a few:
God is called the God of justice (Is. 30:18; Ps 119:137). Justice is God’s measuring line (Is. 28:17).Righteousness is God’s plumb line. God’s justice is not for only one nation and especially the oppressed. It embraces all. “He judges the world with righteousness He judges the people with equity The Lord is stronghold for the oppressed, A stronghold in time of trouble.” (Ps. 9:7-9)
In the situation of Palestine/Israel today, we notice that the people who should abide by the Book have intentionally blinded themselves and refuse to listen to the prophets or the word of God.
4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice 5 Naim Stifan Ateek, Justice and Only Justice” (New York: Orbis Books, 1989) Kairos- Palestinian Women’s Perspective 35
He has showed you, O man, what is good: and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8) No wonder that later, Jesus cried over Jerusalem in Luke 19:-42 because “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes” Theologically, God who is the God of justice is also conceived as the God of power and might. God, the source of all power gives power to human beings in order to fulfill the divine purpose of justice and peace in the world. Power is, therefore, entrusted by God to people; but like all trusts, it can either be used responsibly or abused terribly6. Though the symbol of justice has been illustrated with the picture of a blind woman with a balance in one hand and a sword in the other, that implication of a harsh justice does not fit in with the perception of the righteous, compassionate and merciful God whom we have come to know through Jesus Christ. According to Yasmine Khoury “justice means the ability to realize the basic framework of moral righteousness based on fairness in an attempt to return to the gospel and see theology from the perspective of the poor and the oppressed. Justice is the word of God as a source of equal life for all peoples” At the beginning of his ministry, and in his proclamation in Nazareth, Jesus listed the steps that he would take to uplift the dignity of the human being in order to ensure that justice will prevail. (Luke 4:18) Release to the Captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are down trodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. Are these not important elements included in the declaration of the Universal Human Rights? The favorable year of the Lord is this opportune moment, the Kairos, when we see God’s gifts in the midst of our suffering and taking action. As Palestinian women, we see ourselves as downtrodden and know that” Women’s struggle must necessarily be for two forms of liberation-the political emancipation of all Palestinians and the social and cultural emancipation of women within that process”7 Justice therefore means liberation from 1) the Israeli occupation and 2) equity and equal rights in the Palestinian State
6Ibid., A Palestinian Cry for justice and compassion p.123 7UNDP and KVINNA till KVINNA 31 October 2010)
36 theologies and cultures
Israel Occupation – A Sin Against God The Israeli Occupation is “a sin against God and humanity because it deprives the Palestinians of their basic human rights, bestowed by God” (Kairos document 2.5) and thus ending of occupation would not only put an end to imprisonment of women (currently there are 22 Palestinian women incarcerated in Israeli jails) but it would lift the enormous burden they carry as wives and mothers whose husbands and children are imprisoned, deported, or killed. 8 Palestinians live under an oppressive occupation that tramples upon the dignity of all, including women and children in defiance of humanitarian feelings and laws. Today, the cry for justice with compassion resonates in the country by the whole Palestinian population and, yes, by women too. The Kairos Document that holds a clear position that non-violent resistance to the injustice is a right and duty for all Palestinians not excluding women, translates women’s aspirations for security for their children and families and for harmonious living. Hence participation in non-violent weekly marches, sit-ins, demonstrations, campaigns for the implementation of BDS movement in cooperation with women’s groups from Israel and International movements are efforts to demand justice. No woman of any nation wants her children killed to satisfy the greed of warmongers. Suad Younan gathered the components of Justice in her quotation: “Justice entails the creation of a healthy environment which is free from socio-political and psychological barriers that hinder growth, and which increases community involvement ensuring equal chances in life and participation. We must not only work to silence wars and violations of human rights but we must dedicate ourselves to responding in silencing the cries of the excluded, the hungry and the oppressed.” For Samia Nasir Khoury, author of Reflections from Palestine,9 political justice can start with the recognition of having committed an injustice, a genuine confession and repentance, a call for forgiveness, a desire to admit the humanity of the other. Her experience with a former Israeli soldier Joseph Ben Eliezer, who had taken part in the expulsion of Palestinians from Lydda (Lod) in 1948 and realized his committing the same injustice that he and his family had endured as a
8See WCLAC reports and studies-http://www.wclac.org 9A journey of Hope: a memoir, Rimal Publications 2014 Kairos- Palestinian Women’s Perspective 37
Jew made him decide to change his life and demand forgiveness. A truly moving story to be read on pages 65-66 in the above mentioned book. Another element added to justice in accordance with the basic principle proclaimed in the Kairos Document “resistance as part of love”
Love is seeing the face of God in every human being. Every person is my brother and sister. However, seeing the face of God in everyone does not mean accepting evil or aggression on their part. Further, this love seeks to correct the evil and stop the aggression (Kairos document 4:2.1)
Of course, resorting to International Law, if put into practice, may yield possible results of pressure, sanctions, accountability, liberation and peace but for over the past 65 years, international law has not achieved any form of justice for the Palestinians, on the political arena, and definitely not peace. Though the document Kairos Palestine does not have a special focus or demand for women, it is always addressing ‘sisters and brothers’ implicitly taking for granted the oneness of humanity as expressed in Genesis 1:2-7.
“So God created man (human beings) in his image, in the image of God created him, Male and female, he created them and God blessed them.”
In God’s plan for humanity, God blessed both genders and God intends for them to experience oneness and to work side by side, and together have an equal status in the stewardship of the earth. Kairos Women depend on that certitude and not the further interpretation of the writers who belonged only to one gender and reflect much of the traditional approach of the patriarchal societies to which Lucy Thaljieh alluded earlier in order to have justice. God’s plan is evident in the biblical revelations, and more so through the concept of a subversive kingdom that Jesus Christ introduced, that men and women are equal in terms of substance and value, privilege and responsibility, function and authority in all areas of life because God is The Creator, Forgiver, Equipper and Preserver of dignity. As Christians, we learn about justice from the revolutionary Jesus who, defying the traditions and customs of his faith lifted the down- 38 theologies and cultures
trodden women, considered as lesser and weaker persons by the patriarchal cultures. Many stories in the gospels confirm that- Jesus encouraging women (Mary) to sit at his feet and listen to the “rabbi” a place designated traditionally only for men; he broke the social and political taboo of gender by speaking to the Samaritan woman, a woman and an enemy; forgiveness of sins unacceptable in the society then:, He stood by the adulteress, praised the poor widow who donated her last penny, and lifted the status of women who became the first ambassadors to spread the news of his resurrection. Without using the word justice or righteousness, He showed us the way to justice that would lead to true peace. However, we know that in later stages of Christianity and until today, there has not always been justice for women given by the hierarchies that claim to follow Jesus. On how many grounds do we have to struggle? Jean Zaru10, the only Palestinian woman to hold a high position in church circles today, as presiding clerk of the Ramallah Friends Meeting (Quakers) says: “All justice issues are interrelated and interconnected. All structures of violence and domination whether religious, economic, political, cultural and environmental should be transformed to liberate us all. We are for a spirituality of equality, human dignity and human rights” Yes, Israeli Occupation needs to end but would justice mean evicting the families who have occupied our houses as they did to us back in 1948, would we demolish their homes and uproot their trees, desecrate their religious sites and try to obliterate even the memory of their existence? No, for us, it is justice with compassion that we are calling for. And once the occupation is removed, Palestinian women would still have to struggle for personal justice, for the preservation of their dignity as human beings created in the image of God. Palestinian women’s demands are based on God’s Justice and international laws starting with the Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR) 1948, the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) 1979, Declaration on the elimination of violence against women (1993) and of course UN Security Council 1325: s/res/1325 (2000) It is important to see how these are all applicable within the Palestinian laws and legislation. The UNDP published “A review of
10Author of Occupied with Non-violence: Amazon 2008
Kairos- Palestinian Women’s Perspective 39
Palestinian Legislation from a women’s rights perspective” in March 2012 as part of the UNDP Rule of Law and Access to Justice program11 In the absence of a normal state, even when recognized as an observer State by the UN, that is constricted by Israeli siege and strangulation, and shaken to the core by internal strife; ensuring justice is not an easy task. The democratic elections of 2006 that brought to power Hamas was automatically outlawed and blacklisted by the so called democratic superpowers and the Palestinian Legislative Council has not met for eight years now because of two separate governments in Gaza and Ramallah! In any area of conflict it is women who are the first victims and the status of Palestinian women also deteriorated, hence the importance of international bodies such as the UN to try and help implement at least the universally recognized international laws. The UNDP program aimed at strengthening the institutional capacities of the Palestinian justice system to uphold rule of law and at improving access to justice through legal empowerment of the poor and disadvantaged, under a joint program with UN Women. Such efforts equip women with the channels to demand their rights which will guarantee justice at all times, hence the importance of understanding UN Resolution 1325 that reaffirms both political and social justice in times of war and also reaffirms the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts by emphasizing “ the responsibility of All States to put an end to impunity and to prosecute those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, especially those related to sexual and other violence against women and girls.”(2000) According to the Deputy Minister of Justice in an evaluation meeting held in January 2013, “ is the first time that any program has provided specialists within the ministry. If there had not been a UNDP program, the ministry of Justice would have been abandoned. An important early initiative by the women’s movement pre- Palestinian authority, a human rights study based on the principle of equality entitled On the law and future of Palestinian women12was presented to a “Model Parliament”. However women in Palestine
11http://www.undp.ps/en/newsroom/publications/pdf/other/Legislative%20en glish.pdf 12On the law and future of Palestinian women, Advocate Asma Khader 40 theologies and cultures
today still suffer in the areas of criminal law and personal status legislation, through which reforms were proposed. In order to ensure that new legislation is effective, reformers must look beyond legal jurisprudence to consider compatibility of the proposed rules with other legal, political, economic and social factors and the enactment of new laws should be understood as part of a process, rather than as the entire process13. Palestinian women demand justice in the personal status law concerning marriage, divorce, child custody, marital property, labor law, legal status and criminal law with a strong focus on violence against women. Honor killing is still tolerated and lightly punished. There have already been 8 such killings in 2014. Despite reforms, and celebration of international women’s day, Palestinian women are still crying out loud for justice. Palestinian households pursue claims in religious, rather than civil courts that process family cases since the institution of ‘civil’ marriage does not exist in Palestine and all marriage related cases; divorce, inheritance and custody are processed in either Sharia or Church courts. Needless to say that these are not 100% fair to women and do not give equal rights, but these courts are the quicker and cheaper dispute resolution forums available. Family cases processed by religious courts rarely require further investigations, apprehension of suspects or other interventions which are rather difficult in an occupied context that restricts the freedom of movement. Asking redress for criminal cases in civil courts involves delays, cost and frustration so pursuing formal justice becomes even more challenging. Many women will fight for national justice, but few are those who can bear the pressure of traditions and norms in the society for their own personal justice. Justice is not given. We have to remain steadfast like the persistent widow in Luke 18: 1-8 until the heartless judge at the end said: “This widow bothers me; I will give her legal protection” For women, justice should liberate but with regards to the other, it should not be a selfish demand. In Samia Khoury’s words” As a mother and grandmother, justice to me is at the chore of peace of mind, peace at home and at work. In any conflict, justice is the prerequisite for peace. In any household, there will be trouble if David gets a bigger piece of chocolate than Tom’s” and for the Palestinian women denied all national, political and social rights both from the
13Faundez J. Legal Reform in Developing and Transition Countries- making haste Slowly, Law Social Justice and Global Development, 2000) Kairos- Palestinian Women’s Perspective 41
Israeli occupation, and the State, as well as religious circles, how will the Kairos moment to promote this moral quality that perfects human beings as equals and paves the way to reaching out to others in a hurting world? This is our Kairos moment. Let us not lose this opportunity to preserve the dignity of humanity of which women are an integral basic driving force. Justice is a prerequisite for true peace. In the words of Pope John XXIII14: “It is a most exalted task, for it is a task bringing about true peace in the order established by God-an order founded on truth, built according to justice, vivified and integrated by charity, and put into practice in freedom” Only then will we see “a new land” and a” new human being” capable of rising up in the spirit to love each one of his or her brothers and sisters (Kairos Palestine 10)
14Pope John XXIII, Pacem in Terris, p. 76
theologies and cultures, Vol. XI, No 1 June 2014, pp. 42-83
The Moment of Grace and Opportunity: The Global Kairos Movement For Justice in the Holy Land
Mark Braverman1
A Moment of Truth for South Africa
This is the KAIROS, the moment of grace and opportunity, the favorable time in which God issues a challenge to decisive action. “The Kairos Document: Challenge to the Church,” South Africa, 1985
By the mid-1980s the government of South Africa was contemplating its own fall. The outlawed and exiled African National Congress was escalating the armed struggle. The townships seethed in the face of brutal military repression. World governments were joining the global movement to sanction the country economically and isolate it politically and culturally. Still, the Pretoria government clung to power. And then the church acted. In 1985 a group of South African pastors and theologians brought out a prophetic document that took an unequivocal stand against the apartheid regime, speaking out directly against complicity of the churches. Titled “Challenge to the Church, A Theological Comment on the Political Crisis in South Africa,” this
1 Mark Braverman is a Jewish liberation theologian and is currently the program director of Kairos USA, an American Christian movement that was inspired by Kairos Palestine and that has issued its own statement, entitled “Call to Action: a U.S. Christian response to the Palestine Kairos document.” Global Kairos Movement 43
prophetic statement is commonly known as the South Africa Kairos document. Whereas previous theological documents critical of apartheid had already condemned it as a “false gospel” and “sinful” (“The Message to the People of South Africa,” issued by the South African Council of Churches in 1968) and as a “heresy” (The “Belhar Confession of the Dutch Reformed Mission Church,” 1982), the Kairos document went further, declaring the apartheid regime illegitimate and calling for its fall. The authors declared it to be their duty as Christians “to refuse to cooperate with tyranny and to do whatever we can to remove it.” 2 The Kairos South Africa document articulated a moral imperative to recognize the evil of apartheid and to take direct and clear action to address it. But true to its title, the main thrust of this historic document was to present a theological imperative -- challenging the faithful, in the words of one of its authors, theologian Charles Villa-Vicencio, to “wrench the church from its slumbers.” “A church, wrote Villa- Vicencio several years after the publication of the Kairos document, “trapped in the dominant structures of oppression, controlled by entrenched bureaucracy, [and] conditioned by a history of compromise” at its peril ignores the voices of the oppressed. 3 The document addressed itself directly to the South African church’s history of complicity with apartheid, describing the “church theology” that had rendered the church ineffective against the racist policies of the government. It announced that a profound crisis for the church had arrived -- a “moment of truth,” in the words of the document, “that shows us up for what we really are.” The authors announced their goal clearly: “a critique of the current theological models that determine the type of activities the Church engages in to try to resolve the problems of the country…to develop, out of this perplexing situation, an alternative biblical and theological model that will in turn lead to
2 Kairos South Africa: “Challenge to the Church: A Theological Comment on the Political Crisis in South Africa” In Kairos: Three Prophetic Challenges to the Church, ed. Robert McAfee Brown, 17-69. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1990. 3 Charles Villa-Vicencio, Trapped in Apartheid (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1988), 200, 201. 44 theologies and cultures
forms of activity that will make a real difference to the future of our country. 4 This willingness of church leaders to take a bold stance on this urgent issue of social justice was presaged in 1982 when the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) meeting in Ottawa, Canada declared the world body in status confessionis because of its failure to directly confront the apartheid practices of its South African member churches. At that time, the WARC suspended the South African member churches and was soon joined by churches on a global level in support of those South Africans, in the churches as well as members of student, labor and political movements, committed to fundamental political change. The overwhelming support of the global church for civil society resistance to apartheid accelerated the political and economic sanctions against the state that brought about the change in government in 1994.
Public theology and church renewal The most striking feature of the South Africa Kairos document is its uncompromising analysis of how the South African church had supported apartheid. The authors took aim at the church’s appropriation of words and concepts such as reconciliation, justice, and nonviolence that amounted to a betrayal of core Christian theological precepts. “In our situation in South Africa today,” they wrote, “it would be totally un-Christian to plead for reconciliation and peace before the present injustices have been removed. Any such plea plays into the hands of the oppressor by trying to persuade those of us who are oppressed to accept our oppression and to become reconciled to the intolerable crimes that are committed against us. That is not Christian reconciliation, it is sin. No reconciliation is possible in South Africa without justice.” (emphasis in original) 5 The document demonstrated how justice had come to mean “the justice of reform” -- concessions offered by the ruling power to the oppressed that rather than remove actually served to strengthen the system of inequality, and how the use of the concept of nonviolence legitimated the violence of the oppressor while criminalizing the protest of the oppressed.
4 Kairos South Africa, “Challenge to the Church.” 5 Kairos South Africa, “Challenge to the Church.” Global Kairos Movement 45
In taking this stance against the complicity of the church, these South African church leaders – through all the years of struggle a minority among their peers – stood in opposition to the very institutions of which they were a part. Not only did these clergy, academics and heads of church organizations position themselves against the evil of apartheid -- they often had to stand up to those members of the faith community who insisted that “the church and politics do not mix.” A key point, therefore, in understanding kairos theology and kairos movements in every historical era is that they represent a church struggle. In their aptly named The Church Struggle in South Africa, South African theologians John and Steve De Gruchy write:
The church is called to bear witness to the Kingdom of God in the world…This being so, a faithful church will always find itself in tension with society. For this reason, the church desperately needs the presence of prophetic movements…for these movements provide the critique that forces the church to a new assessment of itself. Such movements are part of God’s way of renewing the church in every generation and situation. 6
The unwillingness to compromise on core issues, coupled with the willingness to step outside the strictures of the institutional church, characterizes the kairos documents that followed the South African document of 1985. Kairos is a public theology – a theology whose function, in the words of theologian Duncan Forrester, is to “contribute to a public discussion by witnessing to a truth which is relevant to what is going on in the world and to the pressing issues facing people and society today.” 7 In this, it hearkens back to the original kairos, the confrontation of a visionary, prophetic figure with the evil of empire – the man from Galilee standing up to the greatest power in the world. As distinct from the Greek kronos, meaning chronological time, kairos exists outside of our linear counting of days weeks and years. It is the right or favorable moment, when history
6 John W. de Gruchy and Steve de Gruchy, The Church Struggle in South Africa (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 2005), p. 111. 7 Forrester, Duncan B., Truthful Action: Explorations in Practical Theology (Edinburgh: T&T Clark), 2000. 127. 46 theologies and cultures
opens up to the possibility for fundamental change, when, to quote Robert McAfee Brown, “God offers a new set of possibilities and we have to accept or decline.” 8 The first kairos embodied three key elements: (1) an urgent sociopolitical situation – the tyranny of Rome -- that threatened the economic and social fabric of a village-based agrarian society based on social justice and compassion for the most vulnerable; (2) a God-given ethical and spiritual tradition, rooted in a civilization under mortal threat by a tyrannical system; and (3) the appearance of a prophetic witness, teacher and leader who called his people and their leadership to nonviolent resistance to that tyranny, a resistance based on faithfulness to the essence of their tradition. Jesus knew that the challenge of the historical circumstances required a return to the essential truths of the Jewish tradition, truths that had been betrayed by the monarchical/priestly system installed in Jerusalem in open and active collaboration with the Roman occupier. The South African document was followed a series of kairos statements originating from other national, regional and international contexts. “Kairós Centroamericano: A Challenge to the Churches of the World” emerged in 1988, followed by “The Road to Damascus: Kairos and Conversion” from Africa, Central America and Asia in 1989, A Kairos for Kenya in 1991, the European Kairos document in 1998, and documents from the United States, Zimbabwe, and India in 1994, 1998, and1999. Authored by theologians, clergy and laypersons, these documents rejected the reforms that had been proposed or undertaken by governments and nongovernmental groups, moves intended to preserve rather than remove the structural injustice embedded in the political systems. Invoking the fundamental Christian principles of equality and compassion, the authors of these document declared that in the face of forces arrayed to maintain unjust systems, the church faces a fundamental crisis -- in the words of Road to Damascus “the time for a decisive turnabout on the part of those groups and individuals who have consciously or unconsciously compromised their Christian faith for political, economic and selfish reasons.” 9 Echoing Jesus’ admonition in Luke 12:56, each document called on the church and on global society as a whole to “read the signs of the times,” conditions as inescapably compelling as those that
8 Brown, Robert McAfee, ed., Kairos: Three Prophetic Challenges to the Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1990), 3. 9 “The Road to Damascus: Kairos and Conversion.” in Brown, 114 Global Kairos Movement 47
engendered the life-changing experience after which the 1990 “Road to Damascus” was named. Kairos was the fortunate time, it was God’s time.
A Moment of Truth Following the end of Apartheid in 1994, except for the emergence of Archbishop Desmond Tutu as a world-renowned religious leader and proponent of nonviolent resistance, the role of the church in that struggle was largely forgotten, as was the role of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in the global movement that brought an end to legalized racism in South Africa. In recent years, however, the concept of kairos and the church activism it represents has revived with the steady growth in awareness of the historic and ongoing oppression of the Palestinians. Indeed, the South African document set the standard for the Palestine Kairos document of 2009, entitled “A Moment of Truth: A Word of Faith, Hope and Love from the Heart of Palestinian Suffering.” Also known as “Kairos Palestine,” the document, written by Palestinian clergy, theologians and civil society leaders from across the ecumenical spectrum, clearly and boldly presented the “signs of the times:” a brutal and worsening occupation that was the continuation of a program of ethnic cleansing that had begun with the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948. It articulated a theology that required nonviolent resistance to the evil of occupation: “resistance with love as its logic.” Naming the Israeli occupation a sin, it called out to the international community, reserving its final appeal for the church itself: “What is the international community doing? What are the political leaders in Palestine, in Israel and in the Arab world doing? What is the Church doing?” 10 It is this last question that most urgently occupied the authors and is the key message of Kairos Palestine. The document calls the church to its core mission:
The mission of the church is prophetic; to speak the Word of God courageously, honestly and lovingly in the local context and in the midst of daily events. If she does take sides, it is
10 Kairos Palestine: “A Moment of Truth: A Word of Faith, Hope and Love from the Heart of Palestinian Suffering. http://www.kairospalestine.ps/sites/default/Documents/English.pdf, accessed January 15, 2014. 48 theologies and cultures
with the oppressed, to stand alongside them, just as Christ our Lord stood by the side of each poor person and each sinner, calling them to repentance, life, and the restoration of the dignity bestowed on them by God and that no one has the right to strip away. 11
The theology is straightforward and contextually grounded:
We declare that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land is a sin against God and humanity because it deprives the Palestinians of their basic human rights, bestowed by God. It distorts the image of God in the Israeli who has become an occupier just as it distorts this image in the Palestinian living under occupation. We declare that any theology, seemingly based on the Bible or on faith or on history, that legitimizes the occupation, is far from Christian teachings, because it calls for violence and holy war in the name of God Almighty, subordinating God to temporary human interests, and distorting the divine image in the human beings living under both political and theological injustice. 12
Key to its opposition to the misuse of theology to justify dispossession and conquest is the document’s concise articulation of a theology of land.
Our land is God’s land, as is the case with all countries in the world. It is holy in as much as God is present in it, for God alone is holy and sanctifier. It is the duty of those of us who live here, to respect the will of God for this land. It is our duty to liberate it from the evil of injustice and war. It is God’s land and therefore it must be a land of reconciliation, peace and love. This is indeed possible. God has put us here as two peoples, and God gives us the capacity if we have the will, to live together and establish in it justice and peace, making it in reality God’s land: ‘The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it’. 13
11 Kairos Palestine, “A Moment of Truth” 12 Kairos Palestine, “A Moment of Truth” 13 Kairos Palestine, “A Moment of Truth” Global Kairos Movement 49
Like its South African predecessor, the Palestinian call created a moment of truth for the church on a global level. The concept of status confessionis speaks to this: in Robert McAfee Brown’s phrasing, “when the issues become so clear, and the stakes so high, that the privilege of amiable disagreement must be superseded by clear cut decisions, and the choice must move from both/and to either/or.” 14 Kairos Palestine has been commended for study by congregations and denominations worldwide and has spawned kairos movements and documents in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. “Call to Action: U.S. Response to the Kairos Palestine document,” was published in June 2012. 15 “Call to Action” acknowledges the central role played the U.S. government in its unqualified and massive support for Israel. Like the South African document that challenged the "church theology" that had supported the unjust system, "Call to Action" directly addresses key theological and ecclesial issues that bear on a U.S. Christian response to the Palestinian call. These include the effects of Christian Zionism in its various forms on U.S. government and institutional church policies, the influence of the post-WWII Christian renunciation of displacement theology on church teachings in pastoral training and in Christian-Jewish relations, and the impact of Jewish institutional opposition to any perceived threat to U.S. government support of Israel. The U.S. document was followed in 2013 by “Time for Action: A British Christian Response to “Moment of Truth,” the Palestine Kairos Document” which coupled a critique of Christian Zionism with a powerful confession of the destructive role of Great Britain in the 20th century history of settlement in historic Palestine. 16
Confession of the complicit The Kairos documents that have emerged from kairos organizations throughout Europe, Asia and the America are responses to the Palestinian call, but they bear the greatest resemblance to their
14 Brown, 7. 15 Kairos USA. “Call to Action: A U.S. Christian Response to the Kairos Palestine Document,” 2012. http://kairosusa.org/wp- content/uploads/2013/12/Kairos-USA-Call-to-Action.pdf 16 Kairos UK. “Time for Action: A British Christian Response to “Moment of Truth,” the Palestine Kairos Document. 2013. 50 theologies and cultures
South African predecessor. Whereas the Palestinian document is the cry of the oppressed, the statements originating from the global church are the confessions of the complicit: powerful expressions about how their churches – sometimes in open collusion with their governments - - have supported tyranny and oppression. “A Philippine Response to Kairos Palestine,” published in 2011, issues a bold declaration:
Not unlike the ancient Israelites who were too often rebuked by the prophets for failing to write the law in their hearts, most of contemporary Christianity have failed to grasp what is at the heart of Judaeo-Christianity, and of the 'Abrahamic' faith. We have walked unashamedly with an oppressive empire, unkindly and heartlessly walked past the victims of the violent politics of occupation, and consented to injustice with our silence. We have failed to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God. 17
The confession contained in Kairos USA is equally direct and free of qualification: “As individuals and as church institutions, we have supported a system of control, inequality and oppression through misreading of our Holy Scriptures, flawed theology and distortions of history. We have allowed to go unchallenged theological and political ideas that have made us complicit in the oppression of the Palestinian people.” 18 Across the world, Christians – clergy, theologians and laypersons, awakened to the plight of the Palestinians, echo the confession as expressed here by the authors of the Philippine Kairos: “We repent from leaving them isolated for so long and for the absence of our commitment and unceasing prayers. We will not accept that all Palestinian people continue to be debased, robbed of their honor and their divine image.” 19 Kairos Palestina Brasil in 2012 followed with equally powerful affirmations of faith coupled with acknowledgments of the responsibility to respond to the call of the oppressed. All of these documents include pledges, in the words of the U.S. document, to “[e]xamine flawed biblical interpretations and unexamined
17 Kairos Philippines. “Reclaiming the good news of the holy land and the imperative of Interfaith solidarity to resist empire: a Philippine theological Response to kairos Palestine.” 18 Kairos USA. “Call to Action” 19 Kairos Palestine: “A Moment of Truth” Global Kairos Movement 51
theology that have shaped attitudes and perceptions leading to and allowing the present injustice to continue unchallenged.” These confessional statements and the commitment to the work of theology on the part of theologians and church leaders are powerfully grounded in the contextual realities of their authors. In the case of Brazil and the Philippines, the vivid memories of the colonial past and the even fresher experience of the subjugation of indigenous peoples are explicitly stated. “The Bible,” asserts Kairos Brazil, “served as a guide for the colonial domination in Latina America and still today we feel the consequences of Christendom allied to imperial power.” The document calls for a direct evaluation of how the Bible has been read and used: “We reject any pretension to the use of the Bible as a weapon of discrimination and justification for abuse, dispossession and subordination of the Palestinian people. We are committed with the critical reading and the overcoming of those readings and their cultural modes in our churches and communities.” 20 The authors of the Philippine document express themselves on this topic with unrestrained passion: “Imperial discourses masquerading as 'theologies' and 'gospels' need be exposed for what they are: theologies and gospels that feast on death.” Relating the occupation of Palestine to the Philippine context as well as to the historical picture of Empire’s misuse of theology on a global scale, the document continues:
The use of the Bible to justify occupation and ethnic cleansing must be exposed for what it is, an anti-biblical, anti-Christian theology that does nothing but instigate and perpetuate a theo- praxis of unrestrained genocidal violence…a god-logic that easily buys on the crusader idea of a clash of civilizations – and the need for it to take place in 'Megiddo', including the latter's spatial appropriations in places like Muslim Mindanao. It has not been unusual for Fundamentalist Christians in the
20 Kairós Palestina Brasil, 2012, http://kairosbrasil.com/img/KairosBrasilEN.pdf, accessed January 15, 2014. 52 theologies and cultures
Philippines to lump Palestinians with the Moros' of Southern Philippines together. 21
Like the Philippine authors, the writers of the Brazilian document understand the Palestinian crisis in the light of past and present abuses of the Bible in the service of imperial strivings:
The prolonged Palestinian crisis demonstrates the sophistication with which the empire has been casting its deathly shadow on every nook and cranny of this planet. This included the empires' cooptation of religious language; its forming a theological language for conquest and occupation; its ability to build a religious consensus for silence if not support for crusader religious discourse. For many decades now, the occupation has thrived on the perverted militance and neo-crusader ethos of right wing Christianity, and on the macabre silence of much of the world's religions. 22
The U.S. and UK documents similarly exhibit an acute awareness of the connection of church and theology with the historical and cultural legacy of their national contexts. The authors of the UK document call on British Christians to “recognise the unique historical responsibility of our nation for the present injustice visited on the Palestinian people. This tragedy, which has led to 11 million Palestinians living in exile, in refugee camps, or under Israeli occupation, has its roots in Britain’s colonial past, and Britain’s self- interested pursuit of power and influence in the world. We call for repentance for Britain’s historic, and current, complicity in the ongoing Palestinian suffering, and for those times when churches have promoted theological interpretations that support discrimination, dispossession, segregation and occupation.” 23 In contrast, the U.S.
21 Kairos Philippines. “Reclaiming the good news of the holy land and the imperative of Interfaith solidarity to resist empire: a Philippine theological Response to kairos Palestine.” 22 Kairós Palestina Brasil, 2012, http://kairosbrasil.com/img/KairosBrasilEN.pdf, accessed January 15, 2014. 23 Kairos UK. “Time for Action” http://www.kairosbritain.org.uk/resources/documents/Time-for-Action/Time- for-Action.pdf. Accessed March 23, 2014.2013. Global Kairos Movement 53
confession is, appropriately, cast in the present tense: “Rather than acting as an honest broker in negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, our government has consistently supported, both financially and diplomatically, the actions of Israel that have brought suffering to Palestinians, continuing insecurity to Israelis and the receding prospect of a just peace.” 24 In the U.S. and UK documents, the object of the call to action was not only the tyrannous system itself, but the “moderating” forces that sought to preserve the unjust system through the appropriation of language and outright co-optation of religious and political leaders. This was certainly the case for South Africa in the 1980s, with the Pretoria government’s attempted “reforms” in the establishment of black vassal states (the “Bantustans”) governed by black political leaders selected by the Apartheid regime. The official commitment of the Israeli government since the Oslo Accords of 1993 to a “two-state solution” bears disturbing resemblance to the earlier example, with the resulting Palestinian “state” consisting of enclaves located within the entire territory of historic Palestine controlled militarily and economically by Israel. Israel’s stated commitment to the goal of a sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, a goal also supported vigorously by Western governments, particularly the U.S. and its European allies, has masked its actual policy of actions designed to never allow such a state to come into being. The U.S. government in particular has colluded with Israel in saying one thing while providing the means, both diplomatically and financially, for Israel to do another. 25
Freeing the theological discourse: unlocking the rules for Christian- Jewish dialogue Like the South African churches (both white and black), throughout the apartheid years, the U.S. church bears a burden of responsibility in its historic and current support, institutionally and theologically, for Israel’s programs of dispossession and ethnic cleansing. Similar to South African church statements that predated the 1985 Kairos document, statements from central U.S church bodies, while expressing support for Palestinian human rights, have
24 Kairos USA. “Call to Action” 25 See Khalidi, Rashid, Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East. Beacon Press, 2013. 54 theologies and cultures
supported a two-state formula without questioning what in this represents in reality with respect to equality and sovereignty for Palestinians. In an effort to preserve relations with the institutional Jewish community, statements on the part of mainline Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church in the U.S. have promoted a “balanced” approach to talking about Israel and the Palestinians. According to this approach, it is allowable to write or speak about the abrogation of Palestinian rights and about Palestinian suffering, but only if this is accompanied by an acknowledgment of historic Jewish suffering, acceptance of a superior Jewish claim to the land, and the primacy of security for the Jewish state – threatened, presumably, by eternal, implacable Arab hatred for Jews and the intention of annihilating the State of Israel. 26 This position, until recently adopted by even the most progressive elements of the U.S. church, ignores the overwhelming power imbalance between the occupying power and the occupied population. It also violates the fundamental Christian principle of equality and the requirement to stand up to regimes and systems that abrogate the human rights of minorities, dispossessed indigenous populations and other vulnerable groups. This status quo is now being challenged by the introduction of the Kairos Palestine document into church study groups, the appearance of the Kairos USA document, and the acceleration of efforts within major Protestant denominations to divest church pension funds from companies profiting from the illegal occupation of Palestine.27 These
26 The fact of Israelis’ fear of annihilation is not in dispute. The question of the reality of the threat, however, is relevant. Israeli author Miko Peled addresses this issue in his memoir The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine (Just world Books, 2012), in which he chronicles how Israeli generals and politicians have traded on the powerful fiction of Israel’s military vulnerability. Ira Chernus offers a compelling analysis of this issue in his April 18, 2011, piece in The Nation, “Three Myths of Israel’s Insecurity,” http://www.thenation.com/article/159998/ three-myths-israels- insecurity. 27 Church bodies and leaders have also begun to advocate directly with the U.S. government regarding policy toward Israel. On October 5, 2012, fifteen leaders of U.S. Protestant denominations and several Roman Catholic orders published an open letter to the members of the U.S. Congress. The letter reads: “As Christian leaders in the United States, it is our moral responsibility to question the continuation of unconditional U.S. financial assistance to the Global Kairos Movement 55
developments have provoked an intense struggle within church bodies, not only in the U.S. but in Western Europe, South America, and South Africa. Dominating this discourse is the effect on relationship between Christians and Jews on individual and institutional levels. Two issues have fueled the controversy. The first is the charge by voices in both Jewish and Christian institutional circles that challenges to Israel’s policies, even on human rights grounds, will disrupt the hard-won project of post World War II Christian-Jewish reconciliation, and that they run counter to the spirit and praxis of Christian penitence for historic church anti-Semitism. The second is the emergence of a theological debate about Kairos theology itself. The confession in the U.S. Kairos “Call to Action” expresses clearly the centrality of these issues: “We have allowed to go unchallenged theological and political ideas that have made us complicit in the oppression of the Palestinian people. Instead of speaking and acting boldly, we have chosen to offer careful statements designed to avoid controversy and leave cherished relationships undisturbed.” Christian-Jewish “interfaith” dialogue was originally undertaken to break down age-old barriers of fear and mistrust between the two communities. Shocked and horrified by the Nazi program to exterminate European Jewry, church leaders and theologians in the post-WWII period struggled to come to terms with the consequences of Christian anti-Jewish doctrine. This intensive project of penitence and self-scrutiny quickly spread throughout Western Europe and to government of Israel. Realizing a just and lasting peace will require this accountability, as continued U.S. military assistance to Israel — offered without conditions or accountability — will only serve to sustain the status quo and Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinian territories.” The letter urged Congress to conduct “ an immediate investigation into possible violations by Israel of the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act and the U.S. Arms Export Control Act which respectively prohibit assistance to any country which engages in a consistent pattern of human rights violations and limit the use of U.S. weapons to “internal security” or “legitimate self- defense.” http://www.ecclesio.com/2013/05/response-to-kairos-palestine- %E2%80%9Cthe-letter-of-15%E2%80%9D-and-the-use-of-u-s-military-aid- by-israel-in-palestine-katherine-cunningham/#sthash.JHKGL8YC.dpuf
56 theologies and cultures
the United States, resulting in a fundamental revision of reformed theology with respect to the understanding of the place of Judaism in Christian thought and practice, as well as a powerful impulse toward reconciliation with the Jewish people. Combating anti-Judaism became a primary concern. “Anti-Jewishness,” wrote contemporary Protestant theologian Robert T. Osborne, “is the Christian sin.”28 Note that Osborne does not say that anti-Judaism is a sin. Rather, anti- Jewishness had taken first place as the Christian transgression. Correcting it would require a fundamental overhaul of the faith. A deep and wide-ranging philojudaism that arose among Christian scholars and writers in the aftermath of World War II served as both a renunciation of and atonement for historic church anti-Semitism. For Paul Tillich, Krister Stendahl, Reinhold Neibuhr and the American- born Protestant theologians who followed them, notably Paul van Buren and Franklin Littell, forging a positive relationship with Judaism and the Jewish people required nothing less than the reimagining of what it means to be Christian. “If the church stops thinking of the Jews as the rejected remnant of the people Israel,” van Buren wrote, “if it starts speaking of the continuing covenantal relationship between this people and God, then it will have to rethink its own identity.” 29 Near the end of his life, van Buren called for “the church’s reversal of its position on Judaism from that of anti-Judaism to that of an acknowledgement of the eternal covenant between God and Israel.” “Christianity,” he wrote, “must refer to Judaism in order to make sense of itself.” 30 For the Roman Catholic Church, Vatican II in 1965 was a watershed event, as the Church undertook a long overdue examination of its attitudes toward the Jewish people. While not reaching the levels of theological reversal on the subject of the divine covenant as these postwar Protestant thinkers, Vatican II opened the way for the creation of strong bonds of political support
28 Robert T. Osborn, “The Christian Blasphemy: A non-Jewish Jesus,” in James H. Chatsworth, Ed., Jews and Christians: Ex- ploring the Past, Present, and Future (New York: Crossroad), p. 214. 29 van Buren, Paul, “The Jewish People in Christian Theology: Present and Future,” in The Jewish People in Christian Preaching, ed. Darrell J. Fasching (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellon Press), 1984, p. 23. 30 In Wallis, James H., Post-Holocaust Christianity: Paul van Buren’s Theology of the Jewish-Christian Reality (Lanham, MD: University Press of America), 1997. p 85. Global Kairos Movement 57
between the Holy See and the State of Israel, culminating in the visit of John Paul II to Israel in 2000. Visiting the Western Wall, revered by Jews as the only physical remnant of the Temple destroyed in 70 CE, the Pope inserted a note beseeching God for forgiveness for Christian persecution of Jews and “commit[ing] ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant.”31 A key outcome of this urgent, penitential movement on the part of the church was a conflation of Zionism with Judaism. In the theological realm, a wholesale rejection of supercessionism, also known as replacement theology, brought with it an endorsement of Zionism in what might be termed a “soft eschatology” that asserted that the creation of the State of Israel, as the “return” of the Jewish people to their homeland, was proof of God’s love for the Jewish people. 32 Continuing to the present day, the Christian project of penitence and reconciliation has morphed into an interfaith industry that supports, not only a compelling form of Jewish exceptionalism, but, ironically, the very same Christian triumphalism that fueled the anti-Jewish sins of the church from its earliest history. It has put institutional Christianity on a slippery slope to the theological endorsement of political Zionism. What we have in the current support of the institutional church for the State of Israel as the Jewish state and in the varied forms of Christian Zionism to be found across the theological spectrum is a potent Judeo-Christian triumphalism, and its language is Zionism.
The rules Today, Christian-Jewish dialogue in church, synagogue and community settings as well as in academic departments devoted to
31 “Pope John Paul II Visit to Israel,” https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/jp.html 32 The historical validity of this narrative of return, including the Exodus from Egypt, the notion of exile after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, and the genealogical link between modern Jews and the ancient Israelites, has been challenged by modern Jewish Israeli scholarship. See Silberman, Neil Asher and Finkelstein, Israel, the Bible Unearthed, Archaeology’s New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of its Sacred Texts (New York: Touchstone) 2002, and Sand, Shlomo and Yotan, Yael, The Invention of the Jewish People, (London: Verso) 2009.
58 theologies and cultures
interfaith, conflict resolution and peace studies observes unwritten rules that serve to insulate Christians from any charge of harboring or promoting anti-Jewish feeling and to reassure Jews that there will no challenge to unqualified support for the State of Israel or to the validity of the Zionist project. These are observed in the academy, in the pulpit, and in everyday encounters. They are rendered more powerful for never being stated or acknowledged. There are two primary rules: 1. “Sensitivity” to “the Jewish perspective” and Jewish self- perception (as defined for all Jews by those who claim to represent all Jews) is paramount. Jewish experience and Jewish needs, again, as defined by some Jews for all Jews, determines the direction and nature of the discourse. A key element of this version of Jewish self- definition is an unquestioning identification of Jewishness with commitment to the State of Israel as the Jewish homeland in Palestine. 2. The superior right of the Jews to the land is not to be challenged. One may talk about Palestinian human rights, but one may never take this so far as to question fundamental Zionist assumptions. This rule holds true for everyday conversations, coverage in the media and the public forum, and in particular in the academy. Several examples from Jewish and Christian scholars working in the interfaith arena will serve to illustrate how these rules are applied. Almost entirely unchallenged, they effectively determine the public discourse, the limits of expression in the academy, and boundaries of what is allowable in the practice of “interfaith dialogue.” Ruth Langer is a Reform Rabbi, Professor Jewish Studies and Associate Director, Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College. In 2008 she published “Theologies of the Land and the State of Israel: The Role of the Secular in Jewish and Christian Understandings.” In this paper Langer invokes the first rule: that Christians must accept “Jewish self-understanding” regarding Jewish identity and the land of Israel as definitional and unassailable. “Christians,” writes Langer, “must strive to learn by what essential traits Jews define … Christian-Jewish dialogue. In terms of…the development of adequate theologies of the land and state of Israel within the context of the contemporary dialogue, this is a crucial first Global Kairos Movement 59
step.” 33 For Langer Jewish self-experience is characterized by two unquestioned, core principles: (1) The Jewish attachment to the Land of Israel as a Jewish homeland is an essential element of being Jewish – it cannot be questioned. (2) The Jewish experience of being a “people apart” is definitional. Langer argues that the failure of the Enlightenment to bring Jews fully into Western society is evidence that this quality of Jewishness is essential for Jewish survival and is inalienable with respect to Jewish identity. She ignores the diversity of Jewish experience on both these axes. For Langer, any Jew who disagrees with this description of Jewish experience is in flight from his or her Jewish identity, as were those Jews who sought to assimilate in order to curry favor and advantage with the dominant Christian society in which they lived, or worse, actually converted to Christianity. Assimilation, Langer maintains, proved to be a fruitless and ultimately dangerous strategy. Although many Jews had attempted to shed their particularism, economic and social marginalization interspersed with periodic and often murderous violence forced them back into a separatist -- and ultimately nationalist -- stance. The fact of the Nazi genocide provided conclusive support for those who advance this analysis. This argument from history is central in defending the Zionist project against those who would question its validity, sustainability, morality, or logic. The use of history to determine the shape and limits of Christian- Jewish dialogue takes second place only to the imperative to repudiate replacement theology. The June 2009 issue of Cross Currents, a quarterly on religion with a progressive bent and an emphasis on interfaith discourse, was titled “The Scandal of Particularity.” The issue’s title, which features articles by Jewish, Catholic and Protestant authors, suggests a critical analysis of the claim of any religion to a superior or exclusive path to God. But only Christian particularity is targeted in the publication. In contrast, Jewish particularity, rather than being challenged, is strongly supported throughout the issue, providing a theological and spiritual basis for an exclusive Jewish claim to the land. In one article, William Plevan, a rabbi and student of theology at Princeton Seminary, draws heavily on the anti- supercessionist work of Orthodox Jewish theologian Michael
33 Langer, Ruth, "Theologies of the Land and State of Israel: The Role of the Secular in Christian and Jewish Understandings," Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations 3 (2008): 1-17 60 theologies and cultures
Wyschogrod. “Wyschograd argued” writes Plevan, “that the central theological concept of Judaism is God’s election of Israel to God’s beloved people. While God demands that Israel observe the commandments and while certain beliefs about God’s nature may be implicit in the Biblical record, the essence of divine election is not the commandments or any beliefs about God, but rather God’s preferential and parental love of the carnal family of Israel, the flesh and blood descendants of Jacob.” (emphasis added) 34 According to Plevan, this exclusivist core is essential to interpreting the message of the Gospel. “The incarnation of God in Jesus Christ,” he claims, “actually has roots in Jewish ideas, such as God’s presence in the people Israel.” The Temple, although physically gone, is preserved as symbol of landedness and Jewish exclusivity. A piece by Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin entitled “The Place of ‘Place’ in Jewish tradition” advances a claim that although the land has a spiritual and psychological meaning, this “nod to the universal does not cancel out the particular.” (emphasis in the original) Jewish life, asserts Cardin, is “all bound up in that particular bit of land on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea.” 35 A centerpiece of the CrossCurrents issue is the article by John T. Pawlikowski, a prominent Catholic theologian and Director of the Catholic-Jewish Studies Program at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. In his piece entitled “Land as an Issue in Christian-Jewish Dialogue,” Pawlikowski asserts that the Vatican’s 1993 recognition of the State of Israel was pivotal in correcting Christianity’s historic anti- Judaism. With that act, he wrote, “the coffin on displacement/ perpetual wandering theology had been finally sealed.” 36 We must pay attention to what is being done here: recognizing the Jewish state corrects Christian theology! But there is more: Pawlikowski goes on to critique – in fact to repudiate -- Christianity’s spiritualization of the land, taking issue with “efforts by Christian theologians to replace a
34 Plevan, William. 2009. “Meet the New Paul, Same as the Old Paul: Michael Wychograd, Kendall Soulen, and the New Problem of Supersessionism.” Cross Currents 59.2, 217–28. 35 Cardin, Nina Beth. 2009. “The Place of ‘Place’ in Jewish Tradition.” Cross Currents 59.2, 210–16. 36 Pawlikowski, John T. 2009. “Land as an Issue in Christian-Jewish Dialogue.” Cross Currents 59.2, 197–209. Global Kairos Movement 61
supposedly exclusive Jewish emphasis on “earthly” Israel with a stress on a “heavenly” Jerusalem and an eschatological Zion.” 37 Such a transformation of the concept of land from the territorial and tribal to the spiritual and universal, argues Pawlikowski, goes against God’s intention of granting the Jewish people special privileges and exclusive rights of ownership. He continues: “[T]his tendency has the effect of neutralizing (if not actually undercutting) continued Jewish claims. The bottom line of this theological approach is without question that the authentic claims to the land had now passed over into the hands of the Christians. Jerusalem, spiritually and territorially, now belonged to the Christians.” (emphases added) 38 One might expect such a statement from the pen of a Jewish scholar, but it is astonishing that such an argument should emanate from a mainline Christian theologian. In the Christian vision, Jerusalem ceased to be seen as a geographical location and the capitol of an earthly kingdom. Instead, in a radical move, it was transformed into the symbol of a new world order in which God’s love was available to all of humankind. The Christian vision clarified the meaning of the land promise in the covenantal relationship, removing any ambiguity about possession or ownership.39 But Pawlikowski was now maintaining that the spiritualization of the land was a betrayal of God’s covenant with the Jews, that it had in effect deprived them of their birthright. According to this assertion, it was now incumbent upon Christians to honor the claim of the Jewish people to the Holy Land, and indeed to Jerusalem itself. This amounts to a reversal of a core element of the faith. The birth of the church was accompanied by the rejection of the idolatry of Temple, conquest, and land possession. In so doing the followers of Jesus brought to bear the full power of the prophetic tradition, opposing, in Walter Brueggemann’s terms, the royal consciousness that seeks only to maintain itself at the expense of community life and social justice. 40 In the synoptic gospels accounts (Mark 13:2, Matthew 24:2), Jesus stands before the Temple and says: “Not one stone will be left
37 Pawlikowski, 199 38 Pawlikowski, ibid. 39 See Burge, Gary, Jesus and the Land: The New Testament Challenge to “Holy Land” Theology, (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic), 2010. 40 Brueggemann, Walter, The Prophetic Imagination (Minneapolis: Fortress), 2001. 62 theologies and cultures
upon another!” Translation: the old order of worship tied to a physical location, this devotion to the divine yoked to nationhood and territoriality, is over. In the Fourth Gospel (John 2:21), when Jesus says “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up,” the narrator, in an unusual gloss, as if to ensure that the reader understands the theological and political meaning of Jesus’ statement, explains: “He spoke of the temple of his body.” Body of Christ: humankind united in one community of love and compassion. Jesus was making a statement about the nature of the Kingdom that would come to replace the tyrannous system that ruled his people. It was the same proclamation by which he had initiated his ministry three years before in the synagogue in Nazareth. This message is also the point of the Pentecost story. The apostles, having been instructed by the risen Jesus to remain in Jerusalem, are expecting the restoration of political independence to Israel. When the day of Pentecost arrives however, they learn that it was not the power of an earthly kingdom that would be conferred. Rather, having been granted power by the Holy Spirit to speak all the languages of the world, they were to go out to be “my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria,” and not stop there. Rather, it was to “the ends of the earth” that they must go. It was not about restoring the kingdom to Israel. It was not a restoration at all, not a return to a former state of glory or stability, not that kind of power. From the kingdom of Israel we have moved to the ends of the earth – all peoples, all humanity, all the earth. But now, in a collective act of penance and in a drive for self purification, Christians have been engaged in what amounts to a renunciation of this fundamental principle. Generations of pastors and theologians in the West have been educated in versions of this revised theology. The Christian impulse for reconciliation has morphed into a theology that covers legitimacy to an anachronistic, ethnic-nationalist ideology that has hijacked Judaism, continues to fuel global conflict, and has produced one of the most systematic and longstanding violations of human rights in the world today.
The project to discredit Kairos theology and neutralize the voice of Palestinian Christians This theology has been called into service by the Jewish establishment and by elements within the churches to suppress principled opposition to Israel’s human rights violations, acts that include efforts within mainline Protestant denominations to divest Global Kairos Movement 63
from companies profiting from the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands. But a powerful challenge to this theology has appeared in the form of the Palestine Kairos document. “A Moment of Truth” refutes not only postwar revisionist theology and its exceptionalist assumptions, but in clearly describing the historic and current violation of Palestinian rights, it disputes the narrative of a victimized, innocent Israel threatened by the implacable hatred of the Arab nations. Taken up for study by churches worldwide and having effectively activated a global church movement in support of Palestinian rights, this historic document represents a serious challenge to church endorsement of the Zionist project. The widening acceptance of the Kairos Palestine document has lent impetus to a campaign mounted by Jewish and Christian organizations in the U.S., supported financially by and working in concert with the State of Israel, to shut down what is perceived – accurately – as the rebellion of some Christians against the status quo of silence before Israeli human rights abuses if not outright support for Jewish exceptionalism. This effort to discredit the document as political unacceptable and theologically unsound has been undertaken in coordination with Jewish and Christian theologians, academics and clergy. In early 2010, the Reut Institute, an Israeli think tank that provides strategic support to the Israeli government, citing the growing threat to “Israel’s international legitimacy,” issued a report urging the Israeli government to make combating this threat a priority. The report cited the Palestinian civil society call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, 41 ongoing efforts within U.S. Protestant denominations to divest from companies profiting from the occupation of Palestinian lands, and the appearance of the Kairos document, describing these as efforts to “demonize” Israel, “undermine Israel’s right to exist,” and to isolate it as pariah state.42 Later that year, the Israel Action Network (IAN) was created as a strategic initiative to “counter the assault on Israel’s legitimacy.”43 Described as a strategic initiative of The Jewish
41 “Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS,” http://www.bdsmovement.net/call, accessed June 26, 2014. 42 Reut Institute, “Eroding Israel’s legitimacy in the international arena,” http://reut-institute.org/en/Publication.aspx?PublicationId=3766, accessed January 12, 2013. 43 Israel Action Network, http://israelactionnetwork.org/aboutus, accessed January 12, 2013. 64 theologies and cultures
Federations of North America in partnership with the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the IAN’s mission as stated on its website is to “organize and mobilize the organized North American Jewish community to develop strategic approaches to countering these assaults.” 44 In effect, the IAN attempts to drive a theological wedge between Palestinian Christians and Christians in the West, especially in North America, who have begun to challenge the narrative of Israeli victimhood and Jewish innocence.45 Information provided by the IAN through telecasts, guest speakers and material on its website instructs Jews on how to deal with Christians who, according the IAN, are being misled into activities that are anti-Semitic and that threaten the State of Israel and the survival of the Jewish people. Kairos Palestine, it maintains, is not only anti-Semitic but is in error religiously. According to the IAN, well-intentioned but naïve Christians have been misled by “Palestinian” anti-Jewish theology. The Palestinian Christians, pursuing their own, clearly anti-Israel and thus anti- Semitic agenda, are to be disqualified as fellow Christians in need, crying out to the body of Christ outside Palestine. In a 2011 telecast intended to instruct Jewish leaders on how to understand and combat the Kairos document, one speaker for the IAN characterized Kairos Palestine as “elevating” Palestinian Christians into a “pure form” of Christianity, and as such granting special status and authority to the anti-Jewish statements and anti-Jewish theology contained in the Kairos document. This is troubling, they maintained, because American Christians have “worked so hard to remove anti- Judaism from their theology.” Misguided “liberal Protestants,” therefore, are now threatening their hard-won friendship with the
44 According to Omar Barghouti, Palestinian human rights activist and founder of the Palestinian Committee for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), the term “deligitimization” was first used by the Reut Institute, “warning that boycott is a ‘strategic threat,’ even an ‘existential threat’ to the state.” Omar Barghouti, Boycott, Divestment and Sacntions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights, (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2011), 15. 45 The concept of Jewish innocence has been articulated by Jewish liberation theologian Marc Ellis. See Ellis, Marc H., Beyond Innocence and Redemption: Confronting the Holocaust and Israeli Power, San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1990, and Braverman, Mark, Fatal Embrace: Christians, Jews and the Search for Peace in the Holy Land, (New York: Beaufort) 2012. Global Kairos Movement 65
Jewish people and abandoning their vigilance against anti-Semitism because they have come under the influence of the Palestinian Christians. As evidence of the anti-Jewish nature of the Palestinian call, one of the Jewish scholars featured on the telecast quoted the statement in Kairos Palestine that reads: “God is on the side of the oppressed, and the oppressed here are the Palestinians.” 46 There can be no clearer indication of the crisis that the church now faces than that a statement as eminently true as this is offered as an indictment of the call to world Christians to stand in faithfulness to their core beliefs. As the voice of Palestinian Christians becomes more prominent in the United States, through study of the Kairos Palestine document, the publication in 2012 of the U.S. Kairos document “Call to Action, a U.S. Response to the Kairos Palestine Document,” the work of Friends of Sabeel North America 47 and denominational and church- linked grassroots organizations throughout the United States, the efforts of the IAN and similar groups have intensified, their message targeting Palestinian Christian theology explicitly. What is notable here is that these Jewish scholars are not simply articulating a point of view – they are presuming to instruct Christians in Christians’ own theology. They have been assisted in this by prominent Christian theologians and church leaders who have acceded to the unwritten rule that sensitivity to how Jews see themselves trumps all other considerations with respect to Zionism and the State of Israel. This interfaith dynamic boasts an impressive pedigree. The iconic Protestant theologian Krister Stendahl articulated this in his caution to Christians against coming between the Jews and their national homeland project in a 1981 interview in the Christian Science Monitor, in which he urged Christians never to “break the first rule of dialogue: Listen to how the other party defines itself.” 48
46 http://engage.jewishpublicaffairs.org/p/salsa/web/blog/public/entries? campaign_manager_KEY=12009, accessed January 12, 2012. Although this link no longer connects with the telecast, similar perspectives from the Israel Action Network can be found in its downloadable booklet, “Best Practices” (2013), at http://israelactionnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/JFNA- FACTs2_finallores-.pdf. Accessed June 26, 2014. 47 http://fosna.org/ 48 Verduin, Paul, “Praiseworthy intentions, unintended consequences: Why Krister Stendahl’s quest for ‘healthy relations” between Jews and Christians 66 theologies and cultures
The Gospels at stake Christian seminaries in the United States have become centers for the promotion of Jewish exceptionalism and Zionist claims. In some cases, Jewish scholars play key roles in this phenomenon. Amy Jill Levine is Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School. As a Jewish professor at a Protestant Seminary, her authority in the area of Christian-Jewish relations is unchallenged. Levine presents her views on Christian-Jewish relations in her 2006 book, The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus. The stated purpose of the book is to dispute the depiction of Jesus as one who stood in opposition to the Jewish priestly and monarchical leadership in Jerusalem. Levine argues that this is a Christian view that erases Jesus’ Jewishness and that laid the groundwork for the distorted picture of Judaism that became the basis for Christian anti-Semitism. Levine’s objective is to rehabilitate first century Judaism by presenting the picture of “a quite observant Jesus,” aligned with the Judaism of his time. This argument has important implications for the interfaith discourse today. In asking us to focus on the Jesus who throughout church history was used as a way to persecute Jews rather than the Jesus who in his ministry stood up to the Jewish power structure’s betrayal of Jewish values, Levine has changed the subject from Jewish responsibility to Jewish suffering. In her analysis, Levine takes direct aim at Palestinian Anglican Canon Naim Ateek of the Jerusalem-based Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center:
When forms of Palestinian liberation theology appropriate Jesus for political ends, the messages conveyed about the Middle East to churches there and abroad become even more complicated. Any writing that separates Jesus and his first followers from Jewish identity, associates these proto- Christians with the Palestinian population, and reserves the label “Jew” for those who crucified Jesus and persecuted the
ended tragically,” in Burnett, Carole Monica, ed., Zionism Through Christian Lenses, Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2013, p 148. Global Kairos Movement 67
church is not only historically untenable but theologically abhorrent. 49
Palestinian liberation theology has nothing to say about Jesus’ Jewish identity beyond simply stating it as a fact: Jesus was a Palestinian Jew living under Roman occupation. But because the subject is Israel, Jewish writers such as Levine now raise it as a central concern, apparently able to understand the first century context as well as the current situation in Palestine only through the lens of 2000 years of Christian persecution of Jews. What is it that Levine finds historically untenable? The Jews of Jesus’ time, i.e. the Palestinians of the day, Jesus among them, were an oppressed, occupied people, as are the Palestinians of our time. Jesus directly challenged the Jewish establishment for its collaboration with the system that oppressed them. 50 Indeed, the case can be made that Jesus, far from having separated himself from his Jewish identity, was steadfastly faithful to the heart of the tradition in his opposition to the corruption and greed of the system in power in Jerusalem. 51 As for Levine’s characterization of Ateek’s theology as “abhorrent,” this is an oblique reference to the horrific application of the deicide charge in the Middle Ages and indeed well into the 19th century. Levine quotes Ateek’s 2001 Easter message in which he states that “it seems to many of us that Jesus is on the cross again with thousands of crucified Palestinians around him…the Israeli crucifixion machine is operating daily.” 52 Yes, these are strong words – and it is classic liberation theology. The poor and dispossessed are Jesus on the cross. Liberation
49 Levine, Amy Jill, The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, (New York: HarperOne), 2006, 181 50 See Nolan (1976) on the “handing over” of Jesus to the Roman authorities by the Jewish authorities. Citing the account in John of the plot to have Jesus arrested (11:47-50), in which the High Priest argues that “it is better for one man to die than the whole nation be destroyed,” Nolan emphasizes the extent to which the Temple establishment was invested in maintaining the power granted to them by Rome. Jesus was executed as a political criminal, his crime being the claim -- as understood by Rome -- to kingship. The protection of Roman rule over Palestine was essential to the continuation of the power of the Temple hierarchy and the Jewish client monarchs. 51 Braverman, Mark, A Wall in Jerusalem: Hope, Healing and the Struggle for Justice in Israel and Palestine, (Nashville: Jericho Books), 2013. 52 Levine, 183. 68 theologies and cultures
theology’s “option for the poor” requires that we understand Jesus’ message and sacrifice as connected directly to the suffering of the oppressed. When, in speaking about the Palestinians, Ateek evokes Jesus on the cross, he is not attempting to stir up anti-Jewish feeling by reviving the medieval deicide charge any more than Central and South American liberation theologians were doing so in employing the same imagery in their articulation of the preferential option for the poor as the heart of Christianity. Levine is tarring a theological formulation arising from a contemporary context with the brush of historic church anti-Semitism. Levine would argue that regardless of whether or not Ateek is anti-Jewish or intends to stir up anti-Jewish feeling, this imagery should be avoided as inherently anti-Semitic. Her demand, however, amounts to a silencing of the Palestinian voice. Palestinian liberation theology is a form of nonviolent resistance, emerging directly from the Palestinian struggle. In liberation theology there is an oppressor and there is an oppressed. And the oppressor is the centurion stabbing the suffering naked man on the cross and the oppressed is the suffering naked man on the cross. In this instance, the oppressor is the government of the Jewish state and the oppressed are the Palestinians. That this theology has emerged from the Palestinian Christian community is theologically coherent and inescapable. It is, inevitably and by its nature, a source of discomfort for the community and power structure to which it is addressed. Could liberation theology imagery applied to Israel and the Palestinians be used by anti-Semites? Does it evoke horrific associations for Jews? The first is possible, and the second is certainly true, as exemplified by Levine’s argument. But Palestinian liberation theologians cannot be held hostage to these realities. We – the Jewish people – set this up. We did so by declaring a Jewish state established on the ruins of Palestinian towns and villages, a state founded on the basis of a political ideology that by its nature set in motion an ongoing program of dispossession and ethnic cleansing of a subject population. A well-organized network of Jewish advocacy and religious organizations compounds and continues the oppression by denying that crimes have been committed and by failing to admit the catastrophic misguidedness and ultimate unsustainability of the project to establish a majority Jewish state in historic Palestine. This tragic and stubborn denial, supported diplomatically by the Unites States and its Western allies, blocks meaningful political movement and has allowed the human rights situation to continually Global Kairos Movement 69
worsen over the sixty-six years since the establishment of the State of Israel.
The dislike towards liberation theology Liberation theology was demonized and marginalized by the Roman Catholic Church when it emerged in Latin America in connection with popular movements that opposed the oppressive power structures with which the institutional church was actively or passively allied. Today, Palestinian liberation theology is being vilified as archaic and anti-Jewish by Jewish as well as Christian scholars, and for the same reason: because at its core, it challenges a structure of domination and authority that serves to protect the powerful and privileged classes. This is why the Palestine issue is so important. It is not only the Palestinian voice that is being silenced, and not only the dispossession of the Palestinian people at the hands of a colonial settler project that is being brought into the light of day. Palestine is part of the larger picture of global economic-military dominance. Writing about Kairos movements in the late 20th century, U.S. theologian Robert MacAfee Brown never addressed in writing the story of Palestine – but I believe that if he were alive today Brown would see the course clearly, because he understood so well the legacy of his own country’s pursuit of global economic hegemony and how that has driven its illegal and immoral policies throughout the world. He would have had to contemplate the U.S. government’s financial and diplomatic support of Israeli apartheid. We Americans, he would point out, have built the wall that cuts Palestinians off from their own land and that imprisons Israelis within their fortress of fear. That wall is our wall -- our hegemonic, racist frontier. Unpack the story of Palestine today, and what appears is the broader picture of Western economic imperialism. The power of the Palestinian cause is how it shines the light on the global context of Empire. It is important not to underestimate the importance of theology in supporting the colonization of Palestine. Levine’s bid to recover what she characterizes as Jesus’ Jewishness in the service of continuing the fight against anti-Semitism – and her significant influence in interfaith circles as well as in the education of both Christian and Jewish clergy -- is an important example of how one particular Jewish perspective has come to dominate the interfaith conversation, and how it has been used to block the theological exploration needed to free both church and academy to become agents of change. The urgent issue 70 theologies and cultures
confronting us today is not anti-Semitism. It is, rather, whether we will commit our efforts to the expansion of empire or to the building of community, to tolerating and even supporting tyranny or to committing ourselves to equality on a global scale. The Christians and Jews who have attacked the Kairos Palestine document and the global movement of discipleship that it has spawned are more interested in detecting evidence of replacement theology and anything that might be connected to the history of Christian anti-Semitism than in confronting the way theology is being used today to justify the dispossession of the Palestinians. There is much more at stake here, therefore, than the church’s support for Palestinian human rights. South African theologian Allen Boesak puts it this way in a recent essay entitled “Kairos Consciousness:” “There are those Christians,” he writes,
“and sometimes whole hierarchies of churches, who seek to use the Bible, the tradition and theology to serve and protect to the detriment of the poor, the weak and the vulnerable. On the other side of the conflict are those with a Kairos consciousness – who understand God’s call as a call to commit themselves to justice and the liberation of the oppressed… Much more than only the liberation of the oppressed is at stake here…the integrity of the Gospel, and the credibility of the witness of the church are at stake here. The moment of truth is a moment to act for the sake of justice and humanity, but also for the sake of the integrity of the Gospel.” 53 (emphasis added)
The new ecumenicism: Creating the Beloved Community How do we resist the seductions of gradualism and of reform when used to block genuine change in human affairs? Kairos addresses this question by making it clear that prophecy follows from confession – from the acknowledgement that we have failed to live up to our most cherished and foundational principles. This is, after all, what prophets demand, and they do their work in the marketplaces, at the gates of the city, and even, perhaps especially, in the Temple
53 Boesak, Allan. “Kairos Consciousness.” Kairos Southern Africa (March25,2011). At http://kairossouthernafrica.wordpress.com/kairos- consciousness/. Global Kairos Movement 71
courtyard: the centers of religious and political power. As Boesak points out, this goes beyond the struggle for the human rights of one particular group in one particular political context. What is at stake is the nature and mission of the church itself: Jesus’ message of the Kingdom of God, first articulated in response to one particular societal crisis, but with universal and timeless significance. “The mission of the Church is prophetic,” states the Kairos Palestine document: “to speak the Word of God courageously, honestly and lovingly in the local context and in the midst of daily events.” “Our starting point, writes Albert Nolan in Jesus Before Christianity, “is the urgent reality of our present historical situation….If we cannot achieve an unobstructed view of Jesus from the vantage point of our current circumstances, then we cannot obtain an unobstructed view of him at all.” 54 The act of creating a Kairos document creates a home for those who have been working for justice within their own congregations, communities and denominations, but in isolation from one another. This is not an “ecumenical” movement in the sense that the word is often employed, a kind of United Nations of churches, each sitting at the table behind her or his denominational name card, but a return to the model of the church as a holy community committed to building a just society. It is ecumenical in the sense of a single body united in a faithful ministry. Professor of Mennonite Theology at the Free University in Amsterdam and the Director of the Institute of Peace Church Theology at the University of Hamburg Fernando Enns submits that “[t]he Christian’s unconditional commitment to peace and justice is not based on some humanistic notion of individual freedom, but rather rests on faith convictions that we share in the community of that ecumenical fellowship which is called to live in accordance with this understanding of holiness…an open space for self-development within a community are the preconditions for building a culture of peace.” 55 Kairos reminds us that this is the heart of the church: the Holy Spirit conferring upon the community the power to make disciples of the nations, in order to bring about the Kingdom of God here on earth.
54 Nolan, Albert, Jesus Before Christianity, (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis 1976), 55 Enns, Fernando and Mosher, Annette, Just Peace: Ecumenical, Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, (Eugene: Pickwick), 2013, 25. 72 theologies and cultures
This is, of course, a radical departure from both the doctrinal and practical realities of our current church institutions, a church today, in theologian Duncan Forrester’s direct but also hopeful words, plagued by “faithless self-obsession…seek[ing] once more to fulfill its mission in the world…extraordinary in its inclusiveness and calling, nurturing expectation, hope and reconciliation.” 56 Discussing Kairos, liberation theologian Robert MacAfee Brown placed it within the broader context of a fundamental shift in the church – he called it a “second reformation” – moving away from the idea of personal salvation through a narrow and individually-framed notion of faith and toward a vision of a ministry of care for the poor and the vulnerable. It is, in the words of Road to Damascus, “a call to conversion to those who have strayed from the truth of Christian faith and commitment.” South African theologian and South Africa Kairos document author Charles Villa-Vicencio asks whether a prophetic drive can penetrate the institutional church, a church trapped in the dominant structures of oppression, conditioned by a history of having collaborated with, indeed of having joined the structures of oppression: “Can religion truly break the iron cage of history?’ Villa Vicencio asks. “Can religion produce a qualitatively different kind of society? Is the Kingdom of God a real possibility?” 57 And the answer is yes -- if the true mission of the church can be mobilized, in accordance with the kairos call. We are speaking of something very powerful with respect to the church’s role in shaping the laws and policies that direct our societies. Duncan Forrester, whose writing about public theology amounts to a passionate call to the church to be reborn into its original and core mission, laments that “[w]e no longer attempt to discern God’s judgment, God’s opportunity and God’s initiative in what is happening in our day….we find it hard to see that small, declining and relatively powerless churches many have a distinctive servant role to play in our kind of society, that the Church may be reborn in our age, that God continues to take the initiative if we have eyes to see.” 58
56 Forrester, Duncan B., Truthful Action: Explorations in Practical Theology (Edinburgh: T&T Clark), 2000, 127. 57 Charles Villa-Vicencio, Trapped in Apartheid (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1988), p. 201. 58 Forrester, 131. Global Kairos Movement 73
The Civil Rights Movement in the United States, in large part born in and carried forward by the spiritual power of the African American church, provides a powerful lesson in this regard. In 1963 the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., jailed in Birmingham Alabama for his role in organizing protests against racial discrimination in that city, received a letter from a group of eight white Birmingham clergymen, asking him to abandon his campaign of nonviolent direct action. Advocating a gradualist approach in which the policies of segregation would be reformed through a process of negotiation and compromise, the authors of “A Call to Unity” implored King to abandon the “extreme measures” that were disrupting this process. “We recognize the natural impatience of people who feel that their hopes are slow in being realized,” they wrote in this open letter to King, “but we are convinced that these demonstrations are unwise and untimely.” Even when rights are “consistently denied,” they argued, “a cause should be pressed in the courts and in negotiations among local leaders, and not in the streets.” 59 King’s response, smuggled out on scraps of paper and now regarded as one of the great documents of contextual theology of the twentieth century, is well known. This is not the Christian way, he countered. There comes a time, King argued, when gradualism and reform function in the service of maintaining rather than ending an unjust system, and the church, sadly, has been complicit: “Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's often vocal sanction of things as they are.” King went so far as to identify the retreat to gradualism and reform as the key issue facing his movement. “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion,” he famously wrote, “that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.” King observed that this was the situation confronting the early Christians in their nonviolent opposition to the tyranny of Rome. When the early Christians entered a town, he wrote, they were
59 “A Call to Unity,” Public Statement by Eight Alabama Clergyman, April 12, 1963. http://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen/09a/mlk_day/statement.html, accessed May 3, 2014. 74 theologies and cultures
persecuted as “outside agitators – but they persisted, knowing that they were a colony of heaven, called to obey God rather than man.” He called out a warning that speaks as loudly today as it did a half century ago:
…[T]he judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.” 60
The church complicit Religion scholar Reza Aslan’s Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth created a stir when it was published in late 2013. Connecting Jesus with the first century movement of Judeans who advocated violent insurrection against Rome, Aslan argues that Jesus wanted to bring about a Jewish Kingdom to replace that of Rome and the Herodian dynasty installed by the Empire, and that he did not rule out armed insurrection as a means to achieve that political transformation. Aslan is correct in rejecting the image of Jesus as “gentle preacher” that came to dominate Christian readings of the Gospels. But he is mistaken in turning to the alternative picture of Jesus as a zealot advocating violent overthrow of the Roman provincial government. Jesus’ vision of the Kingdom of God was not about regime change. The Temple, not Herod’s palace, was the target of the nonviolent resistance movement he led: the corruption and hypocrisy of the Pharisees and scribes, not the tyranny of Rome’s puppet kings. Albert Nolan points out that the real issue for Jesus was not Roman oppression but the lack of compassion in Jewish society – the gross inequalities and suffering brought about by the Temple system. The lesson of the “Widow’s mite” found in the Gospels of Mark and Luke (Mark 12:41-44, Luke 21:1-4) is offered not as a pietistic lesson about devotion and self-sacrifice – it is an expression of outrage about a system that would create such poverty and then be ready to deliver the killing stroke. When Jesus enters Jerusalem, it is
60 King, Martin Luther Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” in Washington, James Melville, ed., I have a Dream: Writings and Speeches that Changed the World, (San Francisco: Harper), 1986, 91. Global Kairos Movement 75
the Temple before which he stands, declaring that it will be replaced with his Body – a realm of compassion and equality. On this point Nolan quotes Uruguayan Jesuit priest and liberation theologian Juan Luis Segundo:
The political life, the civic organization of the Jewish multitudes, their burdens, their oppression,…depended much less on the Roman Empire and much more on the theology ruling in the groups of scribes and Pharisees. They, and not the Empire, imposed intolerable burdens on the weak…so establishing the true socio-political structure of Israel. 61
Of course, it is the Empire, now as it was then, a structure of economic exploitation supported by political and military power, designed to maintain an oligarchy of wealth fed by the labor of impoverished multitudes that is responsible for mass suffering. The key word in Nolan’s analysis, however, is theology. In a world in which the modern distinction between religion and politics did not exist, beliefs and codes based on and expressed in religion were a key component of the system that ruled everyday life. Jesus was saying that Rome’s oppression would not prevail if the people were to maintain loyalty to the principles of Torah, rather than the distorted version of Jewish law employed by the Jerusalem theocracy to justify and enforce a predatory Temple cult and the imperial system of taxation and tribute. The authors of “The Road to Damascus,” pointed out that the Temple “was the centre not only of religious power but also of political and economic power, while the Law was the guarantee that nothing in that society would change.” 62 Jesus’ theology, like that of Howard Thurman, Martin Luther King Jr., Bishop Oscar Romero, and the kairos documents emerging from Palestine, the Americas, Africa and Asia today, was a theology of resistance -- a guide for faithful action in the face of tyranny. Modern Zionism’s incarnation as an exclusivist, triumphalist ideology justifying conquest and ethnic cleansing is, sadly, one more example of an all-too-common feature of our times. Oppressed and traumatized peoples, seeking relief from shame, suffering and humiliation, have often turned to nationalism – frequently infused
61 Nolan, 118 62 Road to Damascus, in Brown, 134 76 theologies and cultures
with religious and messianic qualities. The church has often been instrumental, indeed complicit in the formation and political realization of these movements. In this regard, the story of the church and Nazi Germany is well-known. It is the story of a Germany politically, economically and psychologically crushed by the defeat of 1918 and its aftermath. The shame and humiliation of defeat, the physical devastation, loss of life, deprivation, hunger and sense of isolation from the larger world opened the way for a tyrannous system to take hold. Furthermore, a deep mistrust of the modernism, pluralism and liberal values of Weimar Germany made National Socialism attractive to a significant number of German church leaders, academics, and theologians, leading to the development of a full- blown volksteologie that served to support the new regime.63 Lutheran Paul Althaus, a prominent and respected twentieth-century German theologian, ascribed clear religious significance to the ascendancy of National Socialism. “Our Protestant churches have greeted the turning point of 1933 as a gift and a miracle of God,” wrote Althaus in the year that Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power. “[W]e take the turning point of this year as grace from God’s hand. He has saved us from the abyss and out of hopelessness. He has given us – or so we hope – a day of life." 64 Although the example of the German Reichskirche is the most well known, this phenomenon has in no way been limited to this particular and notorious case. A brief three years after the fall of the Third Reich, with the compliance of the churches of South Africa -- white and black, reformed, Catholic, and Pentecostal, and sustained by the protection and active theological support of the dominant Dutch Reformed Church, the ruling Afrikaner minority in South Africa implemented a political platform that mirrored the volkstheologie that had been served up by Germany’s church leaders and theologians in the Nazi years. South African historians of apartheid John and Steve DeGruchy observe: “A defeated people need an interpretation of their history, a mythos, which can enable them to discover significance in what has happened to them….it is not surprising that Afrikaner
63 See Ericksen, Robert P., Theologians Under Hitler, (New Haven and London: Yale University Press) 1985. 64 In Ericksen, RP, Heschel, S. Betrayal: German Churches and the Holocaust. Fortress, Minneapolis, 1991, 23-24. Global Kairos Movement 77
history, like that of other nations, took on a sacred character…” 65 “The National Party, wrote the DeGruchys, “was itself becoming, if not a church, then a party imbued with religion – a secular religion – at its roots.” 66 A similarly powerful religiously-informed ethic characterized the European colonization of the Americas. The ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples and the conduct of the African slave trade were justified by notions of divine privilege, destiny, and even obligation. And did not the Christianity of the white southerner in the United States during slavery and its aftermath in Jim Crow America serve as a civil religion, supported by selective, literalist interpretations of the Bible? And are not strands of this cultural and religious DNA still operative in the foreign and domestic policies of the world’s remaining superpower? Modern political Zionism partakes of this same cultural and historical dynamic. Like the German people after 1918 and the Afrikaners after their subjugation by the British, the besieged and battered Jews of central and eastern Europe at the close of the 19th century sought dignity, relief from suffering, and an antidote to the sense of disgrace and shame that comes from marginalization and disenfranchisement. For them the idea of nationhood became a central and defining concept -- the basis, if not of a theology, of a form of civil religion. “We are a people – one people.” wrote Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, in 1896. “The idea must make its way into the uttermost miserable holes where our people dwell…into all our lives will come a new meaning…I believe that a wondrous breed of Jews will spring up from the earth. We shall lie at last as free men on our own soil, and in our own homes peacefully die…The world will be liberated by our freedom, enriched by our wealth, magnified by our greatness.” 67 British psychoanalyst and critic Jacqueline Rose describes Zionism as “one of the most potent movements of the twentieth century,” with the power, she writes, “to sacralize itself” 68 Although its founders were not religious, the political success of Zionism in the early years of the movement was
65 DeGruchy and DeGruchy, 29. 66 Ibid, 33. 67 Herzl, T, The Jewish State, 1896, in Hertzberg, A, The Zionist Idea, 1959, 225 68 Rose, Jacqueline, The Question of Zion, (Princeton: Princeton University Press) 2005, 14 78 theologies and cultures
owed in no small measure to European Christian Zionism, most significantly in Britain. Today Israel’s colonial aims are powerfully supported by religious Zionists, Jewish and Christian, on a global basis, and inside Israel religious parties and religious movements effectively dictate state policy over a wide range of civil and military policies. Theology can be used for good or for evil -- mobilizing and shaping movements to end injustice or laying out the blueprint for oppression. 69 In his inaugurating proclamation Jesus set out clearly what it means to bring God’s “opportune time” to the affairs of the world: free the captives of unjust systems, both oppressors and oppressed; open the eyes of those blinded by poverty as well as those whose vision is clouded by greed and the seduction of power. Today, as it was in Jesus’ time, the battle is joined, and it is one that will be fought on theological grounds. “The Kairos today,” writes theologian Fernando Enns, “is similar to that of 1932 in Europe,” invoking the call issued by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in that year for “[a] change in the church’s understanding of itself,” a change that, according to Bonhoeffer, would be demonstrated by the production of theology true to the church’s calling. Enns repeats the German Lutheran’s warning to the church in those times: “If it does not succeed in this that will be evidence that it is nothing but a new and up to date improvement in church organizations.” 70 “It is the Kairos or moment of truth not only for apartheid but also for the church,” declared the South African Kairos document, confronted with its own theological crisis, “the time for the church to make a decision.” “It is serious,” the document continues, “very serious. A crisis is a moment of truth that shows us up for what we really are. There will be no place to hide and no way of pretending to be what we are not in fact. At this moment in South
69 Compare the European and U.S. biblical justification for slavery with theologian Beverly Mitchell’s description of the spirit of African American slaves who, out of their own suffering, even at the hands of the “distorted gospel” of the slaveholders, “wrought a new expression of Christianity that not only supported and enlivened the faith of African Americans, but contributed as well to the spirit and tenor of Christianity in the United States as a whole.” In Burnett, C.M., ed., Zionism Through Christian Lenses, Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2013, pp 109-131. 70 Enns 22 Global Kairos Movement 79
Africa the Church is about to be shown up for what it really is and no cover-up will be possible.” 71
A Call to Discipleship The call to discipleship was issued by Jesus, and then spread by his disciples. Today it is the Palestinians who issue this call. They summon us to acknowledge the brokenness of our own systems and the errors in our own beliefs, and to know that we receive the power to heal ourselves and to work for the Kingdom of God by heeding the call of the oppressed. The kairos movements arising across the globe are responding to that call in the context of their own human rights struggles -- in their own communities as well as in the foreign policies of their governments, bringing renewed commitment and energy to those endeavors in their embrace of liberation for the Palestinian people. By their “word of faith, hope and love,” the Palestinians stand in the tradition of Jesus’ original call to discipleship. They stand in the tradition of the South African and then the global church that declared itself in status confessionis in the face of the evil of apartheid. Duncan Forrester reminds us that the church must renew itself continually in every historical era. “The birth of the Church,” he writes, “wherever we locate it, was depicted in the Bible as an unambiguously public event.” 72 A church thus reborn must be willing step into uncertainty -- to risk disrupting the established order as well as unsettling its own house, as it did in the crucible of its origins in the Palestine of 2000 years ago. “The signs of the times discussed in the gospels,” observes Forrester, “are manifestations of a new order latent in the disorder of the day, ready to emerge from the womb of the past. The scribes and the Pharisees wanted a sign authenticating Jesus and the message of the Reign of God which he preached. They wanted all doubt removed.” But this was not Jesus’ way, Forrester points out, not his message about how to bring human affairs into harmony with God’s plan. Jesus, Forrester reminds us, reserved his harshest words for this kind of blindness: it was an “evil and adulterous generation” that required “proof and certainty before they decided how to respond to this strange, compelling teacher and his call to discipleship.” 73
71 Kairos South Africa, “Challenge to the Church” 72 Forrester, 25 73 Forrester, 128 80 theologies and cultures
When we read the story of that first Pentecost, we begin to understand that this was a process that was accompanied by anxiety and profound uncertainty. The time between Easter and Pentecost was a time of confusion for Jesus’ followers. Stunned and perplexed by the events they had witnessed, they failed to comprehend the meaning of his execution and were stubbornly blind to his appearances after his death on the cross. All the way to Pentecost, they remained ignorant as to what Jesus meant by receiving power from the Holy Spirit. More than that -- they got it completely wrong. As they had so many times before, they proceeded to ask the wrong question, a question that revealed that they still did not understand what Jesus had been teaching for the three and a half years of his ministry. “Is this the time,” they asked, “is it now Lord, that you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6) Even then, they did not comprehend what Jesus meant by the Kingdom of God. Seeking the certainty of the familiar, they awaited the “restoration” of yet another system of domination, ready to replace the oppression of a foreign occupier with the tyranny of one’s own people grasping for power and tribal hegemony. We face similar choices today. The theocracy in place in Jerusalem betrayed (in the Greek, “handed over”) Jesus for the crime of speaking the truth about the sinfulness of his society. In an act of political expediency the Jewish leaders delivered him to the Roman authorities for execution in order to preserve the power relationship they enjoyed with the imperial masters. In its commitment to the Zionist program, the State of Israel is guilty of the same folly -- requiring the building of a fortress wall, the exclusion, impoverishment and demonization of the “other” with which it shares a land, and a deepening alliance with the forces and institutions of global militarism. In pursuit of its colonial and hegemonic aims, Israel has – inevitably and unavoidably – betrayed the commitment to the goal of a democratic, egalitarian society expressed in its Declaration of Independence. In a tragic paradox, it has thus condemned its citizens to a perpetual state of insecurity and fear. The Jewish denominations, advocacy organizations and political lobbies worldwide have been Israel’s staunch allies in this unsustainable, self- destructive project of ethnic nationalism. In that effort they too have become allied with what liberation theologian Walter Wink termed the Domination System: choosing the false comfort of “security” and the blinkered clarity of “us and them” over the hopefulness and openness Global Kairos Movement 81
of community, staking their future, along with the State of Israel, on – in Wink’s terms -- the myth of redemptive violence. In the face of these realities, can we embrace, in Forrester’s words, the “call to faithfulness amid the turbulence, uncertainties and opportunities” of our times? For over six decades, the world has been asked – and largely agreed – to unquestioningly accept Jewish hegemony in Palestine, whether on the basis of a need for protection, recompense for suffering at the hands of the Christian West, a historical narrative of return from exile, or an eschatology of Biblical promise and prophecy. Like Jesus followers, indeed much like the Jewish leadership of the time, we want “all doubt removed.” Jesus was pointing them toward a new order, one that he termed the Kingdom or Realm of God, a social order of compassion and equality that represented a radical alternative to the system that ruled in his time and place (In Jesus’ often quoted remark to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world,” the word usually translated “world” is kosmos: “order,” or “system.”) But Jesus’ followers failed to understand what was before their eyes. Blind to Jesus’ vision of the new thing, they persisting in seeking a restoration of temporal power. Across the globe, kairos movements are challenging this contemporary betrayal of fundamental Christian values, bringing Christians together in what Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. termed the Beloved Community. Bridging longstanding theological, racial and historic divides, church groups at grassroots and denominational levels are confronting their governments’ complicity in Israel’s human rights violations. The authors of the Philippine kairos document weigh in powerfully from their context as a nation with a long history of occupation and as church leaders carrying out their own struggle for the rights of indigenous peoples. They make the case that this is a struggle that is larger than Palestine -- that stepping into the story of Palestinian resistance to dispossession and the attempted erasure of their history and very identity moves us into the broader global struggle for equality and human dignity:
[T]he Palestinian situation mirrors the many faces of suffering in our world today. The tentacles of the empire move unrestrained causing much destitution and death from Palestine to the Sulu isles. Empire-sponsored occupation of other people's lands goes with other names in other areas. They are called 'neo-colonialism', 'strong republic', 'national 82 theologies and cultures
security state', 'democratization', etc…The Palestinian people's struggle amplifies the faith, hope, and love of resisting peoples and nations of the world…Palestine, being at the center of the world, historically, culturally, and geopolitically, is central to the many narratives of national liberation. For this reason solidarity around the Palestinian people's struggle is crucial to the formation of a truly global network for emancipatory politics. 74
A church reborn The church has done it before. The church can do it again. The church was born in the reverberations of Jesus’ words spoken in the first chapter of the Gospel of Mark:
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the Good News, and saying, “The kairos is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near! Repent, and believe in the Good News.” (Mark 1:14–15)
Think about what Jesus’ declaration means. In arresting John, Rome was trying to prevent the momentous events that he was foretelling. Taking on the mantle of prophecy, Jesus was announcing that God was breaking into history and was calling on his people to embrace the kairos. The call has come now, as it did in those days, to step into history. The Greek metanoeite, usually -- and regrettably -- translated as “repent,” means to change ourselves, to shift our focus radically away from habitual, narrow concerns and toward the urgent needs of society. Albert Nolan defines faith as “a change in mind and heart, a change of allegiance, a radical reorientation of one’s life…a straightforward decision in favor of the Kingdom of God.” 75 John Marsh puts it this way: “To embrace the opportunity means salvation,
74 Kairos Philippines. “Reclaiming the good news of the holy land and the imperative of Interfaith solidarity to resist empire: a Philippine theological Response to kairos Palestine.” http://www.kairospalestine.ps/sites/default/Documents/A%20Philippine%20 Theological%20response%20to%20Kairos%20Palestine.pdf. Section 3.4, accessed January 15, 2014 75 Nolan, 101 Global Kairos Movement 83
to neglect it disaster. There is no third choice.”76 “Hope,” reads the Kairos Palestine document, “is the capacity to see God in the midst of trouble, and to be co-workers with the Holy Spirit who is dwelling in us.” “A church reborn, writes Forrester, “is a church that is aware of its public identity and its public responsibilities.” 77 The birth of the church did not, as Forrester observes, take place “quietly, in private, in the bosom of the family. There is public dislocation and disturbance from the beginning.” 78 “Do you suppose,” Jesus teaches, “that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division.” (Luke 12:51) The meaning of the Greek diamerismon is to make a clear distinction, to take sides, to take a stand. In the words of the U.S. Kairos “Call to Action,” it is “to know the difference between a theology that supports the policies and institutional structures of oppression and a theology that, in response to history and human affairs, stands boldly with the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the dispossessed. It is to know the difference between actions and words that seek at all costs to preserve cherished beliefs, attitudes and relationships, and those that challenge these in order to bring about a world of love and compassion.” 79 In times of urgent necessity, the church emerges as the standard bearer for universal truths and the moral imperatives that ultimately carry the day in spite of political and social forces, often supported by institutional religion, that seek to preserve unjust systems through the slowing or blocking of change. Kairos calls the church to know the difference, to make the decision for justice and discipleship, to recognize that the kingdom is ours to create here on earth.
76 John Marsh, quoted in Robert McAfee Brown, ed., Kairos: Three Prophetic Challenges to the Church, (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1992), p. 3. (Marsh cite in Brown: quoted in Alan Richardson, ed., A Theological Word Book of the Bible, (London: MacMillan, 1962), p. 252. 77 Forrester 142 78 Forrester 141 79 Kairos USA: Call to Action theologies and cultures, Vol. XI, No 1 June 2014, pp. 84-96
Liberative Justice – A Brazilian Response to Kairos Palestine
Felipe Gustavo Koch Buttelli1
I don’t join my voice with the ones who, speaking of peace, ask the oppressed, the ragged of the world, for their resignation. My voice has another semantic, has another music. I speak of resistance, indignation, the “righteous anger” of the betrayed and the deceived. From their right and from their duty to rebel against the ethical transgressions of which they are victims suffering more and more.
Injustice somewhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Martin Luther King Jr.
I got personally involved with the reflection on a Kairos theology during my doctoral research in South Africa, in 2010. I was invited to participate in a conference celebrating the 25th anniversary of the South African Kairos Document2. The Conference was called “A luta
1 Dr. Felipe Gustavo Koch Buttelli is a Brazilian Lutheran theologian who is currently working as associate researcher in Faculdades EST [www.est.edu.br], doing his post-doctoral research on the role of religion in the public space as a decolonial praxis. Coordinates, with a group of theologians, Kairós Palestina Brasil [www.Kairosbrasil.com] and participates in the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum (PIEF) of the World Council of Churches (WCC). 2 The Institute for Contextual Theology on behalf of the Kairos Theologians, The Kairos Document: Challenge to the Church. A Theological Comment on Liberative Justice 85
continua: Connecting prophetic voices”. A luta continua means in Portuguese “the struggle continues”. It was an excellent way to approach the South African theological background, once there were present many important theologians, mostly related with Prophetic Theology, Kairos Theology, or Contextual Theology3. It was a right place to be, considering that I was coming from Latin America, where liberation theology was developed, before it became a southern theology, contextually adapted to different contexts of struggle for justice and freedom. I was writing my dissertation on the topic of public theology and its relation to liberation theology in Brazil and South Africa. Kairos Theology became to me an interesting terrain in which I could find a connection between liberation theologies and public theologies. I suggested, then, that the South African Kairos Document was a way to do public theology connected with the contextual or liberation theology tradition4. Besides that, I had the privilege during that year to participate in the launching of the Palestinian Kairos Document in South Africa5, translated to English and Afrikaans. On that occasion I could hear Naim Ateek, Rifat Kassis, and Mark Braverman, a Jewish liberation theologian. It was the first time I have heard in such a detailed way about the suffering of people in Palestine. It was also a chance for myself to feel committed and to start to find ways to engage with Palestine in my own context in Brazil. A third approach was related with the launching of the Kairos Southern Africa6, in March of 2011. I became, during that year, a the Political Crisis in South Africa, Revised Second Edition, 1986. The first edition was issued in 1985. 3 Nolan, Albert. Kairos Theology. In: De Gruchy, John; Villa-Vicencio, Charles (Eds.). Doing Theology in Context: South African Perspectives. New York/Cape Town: Orbis Books/David Philip, 1994. pp. 212-218. 4 Buttelli, Felipe Gustavo Koch. Public Theology as Theology on Kairos: The South African Kairos Document as a Model of Public Theology. Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, v. 143, p. 90-105, 2012. Buttelli, Felipe Gustavo Koch. Public Theology and its necessary relation to the liberation paradigm in a new Kairos – A Response to Clint Le Bruyns. Available in: http://www.ecclesio.com/2012/06/public-theology-and-itsnecessary-relation- to-the-liberation-paradigm-in-a-new-Kairos-%E2%80%93-aresponse-to- clint-le-bruyns-by-felipe-gustavo-koch-buttelli/ Access in 28th March 2014. 5http://www.Kairospalestine.ps/Access in 02nd April 2014. 6http://Kairossouthernafrica.wordpress.com/Access in 02nd April 2014. 86 theologies and cultures
participant in this group and have observed the growing of an interesting initiative, which is based in the Kairos tradition and tries to read the signs of the times also today, not just in Southern Africa but everywhere. As the preface of its constitution says:
Kairos Southern Africa recognise the interrelatedness and interdependence of the struggles of the peoples of Southern Africa, and the role that faith has played and continue to play in the humanisation or dehumanisation processes in our different countries and regions.7
These three experiences helped me to create an awareness of the interrelatedness of Kairos theology, struggle for justice and freedom in South Africa, in Palestine and elsewhere in the world, including in my own context in Brazil. It also invited me to become part of the global movement of Kairos, especially focused on the Palestinian situation today. Based on this personal approach to the reflection on Kairos theologies I started to ask why is there no involvement of Brazilian theologians with it and especially why Brazilian theologians are not answering to the call “from the heart of Palestinian suffering”? In order to develop a proper response in a Kairos perspective it was, at least for myself necessary to understand what is the Kairos theology and how it is related with our own Latin American theological reflection. We have a strong commitment with struggles for liberations and a theological approach which understands that God made a “preferential option for the poor”8.
1. Introduction to Kairos Theology The first question to be asked is: What is, then, Kairos Theology? Kairos is a word from Greek which means “opportune moment”, “right moment” for something to happen, “favorable time”. It is better translated as “time”, but it is a different time. The ancient Greek used to have two words for the modern notion of “time”: Chronos and Kairos. While chronos was used to determine the chronological time, the sequential and lineal time, Kairos was used by the Greek to refer to an existential time. In the mythological language, Kairos was used
7http://Kairossouthernafrica.wordpress.com/about/Access in 02nd April 2014. 8 Gustavo Gutierrez A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation. 15th anniversary ed. Maryknoll: Orbis, 1988. Liberative Justice 87
to resist to the merciless god Chronos. While chronos refers to quantity of time, Kairos refers to quality of time9. It was received in New Testament’s theology, especially by Paul. The term appears 50 times, 30 of them in Paul’s letters. It is a time defined by God for something to happen, time of creative crisis. In Mk. 1:14-15 it is “the time” to be fulfilled. Kairos is a time which requires a change or reorienting. In Lk. 12:54-56 “the present time” is an extraordinary time, requiring interpretation, with the capacity to read the signs of the times. Also according to Luke 19:44 it was “the time” for God’s visit. It is critical to recognize it. It is a time in which you must be responsible for what you did or have not done. Paul (Romans 13: 11-13) qualifies “the time . . . the moment” that calls for action and transformation—a change of life. In 2 Cor. 6:1-2 it is “the acceptable time”, not just a time of crisis but also opportunity and favor. It is a moment of grace. The South African theologian Allan Boesak defines a Kairos consciousness as follows:
Though some speak of a “Kairos time”, Kairos is actually a “moment”, of truth, of discernment, of discovery. It is a revelation of the reality we live in, of what is at stake and our responsibility in that moment. It is a moment decisive in history. Not all history but ours, of the times in which we live. In that sense it is unique, for us to see, understand, and act upon. Without seeing, understanding and acting the moment passes us by. Hence the moment is decisive. A Kairos consciousness is a consciousness awake and open to the discovering of, and responding to the decisiveness and uniqueness of that moment10.
2. Why to speak about South African Kairos Theology? As we start to understand conceptually what does it mean to speak about theology on Kairos it is necessary to reflect on South African Kairos theology. The South African Kairos Document was written by
9 Gingrich, F. Wilbur; Danker, Frederick W. Léxico do N.T.Trad. Júlio Zabatiero. São Paulo: Vida Nova, 2001. p. 106. Original version: Gingrich, F. Wilbur; Danker, Frederick W. Shorter Lexicon of The Greek New Testament. Chicago/USA: The University of Chicago Press, 1983. 10 http://Kairossouthernafrica.wordpress.com/Kairos-consciousness/. Access in 02nd April 2014. 88 theologies and cultures
many theologians together, most of them related to the so called Institute for Contextual Theology. This institute was meant to foster theological initiatives which were responsive to the contextual challenges South Africa was facing during the struggle against apartheid. Contextual theology was defined by Albert Nolan as
…the kind of theology which reflects, explicitly and consciously, upon its context in the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In other words, it deals with the problems, the issues and the questions that arise for a Christian in a particular context and especially in a context of oppression and suffering.11
Nolan also saw the connection between the South African contextual theology and the Latin American liberation theology, both of them strongly related with the popular reading of the Bible. On the contextual reading of the Bible and of the reality is that a Kairos theology emerges, as a responsive theology to the challenges of reality. As in Latin American, this context was mostly marked by State repression, disrespect of the rights of oppressed people and the struggle for political liberation. So he formulated it: Kairos theology has much in common with liberation theology. In fact it might well be described as a species or type of liberation theology. Like other theologies of liberation, it makes use of social analysis and is driven by Christian faith to struggle for the liberation of the oppressed.12 The contextual theology, as much as Kairos theology was criticized by some theologians, especially in what concerns the absence of certain issues in the Kairos Document. Tinyiko Maluleke, for instance, pointed to the fact that the perspective of black people was not represented because the Document was written mostly by white male theologians13. There was also criticism related to the fact that gender issues were forgotten. That was actually a problem not only related to the Kairos Document and the theological approach
11NOLAN, 1994, p. 213. 12NOLAN, 1994, p. 215. 13 Maluleke, Tinyiko S. Theology in (South) Africa: How the future has changed. In: Speckman, McGlory; Kaufmann, Larry (eds). Towards an Agenda for Contextual Theology: Essays in Honour of Albert Nolan. Pietermaritzburg: Cluster Publications, 2001. p. 364-389. Liberative Justice 89
present there, but also to the whole struggle14. Both perspectives were part of the suffering situation of the people struggling for justice and freedom and it certainly remains as a sign that we must approach the reality with an intersectional theology, recognizing all the faces of oppression, in South Africa, in Brazil, and also in Palestine. Besides all the aspects which need to be incorporated and further developed in the reflection about the Kairos theology, one aspect remains fundamental and is, actually, the greatest contribution it gives to the theological scene, particularly and globally. It is related to the importance of the socio-critical analysis of the context in which people are struggling. This seeing step on the liberation theology methodology provides the real background and the real situation to what our biblical interpretation should answer. It helps us to find out what is the reality in which God appears for us today. So that Kairos theology is always contextual and always related with concrete problems people face in their daily life. However, it does not mean that solidarity and theological reflection cannot be made globally, through international solidarity. It was the case in South Africa and it must also be the way to achieve just peace in Palestine and Israel. In a comparative approach, as the Palestinian Kairos theologians rightly identified, there are strong parallels between both contexts of oppression which make clear the relation between both Kairos movements. As Kairos Palestine states: “We hope also that it will be welcomed positively and will receive strong support, as was the South Africa Kairos document launched in 1985, which, at that time proved to be a tool in the struggle against oppression and occupation.”15
3. Between South African and Palestinian Kairos Documents Considering the South African Kairos Document it is interesting to point to the fact that it identified different theologies in society and
14This assumption, that feminist theology and the condition of women was neglected during the struggle can be found in: Ackermann, Denise; Draper, Jonathan A.; Mashinini, Emma (eds). Women Hold up Half the Sky. Pietermaritzburg: Cluster, 1991. Também Pillay, Miranda; Nadar, Sarojini; Le Bruyns, Clint. (Eds.) Ragbag Theologies. Essays in honour of Denise M Ackermann: A Feminist theologian of praxis. Stellenbosch: Sun Press, 2009. 15A Moment of Truth: A word of faith, hope, and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering. Kairos Palestine: 2009.p. 3. 90 theologies and cultures
had a critical approach to them. The first theology identified in the document was named State Theology, which was a Calvinist (mostly Dutch reformed) theological justification of apartheid. This theology was in the heart of the system, giving a theological reason for its emergence and giving it a divine justification, i.e., formulating it as a separation order and wished by God. It was disrespectful and against God’s will to protest against the system which was implemented by the State (Rm 13). In the Palestinian context this State Theology can be easily identified with the Zionist Theology, present in fundamentalist Jewish (Zionist political ideology) and evangelical Christian backgrounds. This imperial theology, as Mitri Raheb formulates, is fundamental for maintaining the occupation and the domination. It is not only the flow of hardware, military equipment, and advanced technology that provides the fuel to maintain the occupying power, but it is also the “software” – the culture, the narrative, and the theology – that helps to power the state of Israel. These provide the soft power or halo that enables Israel to continue to get away with its oppression of the Palestinian people without serious ramifications. This software was long in the making, but it became a dominant reality following World War II. Since then, we have been told that God is on the other side, on Israel’s side.16 A second theology identified in the South African Kairos Document was a Church Theology, mostly identified with the position of the churches which prefer to maintain a “neutral” position17. This theology fosters a non-political spirituality, conceiving that religion and politics are separated things. This theological approach is more concerned with internal routines of the churches. It was much common in South Africa and the Kairos Document was mostly directed to this type of political approach, calling to the public responsibility of the churches. In the Palestinian struggle, it is not exactly the same situation. It seems that most of churches and church leaders in Palestine are involved with the struggle, as we can see that the document was signed by many church leaders and representatives.
16 Raheb, Mitri. Faith in the Face of Empire. The Bible through Palestinian Eyes. Bethlehem/Palestine: Diyar Publisher, 2014. p. 29-30. 17West, Gerald. Kairos 2000: Moving beyond church theology. In: Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, Pietermaritzburg, n. 108, November, 2000, p. 55-78. Liberative Justice 91
In Palestinian case, it seems that churches adopting this “neutral” and not committed position are mainly the churches in international level. As the Palestinian Kairos Document states:
We address ourselves to our brothers and sisters, members of our Churches in this land. We call out as Christians and as Palestinians to our religious and political leaders, to our Palestinian society and to the Israeli society, to the international community, and to our Christian brothers and sisters in the Churches around the world18.
A third theology suggested by the South African Kairos Document was a prophetic theology. This theology was partly formulated in the document but further developed during the struggle. It recognized that God takes side in the struggle by the oppressed and call to fight against tyranny of the State. On that sense, South African Kairos Document was polemic, once many identified it as a call to violence, as Desmond Tutu, who did not sign the document. It is not the case in the Palestinian Kairos Document, which made it clear that Christian commitment with love and justice breaks the cycle of violence: “We call on the people of Israel to be our partners in peace and not in the cycle of interminable violence. Let us resist evil together, the evil of occupation and the infernal cycle of violence”19. Slightly different from the South African theological approach, more characterized by the assumption that God made in Jesus Christ a “preferential option for the poor”, the Palestinian Kairos Document prefers to detach the word of God from human and political positions, once it is one of the main theological justifications for the occupation and persecution of Palestinian people: Therefore, we declare that any use of the Bible to legitimize or support political options and positions that are based upon injustice, imposed by one person on another, or by one people on another, transform religion into human ideology and strip the Word of God of its holiness, its universality and truth20.
18A Moment of Truth: A word of faith, hope, and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering. Kairos Palestine: 2009. p.5. 19Ibid., p.14. 20 Ibid., p. 9 92 theologies and cultures
As a last aspect, it is also important to consider that both Kairos Documents invited and generated a series of responses, giving these struggles an international dimension, what turns this global or international solidarity as a prominent characteristic of the Kairos Tradition.
4. Kairos movement internationally – hearing to the call of Palestinian Christians It is possible to identify a move, a tradition of Kairos documents which started with the South African Kairos document. Many documents followed the publication of Kairos Document in 1985. The first thing to be considered is that in 1982 the Belhar Confession was issued by Dutch Reformed Mission’s Church. It was quite a powerful document urging for justice and ethical commitment as a result of the faith. In 1986 it was released the Evangelical Witness in South Africa and in 1988 A Relevant Pentecostal Witness, which were commitments from other segments of the Christian community in South Africa that have not participated on the formulation of the Kairos Document. Already in 1988 there was an international response to Kairos, from Central America, the so called Kairós Centro Americano. In 1989 it was released the The Road to Damascus: Kairos and Conversion in South Africa again, as much as Violence: The new Kairos, in 1990. In 1991 A Kairos for Kenya was issued and in 1998 a European Kairos Document. In 1998 too A Call to Prophetic Action: Zimbabwean Kairos Document and in 2000 the Kairos India (2000) were launched. More recently we saw the emergence of other Kairos documents, more related to the economic crisis of capitalism and its deleterious effects to the Earth: as American Kairos (2007)21. In 2009, then, Kairos Palestine was launched, creating a whole new impetus on
21 A good synopsis of the Kairos Documents was organized by Gerald West and is available under: “Kairos Documents: Mapping the Terrain” (Pietermaritzburg: Ujamaa Centre for Biblical and Theological Community Development Research), 1-24. Available online [internet] at: http://ujamaa.ukzn.ac.za/Libraries/Resources_for_consultation/An_overview _of_worldwide_Kairos_documents.sflb.ashx [accessed 03/04/2012].For a sample of different Kairos Documents, see Gary Leonard (2010): Available online [internet] at: http://ujamaa.ukzn.ac.za/Libraries/manuals/ The_Kairos_Documents.sflb.ashx [accessed 09/10/2010], 1-378. Liberative Justice 93
the international Kairos debate. This was not a random fact, but it was a response to the call of Palestinian Christians, as the document states: This document is the Christian Palestinians’ word to the world about what is happening in Palestine. It is written at this time when we wanted to see the Glory of the grace of God in this land and in the sufferings of its people. In this spirit the document requests the international community to stand by the Palestinian people who have faced oppression, displacement, suffering and clear apartheid for more than six decades. The suffering continues while the international community silently looks on at the occupying State, Israel. The Kairos trajectory pointed to Palestine and was embraced by Palestinian people, as they progressively identified their own reality as apartheid. Clint Le Bruyns, analyzing the strength and the fact that Kairos Tradition is still operating internationally, defines it as “a public theology embedded in a Kairos consciousness of contextuality, criticality and change towards the nurturing of a responsible citizenship.” 22 This public theological exercise in Palestine called many Christians and international organisms on their responsibility, as the document states: Therefore, we call for a response to what the civil and religious institutions have proposed, as mentioned earlier: the beginning of a system of economic sanctions and boycott to be applied against Israel. We repeat once again that this is not revenge but rather a serious action in order to reach a just and definitive peace that will put an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories and will guarantee security and peace for all.23 This international call created a movement of responses which continues to grow. Many Kairos groups around the world accepted the challenge and started to promote actions internationally and contextually to support the Palestinian struggle. One of these voices was raised in Brazil.
5. Brazilian Response: Towards a Liberative Justice Brazilian theologians know what it is the harsh reality of repression and violence from the State. In Brazil, particularly, there was a military-dictatorship from 1964 to 1985, which was quite
22 Le Bruyns, Clint. The Rebirth of Kairos Theology and its Implications for Public Theology and Citizenship In South Africa. Unpublished paper. 2012. 23 Kairos Palestine: 2009. p.15. 94 theologies and cultures
violent against the human, civil and political rights of the population. It was fostered by the United States of America as a way to fight against the communist. As we see, also in Latin American cases, state repression had support from USA and the change only became real when the Wall of Berlin felt down and the geopolitical interests have changed. It was better to have democracy for the improvement of a neoliberal globalized market. It seems that Palestine confronts against the same type of political set: suffering the results of an imperial geopolitical decision and has violence justified as it was a war against terrorists. I mentioned that not to make a comprehensive reading of the political scene, which is one much more complex, but to show that Brazilian reality had several aspects similar to the Palestinian case. It was in that context that liberation theology was forged. Because of that similar experience of struggle for liberation, the Kairós Palestina Brasil24 document is organized around three main parts: A word from Brazilian reality; a word to Palestinian reality and a word of hope. This experience on the basis of the theological solidarity, recalling our own historical experience to answer to Kairos Palestine was expressed as follows:
In Latin America we know what it means to have body, heart and history sealed with pain and doubts. Pain from the violent and oppressive colonization model tied to a religious project of power that subjugated territory, subjugated identities and subjugated possibilities of life in common.[...] From the shared pain and from
24 The document was issued in 2012, its written process was conceived collectively and it was finalized during the World Social Forum Free Palestine, In Porto Alegre/Brazil, in October 2012. Kairós Palestina Brazil was launched also as a website, in which it is possible to sign the document and gather more information around the process. Available in English in: [http://Kairosbrasil.com/img/KairosBrasilEN.pdf] The Kairós Palestina Brasil group kept activities of education, information and advocacy around the Palestinian situation, especially through social media [https://www.facebook.com/Kairospalestinabrasil]. More recently it is organizing a Consultation on Responsible Religious Tourism in Palestine and Israel, among other activities as part of the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign and especially against commercial agreements between Brazilian government, universities, and Israeli security companies. Liberative Justice 95
the obstinacy fed by the doubts we welcome the call from Kairós Palestine and respond with our own history, but also with the loving commitment with other lands and struggles which are also ours.25
This kind of expression of solidarity can only emerge from below, from our own bodies and experiences. It is something that can only emerge from the Global South, once it is this part of the world and the countries which make up this set of nations, which suffered and keep on suffering the effects of colonial practice, geopolitical imperialism, and economic exploitation. For this reason, Brazilian theologians supported the right of the Palestinian people to resist peacefully against a colonial system:
We acknowledge and are aware of the contradictions and shortcomings of the mediations of resistance and defense of the struggle and sovereignty of our peoples. Even so, we consider the suffering as a place of fundamental learning of “another possible world” that we yearn and live for. We affirm radically the right to resistance, the peaceful search for the right, and the construction of international political consensus that are respected and that guarantee the life of the Palestinian people. We reject the manipulation that Israel and the international media do about the resistance of Palestinians, distorting the real nature of the conflict, presenting it as a war of Israel against terrorism. We affirm the right to resistance of the Palestinian people and call for international mechanisms that guarantee the rights and agreements already established in regard to Palestine sovereignty.26
However, the most important theological contribution is the recognizing of the misuse of the Bible to justify the establishment of Israeli state, even if it overwhelms the rights and lives of thousands of Palestinians. Brazilian theologians recognized the contribution that the international Christianity and many biblical scholars to support a Zionist interpretation of the Bible, which support Israel in its imperial and colonial purposes. It is necessary, even in Latin America, to overcome this naïve and unfair approach to the Bible, rediscovering
25 Kairós Palestina Brasil, 2012, p. 1. 26 Kairós Palestina Brasil, 2012, P. 3. 96 theologies and cultures
the God of the marginalized people, God of all the nations: "In the name of the peace and dialogue it is needed to recuperate the Hebrews’ Yahweh, of the poor and oppressed, whether Jews, Arabs, Christians, black, white, women or men;"27 Brazilian response is a search to construct a notion of justice based on the struggle for liberation. It fosters a notion of Liberative Justice, which is a collective construction, in peaceful resistance, in the search for right and for life. It must reach out the international geopolitical arrangements, but it must also be constructed from bellow, from people's consciousness, rediscovering the God of love for all the peoples and the God that wants to have all the peoples free. It is a responsibility of everyone to recognize the right of Palestinian people to exist and to live abundantly (Jo. 10.10). Kairós Palestina Brasil states: "We consider the cause of the Palestinian people, a cause of the whole humanity, a cause of God’s kingdom. And we continue the walk with much hope, despite all the obstacles. We leave you with the subversive peace of the Gospel."28
27 Kairós Palestina Brasil, 2012, P. 4. 28 Kairós Palestina Brasil, 2012, p. 4. theologies and cultures, Vol. XI, No 1 June 2014, pp. 97-110
Kairos Palestine: Some Reflections from Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme for Palestine and Israel
Manuel Quintero Perez1
The Kairos statements Four years have lapsed since a group of Palestinian Christians issued a historic statement in Bethlehem, December 2009, in which they declared that “the military occupation of our land is a sin against God and humanity, and any theology that legitimizes the occupation is far from Christian teachings”. Both the tenor of the statement and its authors, as well as the endorsement by the highest Christian authorities in Palestine, made Kairos Palestine a milestone in the context of a long-lasting conflict and a referential document for all those around the world who strive for a just peace in the land where our Lord was born. Kairos Palestine is that last of a series of similar contextual and prophetic theological statements that began in 1985 with the South African Kairos Document,2 drafted by a group of black South African theologians in the townships of Soweto. The South African statement was meant as a response to a particular juncture: the State of Emergence declared by the Pretoria government on 21 July 1985, and more generally to the brutal policies of the apartheid regime.
1 Manuel Quintero is a Cuban with rich and varied ecumenical experience. He is now the International Coordinador of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme for Palestine and Israel. [EAPPI] 2 The document was titled “Challenge to the Church, A Theological Comment on the Political Crisis in South Africa”. 98 theologies and cultures
It was not the first theological condemnation of apartheid, which had been called a “false gospel” and “sinful” by the “Message to the People of South Africa” — issued by the South African Council of Churches in 1968; and a “heresy” in the “Belhar Confession of the Dutch Reformed Mission Church in 1982. Yet the Kairos Document went further to declare the apartheid regime illegitimate from a moral and theological point of view and emphasized Christian’s duty “to refuse to cooperate with tyranny and to do whatever we can to remove it.” As a result, the South African Kairos Document elicited stubborn debates and reactions at home and world-wide. Other theologians in other contexts followed in the footprints of their South African counterparts. Three civil wars had erupted in Central America in the seventies. In Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua, leftist groupings and parties went to the jungles to fight a war aimed at overthrowing the traditional conservative, dictatorial order. Some Christians joined the leftist organizations and the violence was so high that rightist forces assassinated the Archbishop of El Salvador, Msgr. Arnulfo Romero on 24 March 1980, while giving a mass at the Cathedral.3 In 1988, theologians from Central America countries issued the Kairos Centroamericano to stimulate reflection and discernment, as an opportunity “to confess the sins of the past and return to the Living God” and to act “choosing an option for the poor, feeding the hope of the people, radicalizing our service to the kingdom of God, and calling on regional Christian collaboration”. The statement also called for ecumenical solidarity, made demands on the US government; spoke to Latin American governments and international institutions; and summoned churches of colonial countries “to do penitence for 500 years of oppression”.4
3 One month before his assassination, Msgr. Romero had called upon Salvadoran soldiers and security force members not to follow orders of their commanders to kill Salvadoran civilians. 4 There were also a Kairos for Kenya (1991) which addressed the contradictions of one party democratic rule and the Kenyan constitution within the realities of the Kenyan context; a European Kairos Document (1998) that called for a socially, just, life-sustaining and democratic Europe; and a Zimbabwe Kairos (1988) which referred to urgent needs of economic justice and land redistribution, the spread of HIV, corruption, family disintegration and environmental degradation. Cf. Gerald West: “Kairos EAPPI Response 99
Five years later the South African Kairos Document the apartheid regime was doomed. In 1990, the ruling National Party began dismantling discrimination by lifting the ban on the African National Congress and other political organisations and releasing Nelson Mandela from prison. In the negotiation process that followed the apartheid legislation was revoked. In 1994, nine years after the appearance of the Kairos Document, the country held its first universal elections which the ANC won; and Nelson Mandela, a universal symbol of resistance and dignity, was invested as the new President of South Africa. In Central America, by the mid-90’s the three wars had ended: Nicaragua in 1990, after an electoral defeat of the Sandinista government; El Salvador in 1992 with a treaty between the U.S.- supported government and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) coalition of guerrilla groups; and Guatemala in 1996 with a treaty between the government and the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) coalition of guerrilla groups.5
Discerning the Kairos I mentioned these documents to refer to a crucial question: the discerning of the Kairos, meaning the right or opportune moment, in its original Greek’s denotation; or, in its theological meaning: the time when God acts. This is how it is understood in John the Baptist’s admonition: “The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1, 15); or in Jesus’ words at the synagogue in Capernaum: “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”(Luke 4, 21) The understanding is that, when the Kairos comes, new options and opportunities are opened, and God acts to offer healing, liberation and renewal. This offering of new opportunities happens when we are going through critical moments, making the circumstances to turn into our favor. God’s manifests itself at the decisive time to turn discouragement into hope and defeat into documents: Mapping the terrain”, ujamaa.ukzn.ac.za/Libraries/ manuals/Kairos_documents.sflb.ashx. 5 Cf. Jack Spence: “War and Peace in Central America. Comparing Transitions Toward Democracy and Social Equity In Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua”, November 2004, Hemisphere Initiatives Brookline, Massachusetts (http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/hemisphereinitiatives/warpeace.pdf) 100 theologies and cultures
victory. Hence, from a biblical perspective, Kairos emphasizes the divine origin of certain moments in history, the time that God's purposes are directed to its fulfillment. That God acts in human history was a deep-rooted belief in the people of Israel, based on its foundational experience of liberation in Egypt; in a situation of slavery, God intervened to break down chains of oppression and set people free: “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey”. (Exodus 3, 7-8). That conviction that God is accompanying Israel through the perilous paths of history is also found in this eloquent text: “For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?... Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?” (Deuteronomy 4: 7, 34) Israel’s longing for God's intervention in its times of distress is found in different instances in the Old Testament. 6 Yet as Israel moved ahead in its making of a nation and disowns the clauses of its alliance or covenant with Yahveh, the “presence” and “intervention” of God becomes less evident, even less spectacular —no more fire, sound, wind as in the Sinai but sometimes as unassuming as the “gentle whisper” that Elijah recognized as the presence of God (1 Kings 19, 12). At some point Yahveh became silent, forcing the Deutero Isaiah to claim: “Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself, the God and Saviour of Israel.” (Isaiah 45, 15) Thereafter Israel continued experiencing the distance from its Lord, to the point of feeling forsaken by God:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?
6 Cf. Psalm 74: 9-11. See also David’s prayer that refers to the time of Lord’s favor in Psalm 69, 13.
EAPPI Response 101
My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest. (Psalm 22: 1-2)
“Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?” (Psalm 44: 23-24)
The same Yahveh who delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt allowed Israelis of the northern kingdom to feel to the Assyrians in 722 BCE and be taken into captivity to distant provinces of the Assyrian empire, were the Ten Tribes were practically dissolved. Then 136 years later, in 586, the Babylonian commander Nebuzaradan carried out the destruction of Jerusalem, including Solomon’s temple, and many Israelis were taken into captivity to Babylon for almost half a century, where they sat and wept remembering Zion. (Psalm 137) An epitome of God’s indifference and abandonment of Israel is found in Habakkuk, a contemporary of Jeremiah who saw the initial fulfillment of his own prophecy when the Babylonian attacked Jerusalem in 597 BCE. Habakkuk’n despair by the situation led him to challenge God’s wisdom:
“How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?” (1: 2-3a)
Habakkuk is bewildered by the circumstances of Israel and sought enlightenment in God’s answers. The Lord pronounced woes against those who piled up stolen goods and made themselves wealthy by extortion, who forcibly took what was not theirs and shed human blood, who built their houses by unjust gain, and practiced tyranny and oppression (2:6-13), a whole catalog of social, economic and political injustice! Actually the Lord is not slept; the Lord was raising up the Babylonians as an instrument of punishment against Judah. For Habakkuk, the remedy was worse than the problem. How could God use a vile and wicked nation to judge his own people? Ironically, the 102 theologies and cultures
last remarks of this prophet could rightfully be uttered by Palestinians today:
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. (3, 16b-18)
The Palestinian document highlights our belief that “the Word of God is a living Word, casting a particular light on each period of history, manifesting to Christian believers what God is saying to us here and now. For this reason, it is unacceptable to transform the Word of God into letters of stone that pervert the love of God and His providence in the life of both peoples and individuals. This is precisely the error in fundamentalist Biblical interpretation that brings us death and destruction when the word of God is petrified and transmitted from generation to generation as a dead letter. This dead letter is used as a weapon in our present history in order to deprive us of our rights in our own land.”7 The Lord reveals itself in history to “achieve justice and right on the entire earth”, as Mexican theologian Miranda put it;8 justice and right that are denied to Palestinian people by the Israeli occupation.
Chronos or Kairos One can say, with hindsight, that the discernment of the South African theologians was rather well-timed. There are different perceptions of the factors that finally led to the dismantling of the apartheid —sanctions, political pressure, diplomatic isolation, guerrilla warfare, civil unrest— but the fact is that it took only five
7 Kairos Palestine. A Moment of Truth, 7th Print 2010, Jerusalem, 7 8 José Porfirio Miranda, Marx and the Bible: A Critique of the Philosophy of Oppression, trans. John Eagleson (2nd edn., Eugene, Ore.: Wipf and Stock, 2004), 99. EAPPI Response 103
years between the delivering of the South African Kairos Document and the announcement by South African President de Klerk of the end of apartheid in his 1990 address to Parliament. It was the “happy ending” of a local conflict with international ramifications which concurred with the end of the Cold War period, even if it would take four more years for the ANC to win the elections and decades may still lapse before a really just, inclusive, participatory society is established in South Africa. In Central America, though, results were mixed. The electoral defeat of the Nicaraguan Revolution was followed by a period of sixteen years until the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) could muster enough political support to win the 2006 elections and bring Daniel Ortega back to presidency. In Guatemala, where some 200,000 people died and more than one million people were forced to flee their homes and hundreds of villages were destroyed, 9 inequality, exclusion and exploitation of large sectors of the population continue characterizing the social, political, cultural and economic realities. Otto Perez Molina of the rightist Patriot Party, who took office in January 2012 as Guatemalan President after winning the second-round presidential election run-off with 53.8% of the vote, is a former military commander who served during the civil war period, and is accused for his role in the human rights abuses committed during that period. Crime and violence have been extremely high in recent years, and in 2011 officials estimated that up to 60% of Guatemalan territory could be under the effective control of drug traffickers.10 In El Salvador, the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) party won the first election in 2009, more than two decades after the peace agreements, as from 1989 until 2004 Salvadorans favoured the rightist Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) party, the same behind the assassination of Bishop Romero. At the time of writing this article, latest elections in El Salvador were
9 According to the U.N.-sponsored Truth Commission, government forces and state-sponsored, CIA trained paramilitaries were responsible for over 93 per cent of the human rights violations during the war. Guatemala: Memory of Silence. Guatemalan Commission for Historical Clarification. Retrieved December 26, 2006. 10 “Drug Traffickers Have Stranglehold on Guatemala Says Top Prosecutor,” El País, February 23, 2011. 104 theologies and cultures
too close to call and with a second count of votes tallied; ex-guerrilla commander Salvador Sanchez Ceren and right-wing rival Norman Quijano (ARENA) were both declaring victory in presidential election runoff. Thus popular insurrections that led to these protracted, bloody civil wars in Central America and where the context for the Kairos Centroamericano, did not achieve their original aims of nurturing radical structural changes needed to bring about a more just and human society. Hence it is legitimate to ask whether it was really a Kairos, understood as the time when God acts; or just a particular segment of the chronos, the chronological, sequential time where human beings are making their own history. In trying to discern the signs of God’s acts in history, we must always remember Yaveh’s rebuke to Isaiah: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. (Isaiah 55, 8) The Palestinian Kairos does not pretend to carry “the thoughts” and “ways” of the Lord. Its judgment is rather dictated by the painful recognition that a dead end has been reached in the tragedy of the Palestinian people. “The decision-makers content themselves with managing the crisis rather than committing themselves to the serious task of finding a way to resolve it. The hearts of the faithful are filled with pain and with questioning: What is the international community doing? What are the political leaders in Palestine, in Israel and in the Arab world doing? What is the Church doing? The problem is not just a political one. It is a policy in which human beings are destroyed, and this must be of concern to the Church.”11
EAPPI: standing with the oppressed “The Temple Mount is in our hands,” proclaimed Ariel Sharon on September 28, 2000, after he entered the symbolic heart of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict protected by a huge security force. That was the provocation that ignited the Second Intifada. Within hours, Palestinian demonstrations had erupted across the West Bank and Gaza and the following day Israeli forces fired on scores of unarmed demonstrators in al al-Aqsa compound, killing seven and wounding over 100. Palestinian demonstrations were met with crushing force by Israel and by the end of 2000, at least 275 Palestinians had been killed and
11 Kairos Palestine. A Moment of Truth, 7th Print 2010, Jerusalem, 4. EAPPI Response 105
thousands had been wounded, along with 19 members of the Israeli security forces and five Israeli civilians. In an appeal on November 9, 2000 the Heads of Churches of Jerusalem – the leaders of all thirteen Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant denominations in Jerusalem – called on the world Christian community to stand in solidarity with the churches and people in Palestine. The Heads of Churches expressed their conviction that “... it is the right as much as duty of an occupied people to struggle against injustice in order to gain freedom, although the non-violent means of struggle remain stronger and far more efficient. In this sense, both parties must show the necessary fortitude, both in their hearts and in their minds, to look at the core of the conflict so that the Palestinian people can gain at long last its full freedom within its own sustainable state.” The World Council of Churches' Central Committee that met from 29 January to 6 February, 2001 called on its member churches to increase their efforts to condemn injustice and all forms of discrimination, to end Israeli occupation, to pray for and promote a comprehensive and just peace in the Middle East. The Central Committee expressed its deep sadness and grave concern at the new escalation of violence in the Palestinian autonomous and occupied territories as well as Israel over the last four months that has claimed a terrible toll of human life, especially among Palestinian children and youth. Further to the call by the local churches of Jerusalem, as expressed to the ecumenical delegation to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) in June 2001, and at the International Ecumenical Consultation in Geneva in August 2001, the WCC Executive Committee meeting of September 2001 recommended to “develop an accompaniment programme that would include an international ecumenical presence” and which would build upon and develop the experiences which had been gained from the Christian Peacemaker Teams, and which would also be closely linked to the local churches. After extensive consultation with the churches and ecumenical partners and following the initial phase of assessment and feasibility (October 2001 - January 2002), the WCC International Relations team convened a meeting of the Accompaniment Working Group on February 1-2, 2002, in Geneva in order to develop the framework of the accompaniment programme for the approval of the WCC Executive Committee in February 2002. With the approval of the 106 theologies and cultures
WCC Executive Committee, the EAPPI was launched, originally as part of the WCC Ecumenical Campaign to End the Illegal Occupation of Palestine: Support a Just Peace in the Middle East, which was itself the first annual initiative of the WCC Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace (2001-2010). Thus responding to the call from the heads of Churches in Jerusalem to stand in solidarity with the churches and people in Palestine, accompaniers were sought by the participating churches to volunteer for three month periods. The programme has functioned fully since then, with Ecumenical Accompaniers constantly in placements working with many different local people in numerous locations. EAPPI is part of a long tradition of ecumenical concerns for human rights. Human rights have been in the World Council of Churches’ agenda from its very inception. At the foundational gathering of the Council in Amsterdam in 1948, delegates affirmed their profound concern by evidence of flagrant human rights violations in many parts of the world and said that churches must respond to those violations by taking “a firm and vigorous stand, through local action, in cooperation with churches in other lands, and through international institutions of legal order. They must work for an ever wider and deeper understanding of what are the essential human rights if men are to be free to do the will of God.”12 WCC’s stance on human rights eventually evolved from an emphasis on individual civil and political rights to a more holistic view that integrates the so-called second (fundamentally economic, social and cultural in nature) and third generations rights (right to self- determination, to a healthy environment, to natural resources, communication rights). A landmark in this regard was the World Conference on Church and Society organized by the WCC and held in Geneva in 1966, which openly called churches to engage in a worldwide revolutionary opposition to the capitalist political and economic system being imposed on new nations by Western
12 Report of the Church and the Disorder of Society, WCC First Assembly, Amsterdam, 1948. Cf. Erich Weingärtner, Human Rights on the Ecumenical Agenda: Report and Assessment (Geneva: Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, World Council of Churches, 1983), 8. EAPPI Response 107
industrialized countries and asked for a scale of values to be develop "with human rights at the top".13 In Melbourne, the World Council of Churches had affirmed that the church is called to be “an instrument of the kingdom of God by continuing Christ's mission to the world in a struggle for the growth of all human beings into the fullness of life. This means proclaiming God's judgment upon any authority, power or force, which would openly or by subtle means deny people their full human rights. Therefore, “participation in struggles for human rights is in itself a central element in the total mission of the church to proclaim by word and act the crucified and risen Christ.” 14 EAPPI works to de-escalate, reduce and prevent threats of violence and human rights violations, while strengthening advocacy for civilian protection and affirming the respect and application of human rights and humanitarian law. As a matter of principle, EAPPI does not take sides in this conflict and remains neutral in terms of principles of human rights and international humanitarian law. Yet it stands faithfully with the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized.
Encouraging hope and practicing love Expressing solidarity and encouraging hope is one of EAPPI’s objectives, in harmony with a central affirmation of the Palestine Kairos. “Hope within us means first and foremost our faith in God and secondly our expectation, despite everything, for a better future. Thirdly, it means not chasing after illusions – we realize that release is not close at hand. Hope is the capacity to see God in the midst of
13 Cf. David J. Bosch, "The Melbourne Conference: Between Guilt and Hope," International Review of Mission 69, nos. 276-77 (October 1980- January 1981): 515. WCC involvement in human rights through its Churches Commission on International affairs (CCIA) from the time of the Universal Declaration through the ratification of human rights covenants in the 70’s is well documented in Jürgen Moltmann, On Human Dignity: Political Theology and Ethics, trans. M. Douglas Meeks (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984). 14 Melbourne Conference Section Reports: Good News to the Poor, International Review of Mission 69, nos. 276-77 (October 1980-January 1981) 401, 402. 108 theologies and cultures
trouble, and to be co-workers with the Holy Spirit who is dwelling in us.”15 Christian faith has nothing to do with the resignation or escapism; the faith that nourishes our hope causes impatience and discontent, for those who have faith in Christ cannot accommodate themselves to a situation of injustice, they would rather contradict it and suffer the consequences. That hope makes the authentic Church of Christ an undying disturbance in society and a stimulus towards the realization of full righteousness and justice in the light of the future promised by our Lord. As Jesus Christ’s followers, we must always be ready to give reason for the hope that dwells in us. Throughout Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip the principle of self-determination, enshrined in the UN Charter,16 has been utterly denied to Palestinians, depriving them from the right to freely determine and control their political, economic or socio-cultural destinies. Although UN Security Council’s Resolutions 242 and 338 stipulate that Israel must withdraw completely from the Palestinian occupied territories, through a combination of legal, military and administrative means and citing various rationales, Israel prohibits Palestinian construction and development in about 40% of the West Bank 17. The Oslo Accords, supposed to serve as an initial step toward Israeli withdrawal, further fragmented the Palestinian population by confining Palestinians to non-contiguous enclaves and preventing
15 Kairos Palestine, 9-10. An evaluation of EAPPI’s impact found that surprisingly, and against the general grim and hopeless situation in the oPt as a result of the stalemate of the peace process, the sense of hope has increased in the targeted areas ‘to a large extent’ as observed by 46% of the respondents, whereas 32% mentioned that it has increased ‘to some extent,’ which testifies to the effectiveness of EAPPI’s protective presence. 16 “By virtue of the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, all peoples have the right freely to determine, without external interference, their political status and to pursue their economic, social and cultural development, and every State has the duty to respect this right in accordance with the provisions of the Charter.” The United Nation General Assembly Resolution 2625 (XXV): Declaration of Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation Among States in Accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, 24 October 1970. 17 “Taking control of land and designating areas off-limits to Palestinian use”, http://www.btselem.org/area_c/taking_over_land EAPPI Response 109
them to travel to other parts of the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem. The separation wall under construction, declared illegal by the International Court of Justice,18 traps a quarter million Palestinians in enclaves to the east and west of the main barrier, isolates approximately 500,000 Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and separates over 90 Palestinian communities from their agricultural land, also severely restricting Palestinian access to work, school and medical treatment. Currently, there are some 150,000 Israeli Jews in East Jerusalem and its outer belt, and approximately 100,000 in the rest of the Occupied Territories, each of whom are governed by Israeli law, not the regulations governing Palestinians. The successive governments of Israel have actively encouraged its own population to establish and populate the occupied territory, thereby altering its geographic and demographic character. Palestinian opposition to the occupation to the occupation, whose legality is recognized by the United Nations,19 is regularly met with collective punishment, arbitrary detentions, harassment and closure of Palestinian institutions, albeit the use of force to prevent a people from exercising their right of self- determination is regarded as illegal and has been consistently condemned by the international community. In this context, Kairos Palestine is a forceful call to resistance with love as its logic. A significant contribution of this document is the unequivocal appeal not to resist evil with evil, but to resist it in a way that engages the humanity of the enemy. One can easily see that this is not an easy, much less popular appeal in view of the occupation power plans and actions to undermine the very prospect of a viable Palestinian state. EAPPI echoes that perspective by acknowledging the humanity of everyone involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, be they victims or perpetrators of violence and human rights abuses, and by demonstrating its solidarity with people on both sides who strive non-violently to end the occupation and achieve a just peace.
18 Cf. Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, International Court of Justice, http://www.icj- cij.org/docket/index.php?pr=71&code=mwp&p1=3&p2=4&p3=6 19 Cf. Resolution 2787 in Resolutions Adopted by the General Assembly during its twenty-sixth session, 1971 at http://www.un.org/documents/ ga/res/26/ares26.htm resolution 110 theologies and cultures
After a decade of striving for human rights and a just peace, Kairos Palestine has provided EAPPI with a much needed theological grounding for its ecumenical and proactive presence in the Holy Land.
theologies and cultures, Vol. XI, No 1 June 2014, pp. 111-124
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement against Israel: A Call for Justice
Bisan Mitri1
International law recognizes the illegality of prolonged belligerent occupation and annexation. Morally, it should be resisted. Like the right of return, the right to self-determination and the right to housing, the right to resistance– interpreted through the right to freedom of opinion and expression – is also guaranteed as a human right. The United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/3246 (XXIX) of 29 November 1974 ‘reaffirms the legitimacy of the peoples’ struggle for liberation from colonial and foreign domination and alien subjugation.’2 The Palestinian aspiration of independence and freedom will not be achieved without struggle. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS), a rapidly growing one, both on local and international levels, with its various campaigns and initiatives offers available, non-violent means to end Israeli occupation by mobilizing
1Bisan Mitri is Program Officer at Occupied Palestine and Syrian Golan Heights Advocacy Initiative (OPGAI), a common platform for NGOs working in the West Bank and the Golan Heights to coordinate their activities for the World Social Forum and elsewhere. Mr. Mitri is also a lecturer at The Institute for Community Partnership at Bethlehem University. 2This resolution highlights the importance of the universal realization of the right of peoples to self determination and of the speedy granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples for the effective guarantee and observance of human rights. Available at :http://unispal.un.org/ UNISPAL.NSF/0/C867EE1DBF29A6E5852568C6006B2F0C. 112 theologies and cultures
the international community to hold Israel accountable to international law.
What is BDS? The BDS National Committee website describes BDS as, ‘the global movement for a campaign of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law and Palestinian rights… and was initiated by Palestinian civil society in 2005… BDS is a strategy that allows people of conscience to play an effective role in the Palestinian struggle for justice.’3 In July 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague issued its advisory opinion that the Wall Israel is building on confiscated lands throughout the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is in violation of international law and should be dismantled.4With a total planned route of 440 miles,5 the construction of the illegal Israeli Wall began in 2002 and continues to this day. Its path is not restricted to the 1967 Green Line (internationally recognized as the border between Israel and the future Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution), but instead strays deep into the West Bank. Although the ICJ decision did not make the hoped for change in politics translated in the actual dismantling of the Wall, it generated dynamics within the Palestinian as well as the international civil society which lead to the founding of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions(BDS) Movement in 2005 on the first anniversary of the Court’s advisory opinion. An important dimension within the tactics of the movement is that next to state and official
3Palestinian BDS National Committee. Available at: http://www.bdsmovement.net/BNC. 4The ICJ ruled by a majority of 13:1 that where its path regularly strays into occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem and the surrounding area, the Wall '…and its associated regime, are contrary to international law'. In addition, the ruling highlighted Israel's '…obligation to cease forthwith the works of construction of the wall[,]…to dismantle forthwith the structure therein situated, and to repeal or render ineffective forthwith all legislative and regulatory acts relating thereto.'(ICJ Press Release, Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (2004/28). Available at: http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/index.php? pr=71&code=mwp&p1=3&p2=4&p3=6&ca). 5 Al Haq, The Annexation Wall and its Associated Regime (2012) p. 13. BDS Movement 113
actors, there is also an important role for civil society to play in lobbying for and advocating enforcement mechanisms and in raising awareness regarding the lack of trials and accountability for Israeli perpetrators. This has been recently exemplified by the establishment of the Russell Tribunal which took place early November 2011 in South Africa to determine whether the state of Israel is committing the crime of apartheid. 6 But in particular through the BDS campaigns which aim at imposing broad boycotts and implementing divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa during the apartheid era and to maintain these non-violent punitive measures until Israel meets all its international legal obligations. The Call was signed by more than 170 Palestinian civil society organizations, political parties, unions, councils, etc. Therefore it represents the largest coalition of civil society organizations in Palestine. The Movement is based on a holistic approach, targeting the whole Palestinian populace in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip as well as Palestinians in Israel (the occupied ‘48 territory of historic Palestine) and the millions of Palestinians in the Diaspora. In this way the BDS Call is the first initiative that includes all Palestinians under one umbrella – that is its strength: one movement comprising of all the Palestinian people as a whole and demanding the realization of their rights. The overall demands of the BDS Call are enshrined in three pillars that target the rights of the Palestinian people. Based in accordance with international law, the BDS Call demands that Israel:
- Ends its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied in June 1967 and dismantling the Wall; - Recognizes the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
6The findings of that session concluded that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people. For more information please see Russell Tribunal on Palestine. Available at:http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/sessions/south-africa/south- africa-session-%E2%80%94-full-findings/cape-town-session-summary-of- findings;BADIL Resource Center, al-Majdal issue 47. Available at: http://badil.org/en/al-majdal/itemlist/category/216-almajdal-47. 114 theologies and cultures
- Respects, protects and promotes the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.7
The BDS Call entails three sections: B for Boycott; D for Divestment and S for Sanctions.
B for Boycott In the B section of the BDS Call, the academic and cultural boycott is an instrumental element. 8 As such the Movement asks people of conscious in the world to boycott Israeli cultural and academic institutions which contribute to maintaining, defending or whitewashing the oppression of Palestinians. Therefore, various campaigns and initiatives are launched regularly to encourage the academic institutions and to severe their ties with Israeli academic institutions that are supporting the occupation, either by being directly involved in creating doctrines for launching wars and by developing technology for the military or by being indirectly supportive of the occupation. The academic boycott campaign is gaining momentum by the day and internationally renowned academic figures have joined the Boycott Call. A significant and landmark success in this regard was when the South African University of Johannesburg heavily debated the issue of severing its ties with the Israeli Ben-Gurion University and chose to end these ties.9 This is considered a moral victory since the Palestinian BDS Movement was created following the footprints of the South African one. Next to universities and academic institutions that are severing and ending their ties with Israeli academic institutions, many student associations and unions worldwide replied to the BDS call by boycotting Israeli academic intuitions. A most striking example is the American Studies Association (ASA) which voted to endorse the academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions and the motion passed by a majority of 66
7BDS Movement, the call section. Available at: http://www.bdsmovement.net/ call 8 The Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel website. Available at: http://www.pacbi.org/ 9BDS Movement, news section. Available at: http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/uj-bgu-5379. BDS Movement 115
percent.10 And the ASA has received over 700 new members since its endorsement of the academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions.11 Another example is Prof. Steven Hawking, who in 2013 cancelled his participation in a conference which was taking place at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and published an article explaining his careful consideration of the matter of participation in the scientific conference he decided not to take part in it because Israel is in clear violation of international law.12 Another important and influential dimension of the boycott is the cultural boycott which targets celebrities such as authors, singers or movie actors and makers; artists in general. Approaching these famous figures generate attention in the media which in turn advances the BDS Call and its overall message. The cultural boycott did so far receive a lot of support worldwide, for example from Alice Walker, Jacques Rancière, Roger Waters, Cassandra Wilson or Ken Loach.13Usually artists who are planning to perform in Israel receive letters from the BDS supporters encouraging them to cancel their event/tour/participation. Those letters address the essential reasons of why to join the BDS and why to abstain from Israel. If successful, it is important for the Movement that the artist in question states the reason for abstaining. Only this way his or her decision might generate support for the overall goal. Some artists however, choose to link their cancelling to technical reasons rather than clearly and openly supporting the boycott. Another dimension within the boycott section is the sports boycott. It is not easy to encourage sportspeople to adopt stands that might be translated as political, even though these stands are solidified
10 American Studies Association website. Available at: www.theasa.net/from_the_editors/item/asa_members_vote_to_endorse_acad emic_boycott/ 11Mondoweiss, American Studies Association adds over 700 new members since Israel boycott call (2014). Available at: http://mondoweiss.net/2014/04/american-association-boycott.html. 12The Guardian, Stephen Hawking's boycott hits Israel where it hurts: science (2013). Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/science/political- science/2013/may/13/stephen-hawking-boycott-israel-science. 13See BDS Movement, news section. Available at: http://www.bdsmovement.net/category/news. 116 theologies and cultures
by actions in support of human rights. This was a main obstacle in the sports boycott until Mahmoud Sarsak, a Palestinian football player from Gaza went on hunger strike in an Israeli prison as a sign of protest against his illegal detention and ill-treatment. The 25 year old football player for the Palestinian National Team was on route from Rafah in Gaza to the West Bank for training with the Palestinian football club Balata Youth. At theIsraeli military checkpoint Erez, he was arrested and held in administrative detention for six months without a court hearing, a process that was repeated five times At the marking of his third year in prison he started his hunger strike. He was demanding his rightful legal proceeding. Sarsak was 95 days on hunger strike14 and triggered therewith many support from athletes and football players worldwide. Eric Cantona, an esteemed, retired French football player announced his support with Sarsak and demanded his release from Israeli detention.15 Today, concrete actions are demanded from sports federations to take a clear stand against Israel’s human rights violations and to address the growing BDS movement.16 The economic boycott against Israel is the “simplest” to apply, since every individual can join by not buying Israeli products. The reasoning behind it is that buying a product from an Israeli producer equals supporting the Israeli occupation and colonization of Palestine. The question here is not whether Israel will get into financial problems but it can have a psychological affect on Israeli producers even on a micro-level. It is vitally important to state that it is not enough to only boycott Israeli settlement products; the reasons are twofold: Israeli companies are repackaging their products, sending
14Electronic Intifada, Palestinian football icons speak out against European championship taking place in Israel (2013). Available at: http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/palestinian-football-icons- speak-out-against-european-championship-taking-place. 15FOA, Eric Cantona calls to Release Palestinian Mahmoud Sarsak(2012). Available at: http://foa.org.uk/statements/eric-cantona-calls-for-release-of- palestinian-mahmoud-sarsak. 16See for example, Electronic Intifada, Move football tournament out of Israel, says growing campaign (2013). Available at: http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/move-football-tournament- out-israel-says-growing-campaign. BDS Movement 117
them to be packaged abroad.17 Secondly, the Israeli oppression is not only limited to the occupied territory but encompasses all of historic Palestine. There is also a movement inside Israel, called the Boycott from Within which is composed of groups that are promoting the Boycott Call because considering it as a last resort to end the injustice practiced upon all Palestinians.18
D for Divestment Divestment stands for withdrawing stakes or funds from corporations or institutions complicit in the violation of Palestinian rights. Many multi-million corporations, both Israeli and international either directly support the occupation and colonization of Palestine and/or profit from it.19 Activists target these corporations and those who have funds or stakes in them and address them to disinvest. These targets are usually approached by a letter-writing campaign with heavy (social-) media exposure. There are also other tactics used in divestment campaigns such as lobbying and shareholder activism. 20The strength of the Divestment strategies is to have the targets withdraw their funds and stakes, or severe contracts, or terminate agreements with these corporations that are contributing to the systematic denial and continuous abuse of Palestinian rights. Regardless of the outcome of each divestment campaign and its target, the media coverage and heated debates that follow contribute to the awareness raising regarding the oppression imposed upon the Palestinians and the importance of the BDS campaigns in helping to end this oppression. The Divestment campaigns target various sectors. For instance “Farming Injustice” concentrates on agricultural companies and corporations. The campaign raises awareness regarding the atrocities committed by the Israeli regime and Israeli settlers against the
17 Electronic Intifada, Boycotting Israeli settlement products: tactic vs. strategy (2010). Available at: http://electronicintifada.net/content/boycotting- israeli-settlement-products-tactic-vs-strategy/7801. 18 Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within, website. Available at: http://boycottisrael.info/. 19Please see full list at: http://www.whoprofits.org/. 20Shareholder activism means that a group of people buy shares in a company to guarantee they have a say in the decision making process in order to address the issue of divestment. 118 theologies and cultures
Palestinian farmers and is backed by major Palestinian agricultural organizations. A striking success is the case of Agrexco, Israel’s largest export company which entered stages of liquidation in 2011, with the campaign against it being one of the major reasons for its financial collapse.21Other campaigns cover other sectors, most notable is the recently re-emphasized Stop the G4S campaign which is a security and outsourcing company providing security services and equipment to Israeli military check points, prisons and the Wall.22 The divestment campaign with its many sub-categories is a rapidly growing one. Currently, the campaign is no longer in the shadows or achieving mediocre successes with small companies. Rather, the campaign is becoming main-stream and multi-million stakes are being disinvested from major, internationally renowned companies due to their complicity with the Israeli occupation. This argument is solidified by many examples similar to the move of a Dutch pension giant (known as PGGM) which divested tens of millions worth of investment from 5 Israeli banks. 23 The fact that PGGM manages the pensions of 2.5 million people and has assets equivalent to €153 billion, and that this is not a singular example or an isolated incident, is a proof that the divestment campaign is reaching a peak in its existence. Important key actors in the divestment section are the churches and church related organizations. A key momentum for such engagement all around the world was the launch of the Kairos Palestine document in 2009. 24 It was written and launched by Palestinian Christians and is modeled after the Kairos document which was launched in South Africa in 1985. The Kairos Palestine document addresses the “peace-loving people of the world” and especially the Christian community to actively oppose the occupation and oppression imposed upon the Palestinians. The call discusses the
21 BDS Movement. Available at: http://www.bdsmovement.net/activecamps/farming-injustice. 22 BDS Movement. Available at: http://www.bdsmovement.net/activecamps/g4s. 23 Haaretz, Largest Dutch pension fund boycotts Israeli banks over settlement ties (January 2014). Available at: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy- defense/.premium-1.567548. 24Kairos, a moment of truth, full document. Available at: http://www.Kairospalestine.ps/sites/default/Documents/English.pdf. BDS Movement 119
religious justification of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and demands the realization of justice in the conflict as it is the only way to a real peace in the region. Ever since it is launch in 2009, Kairos Palestine has received tremendous support from its international brothers and sisters worldwide and faith-based groups are launching their own reflection and response to the Palestinian call by writing a Kairos document of their own. 25 The Kairos Palestine document, similar to its South African counterpart, is playing an instrumental role amongst the churches and church related organizations in concerting the efforts in the struggle against oppression on a global level. The document also triggers debates within the community of the faithful in regard to divestment strategies of church funds and stakes in companies supporting and/or profiting from the occupation. The document addresses the BDS Call and states,
‘…we see boycott and disinvestment as tools of non-violence for justice, peace and security for all… 26 we understand this to integrate the logic of peaceful resistance. These advocacy campaigns must be carried out with courage, openly sincerely proclaiming that their object is not revenge but rather to put an end to the existing evil, liberating both the perpetrators and the victims of injustice. The aim is to free both peoples from extremist positions of the different Israeli governments, bringing both to justice and reconciliation. In this spirit and with this dedication we will eventually reach the longed-for resolution to our problems, as indeed happened in South Africa and with many other liberation movements in the world.’27
The result is that church councils are voting on divestment, with an increasingly growing group of churches passing the vote. 28 So for example in 2012 the Quaker Friends Fiduciary Corporation decided to
25 Kairos, a moment of truth website. Available at: http://www.Kairospalestine.ps/?q=content/news-global-Kairos. 26Kairos document, section 6.3. Available at: http://www.Kairospalestine.ps/sites/default/Documents/English.pdf. 27 Ibid, section 4.2.6. 28 Kairos, a moment of truth website. Available at: http://www.Kairospalestine.ps/?q=node/18. 120 theologies and cultures
divest from Caterpillar 29, Veolia and Hewlett Packard30 because of their involvement in the Israeli occupation. Or in December 2013 a network of United Church of Canada members and supporters launched a campaign in cities across Canada to boycott products made in Israeli settlements. A milestone in the role of the churches in ending the injustice imposed upon the Palestinians occurred when the World Council of Churches (WCC) used the Kairos Palestine document as a reference to the situation in the region:
Palestine continues to be the central issue in the region. Resolving the conflict between Israel and Palestine in accordance with the UN resolutions and international law, will greatly help resolving the other conflicts in the region. The persistence, after sixty-five years, of continuing dispossession of Palestinian people— Christian and Muslim alike—from their land by Israeli occupation, continuing settlement of land inside the 1967 borders by a nation empowered by overwhelming military strength and external alliances and influence, is central to the turmoil in the region and exacerbated by duplicity of policies of the western powers, especially the United States. Christians have been called to condemn and act against this continuing injustice, affirming the voice and demands of Palestinian Christians, including as heard in the Kairos Palestine document.31
S for Sanctions
29 Kairos Palestine, United Church of Canada members launch campaign to boycott Israeli settlement products (2012). Available at: http://www.Kairospalestine.ps/sites/default/Documents/United%20Church% 20of%20Canada%20members%20launch%20campaign%20to%20boycott%2 0Israeli%20settlement%20products.pdf. 30 Kairos Palestine, Quakers Divest from Veolia and Hewlett Packard (2012). Available at: http://www.Kairospalestine.ps/sites/default/Documents/Quakers%20Divest% 20from%20Veolia%20and%20Hewlett%20Packard.pdf. 31 World Council of Churches website. Available at: http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/wcc-programmes/public- witness-addressing-power-affirming-peace/middle-east-peace/statement-on- christian-presence-and-witness-in-the-middle-east BDS Movement 121
Sanctions are a powerful tool to force a member of the international community to adhere to international laws and principles. The European Union defines sanctions as,
…instruments of a diplomatic or economic nature which seek to bring about a change in activities or policies such as violations of international law or human rights, or policies that do not respect the rule of law or democratic principles… Such measures imposed by the EU may target governments of third countries, or non-state entities and individuals.32
Sanctions are official state policies and could include diplomatic sanctions – withdrawal of diplomatic missions or staff; economic sanctions – full or partial ban on trade goods including arms embargos; and sport sanctions – denying national athletes to compete in international events.33 Next to these more traditional forms options include the imposition of travel bans or the freezing of assets. International wrongful acts or crimes might trigger specific state obligations, most importantly not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by the act n question. For example, in relation to South Africa’s illegal presence in Namibia, the International Court of Justice ruled that states had a duty 'to abstain from entering into economic and other forms of relationship or dealings with South Africa on behalf of or concerning Namibia which may entrench its authority over the territory'.34 Regarding Israel, the United Nations General Assembly called in 1982 for financial and diplomatic sanctions against Israel in a resolution relating to the Golan Heights. 35 Even though the resolution has not been adopted and/or
32European Union External Action, website. Available at: http://eeas.europa.eu/cfsp/sanctions/index_en.htm. 33Chesterman, S., & Pouligny, B. (2003). Are Sanctions Meant to Work? The Politics of Creating and Implementing Sanctions through the United Nations. Global Governance, 9(4), 503-518. 34 International Court of Justice, Legal Consequences For States Of The Continued Presence Of South Africa In Namibia (South-West Africa) Notwithstanding Security Council Resolution 276 (1970). Available at: http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/?sum=296&code=nam&p1=3& p2=4&case=53 &k=a7&p3=5. 35 GA A/ES-9/PV.4 (1 February 1982). Available at: http://unispal.un.org/ UNISPAL. NSF/0/709066503C98355B852572090056665A. 122 theologies and cultures
enforced; calls for sanctions against Israel are increasingly accepted in international forums. The International Court of Justice has emphasized in its 2004 decision on the legal consequences of the construction of a wall in the occupied Palestinian territory the need to refer the situation in Palestine to the relevant bodies, 'the United Nations, and especially the General Assembly and the Security Council, should consider what further action is required to bring to an end the illegal situation.'36More and more states, state officials and private companies are aware of the possible legal consequences their corporations with Israel may entail; thus the Call for sanctions against Israel will become louder.
Conclusion The struggle for Palestinian rights must be seen as a global struggle for rights. In the words of Nelson Mandela, 'we know too well that our struggle is not complete without the freedom of the Palestinians. Justice is nowhere if there is no justice in Palestine.'37 The overall situation in Palestine reflects oppression everywhere in the world. Palestinians face colonialism, racism, apartheid, exploitation of their natural resources and ethnic cleansing. All people have the right to resist such oppression and to strive for their inalienable right to self-determination. The preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes that:
'whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law.'38
Furthermore, General Assembly Resolution 2625
36International Court of Justice, Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Available at: http://www.icj- cij.org/docket/index.php?pr=71&code=mwp&p1=3&p2=4&p3=6. 37 Marwan Barghouti quoted in “Barghouti: Mandela gave Palestinians hope for freedom”, Ma'an News Agency, 6 December 2013: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=654797 . 38Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Available at: http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/. BDS Movement 123
'affirms the legitimacy of the struggles of peoples under colonial and alien domination recognized as being entitled to the right of self-determination to restore to themselves that right by any means at their disposal.'39
The BDS Movement with its campaigns is a non-violent form of resistance aiming, as seen above, to hold Israel accountable for its international law violations and to ensure durable solution in accordance with international law and standard. The international civil society has a duty to step in, especially in this case where on official state level inability or unwillingness is noticeable, to end the injustice in Palestine. Endorsing, promoting and joining the BDS Call is a conscience choice for non-violent resistance and for supporting justice and equality. Simply speaking, the concept of the "rule of law" should surpass the "survival of the fittest" concept. Justice is not a selective principle; it is absolute. Therefore it should be applied everywhere and to everyone. Injustice in Palestine is injustice everywhere and the conscious citizens of the world have a duty to end this injustice.
Further Readings BDS Movement Website. Available at: http://www.bdsmovement.net/.
RifatOdehKassis, Kairos Palestine: The Struggle Against the Israeli Apartheid System - Al Majadal January 2012. Available at: http://www.BADIL.org/en/al-majdal/item/1744-art-7.
Majdal Editorial Team, Editorial: Knocking Down the Colonial Pillar of an Apartheid Regime – Al Majdal Winter/Spring 2010. Available at: http://www.BADIL.org/en/al-majdal/item/1399-editorial.
Mick Napier, Campaigns to Challenge the JNF, Al Majdal Winter/Spring 2010. Available at: http://www.BADIL.org/en/al- majdal/item/1408-napier-macleod-kershnar-jnfcampaigns.
BADIL Staff, A Commentary on the Palestinian Coalition for the Right to Return – Al Majdal Winter 2004. Available at:
39 General Assembly Resolution A/RES/33/24 (November 1978). 124 theologies and cultures
http://www.BADIL.org/en/al-majdal/item/880-a-commentary-on-the- palestinian-coalition-for-the-right-to-return.
RifatOdehKassis, Kairos for Palestine, Badayl/Alternatives, 2011.
Omar Barghouti, Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions- The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights, Haymarket Books, 2011.
Rich Wiles, Generation Palestine: Voices from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement, Pluto Press, 2013.
AmjadAlqasis, What happened to the S in BDS?, OPGAI. Available at: http://www.opgai.org/2013/12/02/what-happened-to-the-s-in-bds/. theologies and cultures, Vol. XI, No 1 June 2014, pp. 125-137
International Law and Standard: Setting the Scene for Durable Solutions in Palestine
Amjad Alqasis1
Today, a combination of Israeli state practices, laws and policies seek to achieve the displacement and dispossession of the indigenous Palestinian population; exerting complete control through a system of apartheid and occupation. This overall regime aims to colonize the territory of Palestine (also known as ‘historic’ or ‘Mandate Palestine’). This system must be brought to an end and must be judged in accordance with international law and standards. In fact, the ongoing disrespect for international law in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict undermines the very legitimacy of this crucial body of legal instruments, in particular human rights, humanitarian law and international criminal law. Therefore, it is time to ensure that international law is not merely a paper tiger, but a legal system which protects rights, establishes obligations and, most importantly, creates realities according to its values and principles. Therefore, a solution to the ongoing colonization and oppression of the Palestinian people should be found through a strict rights-based approach. Such rights are not guaranteed through political negotiations, but through adherence to and implementation of international law and rights. This article will discuss the main principles, obligations and rights of international law in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The Case of Palestine
1 Amjad Alqasis is a human rights lawyer, legal researcher and the Legal Advocacy Program Coordinator at BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. He has published several articles and books on various topics concerning the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. 126 theologies and cultures
In 1969, then Israeli defense minister Moshe Dayan unabashedly described the Israeli project’s success – the colonization of Mandate Palestine- to a group of university students:
We came to this country which was already populated by Arabs, and we are establishing a Hebrew, that is, a Jewish state here. Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you, because these geography books no longer exist. Not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahalal arose in the place of Mahalul; Gevat in the place of Jibta; Sarid in the place of Haneifa and Kefar Yehoshua in the place of Tell Shaman. There is not one place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population…2
This Israeli colonial regime is not limited to the Palestinians living in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), but it is also targeting Palestinians residing on the Israeli side of the “1949 Armistice Line”. Israel’s treatment of non-Jewish Palestinians throughout Israel and the oPt constitutes an overall discriminatory regime with the primary purpose of controlling the maximum amount of land with the minimum amount of indigenous Palestinians residing on it.3 The main components of this structure serve to violate Palestinian rights in areas such as nationality, citizenship, residency, and land ownership.4 This system was originally applied during the Palestinian Nakba in 1948 with a view to dominate and dispossess all forcibly displaced Palestinians, including the 150,000 who were able to remain within the “1949 Armistice Line”, later becoming Palestinian citizens of Israel. 5 The UN recommendation to partition Mandate Palestine
2 Moshe Dyan, March 19, 1969, speech at the Technion in Haifa, "Israel" cited in Haaretz, April 4, 1969. 3 Nur Masalha, Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of “Transfer” in Zionist Political Thought, 1882-1948 (Institute for Palestine Studies 1992). 4 Amjad Alqasis, ‘The Ongoing Nakba -The Continuous Forcible Displacement Of The Palestinian People’, Al-Majdal Quarterly Magazine of BADIL, Autumn 2012. 5 Forman, G. and Kedar, A. “From Arab land to ‘Israel Lands’: The Legal Dispossession of the Palestinians Displaced by Israel in the Wake of 1948” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Vol 22 (2004). International Law127
triggered armed conflict between local Palestinians and Jewish colonists. This fostered an environment in which the Zionist movement could induce massive Palestinian displacement so as to create the Jewish state. Between 750,000 and 900,000 Palestinians (55 to 66 percent of the total Palestinian population at the time) were displaced between the end of 1947 and early 1949. Half of these were displaced before 15 May 1948, when the first Arab-Israeli war began. Ultimately, 85 percent of the indigenous Palestinian population who had been living in the territory that became the state of Israel was displaced. After the occupation of the remaining part of Mandate Palestine by Israeli forces in 1967, this territory became subjected to the same Israeli regime.6 In essence, the intention to colonize Mandate Palestine goes back to the beginnings of the Zionist Movement, decades before the creation of the state of Israel in 1897, and rooted in the maxim that “people without land will get a land without people”. The following is a brief outline both of the obstacles faced by the Zionist movement in attaining this goal7, and of the methods employed to overcome these obstacles. As will be demonstrated, such methods are still very much in use today.
The indigenous Palestinian people who were/are living in that territory: The central obstacle, the Palestinian people themselves, has been addressed by various means. The task of establishing and maintaining a Jewish state on a predominantly non-Jewish territory has been carried out by forcibly displacing the non-Jewish majority population. Today, 66 percent of the Palestinian people worldwide (more than seven million) are themselves, or the descendants of, Palestinians who have been forcibly displaced by the Israeli regime. Israeli laws such as the 1954 Prevention of Infiltration Law and military orders 1649 and 1650 have prohibited Palestinians from legally returning to Israel or the occupied Palestinian territory. This deliberate and planned forcible displacement amounts to a policy and practice of forced transfer of the
6 BADIL Resource Center, Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, 2010-2012 (2012). 7 Ilan Pappe, “Zionism as Colonialism: A Comparative View of Diluted Colonialism in Asia and Africa”, South Atlantic Quarterly 107:4 (Fall 2008), pp. 611-633. 128 theologies and cultures
Palestinian population, or ethnic cleansing. This process started prior to 1948, and is still ongoing today in all parts of Mandate Palestine.8
Palestinian property and land rights within that territory: The Israeli Absentee Property Law 1950 was used to confiscate property legally owned by Palestinians who had been forcibly displaced, with the term 'absentee' defined so broadly as to include not only Palestinians who had fled the newly established state of Israel but also internally displaced persons; those who had fled their homes yet remained within its borders. Furthermore, the Israeli Land Acquisition Law, 1953, was enacted specifically in order to facilitate the transfer to the state of confiscated Palestinian land which had not been abandoned during the attacks of 1948.9 As a result of overall Israeli land strategy, Palestinians, who owned more than 94% of Mandate Palestine pre 1948, today own less than 15 percent.10
Insufficient Jewish population within the territory: To ensure a sufficient number of Jewish people in the colonized territory, the Israeli Law of Return 1950 was adopted. It provides that every member of the global Jewish Diaspora is entitled to ‘Jewish nationality’ and can immigrate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship. Thus Jewish nationals enjoy the right to enter Israel even if they were not born in Israel and have no connection whatsoever to Israel. Conversely, Palestinians - the indigenous population of the territory - are excluded from the Law of Return on the grounds that they are not of Jewish national origin, and as such may not enjoy the legal status of nationals under any other Israeli law; and have no automatic right to enter the country.11
8 BADIL Resource Center, Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, 2010-2012 (2012). 9 Kedar, S., Khamaisi, R., and Yiftachel, O., “Land and Planning” in After the Rift: New Directions for Government Policy Towards the Arab Population in Israel (Ghanem, A., Rabinowtiz, D., and Yiftachel, O. eds). 10 BADIL Resource Center and COHRE, Ruling Palestine – A History of the Legally Sanctioned Jewish-Israeli Seizure of Land and Housing in Palestine (2005). 11 Joseph Schechla, The Consequences of Conflating Religion, Race, Nationality, and Citizenship, Al Majdal, Winter-Spring 2010, 14. International Law129
The essence of the conflict, therefore, is aptly summarized as the takeover of the maximum amount of Palestinian land, ensuring that the minimum number of non-Jewish persons remain on that land, and that the maximum number of Jewish nationals are implanted upon it. The clear imbalance of power between the state of Israel and the Palestinians has allowed for the almost-successful implementation of this vision. The Palestinian endeavour, therefore, must be to achieve and retain their basic human rights, and it is for this reason that it is of upmost importance to seek solutions borne of a strict rights-based approach.
Rights-Based Approach Different UN agencies have adopted a human rights-based approach to their development cooperation, known as “The Human Rights Based Approach to Development Cooperation Towards a Common Understanding Among UN Agencies”. A rights-based approach could be best described as normatively based on international rights standards and operationally directed to promoting and protecting those rights. ‘Under a rights-based approach, plans, policies and programs are anchored in a system of rights and corresponding obligations established by international law’. 12 Therefore, a rights-based approach should integrate norms, standards and principles of the international rights system into the plans, policies and processes which seek solutions to the specific conflict at hand in order to ensure human dignity and justice. It is characterized by mechanisms, methods, tools and activities, which are designed to complement the notion of humanity’s struggle for freedom, equality, justice and development for all. Simply speaking, peace cannot be recognized when fundamental human rights and freedoms are violated. In the case of Palestine, this approach would entail solutions based on international law rather than a reliance on political negotiations to bring about a long lasting and just solution. In this light, it should be unacceptable to refer to illegal Israeli settlements in the oPt as “undermining efforts towards peace” - as is regularly the case in
12 See among others, Ohchr, “Applying a Human Rights-Based Approach to Climate Change Negotiations, Policies And Measures” (2007), available at: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/ClimateChange/InfoNoteHRBA.pdf . 130 theologies and cultures
political circles - whilst in reality these settlements constitute a violation of numerous international standards and principles. As such, they represent a manifestation of Israel’s ongoing impunity, and therefore the implementation of international law and standard should not be subject to negotiations, but demanded from the outset. Such a solution would necessarily include:
- Recognition of rights, in particular the Palestinian people's right to self determination; and the right of refugees and internally displaced persons to reparation (voluntary return, property restitution and/or compensations). - Addressing the root cause of the conflict; namely colonialism. - Ensuring rights for all parties and victims without discrimination. - Setting the foundations of peaceful and cooperative relations between people, groups, individuals and states. This will be an intrinsic component of a just peace and is essential for reconciliation, which in turn will be achieved through implementing transitional justice (both judicial and non- judicial) mechanisms and tools, including criminal prosecution, reparations, institutional reform, and truth commissions.
Internationally Recognized Rights Most importantly in the context of Palestine are the right to self- determination and the right to return.
Right to return: the situation of Palestinian refugees is one of the longest-running refugee crises in the world. Most Palestinian refugees are not covered under the international refugee law regime consisting of the Refugee Convention of 1951, the Additional Protocol and the Statute of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which constitutes the applicable standard for all other refugees worldwide. For Palestinian refugees, a separate regime was created, which is composed of two specific UN agencies: the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP) and the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).13
13 BADIL Resource Center, Handbook on the Protection of Palestinian Refugees (2005). International Law131
International best practice insists that refugees be offered their choice of solution in a voluntary and informed manner. A rights-based approach to assistance and protection, moreover, requires that refugees are consulted and given a right to participate in the design and implementation of national and international interventions. UNHCR has adopted both the principle of voluntariness (refugee choice) in the search for durable solutions, and a participatory approach in its operations. The framework for durable solutions for the Palestinians forcibly displaced during the Nakba is set out in Article 11 of UN General Assembly Resolution 194 which resolves that the refugees be allowed to return to their homes at the earliest practical date and that compensation be paid to those choosing not to return, and for loss or damage to property. Those Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons resulting from the actions of 1967 have a similar framework provided in Paragraph 1 of UN Security Council Resolution 237, passed on 14 June, 1967, which calls on Israel to allow the immediate return of all who had fled the hostilities.14
Self-determination: all peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right, they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development. The International Court of Justice refers to the right to self-determination as a right held by the people rather than a right held by governments alone.15 The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination is deep-seated in international law, most importantly in the International Covenants on Human Rights16, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples and the Vienna Declaration. In essence, the right to self-determination is the basis for the implementation of the most important fundamental rights and freedoms such as rights of minorities to enjoy their own culture, religion and language, the right to be free from all forms of racial
14 BADIL Resource Center, Palestinian Refugees and the Individual Right of Return, (2007). 15 Western Sahara Case, 1975 International Court of Justice 12, 31. 16 The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the Optional Protocol to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 132 theologies and cultures
discrimination or simply to live a life in dignity and free from oppression, occupation and colonization.
International crimes Israel is guilty of committing a combination of international crimes in order to colonize all of Mandate Palestine, most significantly, colonization, apartheid, and forced population transfer.
Colonization: The 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples defines colonialism as the 'subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation.'17 Colonization violates the inalienable rights of peoples 'to complete freedom, the exercise of their sovereignty and the integrity of their national territory.' 18 Further, colonialism prevents peoples from exercising their right to self-determination by denying them their right to 'freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.' 19 Israeli colonialism employs settlements (colonies) as a means of subjugation and domination – spatially, legally, socially and economically. Spatial domination manifests in the ever increasing and expanding settlements on Palestinian lands. Legal subjugation is present in legislation that target or exclude the Palestinians based on their ethnicity, the separate military and civil laws for Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory and Jewish-Israelis, respectively, and the enforcement of exile and denial of displaced Palestinians’ right of return while privileging Jewish immigration. Social subjugation is apparent in the traumatized and frayed social relations of Palestinians and in the attempted extinction of indigenous ways of life. Economic domination exists through Israel’s monopoly over Palestinian resources, such as agricultural lands and much-needed water supplies, and exclusion of Palestinians from markets.20
17 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, UNGA Resolution 1514 (XV), 14 December 1960, para. 1. 18 UNGA Resolution 1514 (XV), preamble. 19 UNGA Resolution 1514 (XV), para. 2. 20 BADIL Resource Center, Israeli Land Grab and Forced Population Transfer of Palestinians (2013). International Law133
Apartheid: The crime of apartheid and the subsequent Apartheid Convention21 was modeled on, but not limited to, the South African apartheid system. 'The Apartheid Convention was the ultimate step in the condemnation of apartheid as it not only declared that apartheid was unlawful because it violated the Charter of the United Nations, but in addition it declared apartheid to be criminal.'22 Most recently, the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defined the Crime of Apartheid as a crime against humanity, ‘committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime’.23 John Dugard, the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, concluded that, 'on the basis of the systemic and institutionalized nature of the racial domination that exists, there are indeed strong grounds to conclude that a system of Apartheid has developed in the occupied Palestinian territory. Israeli practices in the occupied territory are not only reminiscent of – and, in some cases, worse than – Apartheid as it existed in South Africa, but are in breach of the legal prohibition of Apartheid.'24
Forced Population Transfer: forced population transfer is illegal and has constituted an international crime since the Allied Resolution on German War Crimes, adopted in 1942. 25 The strongest and most recent codification of the crime is found in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which clearly defines forcible transfer of
21 1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. 22 John Dugard, “International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid” (2008), available at: http://untreaty.un.org/cod/avl/ha/cspca/cspca.html. 23 UN General Assembly, Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (last amended 2010), 17 July 1998, Art 7(1) & (2) 24 John Dugard and John Reynolds, Apartheid, International Law,and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, The European Journal of International Law Vol. 24 no. 3 EJIL (2013), Vol. 24 No. 3, 867–913. 25 BADIL Resource Center, Applying International Criminal Law to Israel’s Treatment of the Palestinian People” (2011). 134 theologies and cultures
population and implantation of settlers as war crimes.26 According to the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities of the former Commission on Human Rights: 'The essence of population transfer remains a systematic coercive and deliberate…movement of population into or out of an area… with the effect or purpose of altering the demographic composition of a territory, particularly when that ideology or policy asserts the dominance of a certain group over another.'27 In order to achieve the forcible transfer of the indigenous Palestinian population beyond the boundaries of Mandate Palestine, many Israeli laws, policies and state practices, as well as specific actions of para-state and other private actors have been developed and applied. This ethnic cleansing is carried out today by Israel not by the mass deportations witnessed in 1948 or 1967, but in the form of an overall policy of 'silent' transfer. This displacement is silent in the sense that Israel carries it out while trying to avoid international attention, displacing small numbers of people on a weekly basis. Here it is important to note that Israel’s transfer policy is neither limited by Israel’s geographical boundaries nor those of the oPt. The Israeli policy of silent transfer is evident in the state’s laws, policies and practices. Israel uses its power to discriminate, expropriate and ultimately effect the forcible displacement of the indigenous non-Jewish population from the area of Mandate Palestine. For instance, the Israeli land-planning and zoning system has forced 93,000 Palestinians in East-Jerusalem to build without proper construction permits because 87 percent of that area is off-limits to Palestinian use, and most of the remaining 13 percent is already built up. 28 Since the Palestinian population of Jerusalem is growing steadily, it has had to expand into areas not
26 Emily Haslam, “Unlawful Population Transfer and the Limits of International Criminal Law”, The Cambridge Law Journal Vol. 61, No. 1 (March 2002), pp. 66-75. 27 See The human Rights Dimensions of Population Transfer including the Implantation of Settlers, Preliminary Report prepared by A.S. al-Khawasneh and R. Hatano. Commission on Human Rights Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, Forty-fifth Session, 2-27 August 1993, E/CN.4/Sub.2/1993/17, 6 July 1993, paras. 15 and 17, pp. 27-32. 28 OCHA-OPT, Demolitions and Forced Displacement in the Occupied West Bank (2012). International Law135
zoned for Palestinian residence by the state of Israel. All those homes are now under the constant threat of demolition by the Israeli army or police, which will leave their inhabitants homeless and displaced. Another example is the government-approved Prawer Plan, which calls for the forcible displacement of 30,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel due to an Israeli land allocation policy which has not recognized over thirty-five Palestinian villages located in the Naqab (Negev). 29 Israel deems the inhabitants of those villages as illegal trespassers and squatters, and as such, they face the imminent threat of displacement. This situation prevails despite the fact that, in many cases, these communities actually predate the state of Israel itself.
Conclusion Internationally recognized rights and crimes trigger specific state responsibilities at the international level. Third party states have a legal duty to cooperate in the process of bringing to an end Israel’s criminal practices, including the refusal of such states to provide aid or assistance to Israel, or to recognize the illegal situation which has arisen from Israeli acts.30 Israel’s continuous and calculated strangulation of the Palestinian people must be properly challenged by the international community, and this challenge must come from an assessment of Israeli actions and policy through the lens of international law. The facts on the ground demonstrate that such an assessment will reveal elements of an international crime against humanity and Israel's regime must be judged accordingly, with the state’s impunity for these crimes brought to an end. Yet, the silence - if not complicity - of powerful members of the international community in relation to these crimes continues. The resulting reality represents a worst case scenario: the intense and prolonged suffering of a colonized and occupied population, witnessed in conjunction with an emphatic politicisation and devaluing of international law.
29 See Adalah, “The Prawer Plan and Analysis” (October 2011), at: www.adalah.org/upfiles/2011/Overview%20and%20Analysis%20of%20the %20Prawer%20Committee%20Report%20Recommendations%20Final.pdf. 30 United Nations Member States have a legal obligation “to take joint and separate action in co-operation with the Organization for the achievement of… universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms” (United Nations Charter). 136 theologies and cultures
Further Readings
Amjad Alqasis, "The Ongoing Nakba: The Forcible Displacement of the Palestinian People", Jadaliyya (2013).
BADIL, Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons 2010-2012, BADIL Resource Center (2012). Available at: http://www.badil.org/en/documents/category/35- publications?download=1021%3Asurvay-2012&start=20.
BADIL, Israeli Land Grab and Forced Population Transfer of Palestinians: A Handbook for Vulnerable Individuals and Communities, BADIL Resource Center (2013). Available at: http://www.badil.org/en/documents/category/35- publications?download=1045%3Abadil-handbook.
Salman Abu Sitta, “Living Land: Population Transfer and the Mewat Pretext in the Naqab”,al-Majdal Forced Population Transfer in Palestine; Thinking Practically about Return (Spring-Summer 2012). Available at: http://BADIL.org/en/al-majdal/item/1765-art6.
Khalil Tafakji, “Jerusalem: A Displacement Master Plan - Interview with Khalil Tafakji”,al-Majdal Palestine's Ongoing Nakba (Autumn 2008 Winter 2009). Available at: http://BADIL.org/en/al-majdal/ item/8-jerusalem-a-displacement-master-plan-interview-with-khalil- tafakji.
Sami Abu Shehadeh and Fadi Shbaytah, “Jaffa: From Eminence to Ethnic Cleansing”, al-Majdal Palestine's Ongoing Nakba (Autumn 2008 Winter 2009). Available at: http://www.BADIL.org/en/al- majdal/item/4-jaffa-from-eminence-to-ethnic-cleansing.
BADIL-Zochrot, “Working Towards Return”, al-Majdal Forced Population Transfer in Palestine; Thinking Practically about Return (Spring-Summer 2012). Available at: http://www.BADIL.org/en/al- majdal/item/1769-art9.
Gail Boling, “A Comprehensive Reference Work on Restitution Law”, al-Majdal Forced Secondary Displacement: Palestinian International Law137
Refugees in Arab host couontries (Summer-Autumn 2010). Available at: http://BADIL.org/en/al-majdal/item/1515-review01.
Majdal Editorial Team, “Editorial :Restitution – Making Return a Reality”, al-Majdal Restitution - Making Return a Reality (Autumn 2005). Available at: http://www.BADIL.org/en/al-majdal/item/939- editorial.
theologies and cultures, Vol. XI, No 1 June 2014, pp. 138-154
A moment of truth: A word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering
Introduction We, a group of Christian Palestinians, after prayer, reflection and an exchange of opinion, cry out from within the suffering in our country, under the Israeli occupation, with a cry of hope in the absence of all hope, a cry full of prayer and faith in a God ever vigilant, in God’s divine providence for all the inhabitants of this land. Inspired by the mystery of God's love for all, the mystery of God’s divine presence in the history of all peoples and, in a particular way, in the history of our country, we proclaim our word based on our Christian faith and our sense of Palestinian belonging – a word of faith, hope and love. Why now? Because today we have reached a dead end in the tragedy of the Palestinian people. The decision-makers content themselves with managing the crisis rather than committing themselves to the serious task of finding a way to resolve it. The hearts of the faithful are filled with pain and with questioning: What is the international community doing? What are the political leaders in Palestine, in Israel and in the Arab world doing? What is the Church doing? The problem is not just a political one. It is a policy in which human beings are destroyed, and this must be of concern to the Church. We address ourselves to our brothers and sisters, members of our Churches in this land. We call out as Christians and as Palestinians to our religious and political leaders, to our Palestinian society and to the Israeli society, to the international community, and to our Christian brothers and sisters in the Churches around the world .
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1.The reality on the ground 1.1 “They say: 'Peace, peace' when there is no peace” (Jer. 6:14). These days, everyone is speaking about peace in the Middle East and the peace process. So far, however, these are simply words; the reality is one of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, deprivation of our freedom and all that results from this situation: 1.1.1 The separation wall erected on Palestinian territory, a large part of which has been confiscated for this purpose, has turned our towns and villages into prisons, separating them from one another, making them dispersed and divided cantons. Gaza, especially after the cruel war Israel launched against it during December 2008 and January 2009, continues to live in inhuman conditions, under permanent blockade and cut off from the other Palestinian territories . 1.1.2 Israeli settlements ravage our land in the name of God and in the name of force, controlling our natural resources, including water and agricultural land, thus depriving hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and constituting an obstacle to any political solution. 1.1.3 Reality is the daily humiliation to which we are subjected at the military checkpoints, as we make our way to jobs, schools or hospitals. 1.1.4 Reality is the separation between members of the same family, making family life impossible for thousands of Palestinians, especially where one of the spouses does not have an Israeli identity card. 1.1.5 Religious liberty is severely restricted; the freedom of access to the holy places is denied under the pretext of security. Jerusalem and its holy places are out of bounds for many Christians and Muslims from the West Bank and the Gaza strip. Even Jerusalemites face restrictions during the religious feasts. Some of our Arab clergy are regularly barred from entering Jerusalem . 1.1.6 Refugees are also part of our reality. Most of them are still living in camps under difficult circumstances. They have been waiting for their right of return, generation after generation. What will be their fate? 1.1.7 And the prisoners? The thousands of prisoners languishing in Israeli prisons are part of our reality. The Israelis move heaven and earth to gain the release of one prisoner, and those thousands of Palestinian prisoners, when will they have their freedom? 1.1.8 Jerusalem is the heart of our reality. It is, at the same time, symbol of peace and sign of conflict. While the separation wall divides 140 theologies and cultures
Palestinian neighbourhoods, Jerusalem continues to be emptied of its Palestinian citizens, Christians and Muslims. Their identity cards are confiscated, which means the loss of their right to reside in Jerusalem. Their homes are demolished or expropriated. Jerusalem, city of reconciliation, has become a city of discrimination and exclusion, a source of struggle rather than peace . 1.2 Also part of this reality is the Israeli disregard of international law and international resolutions, as well as the paralysis of the Arab world and the international community in the face of this contempt. Human rights are violated and despite the various reports of local and international human rights' organizations, the injustice continues. 1.2.1 Palestinians within the State of Israel, who have also suffered a historical injustice, although they are citizens and have the rights and obligations of citizenship, still suffer from discriminatory policies. They too are waiting to enjoy full rights and equality like all other citizens in the state. 1.3 Emigration is another element in our reality. The absence of any vision or spark of hope for peace and freedom pushes young people, both Muslim and Christian, to emigrate. Thus the land is deprived of its most important and richest resource – educated youth. The shrinking number of Christians, particularly in Palestine, is one of the dangerous consequences, both of this conflict, and of the local and international paralysis and failure to find a comprehensive solution to the problem. 1.4 In the face of this reality, Israel justifies its actions as self- defence, including occupation, collective punishment and all other forms of reprisals against the Palestinians. In our opinion, this vision is a reversal of reality. Yes, there is Palestinian resistance to the occupation. However, if there were no occupation, there would be no resistance, no fear and no insecurity. This is our understanding of the situation. Therefore, we call on the Israelis to end the occupation. Then they will see a new world in which there is no fear, no threat but rather security, justice and peace. 1.5 The Palestinian response to this reality was diverse. Some responded through negotiations: that was the official position of the Palestinian Authority, but it did not advance the peace process. Some political parties followed the way of armed resistance. Israel used this as a pretext to accuse the Palestinians of being terrorists and was able to distort the real nature of the conflict, presenting it as an Israeli war Kairos-Palestine 141
against terror, rather than an Israeli occupation faced by Palestinian legal resistance aiming at ending it. 1.5.1 The tragedy worsened with the internal conflict among Palestinians themselves, and with the separation of Gaza from the rest of the Palestinian territory. It is noteworthy that, even though the division is among Palestinians themselves, the international community bears an important responsibility for it since it refused to deal positively with the will of the Palestinian people expressed in the outcome of democratic and legal elections in 2006. Again, we repeat and proclaim that our Christian word in the midst of all this, in the midst of our catastrophe, is a word of faith, hope and love.
2. A word of faith We believe in one God, a good and just God 2.1 We believe in God, one God, Creator of the universe and of humanity. We believe in a good and just God, who loves each one of his creatures. We believe that every human being is created in God’s image and likeness and that every one's dignity is derived from the dignity of the Almighty One. We believe that this dignity is one and the same in each and all of us. This means for us, here and now, in this land in particular, that God created us not so that we might engage in strife and conflict but rather that we might come and know and love one another, and together build up the land in love and mutual respect. 2.1.1 We also believe in God's eternal Word, His only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, whom God sent as the Saviour of the world. 2.1.2 We believe in the Holy Spirit, who accompanies the Church and all humanity on its journey. It is the Spirit that helps us to understand Holy Scripture, both Old and New Testaments, showing their unity, here and now. The Spirit makes manifest the revelation of God to humanity, past, present and future.
How do we understand the word of God? 2.2 We believe that God has spoken to humanity, here in our country: "Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days God has spoken to us by a Son, whom God appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds" (Heb. 1:1-2) 2.2.1 We, Christian Palestinians, believe, like all Christians throughout the world, that Jesus Christ came in order to fulfil the Law 142 theologies and cultures
and the Prophets. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, and in his light and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we read the Holy Scriptures. We meditate upon and interpret Scripture just as Jesus Christ did with the two disciples on their way to Emmaus. As it is written in the Gospel according to Saint Luke: "Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures" (Lk 24:27) 2.2.2 Our Lord Jesus Christ came, proclaiming that the Kingdom of God was near. He provoked a revolution in the life and faith of all humanity. He came with "a new teaching" (Mk 1:27), casting a new light on the Old Testament, on the themes that relate to our Christian faith and our daily lives, themes such as the promises, the election, the people of God and the land. We believe that the Word of God is a living Word, casting a particular light on each period of history, manifesting to Christian believers what God is saying to us here and now. For this reason, it is unacceptable to transform the Word of God into letters of stone that pervert the love of God and His providence in the life of both peoples and individuals. This is precisely the error in fundamentalist Biblical interpretation that brings us death and destruction when the word of God is petrified and transmitted from generation to generation as a dead letter. This dead letter is used as a weapon in our present history in order to deprive us of our rights in our own land.
Our land has a universal mission 2.3 We believe that our land has a universal mission. In this universality, the meaning of the promises, of the land, of the election, of the people of God open up to include all of humanity, starting from all the peoples of this land. In light of the teachings of the Holy Bible, the promise of the land has never been a political programme, but rather the prelude to complete universal salvation. It was the initiation of the fulfilment of the Kingdom of God on earth. 2.3.1 God sent the patriarchs, the prophets and the apostles to this land so that they might carry forth a universal mission to the world. Today we constitute three religions in this land, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Our land is God’s land, as is the case with all countries in the world. It is holy inasmuch as God is present in it, for God alone is holy and sanctifier. It is the duty of those of us who live here, to respect the will of God for this land. It is our duty to liberate it from the evil of injustice and war. It is God's land and therefore it must be a Kairos-Palestine 143
land of reconciliation, peace and love. This is indeed possible. God has put us here as two peoples, and God gives us the capacity, if we have the will, to live together and establish in it justice and peace, making it in reality God's land: "The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it" (Ps. 24:1). 2.3.2 Our presence in this land, as Christian and Muslim Palestinians, is not accidental but rather deeply rooted in the history and geography of this land, resonant with the connectedness of any other people to the land it lives in. It was an injustice when we were driven out. The West sought to make amends for what Jews had endured in the countries of Europe, but it made amends on our account and in our land. They tried to correct an injustice and the result was a new injustice. 2.3.3 Furthermore, we know that certain theologians in the West try to attach a biblical and theological legitimacy to the infringement of our rights. Thus, the promises, according to their interpretation, have become a menace to our very existence. The "good news" in the Gospel itself has become "a harbinger of death" for us. We call on these theologians to deepen their reflection on the Word of God and to rectify their interpretations so that they might see in the Word of God a source of life for all peoples. 2.3.4 Our connectedness to this land is a natural right. It is not an ideological or a theological question only. It is a matter of life and death. There are those who do not agree with us, even defining us as enemies only because we declare that we want to live as free people in our land. We suffer from the occupation of our land because we are Palestinians. And as Christian Palestinians we suffer from the wrong interpretation of some theologians. Faced with this, our task is to safeguard the Word of God as a source of life and not of death, so that "the good news" remains what it is, "good news" for us and for all. In face of those who use the Bible to threaten our existence as Christian and Muslim Palestinians, we renew our faith in God because we know that the word of God can not be the source of our destruction. 2.4 Therefore, we declare that any use of the Bible to legitimize or support political options and positions that are based upon injustice, imposed by one person on another, or by one people on another, transform religion into human ideology and strip the Word of God of its holiness, its universality and truth.
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2.5 We also declare that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land is a sin against God and humanity because it deprives the Palestinians of their basic human rights, bestowed by God. It distorts the image of God in the Israeli who has become an occupier just as it distorts this image in the Palestinian living under occupation. We declare that any theology, seemingly based on the Bible or on faith or on history, that legitimizes the occupation, is far from Christian teachings, because it calls for violence and holy war in the name of God Almighty, subordinating God to temporary human interests, and distorting the divine image in the human beings living under both political and theological injustice.
3. Hope 3.1 Despite the lack of even a glimmer of positive expectation, our hope remains strong. The present situation does not promise any quick solution or the end of the occupation that is imposed on us. Yes, the initiatives, the conferences, visits and negotiations have multiplied, but they have not been followed up by any change in our situation and suffering. Even the new US position that has been announced by President Obama, with a manifest desire to put an end to the tragedy, has not been able to make a change in our reality. The clear Israeli response, refusing any solution, leaves no room for positive expectation. Despite this, our hope remains strong, because it is from God. God alone is good, almighty and loving and His goodness will one day be victorious over the evil in which we find ourselves. As Saint Paul said: "If God is for us, who is against us? (…) Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long" (…) For I am convinced that (nothing) in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God" (Rom. 8:31, 35, 36, 39).
What is the meaning of hope? 3.2 Hope within us means first and foremost our faith in God and secondly our expectation, despite everything, for a better future. Thirdly, it means not chasing after illusions – we realize that release is not close at hand. Hope is the capacity to see God in the midst of trouble, and to be co-workers with the Holy Spirit who is dwelling in us. From this vision derives the strength to be steadfast, remain firm and work to change the reality in which we find ourselves. Hope Kairos-Palestine 145
means not giving in to evil but rather standing up to it and continuing to resist it. We see nothing in the present or future except ruin and destruction. We see the upper hand of the strong, the growing orientation towards racist separation and the imposition of laws that deny our existence and our dignity. We see confusion and division in the Palestinian position. If, despite all this, we do resist this reality today and work hard, perhaps the destruction that looms on the horizon may not come upon us.
Signs of hope 3.3 The Church in our land, her leaders and her faithful, despite her weakness and her divisions, does show certain signs of hope. Our parish communities are vibrant and most of our young people are active apostles for justice and peace. In addition to the individual commitment, our various Church institutions make our faith active and present in service, love and prayer. 3.3.1 Among the signs of hope are the local centres of theology, with a religious and social character. They are numerous in our different Churches. The ecumenical spirit, even if still hesitant, shows itself more and more in the meetings of our different Church families . 3.3.2 We can add to this the numerous meetings for inter-religious dialogue, Christian–Muslim dialogue, which includes the religious leaders and a part of the people. Admittedly, dialogue is a long process and is perfected through a daily effort as we undergo the same sufferings and have the same expectations. There is also dialogue among the three religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, as well as different dialogue meetings on the academic or social level. They all try to breach the walls imposed by the occupation and oppose the distorted perception of human beings in the heart of their brothers or sisters. 3.3.3 One of the most important signs of hope is the steadfastness of the generations, the belief in the justice of their cause and the continuity of memory, which does not forget the "Nakba" (catastrophe) and its significance. Likewise significant is the developing awareness among many Churches throughout the world and their desire to know the truth about what is going on here. 3.3.4 In addition to that, we see a determination among many to overcome the resentments of the past and to be ready for reconciliation once justice has been restored. Public awareness of the need to restore political rights to the Palestinians is increasing, and Jewish and Israeli 146 theologies and cultures
voices, advocating peace and justice, are raised in support of this with the approval of the international community. True, these forces for justice and reconciliation have not yet been able to transform the situation of injustice, but they have their influence and may shorten the time of suffering and hasten the time of reconciliation.
The mission of the Church 3.4 Our Church is a Church of people who pray and serve. This prayer and service is prophetic, bearing the voice of God in the present and future. Everything that happens in our land, everyone who lives there, all the pains and hopes, all the injustice and all the efforts to stop this injustice, are part and parcel of the prayer of our Church and the service of all her institutions. Thanks be to God that our Church raises her voice against injustice despite the fact that some desire her to remain silent, closed in her religious devotions. 3.4.1 The mission of the Church is prophetic, to speak the Word of God courageously, honestly and lovingly in the local context and in the midst of daily events. If she does take sides, it is with the oppressed, to stand alongside them, just as Christ our Lord stood by the side of each poor person and each sinner, calling them to repentance, life, and the restoration of the dignity bestowed on them by God and that no one has the right to strip away. 3.4.2 The mission of the Church is to proclaim the Kingdom of God, a kingdom of justice, peace and dignity. Our vocation as a living Church is to bear witness to the goodness of God and the dignity of human beings. We are called to pray and to make our voice heard when we announce a new society where human beings believe in their own dignity and the dignity of their adversaries. 3.4.3 Our Church points to the Kingdom, which cannot be tied to any earthly kingdom. Jesus said before Pilate that he was indeed a king but "my kingdom is not from this world" (Jn 18:36). Saint Paul says: "The Kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom.14:17). Therefore, religion cannot favour or support any unjust political regime, but must rather promote justice, truth and human dignity. It must exert every effort to purify regimes where human beings suffer injustice and human dignity is violated. The Kingdom of God on earth is not dependent on any political orientation, for it is greater and more inclusive than any particular political system. Kairos-Palestine 147
3.4.4 Jesus Christ said: "The Kingdom of God is among you" (Luke 17:21). This Kingdom that is present among us and in us is the extension of the mystery of salvation. It is the presence of God among us and our sense of that presence in everything we do and say. It is in this divine presence that we shall do what we can until justice is achieved in this land . 3.4.5 The cruel circumstances in which the Palestinian Church has lived and continues to live have required the Church to clarify her faith and to identify her vocation better. We have studied our vocation and have come to know it better in the midst of suffering and pain: today, we bear the strength of love rather than that of revenge, a culture of life rather than a culture of death. This is a source of hope for us, for the Church and for the world. 3.5 The Resurrection is the source of our hope .Just as Christ rose in victory over death and evil, so too we are able, as each inhabitant of this land is able, to vanquish the evil of war. We will remain a witnessing, steadfast and active Church in the land of the Resurrection.
4. Love The commandment of love 4.1 Christ our Lord said: "Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another" (Jn 13:34). He has already showed us how to love and how to treat our enemies. He said: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous (…) Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:45-47). Saint Paul also said: "Do not repay anyone evil for evil" (Rom. 12:17). And Saint Peter said: "Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called" (1 Pet. 3:9).
Resistance 4.2 This word is clear. Love is the commandment of Christ our Lord to us and it includes both friends and enemies. This must be clear when we find ourselves in circumstances where we must resist evil of whatever kind . 148 theologies and cultures
4.2.1 Love is seeing the face of God in every human being. Every person is my brother or my sister. However, seeing the face of God in everyone does not mean accepting evil or aggression on their part. Rather, this love seeks to correct the evil and stop the aggression. The aggression against the Palestinian people which is the Israeli occupation, is an evil that must be resisted. It is an evil and a sin that must be resisted and removed. Primary responsibility for this rests with the Palestinians themselves suffering occupation. Christian love invites us to resist it. However, love puts an end to evil by walking in the ways of justice. Responsibility lies also with the international community, because international law regulates relations between peoples today. Finally responsibility lies with the perpetrators of the injustice; they must liberate themselves from the evil that is in them and the injustice they have imposed on others. 4.2.2 When we review the history of the nations, we see many wars and much resistance to war by war, to violence by violence. The Palestinian people has gone the way of the peoples, particularly in the first stages of its struggle with the Israeli occupation. However, it also engaged in peaceful struggle, especially during the first Intifada. We recognize that all peoples must find a new way in their relations with each other and the resolution of their conflicts. The ways of force must give way to the ways of justice. This applies above all to the peoples that are militarily strong, mighty enough to impose their injustice on the weaker . 4.2.3 We say that our option as Christians in the face of the Israeli occupation is to resist. Resistance is a right and a duty for the Christian. But it is resistance with love as its logic. It is thus a creative resistance for it must find human ways that engage the humanity of the enemy. Seeing the image of God in the face of the enemy means taking up positions in the light of this vision of active resistance to stop the injustice and oblige the perpetrator to end his aggression and thus achieve the desired goal, which is getting back the land, freedom, dignity and independence. 4.2.4 Christ our Lord has left us an example we must imitate. We must resist evil but he taught us that we cannot resist evil with evil. This is a difficult commandment, particularly when the enemy is determined to impose himself and deny our right to remain here in our land. It is a difficult commandment yet it alone can stand firm in the face of the clear declarations of the occupation authorities that refuse Kairos-Palestine 149
our existence and the many excuses these authorities use to continue imposing occupation upon us. 4.2.5 Resistance to the evil of occupation is integrated, then, within this Christian love that refuses evil and corrects it. It resists evil in all its forms with methods that enter into the logic of love and draw on all energies to make peace. We can resist through civil disobedience. We do not resist with death but rather through respect of life. We respect and have a high esteem for all those who have given their life for our nation. And we affirm that every citizen must be ready to defend his or her life, freedom and land. 4.2.6 Palestinian civil organizations, as well as international organizations, NGOs and certain religious institutions call on individuals, companies and states to engage in divestment and in an economic and commercial boycott of everything produced by the occupation. We understand this to integrate the logic of peaceful resistance. These advocacy campaigns must be carried out with courage, openly sincerely proclaiming that their object is not revenge but rather to put an end to the existing evil, liberating both the perpetrators and the victims of injustice. The aim is to free both peoples from extremist positions of the different Israeli governments, bringing both to justice and reconciliation. In this spirit and with this dedication we will eventually reach the longed-for resolution to our problems, as indeed happened in South Africa and with many other liberation movements in the world. 4.3 Through our love, we will overcome injustices and establish foundations for a new society both for us and for our opponents. Our future and their future are one. Either the cycle of violence that destroys both of us or peace that will benefit both. We call on Israel to give up its injustice towards us, not to twist the truth of reality of the occupation by pretending that it is a battle against terrorism. The roots of "terrorism" are in the human injustice committed and in the evil of the occupation. These must be removed if there be a sincere intention to remove "terrorism". We call on the people of Israel to be our partners in peace and not in the cycle of interminable violence. Let us resist evil together, the evil of occupation and the infernal cycle of violence.
5. Our word to our brothers and sisters 5.1 We all face, today, a way that is blocked and a future that promises only woe. Our word to all our Christian brothers and sisters is 150 theologies and cultures
a word of hope, patience, steadfastness and new action for a better future. Our word is that we, as Christians we carry a message, and we will continue to carry it despite the thorns, despite blood and daily difficulties. We place our hope in God, who will grant us relief in His own time. At the same time, we continue to act in concord with God and God’s will, building, resisting evil and bringing closer the day of justice and peace. 5.2 We say to our Christian brothers and sisters: This is a time for repentance. Repentance brings us back into the communion of love with everyone who suffers, the prisoners, the wounded, those afflicted with temporary or permanent handicaps, the children who cannot live their childhood and each one who mourns a dear one. The communion of love says to every believer in spirit and in truth: if my brother is a prisoner I am a prisoner; if his home is destroyed, my home is destroyed; when my brother is killed, then I too am killed. We face the same challenges and share in all that has happened and will happen. Perhaps, as individuals or as heads of Churches, we were silent when we should have raised our voices to condemn the injustice and share in the suffering. This is a time of repentance for our silence, indifference, lack of communion, either because we did not persevere in our mission in this land and abandoned it, or because we did not think and do enough to reach a new and integrated vision and remained divided, contradicting our witness and weakening our word. Repentance for our concern with our institutions, sometimes at the expense of our mission, thus silencing the prophetic voice given by the Spirit to the Churches. 5.3 We call on Christians to remain steadfast in this time of trial, just as we have throughout the centuries, through the changing succession of states and governments. Be patient, steadfast and full of hope so that you might fill the heart of every one of your brothers or sisters who shares in this same trial with hope. "Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you" (1 Pet. 3:15). Be active and, provided this conforms to love, participate in any sacrifice that resistance asks of you to overcome our present travail .. 5.4 Our numbers are few but our message is great and important. Our land is in urgent need of love. Our love is a message to the Muslim and to the Jew, as well as to the world. 5.4.1Our message to the Muslims is a message of love and of living together and a call to reject fanaticism and extremism. It is also a message to the world that Muslims are neither to be stereotyped as Kairos-Palestine 151
the enemy nor caricatured as terrorists but rather to be lived with in peace and engaged with in dialogue. 5.4.2 Our message to the Jews tells them: Even though we have fought one another in the recent past and still struggle today, we are able to love and live together. We can organize our political life, with all its complexity, according to the logic of this love and its power, after ending the occupation and establishing justice. 5.4.3 The word of faith says to anyone engaged in political activity: human beings were not made for hatred. It is not permitted to hate, neither is it permitted to kill or to be killed. The culture of love is the culture of accepting the other. Through it we perfect ourselves and the foundations of society are established.
6. Our word to the Churches of the world 6.1 Our word to the Churches of the world is firstly a word of gratitude for the solidarity you have shown toward us in word, deed and presence among us. It is a word of praise for the many Churches and Christians who support the right of the Palestinian people for self determination. It is a message of solidarity with those Christians and Churches who have suffered because of their advocacy for law and justice . However, it is also a call to repentance; to revisit fundamentalist theological positions that support certain unjust political options with regard to the Palestinian people. It is a call to stand alongside the oppressed and preserve the word of God as good news for all rather than to turn it into a weapon with which to slay the oppressed. The word of God is a word of love for all His creation. God is not the ally of one against the other, nor the opponent of one in the face of the other. God is the Lord of all and loves all, demanding justice from all and issuing to all of us the same commandments. We ask our sister Churches not to offer a theological cover-up for the injustice we suffer, for the sin of the occupation imposed upon us. Our question to our brothers and sisters in the Churches today is: Are you able to help us get our freedom back, for this is the only way you can help the two peoples attain justice, peace, security and love? 6.2 In order to understand our reality, we say to the Churches: Come and see. We will fulfil our role to make known to you the truth of our reality, receiving you as pilgrims coming to us to pray, carrying a message of peace, love and reconciliation. You will know the facts and the people of this land, Palestinians and Israelis alike. 152 theologies and cultures
6.3 We condemn all forms of racism, whether religious or ethnic, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and we call on you to condemn it and oppose it in all its manifestations. At the same time we call on you to say a word of truth and to take a position of truth with regard to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land. As we have already said, we see boycott and disinvestment as tools of non violence for justice, peace and security for all.
7. Our word to the international community 7. Our word to the international community is to stop the principle of "double standards" and insist on the international resolutions regarding the Palestinian problem with regard to all parties. Selective application of international law threatens to leave us vulnerable to a law of the jungle. It legitimizes the claims by certain armed groups and states that the international community only understands the logic of force. Therefore, we call for a response to what the civil and religious institutions have proposed, as mentioned earlier: the beginning of a system of economic sanctions and boycott to be applied against Israel. We repeat once again that this is not revenge but rather a serious action in order to reach a just and definitive peace that will put an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian and other Arab territories and will guarantee security and peace for all.
8. Jewish and Muslim religious leaders 8. Finally, we address an appeal to the religious and spiritual leaders, Jewish and Muslim, with whom we share the same vision that every human being is created by God and has been given equal dignity. Hence the obligation for each of us to defend the oppressed and the dignity God has bestowed on them. Let us together try to rise up above the political positions that have failed so far and continue to lead us on the path of failure and suffering.
9. A call to our Palestinian people and to the Israelis 9.1 This is a call to see the face of God in each one of God’s creatures and overcome the barriers of fear or race in order to establish a constructive dialogue and not remain within the cycle of never- ending manoeuvres that aim to keep the situation as it is. Our appeal is to reach a common vision, built on equality and sharing, not on superiority, negation of the other or aggression, using the pretext of fear and security. We say that love is possible and mutual trust is Kairos-Palestine 153
possible. Thus, peace is possible and definitive reconciliation also. Thus, justice and security will be attained for all. 9.2 Education is important. Educational programs must help us to get to know the other as he or she is rather than through the prism of conflict, hostility or religious fanaticism. The educational programs in place today are infected with this hostility. The time has come to begin a new education that allows one to see the face of God in the other and declares that we are capable of loving each other and building our future together in peace and security. 9.3 Trying to make the state a religious state, Jewish or Islamic, suffocates the state, confines it within narrow limits, and transforms it into a state that practices discrimination and exclusion, preferring one citizen over another. We appeal to both religious Jews and Muslims: let the state be a state for all its citizens, with a vision constructed on respect for religion but also equality, justice, liberty and respect for pluralism and not on domination by a religion or a numerical majority. 9.4 To the leaders of Palestine we say that current divisions weaken all of us and cause more sufferings. Nothing can justify these divisions. For the good of the people, which must outweigh that of the political parties, an end must be put to division. We appeal to the international community to lend its support towards this union and to respect the will of the Palestinian people as expressed freely. 9.5 Jerusalem is the foundation of our vision and our entire life. She is the city to which God gave a particular importance in the history of humanity. She is the city towards which all people are in movement – and where they will meet in friendship and love in the presence of the One Unique God, according to the vision of the prophet Isaiah: "In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it (…) He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Is. 2: 2-5). Today, the city is inhabited by two peoples of three religions; and it is on this prophetic vision and on the international resolutions concerning the totality of Jerusalem that any political solution must be based. This is the first issue that should be negotiated because the recognition of Jerusalem's sanctity and its message will be a source of inspiration towards finding a solution to 154 theologies and cultures
the entire problem, which is largely a problem of mutual trust and ability to set in place a new land in this land of God.
10. Hope and faith in God 10. In the absence of all hope, we cry out our cry of hope. We believe in God, good and just. We believe that God’s goodness will finally triumph over the evil of hate and of death that still persist in our land. We will see here "a new land" and "a new human being", capable of rising up in the spirit to love each one of his or her brothers and sisters.
THEOLOGIES AND CULTURES is a peer-reviewed journal published semi annually by Formosa Christianity and Culture Research centre. 《神學與文化》是由台灣基督教與文化研究中心所出版具審查機制的 學術期刊，每半年出版一期。
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