The following message has just arrived in my Inbox from the Canadian Friends of Sabeel. As a reminder:  Sabeel is the Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem. The centre was founded by Rev. Dr. Naim Ateek in 1990 and works for justice, peace, and reconciliation in Palestine-Israel. The word, sabeel, is Arabic for ‘the way’ and also ‘a channel’ or ‘spring’.

I invite you to join me in efforts for peace. I’ve just written to our Prime Minister and the leaders of the Official Opposition (New Democratic Party), the Liberal Party, and the Green Party. I have copied my message to the Foreign Affairs Minister and to the Foreign Affairs critic for the Official Opposition. For your reference, here is the information from the Canadian Friends of Sabeel.

“Attack on Gaza

Peace… salaam… shalom… We have marked Remembrance Day this week in Canada… I spent the morning of 11 Nov. 2012 with my spiritual community at Southminster-Steinhauer United Church (click here) and was moved by the reflection shared by Rev. Dr. Nancy Steeves (click here). The title for this posting is an attempt at re-stating her reflection. On that afternoon, I practised yoga with others and we sent our shared collective energy into the world in support of…peace…

This morning, on CKUA (independent and original radio broadcasting from Alberta and available on-line – click here), I heard this news report:  3 Israelis had been killed in southern Israel; 15 Palestinians had been ‘reported’ to have been killed in Israeli-occupied Gaza. The definite nature of the first part of the statement compared with the tentative nature of the second statement irked me. I perceive that this hesitation characterizes Canadian society’s positioning on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On the one hand, I’m disappointed by this qualification (i.e., that 15 Palestinians may have been killed versus 3 Israelis definitely being killed). However, I’m also encouraged that not only were Israeli deaths reported (and I am deeply saddened by this news) but also Palestinian deaths were reported (and I’m deeply saddened by this news)… in our Canadian media. This is a hopeful shift in Canadian news discourse, because in the past and still in mainstream media, news that is supportive of the Israeli government tends to dominate. Here is an article by Simon Tisdall with The Guardian in the United Kingdom (click here).

My heart is wrenched as I think of my Israeli and Palestinian friends and acquaintances including members of Other Voice (click here) – Israelis and Palestinians supporting hope and non-violent actions. See my posting from 30 June 2011 here.

Eric Yellin & Ronni Keidar.Other Voice. Gaza in background – 26 Jan. 2011 – Photo: A. Farr

Life in Sderot means living with red-code warnings of rocket attacks from some parts of Gazan society. Click here for a youtube video recorded on… 11 Nov. 2012. Life in Gaza also means living in fear. Click here for a video from an Australian news agency.

Below I have pasted a news release from the Israeli Peace Blog – Gush Shalom (click here). I received the release in my Inbox yesterday. The author is Uri Avnery, a past member of the Israeli government’s Knesset (or parliament – the legislative part of the government) and peace activist. See his blog – click here.

For assistance: info@gush-shalom.org

What to do?? If we sit back without questioning the hesitations in Canadian and global political discussions, we let the provocations continue. Click here for a video posted today. Or, we can start naming peace in this moment, in each action we take here at home… I invite you to forward this posting to a friend, to an acquaintance… Engage someone in conversation… and make peace… shalom… salaam…

Cello Player in a round-about. Sderot, Israel – 26 Jan. 2011 – Photo: Sherry Ann

Did you know that, in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, water is one of the “permanent status issues – borders, Jerusalem, settlements, refugees and water” (UN General Assembly media release, 12 Feb. 2010)? Important also to know is that access to clean water and sanitation were recognized as human rights in July 2010 by the United Nations General Assembly vote (Click here). (See this posting here.)

This past week, I received an email with the following news from the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum (PIEF), an international, inter-church advocacy initiative for peace in Israel and Palestine. The PIEF Newsletter is distributed by the World Council of Churches. In particular, the email contained the following “dossier” compiled for PIEF by Ranjan Solomon.

View of the Dead Sea from occupied West Bank – May 2009 – Photo: Sherry Ann

I invite you to read the dossier (below) and follow the various links regarding access to water in the occupied Palestinian territories.

“A  December 2011 report by a French parliamentary committee calls Israel’s allocation of water in the West Bank “apartheid”. This report closely preceded the United Nations release of data showing that almost half of the West Bank is geographically off limits to Palestinians.

As a result, Israel keeps much of the West Bank’s water off limits to Palestinians, too.

The French report edited by Jean Glavany, a member of parliament for the Socialist Party, states  that “Some 450,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank use more water than the 2.3 million Palestinians that live there” and that “in times of drought, in contravention of international law, the settlers get priority for water.”

The Oslo Accords of 1995 stipulated that, for the time being, both sides would maintain their resource utilization at the existing quantities. The Palestinian water consumption from the aquifer at the time was 118 million cubic metres per year, compared to 483 million for Israel, according to a report by the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA). Even though it was “originally intended to be applicable for a period of no more than 5 years,” the PWA says that the same quota of 20 percent is “is still used by Israel as a ceiling to determine the amount of water it allocates to Palestinians”. This amount of water is simply insufficient for the growing Palestinian population.

In this issue of Perspectives, PIEF points out that water is a highly politicized issue in the Middle East. You cannot separate water from politics anymore.

The dossier we have compiled contains a range of resources. We hope that this dossier will help readers to understand better the complexities and intricacies of final status solutions in the Palestine-Israel conflict and the role of water in this context.

Please click here to download your copy (pdf, 245 KB).“

Recently, Israel’s Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, called for early elections. To learn about some of the context of this election call, I invite you to read a posting by Adam Keller, an Israeli, on 13 Oct. 2012. Click here.

How are my experiences as an ecumenical accompanier shaping me, my facilitation of lifelong learning, and my study of critical engagement?

Here’s how… (click here).

Accompanying the people of Silwan on a double home-eviction day – occupied East Jerusalem – 27 Dec. 2010 – Photo: G. Hess

Two Canadians have arrived in the occupied Palestinian territories of East Jerusalem and the West Bank…two sojourners within 33 global citizens in EAPPI Group 45…one, a dear friend of a number of years, Dawn, who has been placed in Bethlehem (9.6 km from where I lived in 2010-2011 – click here)…one, a new friend within the past month, Natalie, who has been placed in Jayyous (close to Qalqiliya on this map – click here; more info here)…

I invite you to visit both of their blogs and subscribe (look on the right-hand side of the blogs and click “Follow”) for the postings that they will be writing between now and early December 2012. Click here for Dawn’s blog and here for Natalie’s blog. Click here for EAPPI’s August newsletter.

Bethlehem through the bars of an Israeli checkpoint – 16 Dec. 2010 – Photo: Sherry Ann

Yesterday, Commissioners at the 41st General Council of the United Church of Canada voted in endorsement of the report of the Working Group on Israel/Palestine Policy: “…the United Church has put its stamp of approval on a proposal that includes a call for a boycott of products from the illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank” (click here).

Click here to read the text of the 13 motions that were approved by the United Church of Canada’s 41st General Council regarding Israel and Palestine.

Click here for an interview with Rev. Bruce Gregerson, Senior Programs Officer of the United Church of Canada, from 15 August 2012, on CBC’s Power & Politics hosted by Evan Solomon.

As a next step, the General Council Executive will develop ways to identify products (e.g., cosmetics and electronics) from illegal Israeli settlements for  church members’ reference.

Some may suggest that the United Church of Canada took one party’s side over another. I see this decision as standing with all those, Israeli, Palestinian, and engaged citizens in Canada (e.g., Independent Jewish Voices Canada – see news releases here; Canadian Friends of Sabeel – click here) and around the world, who seek a just peace in Palestine and Israel.

Shalom, Salaam, Peace.

This week members of the United Church of Canada are discerning how best to ‘stand’ for justice, in response to invitations from partner organizations within Canada and globally. As an Ecumenical Accompanier (EA) with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), I choose to stand in ways that are consistent with international humanitarian law and international human rights law. 

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One way that Canadians, collectively, might stand for a just peace in Palestine and Israel is through the boycotting of products produced in illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories. All Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal according to Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states, “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” The Israeli government is an occupying power and it is violating international law.

Engaged citizens can protest such violation through boycotting. Jean Zaru observes that, “Boycotts, divestment, and sanctions are nonviolent means for individuals, churches, academic institutions, cities, and corporations to make a difference and to highlight the need for adherence to international law and the rapid achievement of a just peace” (Zaru, 2008, p. 73). The United Church of Canada is considering an initial collective step through this boycott action of products produced in illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories. This would be a step that says, “no”, to economic structural violence.

“Structural violence is silent. It does not show. Television captures the direct violence and most often the violence of the powerless and the hopeless, and it is headlined as terror. One basic weakness in most conceptualizations of violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the basic assumption of symmetry, which views contending parties in conflict as being equal. After all, the conflict is there because we are unequal. We are unequal in access to power, media, and influence. But we insist that we are not unequal in our rights” (Zaru, 2008, p. 62). For additional information, click here.

Silent, economic structural violence (e.g., an unjust and unbalanced access to resources in occupied territories) is occurring in occupied East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. Through such violence, Palestinian society and Israeli society in Jerusalem are being torn apart. Ending this occupation and finding a just peace is critical for future co-existence.

Jean Zaru also offers this: “As Palestinians and as women our struggle to achieve these ideals [of justice, equality, and freedom] continues today. It has been a long struggle, waged on so many fronts. It has been a long walk, and a long road to freedom still lies ahead. On the way, we often get tired, confused, and frustrated; we sometimes lose direction; we find ourselves at an impasse or headed down a one-way or a no-entry or even a dead-end. But this has not discouraged us or made us give up our journey with others and for others. In fact, the difficulties of our journey have made the issues of the struggle even clearer and have revealed to us the interconnectedness of unjust structures, the web of oppression, and the various struggles for liberation” (Zaru, 2008, p. 105).

Reference: Zaru, Jean. (2008). Occupied with Nonviolence: A Palestinian Woman Speaks. Foreword by Rosemary Radford Ruether. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press. Click here.

Here is an update from today’s debate at the 41st General Council of the United Church of Canada. Click here and here.

See this commentary from last week (click here) from Stephen Scheinberg regarding the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs’ (CIJA) (which has succeeded the Canadian Jewish Congress) perspective on the United Church of Canada’s discussions.

For additional ecumenical activity on boycotting products from illegal Israeli settlements (i.e., Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories), see this international list (below). Thanks to the United Network for a Just Peace in Palestine and Israel (UNJPPI) for forwarding this info.

World Council of Churches – Voted in support of boycotting settlement products. Click here and here.

National Council of Churches in Australia – Voted in support of boycotting settlement products. Click here.

Presbyterian Church, USA – Voted in support of boycotting settlement products. Click here and here.

United Methodist Church, USA – Voted in support of boycotting settlement products. Click here.

Quakers, UK – Voted in support of boycotting settlement products. Click here.

Methodists, UK – Voted in support of boycotting settlement products. Click here.

This week, the 41^st General Council of the United Church of Canada is meeting in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. On 14 Aug. 2012, commissioners debated a report of the Working Group on Israel/Palestine Policy in the United Church of Canada. The discussion is addressing the question of boycotting products from illegal Israeli settlements (i.e., Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories). Discussion is not addressing divestment or the boycott of products from Israel. In the title for this posting, I paraphrase Bruce Gregersen, General Council Officer for Programs, who was reported to have said yesterday that “the report has prompted a widespread debate on the Palestinian situation”.

“This [three-hour debate] has opened up the conversation in the country. There are those who will say you should not have this conversation, that there’s no legitimacy to any conversation that would undertake any criticism of the legitimacy of the settlements,” he said.

“I think what we’ve done as a denomination is to say very directly that yes, it is appropriate to talk about this and we believe it’s vital to talk about this.” (Click here.) The 11-part motion will return to the floor for discussion today, 15 Aug. 2012.

A fellow Ecumenical Accompanier (EA) offered poems to we, Canadian EAs, yesterday, as we watch and wait. Thank you, Larry, for this “contemplative supplement” to the debate at General Council, readings of poems by a Palestinian living in Galilee, named Taha Muhammad Ali, and by Peter Cole: “The Place Itself, or I Hope You Can’t Digest It” and “Coexistence: A Lost and Almost Found Poem” (Click here).

In response, I offer this YouTube video by a sister EA from the Jerusalem Team that followed my team in Spring 2011. In response to my suggestion to ask the young Jahalin Bedouin teen girls about the meaning of “the sea” to them, two EAs invited the girls to dream about water and the sea. In this hope-filled video (click here), they discuss in Arabic and English their dreams as they write poetry.  See some of their finished poems here.

For recent updates regarding the Commissioners’ discussion, please click here and here.

Please click here for a response from Kairos Palestine (click here) members.

Please click here for a response from Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) Canada (click here).

For background information about the United Church of Canada’s Working Group report, click here. Scroll down to “Israel/Palestine Report”.

Finally, for information from the recently established United Network for Just Peace in Palestine and Israel (UNJPPI), click here.

Join us as we watch and wait. Talk about it within your own circles of friends, family, acquaintances, and new faces. Believe in a just peace for Palestine and Israel…and for our global home.

EAPPI Group 38 – occupied East Jerusalem – 19 Dec. 2010 – Photo: S. avMaat