July 10, 2008

From: Bethlehem

I stood yesterday at the edge of Shepherd's Field in Bethlehem - that place where we are told that an angel appeared before a group of shepherds tending their flocks in the darkness of night.  The Scriptures tell us that these shepherds were "living" in those fields - likely nomadic Bedouin tribesmen. 

The American Christian account - the New International Version of the Bible - suggests that these shepherds were Jews raising sheep for temple sacrifice (annotation: Luke 2:8).  Perhaps so; nevertheless, I prefer my version, as it adds a global flair to the story, the birth of the Christ child being first witnessed by 3 Arabian kings and a small group of Palestinian shepherds.  Who but outsiders and enemies of God's people could more effectively announce the coming of a Messiah who "...came to His own, but His own received Him not"? (Romans 8:16, 17).

I conjecture, however, from my room, a quarter mile from Manger Square, without benefit of biblical commentary or reference.  The notion that the Jewish Messiah could be born anywhere other than to royalty in Jerusalem would seem to me to have become so entrenched in ancient Israel that even angels could not persuade otherwise.  Today, there are shepherds of Christian flocks in America for whom even the appearance of angels would not persuade them that the returning Christ will not set His brogans right down on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem - and soon.

The angel and an accompanying host of others, however, are reported to have had something more important to say:

Don't be afraid.  I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people...Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests (Luke 2:10-14, NIV).

This news was inclusive - for all the people.  Furthermore, for those living in slavery to Rome, accustomed as they were to violence and death, peace was announced and restricted to "...men on whom his (God's) favor rests." 

The Hope of Shepherd's Field:

What once was Shepherd's Field is today a demilitarized zone (DMZ) of formerly green pastures increasingly covered with concrete settlements illegally approved and encouraged by the government of Israel.  These settlements enjoy the implicit support of the government of the United States and often are funded by Christian Zionists of the religious right in America.

Down through the middle of this DMZ runs a paved highway accessible only to settlers and Israeli citizens, though Shepherd's Field lies within the designated Palestinian Territory.

It may well be those settlements that will lead to the fulfillment of the proclamation heard there some 2,000 years ago: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

Walled off from the rest of the world by a concrete curtain and by the daily reminder of the fruits of Democracy - progress and affluence, Palestinians none-the-less can see through the hypocrisy of equating affluence with freedom.  They can see this from their own poverty (72% earn less than $2.00 per day) that has forced them to find hope in family, community and their religious beliefs.  The Cultural Revolution in China resulted in the exile of some 5M Christians to remote villages, where community is the mother's milk of survival.  It is estimated that today there are upwards of 100M Christians in China.

Only as a matter of time will that hypocrisy of Israel and the West be seen by those of us who enjoy the benefits of an affluent society but who find ourselves enslaved by the greedy, narcissistic culture in which we have become trapped.

Where is this "...peace to men on whom his (God's) favor rests?"  The answer lay then and lies now in the definition of the word "peace."  If peace is defined as Rodney King's vision, "Can't we all just get-get-get along?" we have missed the significance of the Messianic hope and have turned, instead, to the ability of politicians and governments to promote the common good.

The scene is no more peaceful today than it was then, other than for the missing sheep and the recently-denuded green spaces leveled to make way for stone and concrete.  Yet, those of us who believe that peace is less about land and more about liberation of the human spirit can wonder if this illusive peace remains extended to those today on whom God's favor rests. 

Mysteriously, the history and current story of Palestine is one of peace where there is no apparent peace, love where there is no apparent love and hope where there is no apparent hope - the Messianic mystery of which the angels sang over Shepherd's Field.

Prophet of Hope:

There are many "living stones" - prophets of peace in Bethlehem.  Lutheran pastor, Mitri Raheb, stands out as such a prophet.  You can read his story in his missive (Bethlehem Besieged, Augsburg Fortress Publishers, Minneapolis, 2002), the account of the April 2, 2002 bombardment of Bethlehem by the Israeli Defense Forces and the terrorism of his family over several days.  He is pastor, entrepreneur and prophet of hope where there is no apparent hope.

I spent time with Mitri during my stay at Dar Annadwa, formerly the International Center of Bethlehem, which suffered $1M in structural damages during the bombing siege.  Israel, the aggressor, is the recipient of nearly $5B yearly in undesignated US foreign aid, available for such unimaginable projects as wall building, settlements declared illegal by the International Court of Justice and the UN, and the building of weapons of mass destruction.

His is the phrase, "The big lie of peace."

"Peace in the Middle East" has become a sound bite and a smoke screen that strikes terror in the hearts of Palestinians.  The Oslo Peace Agreement, signed in 1995, committed the region to a process of peaceful resolution of the conflict.  It was, in effect, diplomatic eye wash that, by failing to set down boundaries and conditions, rendered the solution as a process with no teeth.  The "what" was covered with self-congratulations; the "how" was left undone.

Since Oslo, the West Bank and Gaza have been totally isolated from each other and within.  Jewish settlements have since been removed from Gaza in favor of a military state of siege instigated through the collaboration of US and Israeli pressure.  One hundred-twenty new permanent checkpoints have been erected, with temporary checkpoints springing up as needed.  Today, there are some 650 security checkpoints within Palestine, manned by the all-powerful Israeli Defense Force.  This has left the Palestinian population isolated in some three hundred separate enclaves.[1] 

Twelve thousand Palestinian homes have been demolished since 1967.  Nearly five thousand of those were bulldozed by Israel since September 2000, the beginning of the Second Intifada of Palestinian uprising that was triggered by Ariel Sharon's yr-2000 symbolic taking of the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  Thirty mosques and twelve churches have been destroyed; one hundred thirty-four aquifers have been sealed and one hundred eighty-thousand olive and fruit trees uprooted or cleared.[2]

A concrete wall 27ft high and meandering for nearly 500 miles is hastily being constructed to cut off Palestine from the world as the peace talks monopolize the western news.  Strangely, the wall that I call the "Concrete Curtain" is not a symbol of Israeli victory but an act of surrender.  By erecting the wall, Israel admits defeat of its dream of pushing all Palestinians into the Jordan and Egypt.

The Mixed-Blessing of the Wall and the Settlements:

The borders of Israel, previously undefined, will have been settled by the wall and not one inch further, to the dismay of Christian Zionists of the Christian Right in America who refer to the wall as "the fence," rendering  this permanent structure as temporary.  Israel is in the process of imprisoning itself by radical Islam in Lebanon, Gaza, Syria, Iraq, Iran and its own wall, a strategic blunder of monumental proportions.  Fear builds the wall; hope scales the wall.

America has unwittingly been complicit in this imprisonment by removing the counter-balancing force in Iraq, the Sunni regime, thereby granting global significance to Iran, at 70M people the largest nation in the Middle East.

The American administration, ideologically sympathetic with Zionist Christians, is complicit in preparing Israel for the imminent return of Christ and the looming Battle of Armageddon, considered by many to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. By paying mere lip service to a peaceful settlement of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, we Americans have trapped Israel as the bull's-eye of a worldwide terrorist target.

Meanwhile, Palestine, a land of remarkably peaceful response to American and Israeli terror, has, in the event of statehood, been extended a ray of hope - a wall to protect itself from Israeli terrorism. 

Israel is not the gateway to freedom for Palestine.  The gateway to freedom for Palestine is the human spirit that must be drawn out and cultivated.  Socially and culturally, Palestinians are experts in hospitality and diplomacy.  Terrorism is foreign to the Palestinian nature - a tactic of last resort.

As I gazed over what once was Shepherd's Field, hope sprang alive in my own heart.  "What Jewish mother," I was asked by Lisa deWolfe of our church who was accompanying me that day, "could possibly sit in affluence overlooking an enterprising and vitally-alive people surviving on less than $2.00 a day?"

The peace of Palestine may very well come out of the Occupation and a Jewish sensitivity to social justice that has been carved out of a long history of its own oppression.  The answer, upon settling the matter of statehood and the Occupation, may well be something as radical as to celebrate the wall and cultivate dialogue with the settlers, many of whom have no political or religious ax to grind.

Leave the illegal wall in place for the near future, and Palestinians may one day enjoy peaceful travel, perhaps even taking credit for walling off Israel in this world of revisionist history.  If this dream can be realized, Palestinians, who even now enjoy the highest educational standards in the Arab world, will have achieved an open back door to freedom.

The justification for any of this conflict and oppression can be argued indefinitely.  Certainly, Palestinians have contributed to the process in their past refusal to recognize Israel.  Since Oslo 1 in 1993, however, that has not been the case.[3]  Historically, it has been Israel's policy to reject the right of return of Palestinians to their homeland, confirming the continued victim mentality of the nation-state of Israel and the complicity of its partner, the United States of America.    

For Israel, there can be no peace until all Palestinians, Christian and Moslem, are driven from their impoverished ghettos.  History may well conclude that this was accomplished through the wall and the settlements.  The path to peace for Palestine may well have shifted from Israel to the settlements within Shepherd's Field.

Shepherd's Field, then, may once more become the gateway to "...peace on earth to men on whom his (God's) favor rests." 

My vote would be to shift the emphasis away from tearing down the wall (thereby revisiting the chaos of the past), toward international pressure to establish the nation-state of Palestine with its capital in East Jerusalem, withdraw the troops over a period of years, withdraw settlements in those places like Hebron where settlers tend to be religious zealots, and seek out and cultivate reason among settlers who have no political or religious ax to grind.

But then, who is asking for my vote - other than, of course, those of our elected representatives who honor Israeli lobbyists and fear the Christian Right more than they value the welfare of their constituents? 

I have no right, however, to design political theories or armchair solutions for a place in which I am not obligated to live and for a people unable or unwilling to leave.  Yet, as a Christian, I do have an obligation to learn from my brothers and sisters in Palestine what it means to be free when imprisoned by ideology and circumstances.  I have as yet another obligation to take that newly-acquired knowledge back to America, introducing to my brothers and sisters there through the Palestinian story what it means to live the victorious life in the context of suffering.

Let us pray, then, that there will be more here in Palestine and there in America of those "...on whom his (God's) favor rests," and that they may be found.

[1] Halper, Obstacles to Peace, (Jerusalem: PalMap, 2005, 3^rd Edition), p. 13.

[2] Ibid., p. 17.

[3] Carter, p. 8.