The Rev. Peter J. Miano
I recently returned from a month in Palestine-Israel. In addition to my usual peregrinations, I also lead a 10 day fact finding mission. We traveled from the Mediterranean coast to the Jordan River, from points all around the Gaza border and the Negev in the south of Israel to locations close to the Lebanese border in the north of Israel. We traveled throughout the Israeli occupied West Bank. We met and spoke with a wide range of Israelis and Palestinians from far left to far right and as many bands of the political spectrum in between as we could manage. We spoke with Israeli and Palestinian Christians, Muslims and Jews. We met with human rights activists, peace workers and journalists. We met with pastors and rabbis. We talked to hard right Jewish zionists, including Jewish settlers living in Jewish only settlements in the occupied West Bank. We spoke with strident Palestinian nationalists. We spoke with soldiers manning check points in the West Bank and guarding refugee camps. We encountered a patrol of Israeli soldiers who were very eager to talk with us, even while they were firing howitzers from Israel’s side of the Gaza border into Gaza. They warned us when it was going to get noisy. Everyone we encountered was eager to talk and everyone felt that their particular position is misunderstood. Everyone feels cut off and vulnerable. Many are desperate for a long overdue solution to this 75 year conflict. Some are in a state of rage and desire revenge. Some are determined to persevere and overcome. Almost all are uncertain about the future. Everyone was appreciative of our visits. Most importantly, we gained first hand experience and unedited information—without any interference from journalists, editors, publishers or advertisers.
Our first observation—one that struck us almost immediately on our very first day and continued to impress itself upon us during the journey—was that on the Israeli side, things were almost normal. The same could be said for the Palestinian side, but normal means something different in those two sectors. On the Israeli side, we found crowded beaches in Tel Aviv, busy restaurants, the usual snarled traffic on weekdays and the usual robust post Shabbat celebrations. The Israeli side didn’t look anything like what we imagined life during “war time” would look. Then again, the trauma Israelis feel is more submerged now than it was in October when I was last in Israel. It is real. It is deep, but it is covered and it doesn’t stop them from sun bathing.
On the Palestinian side of things, specifically in the West Bank, we found a deepening economic crisis. 100,000 Palestinian day workers are no longer allowed to go to their day jobs in Israel. This means that construction in Israel that relies on Palestinian labor is deeply impacted, too. It also means that many Israelis now have to make their own beds. The tourist sector, a major segment of the Palestinian economy, is almost completely shut down. There were groups of tourists, but nowhere near the usual volume. Palestinians effected by the loss of jobs scrape by with the help of their very strong family units. They subsist on whatever savings they had and face uncertainty when savings are depleted. The enduring result of the Oslo peace process (so called) of the 1990s is that the Palestinian population in the West Bank is now neatly compartmentalized and isolated by a series of road blocks, check points and walls. 95% of the Palestinian population of the West Bank (ca 3.5 million people) live on 5% of the land of the West Bank. As a result of the so called Oslo peace process, this 95% of the Palestinian population can be completely isolated, hermetically sealed off and controlled in a matter of minutes. Israel has routinely exercised this power over the past 25 years and it enforced total isolation of the Palestinian population on 7 October. At such times, Palestinians are not merely occupied people. They are in captivity. While restrictions have been relaxed somewhat since November, there is still complete Israeli control. Palestinians also experience daily harassment, unpredictable Israeli military incursions into places like refugee camps and major cities like Jenin and Bethlehem. The occupation forces also provide protection for extremist Israeli settlers when they rampage through Palestinian villages and farms. These rampages are regular, repeated, always involve harassment and intimidation and are often lethally violent. All this has come to be called normal for Palestinians.
During my recent time in Palestine and Israel, I found very little reason for optimism. However, I saw many signs of hope. Christian hope is not a form of wishful thinking. It does not shy away from naming obvious injustice. It faces uncomfortable realities like the magnitude of the obstacles to peacemaking. It does not hide behind bromides and platitudes like “God has a plan,” or “Israel has a right to defend itself.” We detected signs of Christian hope in the Christian, Muslim and Jewish people that we met and spoke with. These signs included frequent expressions of determination to persevere in the pursuit of peace, reconciliation and justice in spite of the apparent odds. The peacemakers we met with were under no illusions about the prospects of peace, but we all know that peace is not just possible, but inevitable. The combination of military force and the misguided politicians that give them their orders has hellish effect. The mental energies of those who wield power are concentrated to devise devious strategies of destruction. Still, peacemakers persevere in spite of the great personal cost they incur. That is hope. All the effort and talent of the military powers is dedicated to no productive end whatsoever—only toward destruction. If you see evidence for a productive outcome to the current violence, please show me.
The 12 million people living between the river and the sea and those in the immediate region deserve more from their own leaders and from world leaders than vapid declarations of support and empty commitments to peace. Airlifting tons of food to Gaza is not a solution. Building a pier is not a solution—especially when there are already seven land crossings to Gaza that could be opened for the immediate delivery of food and medical supplies. The only solution is a negotiated one. As one Israeli soldier on duty guarding a refugee camp told us, “We don’t want to be here. Both sides need to lay down their arms and talk.”
We heard many references to the “one state solution” and to the “two state solution.” To get to either, in the short term, implementing an immediate cease fire is an imperative. There is no military solution that is also morally defendable. There is no winning in this conflict unless all people win. More violence will only produce more losers. Once a cease fire is implemented, any proposals based on UN resolutions and equality would be a starting point in negotiations that will certainly include Hamas. Since when does anyone get to choose who negotiates for their adversaries? Negotiations that will resolve hostilities never happen between people who like each other. The idea of total victory over Hamas is a fantasy. In fact, Israel’s retaliation has produced more sympathy for Hamas than it had on 6 October. Israel is more isolated now than is was on 6 October. Ultimately, however, the choice is not between a one state or a two state solution. The real choice is between equality or apartheid. One of our Israeli hosts stated “Israel is not a vibrant democracy, this is apartheid.” Any proposal which preserves the privilege of one people over another will fail. Israel’s strategic thinking for decades is typified by the phrase “no war, no peace.” This strategy will only guarantee periodic eruptions of violence.