Week 7 |
"Who Shot That Bullet?” - Part II |
October 15 |
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As the Tantur Community absorbs the events of the past week, we, naturally, look for cause and effect. Someone is shot in the head. The bullet ricocheted from sporadic and isolated conflict at nearby Rachel's Tomb. Someone fired that bullet. But who?
Looking upon the streets, at these points of conflict, one sees Israeli soldiers and Palestinian citizens. The Israelis and the Palestinians are mostly men and mainly young. The Palestinians throw stones and the Israelis respond with tear gas, rubber bullets and, depending on the situation, live ammunition.
Catching glimpses of their faces, I see anger, but mostly what is seen is fear and a sense of uncertainty in their eyes that seem to say, "What am I doing?" and "How did I get here?".
All Israelis, men and women, after secondary school, must spend about three years in the military. Traveling through Israel, these young soldiers are visible everywhere: on streets, on buses, in shopping centers and at all the Holy Sites.
Dressed in their khaki uniforms and carrying their rifles, the nation is ready, at any given moment, to defend or to take the offensive. After the initial shock of seeing such weapons in the midst of life, one gets used to having them around. But you never get used to the fact that these soldiers are still youth - "18, 19, and 20 year-olds". They hardly know who they are; yet alone, what Israel is and for what "great purposes" they may be asked to sacrifice their lives.
Visible in great number on the streets of the territories of the West Bank are the Palestinian youth, hungry for the purpose and the meaning in their lives, that is denied them because of the complicated political, social and religious realities of this region.
This demonstration took place in front of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on Sunday, October 8. Notice the Palestinian flags attached to the Church, which is a Christian holy site built over the traditional site of the cave in which Jesus was born.
"Pushed" into designated Palestinian territories, cities and neighborhoods, they perceive themselves as being surrounded by growing wealth, prosperity and opportunity. They are jealous of what they see. They want it too, but on their terms, not the terms dictated by Israel.
Many Palestinians rejoiced that Moslem and Christian came together for this demonstration but they did so in opposition to the Israelis.
They want to take advantage of this opportunity in their lands, in their ways and expressions.
Do you notice the number of younger children taking part in this demonstration? Attitudes are being formed that will last lifetimes.
This is what is ever so slowly happening as the state of Palestine is being chiseled out of the rock, Israel, which the world created some 52 years ago.
In 1894, Austrian journalist, Theodor Herzl published The Jewish State, a book outlining his ideas that the only solution to Jewish persecution would be a Jewish state in Palestine. In this, is the beginnings of the modern Zionist movement began. These ideas became reality in 1948 when Israel was declared a nation. This is his grave on Mt. Herzl, a cemetery/parkland where other national leaders are buried.
Chiseling causes friction and sparks. Sparks can cause fires. The chiseling should be done in such a way to allow containment of those sparks. But this is not always the case. At times, things get out of hand. There are flashpoints of combustion. Some rocks are thrown. Then the Israelis create a stronger presence on the streets. Then more rocks begin to fly. Then more Israeli soldiers are dispatched to the streets. Then the Palestinian schools close. Then the Palestinian shopkeepers go on strike. Then the Israeli soldiers and Palestinian citizens violently confront each other on those streets. More rocks fly. Bullets are fired. Innocent youth are injured and killed.
This funeral took place at Nativity Church immediately following the Palestinian demonstration. It is not known if the death of the person was a result of the recent unrest.
What fans the flames when combustion happens? Rhetoric! The rhetoric of some elders, mainly men who are "well positioned" as politicians and clergy.
It is, I believe, the rhetoric of these "well positioned" that causes the young to die. A rhetoric that advocates violence as the way to peace, that says places and sites are more important than people and that has a theology that believes God belongs only to us.
It is this rhetoric that leads the young, Israeli and Palestinian alike, to the streets where they find violence and death. Impassioned by the voices of their elders, they are yet too young to sift through these words. They are still naive enough to swallow them whole and complete. Then their fears, disagreements and legitimate anger are fed by these words into hatred for the other.
In Bethlehem, a street is named after the Palestinian leader. Is he a man of peace or a man of war? History will decide.
From the comfortable chair of a politician's office, from the religious seat of a mosque, synagogue or church and from the desk of a book-lined academic's study, come words that have the ability to kill.
These words, and those who proclaim them, must be held up to accountability. Do such people and their words help to serve a world, a planet, that is rapidly becoming a global village? Or do they sustain and strengthen archaic patterns of division and prejudice?
The old and new collide in many ways and through many layers of thinking and activity. A shepherd and his flock on the road to Bethlehem.
The words that are needed are ones of inclusion not exclusion, of finding ways to create "a living together" as the ideal. The lands of this global village belong to all people. Can it continue to be carved up on the basis of race, religion and ethnic background? Are places more important than people? Are we willing to sacrifice dearly held positions in the hope of creating new policies and places of inclusion? Do we live in fear of each other? Do we attempt to just live "side by side"? Or do we dare to dream of a "living together"?
Yehuda Amichai, who is considered Israel's unofficial poet, lived in Jerusalem for 60 years until his death last month. One of the poet's favorite subjects was Jerusalem. Time and again, Amichai tried to capture the real life pulsing through a city that often seems to be a collection of symbols layered over history. His simple, yet profound, words cut to the heart of deeply-held religious and political beliefs, "People, simply, have to always be more important than rocks or historical sites, and as long as that's not the case, there will never be peace."
This is the grave of Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli Prime Minister who was assassinated several years ago. He is buried on Mt. Herzl. Prime Minister Rabin was an advocate of Peace Agreements with the Palestinians. He was shot to death by an ultra-orthodox Jew who believed that Rabin was giving away land that God gave to Israel in accord with the Scriptures. Rabin is the first Jew, in modern times, to be assassinated by another Jew.
Rhetoric from "highly positioned people", proclaiming that sites have greater value than people, brought and continue to bring young people face to face on the streets. These confrontations cause injury and death.
It is that rhetoric that fired the bullet that found its way through the window of Tantur!
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