[saymaListserv] Jean Zaru

[Nancy Whitt]

To All:

The following is the text of a talk that Jean Zaru, long time Clerk of the Friends Meeting in Ramallah, presented to  those of us who attended the Friends of Sabeel Conference in Pittsburgh on 24 February 2006.  True to the Quaker spirit, Jean presented an inspiring message of non-violent resistance to the occupation and denial of human rights experienced daily by Palestinians living in the territories.  Further, she challenges us to courageously expose the denials, lies and obfuscations of the powerful who seek the subjugation of the Palestinians.  But hers is a universal message for all those who suffer as do the Palestinians.  This universality is echoed in the African American spiritual:


Nobody knows the trouble I've seen.
Nobody knows but Jesus.
Nobody knows the trouble I've seen.
Glory Hallelujah! 

Sometimes I'm up,
Sometimes I'm down
Oh, yes, Lord.
Sometimes I'm almost to the ground
Oh, yes, Lord.
Refrain: 

I never shall
Forget that day
Oh, yes, Lord,
When Jesus washed my sins away,
Oh, yes, Lord.
Refrain: 


Yes, in knowing that Jesus knows there is hope for those who have been deprived of their humanity.  But it is not just Jesus who knows, it is we who know.  And in our knowing, there is hope.  As the circle of those who know grows, so does the hope.  So perhaps we need to work to enlarge the circle of the knowing, to bring light into darkness, to set the captive free so that we might sing Oh, yes Lord, I shall never forget that day, when your truth set my people free.   

Donald




Peacemaking as a Journey of Transformation: 
Our Inner Strength & Public Engagement

24 February 2006

Friends of Sabeel Pittsburgh Conference


by Jean Zaru



        Sisters and brothers, I have traveled here today to share with you my personal witness to peacemaking in my native land of Palestine, where to be actively engaged in the building of a culture of peace and nonviolence means to do so in a context of severe oppression, military occupation, and continued displacement. 

        Friends, I come to you, representing a narrative of exclusion-- the denial of basic human and community rights of my people.  From the heart of Palestine I have come, from the midst of an indigenous people, from a nation held in captivity.

        Nearly fifty-eight years ago, we were cast outside the course of history, our very identity denied, our human, cultural and historical reality suppressed.  We became victims of an exclusivist agenda that usurped our rights, our lands, our water and confiscated our historical narrative, as well.  We became victims of a colonialist program. 

        More than 500 villages were either depopulated or destroyed in what became Israel, leaving hundreds of thousands of Palestinians either as refugees or internally displaced persons.  Today, Palestinians constitute the largest and the longest standing single refugee population in the world.  Over five million of us are waiting to return home.  Those who remained in what later became the state of Israel continue to experience exclusion and discrimination in their historical homeland.  And those of us who, in 1967, came under Israeli occupation in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem have since been subjected to a unique combination of military occupation, settler colonization and systematic oppression.

        I have lived all my life in Ramallah, and more than half of my life under Israeli occupation but it was never as difficult as it is today.  "Normal life" for Palestinians living in the occupied territories has disappeared.  We are subjected to a policy of restrictions on our movement, a policy of intentional impoverishment, house curfews, random shootings, targeted killings, political assassinations, abductions, imprisonment, house demolitions, the illegal confiscation of our land and water resources and the destruction of our crops and thousands of our trees.  More than 80% of our water in the West Bank is siphoned off; sometimes sold back to us, but at very high prices.  So, you see, we are not only dealing with direct violence, but with structural violence that is political, economic, cultural, religious and environmental.

        There is, indeed, an endless battering of Palestinians on a daily basis that either imprisons us in our own homes or leaves us to live within fragmented communities separated from each other by endless walls, ditches and checkpoints, making the means of daily life --jobs, trade, education, health care-- all but inaccessible.  The people, land, houses and trees have been brutally treated.  Fear and insecurity is rapidly replacing compassion and trust.  

        Relations have become hard and tense.  For when almost every aspect of life is framed in oppression and humiliation, moral space is diminished.  Our own humanity is threatened and role models for our children become hard to find.  People are tired and depressed.  They are traumatized by the violence that is perpetuated against them, which affects both their physical and mental health.  

        And yet, despite all of this I also come here this afternoon with a message of hope.  It is a message of hope embodied in the spirit and will of all those throughout the world who refuse to submit to forces of oppression, who refuse to submit to violence, injustice and structures of domination.

        Indeed, hope is revealed when truth is spoken.  It is within this light that I share with you that the most basic form of deception in my context is the fabrication of a fake symmetry between occupier and occupied --between oppressor and victim.  For me it is clear: the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem must end.  It is illegal according to international law and furthermore, the occupation remains the most pervasive form of violence, human rights violations, and the immoral enslavement of an entire nation.  It is the ultimate provocation at both the individual and collective levels.  

         Nevertheless, no degree of violence --whether direct or structural-- can succeed in subjugating the will of a people or destroying their spirit when they are struggling for their freedom, dignity and the right to sovereignty on their own land.  All attempts at intensifying the brutality of the occupation has only led to the escalation of the conflict and increased our determination to gain our liberty.  

        Conflicts can only be resolved politically and legally, on the basis of parity of rights and the global rule of law.  All, without double standards, should adhere to United Nations Security Council resolutions and international law, including the Geneva Conventions.  No state is above the law.  

        It is important to remind ourselves that the victims of oppression are not always blameless.  For, too often, they themselves become the oppressors of others.  They seem to forget that the humanity of the oppressor is violated at the very moment of oppressing another human being.  Hence, the liberation of the oppressed and violated will also lead to the liberation of the oppressor.

         Jesus distilled from the long experience of his people that nonviolent resistance was a way of opposing evil without becoming evil in the process.  He advocated for means that were consistent with the desired end; that is, a society of justice, peace and equality.  He repeatedly spoke of the reign of God which is free of domination.  We pray constantly for God's will on earth as it is in heaven.  In other words we are calling for the reign of God. 

        But how do we move beyond word to actualizing that reign?  This is our challenge together.

WHERE is God's reign?  
        God's reign is wherever domination is overcome, wherever people are freed, wherever the soul is fed, wherever God's reality is known.

WHEN is God's reign? 
        God's reign is whenever people turn away from worshiping power, wealth and fame.  It is whenever we insist on creating a society of equals.

WHAT is God's reign? 
        God's reign is the transformation of the Domination System into a nonviolent, humane, ecologically sustainable, livable environment which enables all creation to grow and live well. 

        The reign of God cannot just be inner or outer; it must be both or it is neither.

        When I received the invitation to speak at this conference, for a moment I was excited about the possibility to be with all of you.  But then remembering my last trip to Jordan (for I, as a West Bank Palestinian, am not allowed to fly out of the Tel Aviv airport) my heart sank.

        It should take less than one hour to travel from Ramallah to the one bridge that West Bank Palestinians are permitted to use to exit our country.  However, when I crossed a few weeks ago it took 5-6 hours, and an additional 13 hours to cross the border itself and subsequently arrive in Amman.  My friends, I could have flown to New York in the same amount of time!   For you see, the tolls we pay are many.  And even if I take this one, small example of crossing the bridge, it is difficult to fully describe.  For the tolls involved in traveling under occupation drain our lives, impair our health, add to our financial burden and increase our separation anxieties, as neither leaving nor returning is ever guaranteed.  The state of Israel has claimed that these measures are for security.  And so I wonder whether they can, with all their sophisticated devices, check our hearts and minds as well.  Can they see how we feel?  Do they notice our pain?  Or is this not part of the security check?  Or not part of building peace with one's neighbor?

        So often I feel like screaming: We are sacred!  We are part of God's creation!  Why do you treat us like this?  And other times I feel like crying out the words of the Psalmist:


My God, my God why have you forsaken me? 
Why are you so far from helping me, 
from the words of my groaning? 
Oh my God, I cry by day, 
But you do not answer; 
And by night, but find no rest. (Psalm 22:1-2)


        As I look at the people around me during the long waiting hours at the checkpoints or in the bus to cross the bridge, I listen to their conversations and I hear individual stories of pain, of families being torn apart, of despair and suffering, of longing and fear.  Yet, hope is strengthened when I see the sharing of food and water, the compassionate offers to help the elderly and young mothers with children.  Hope is strengthened when we see the divine quality in those with whom we differ and 'yes' even the divine quality in those who impose the persecution!

        Without a doubt, the way of transformation calls us to stand against the forces of death and evil, both within us, and around us.  It challenges us to resist the temptation simply to re-arrange the furniture, whether that re-arrangement is in the structures of our psyche, or those of our planet. 

        What is that inner force that drives us, that provides regeneration and perseverance to speak the truth that so desperately needs to be spoken in this moment in history?  I am older, my health poor, my body fragile and yet, as do so many others, I believe that I have no choice but to bear witness to what is happening in my land, to expose the structures of violence and domination, to bring them out into the light, and thereby undercut their power.  If I deserve credit for courage, it is not for anything I do here, but for continuing in my daily struggle under occupation on so many fronts, for remaining samoud (steadfast) and, all the while, remaining open to love, to the beauty of the earth, and contributing to its healing when it is violated.  

        My friends, struggle changes us in profound ways. 

        For the essence of struggle is neither endurance nor is it denial.  Rather, the essence of struggle is the decision to become new rather than simply to become older.  That is, within the essence of struggle lies the opportunity to grow either smaller or larger, to become more than what we already are or to retreat into becoming less.  Indeed, the process of life itself may be found within this opportunity.

        For life is about movement.  And everyday we either become more or we diminish.  

        In the struggle, and in this particular struggle, we cannot give up.

        In so many ways, struggle gives life depth and vision, insight and understanding, compassion and character.  It not only transforms us, but empowers us to be a TRANSFORMING PEOPLE, as well. 

        It is vitally important that we insist on a prophetic ministry in today's threatened world, one that exposes the lies and myths that have been created, mainly by the powerful, to cover up the pain and grief of our world.  This prophetic ministry should resist the monopoly of knowledge and the power.  Rather it should struggle to forge a new discourse, one that includes critique from the margins.  Therefore, it is essential that all engaged in such a ministry make contact in each and every place with the refugees, the displaced, the political prisoners, and the downtrodden.  Spaces must be created for such people to share their stories of grief, as well as to express their anger and hope.

        Those who engage in prophetic renewal are called to be Truth Tellers, rather than people who remain silent or re-route the conversation.  Contemporary culture is marked by the great cover-up. And this is certainly true in the case of Palestine.  One of the most important tasks before us as peacemakers is to educate ourselves to be effective speakers, writers, teachers, and preachers, so that our silence is no more and our voice is informed.  

        This task is especially important for half truths and lies fill government halls, institutions and the media, reminding one of the lament of the prophet Jeremiah,


They all deceived their neighbors and nobody speaks the truth; 
They have taught their tongues to speak lies. (Jer 9.5)


        These are very hard days in Palestine.  The settlement expansion and the construction of the Wall continue unabated.  International law and UN resolutions sit collecting dust.  While the political landscape has changed dramatically in recent weeks and global powers maneuver a response, humanitarian aid is used like a playing card without regard to ordinary families struggling to secure their daily bread.

        My friends, we have been working for a long time to end oppression and occupation and have, thus far, not secured our rights.  It is discouraging.  Fear and loss surround us, and many forces are at work to make us feel marginalized and disempowered.  At best the work ahead seems overwhelming.

What do we do? 
What actions do we take?  

        Some of my people have opted to withdraw, that is to either withdraw internally or to both leave Palestine and withdraw internally.  In fact, many have responded in this manner because they truly perceive their situation as intolerable.  Regardless of the motivation, withdraw cushions us from feeling the full impact of our situation, and it also cuts us off from information and observations vital to our survival as a people.  When we withdraw, our gifts and our perceptions often get buried.  The realities of domination go unchallenged, leading neither to inner nor outer transformation.

        Other people have chosen to accommodate, comply or manipulate.  When we manipulate, we have the illusion of being in control.  We can reap some rewards, but in doing so we are accepting the system's terms, its unspoken rules and values, including the often negative values it accords to us.  Furthermore, manipulation does not challenge the low value the system places on individuals.  In order to manipulate, we cannot be ourselves, express our true feelings, or share our real perceptions; we literally mask ourselves.  Manipulation may get us some of the system's rewards, but it neither liberates us individually nor transforms the structures of domination.

        The alternative is to RESIST.  Resistance challenges the system's values and categories.  Resistance speaks its own truth to power, and shifts the ground of struggle to its own terrain. 

        Resistance is often thought of as negative.  However, resistance is the refusal to be neglected.  Today, Palestinians find themselves embedded in structures that neglect their humanity and human rights and only acts of resistance can transform these structures.  And I, along with many others, have opted for the path of active nonviolent resistance.  To resist is to be human, and yet resistance is not easy.  It requires constant, hard work.  Indeed, it is not easy to sustain the path of nonviolent resistance for years and years, over many issues.  None of us can resist all the time, in every area of life.  We must choose our battles, meaning we must choose the priorities of struggle.  
        But the question remains: where do we find sustenance?  How are we re-energized, how are we empowered to continue to go forward on the path of resisting structures of domination and establishing the reign of God, indeed establishing a household of life?

        I believe that we continue because something is so sacred to us, so sacred that it means more than our comfort and convenience.  It might be God, or the Spirit, or the sacredness of life, or Mother Earth, or equality and freedom, or human rights and human dignity.  Whatever it is and whatever we call it, it CAN nurture us.  To be nurtured personally empowers and sustains us as individuals.  But in the struggle we need community.  We need each other and we need to build together a local and global movement for peace with justice, for the struggle is one. 

        As a peace and solidarity movement, we have been accused of lacking a clear vision regarding the kind of future we want.  I think we do have a vision, which includes diversity and pluralism, and rejects uniform dogmatic, exclusive formulations.  We want a world of freedom and justice for all.  In order to attain this, we need to mobilize people, but not around fear, anger or blame, nor out of guilt and shame.  I believe that this is the moment to reinvent our strategies and our tactics to affirm and engage the possibility of moving people to act from hope and to act in the service of what they love.  To create the world we want, we have to translate that hope and love into action; for faith without action is dead and useless.

        I have found that times of grief and anguish can actually strengthen our bonds.  And now, in such times in this movement in Palestine and Israel and beyond, we need each other as never before.  We need to treat each other well, to cherish and care for and support each other to become the community we imagine.  Our solidarity must go deeper than we've ever known before.  Solidarity means strengthening our openness and communication with each other, our willingness to bring everyone to the table, our practice of direct democracy, as well as our commitment to build broad based alliances and network with like minded people.

        It is now more necessary than ever to move from statements to direct non-violent action, like divesting from structures that enable the Occupation.  Such action gives hope to the people in the forefront of the struggle.  To vocally advocate for the implementation of international law and the protection of human rights gives hope, as well.  

        But the ugly fact remains that Palestinians have always been viewed as "a problem" for the Zionist project, whether we were good or bad, violent or non-violent.  Thus far, the so called peace process and initiatives have only proposed to minimize, not resolve the conflict which can, of course, only be accomplished by addressing the root injustices.  Official Israeli policy has always been to not accept the Palestinian people as equals or to admit that their fundamental rights have been violated all along.  Although a few courageous Israelis over the years have tried to deal with this other side of concealed history, most Israelis have made every effort to deny, avoid, or negate the Palestinian reality.  This is, fundamentally, why there is no peace today.

        The essence of the Israeli government position contradicts itself.  While the Jewish state publicly claims that it wants peace and security, it continues to create facts on the ground that guarantee neither one nor the other.  And the United States government's virtually unconditional support to Israel coupled with the political support of right wing Christians does not make it easier. It is shocking to me that the Israeli government accepts and even welcomes the support of Christian Zionist groups who are pro-Israel politically and anti-Jewish theologically.  Their theology must be rejected by all, because it is a violent, exclusive agenda that has no respect for any other group that differs with it.  They demonize Islam, do not respect Judaism and tell me as a Palestinian Christian, I am not among the chosen, but among the cursed for I stand in the way of the fulfillment of the prophecy of God.

        As a Palestinian Quaker woman in the Holy Land, I have spent all my life confronting structures of injustice.  These structures have been at work in a destructive way throughout our community and have caused both spiritual and physical suffering for many, including myself.  I often come back to the same thought and wonder if there really is that of God or the indwelling divinity in every person, why is there so much evil in the world?  Why is it sometimes so hard for us to see God in others?

        My inward struggle has heightened my awareness of global suffering which is, in turn, surely a reflection of the evils plaguing the human race.  It has also opened me to God's redeeming love and activity.

        Clearly, involvement in any just action has a price.  Therefore the question then becomes, "Am I ready to pay the price and share the suffering of others?"  Suffering for me is bearable, if it is for the cause of liberation.  For we not only move closer to liberation but within the very process itself we may find a new, beloved community with others and with God.  

        I now understand that those who operate the structures of oppression are dependent upon the people they oppress and are equally in need of liberation and God's grace.  Yet, it seems to me that most often the will and strength to end the oppression comes primarily from those who bear the oppression in their own lives and those who understand their livelihood to be intertwined and thus have made the commitment to accompany them in solidarity.

        We are called to conversion, to be converted to the struggle of women and men everywhere who have no way to escape the unending fatigue of their labor and the daily denial of their human rights and human worth.  We must let our hearts be moved by the anguish and suffering of our sisters and brothers in Palestine, in Iraq and throughout the world.  But how can we bear the pain, and where do we look for hope?  Is there anything meaningful we can do to solve the political chaos and crisis in the world?  Is there anything significant we can do to stop wars of all kinds? 

        Let us take a look into ourselves.  The outward situation is merely an expression of the inward state.  It requires great self-denial and resignation of our selves to God to be committed to peace and to nonviolent action to bring about change.  This technique may seemingly have no immediate positive effect, and it may indeed lead to outward defeat.  Whether successful or not it will surely involve sacrifice of some kind.  However, if we believe in nonviolence as the true way of peace and love, we must make nonviolence a principle not only for individuals but of national and universal conduct. 

        We should always try to avoid feeling morally superior, because we know how soon we may stumble when we are put to the test.  We may talk about peace, but if we are not transformed inwardly, if we still are motivated by greed or pride, if we are nationalistic, if we are bound by beliefs and dogmas for which we are willing to destroy others, there is no way we can have peace in this world.

        We, Palestinians, have gone through circumstances of great privation, anxiety and suffering.  All these seemed at times to weaken my dependence on God, but what joy and hope I gain when I know, wherever I am, whether in affluent circumstances or in poverty, whether I have personal liberty or not, that I am under the guiding hand of God and that God has a service for me to render wherever I am.

        I see things differently now.  I know that the oppressor is not freer than the oppressed. Both live in fear and do not have peace.  Others cannot bring it to us. What will bring us peace is transformation at all levels *a transformation that leads to action.  Our miseries are not going to stop because we disapprove.  My misery will not stop simply because you or I disapprove.  Rather, we must take action to bring about transformation of ourselves and the structures of domination.  

        Our shrinking world makes us all neighbors and I am increasingly aware of two facts about ourselves as inhabitants of this world.  One is that we are very different from one another in color, lifestyle, culture and belief.  The other is that we are exceedingly alike.  There is a fantastic range of common needs and desires, fears and hopes that bind us together in our humanness, and the well-being of each is interrelated with the well-being of all. 

        Through the ages people have engaged in a search for ultimate meaning in life, but they have turned this search into a political conflict, into wars and death in order to secure the dominance of a particular ideology, religion or nation.  Our age of unparalleled advancement in education, science and technology has also been an age of enormous violence.  

        Meanwhile, the need for imaginative understanding, simple trust and creative cooperation was never more urgent.  Maybe the time has come when we should unite in certain common affirmations of life. 

I offer the following: 

1.  We affirm that all forms of human power and authority are subject to God and accountable to people.  This means the right to full participation in resisting oppression, the Occupation and more generally those powers and authorities that prohibit the processes of transformation towards justice, peace and the integrity of creation.

2.  We affirm God's preferential option for the poor and oppressed.  It is our duty to embrace God's action in the struggles of the poor and for the liberation of all.

3.  We affirm the equal value of all races, religions, and peoples.  All people reflect the rich plurality of God's creation.

4.  We affirm that male and female are created in the image of God, and that we should resist structures of patriarchy that perpetuate violence against women.

5.  We affirm that truth is the foundation of freedom.  We should seek to communicate the truth in imaginative, prophetic, liberating and respectful ways.

6.  We affirm that the only possible peace is one based in justice.  True peace means every human being dwells in secure relatedness to God, neighbor, nature and self.
("The effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever." Isaiah 32: 17)

7.  We affirm the land belongs to God.  Human use of land and waters should release the earth to replenish its life-giving power, protecting its integrity and providing ample space for its creatures.  We should resist the dumping of toxic wastes into the lands and waters.

8.  We affirm that there is an inseparable relationship between justice and human rights.  But it must be clearly understood that we refer not only to individual rights, but also to the collective social, economic and cultural rights of peoples. 

        We will resist systems that violate human rights and deny the realization of the full potential of individuals and peoples.  We will resist, in particular, torture, disappearances, and extra-judicial killings.

9.  We affirm the presence of a spirit of hope and compassion available to all by which our lives may be more whole, more creative, more harmonious as we draw directly upon that power around us and within us and within all life.

        I have learned that the struggle for justice is one struggle, and that an action taken to subvert violence and strengthen human rights in one area is an action on behalf of people everywhere.  Martin Luther King reminded us that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice every where". 

        I now understand even more than before that our global responsibilities and relationships have a local face, and no matter where we live, we can work for human rights and a culture of peace.  The kinships we form as we as we do so serve as a prototype for a new community, one that knows no boundaries.

        Those of us committed to peace and justice whether with respect to the Palestinian experience or to any other issue, should not give up, for to give up is to give in and allow injustice to prevail.  Rather, we must continue to fan the embers into flames of light; no matter how small they are, because these embers of light give hope to those in the forefront of struggle. And they will keep the work for justice and peace in the Middle East alive.