It is happening.

The Israel-Palestine world as we knew it is passing away. I thought it might come in my lifetime. I did not foresee it happening this soon. Israel will once again attempt to bomb and siege its way out of this confrontation. They may succeed, temporarily. Soon after however, does anyone doubt that we will be right back where we are today?

Of the 15 million or so people that make up the Israel-Palestine world, about half are Israelis and half are Palestinian. How long can one half of a population suppress the legitimate aspirations of the other half, and expect to “manage” the situation?

The vast majority of Israelis have never been to the West Bank or Gaza. Many are ignorant of their suppression of Palestinians. For them, the “Palestinian situation” was a vague reality they did not need to deal with directly. It was “out there.”

No longer.

Make no mistake.

• Hamas is not Palestine. It does not represent Palestinians. And no one can now question whether or not it is “terrorist.” The violence and atrocities perpetrated by Hamas are counter-productive to justice, peace and security for the peoples of Israel-Palestine.  
• Do not confuse sympathy with Palestinians as support for Hamas!
• Iran is not the root cause of this violence. It is exploiting and supporting this instability for its own purposes.

There are the two significant actors that could bring an end to this insanity. (Insanity: Implementing the same failed policy again and again, yet expecting a different result each time.) Both the State of Israel and the United States hold the “power of empire” and are in positions of enough strength and influence to effect change. Is 75 years too short a time to realize that past policies have not and will not bring peace and justice to all peoples? Do Israelis feel secure today? Do Palestinians enjoy equal human rights? Is American foreign policy served by regional instability?

Settler colonialism, apartheid policies, an oppressive occupation and a siege of Gaza are the core realities in which this violence erupted, and lead to the question, “Which parties are actually interested in peace with justice?” Regional stability, Israeli security, and the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people will come only by addressing these core issues.

Bart Den Boer
KWM Executive Director

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We at Kairos West Michigan add our voice to the chorus of individuals and organizations condemning Hamas’ violent attack on Israel and proclaiming that violence has not, does not, and will not bring equal human rights for all the peoples of Israel-Palestine. (Churches for Middle East Peace, Jewish Voice for Peace, Amnesty International, Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem, Indiana Center for Middle East Peace…)

We also continue to call out both the State of Israel and the United States government for the extent they have ignored the humanitarian pleas for just and equitable treatment of all peoples in Israel-Palestine. As Americans we bear significant responsibility for the violence plaguing Israel and Palestine. We have allowed and supported the State of Israel to expand its policies of settler colonialism and apartheid, and its continuous oppressive occupation of Palestinian territory. These are the core issues preventing a just peace.

Oppression begets violence, and vice-versa. Therefore, unless the parties, including the United States, address the core issues preventing equal human rights for all, the atrocities of this past weekend will be only a precursor to worse violence to come, including the possibility of wider regional involvement. We strongly encourage all parties to immediately cease hostile acts and begin to seriously address these core issues.  

Bart Den Boer

Kairos West Michigan

We add our voice to the chorus of individuals and organizations ….

• Condemning Hamas’ violent attack on Israel
• Pleading for the realization that violence has not, does not, and will not bring equal human rights for all the peoples of Israel-Palestine
• Continuing to call out both the State of Israel and the United States government for the extent to which they have ignored our pleas for just and equitable treatment of all peoples in Israel-Palestine.
• Encouraging all parties to immediately cease hostile acts and begin to seriously address the core issues preventing justice in the region.

See accompanying links for statements by Jewish Voice For Peace and Churches for Middle East Peace

All over the world, people are getting the idea!

Bart and Den Boer in Maria-Theresa Square, Innsbruck, Austria. Saturday, Sept. 16

“Friends,
If you are following the news coming from Israel and Palestine, you might be wondering what’s the background and the context for the recent violence. Shai Goren is a tour guide …. and a partner in peacemaking.

These NGOs: Ir Amim, Emek Shaveh, and Peace Now, created this video narrated by Shai to explain the sensitive situation of  al-Aqsa Mosque/ Ḥaram al-Sharīf/Temple Mount. The video is in Hebrew but has English subtitles.”

Aziz Abu Sarah, Crossing Boundaries

Download and read Jonathan Kuttab’s brief and powerful new book, “Beyond The Two-State Solution.”

Quotes from the book:

“….history is full of instances of mortal enemies who killed millions of each other, and yet who eventually became friends and allies. Germans and French fought pitched battles and destroyed whole cities for each other within living memory, yet today they are allies and friends. There is no reason to think that the same cannot be true for Palestinians and Israeli Jews once a just solution is reached that addresses their deepest needs.”

In the Israeli/Palestinian context, it is clear that no peaceful coexistence can be achieved until the demographic demon is put to rest. The fulfillment of each community must not be jeopardized by the obsession with achieving numerical majority or the dream that such majority status will allow them to negate or obliterate the rights of the other group. Once that truth sinks in, the Right of Return (for Jews and for Palestinian Arabs) will no longer be a frightening taboo, and a non-negotiable item.

Find out more about  Nonviolence International at this link.

Download the book HERE; It’s FREE

A Lament:

Why do you make me look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Destruction and violence are before me;
there is strife, and conflict abounds.
Therefore the law is paralyzed,
and justice never prevails.
The wicked hem in the righteous

so that justice is perverted.

Major Shift in J-Street Policy

Israel support is a threat to the American Jewish community —

Ben-Ami warns

The American Jewish establishment’s support for Israel as it violates Palestinian human rights is undermining “Jewish values” and causing “large swaths” of Jews to abandon the community, Jeremy Ben-Ami, the ceo of the liberal Zionist group J Street, warned in a speech to that organization on Saturday night (video here).

Ben-Ami announced a major pivot in his group’s advocacy: for restricting U.S. aid to Israel over its human rights abuses, and away from emphasizing the two-state solution.

“Maybe it’s time for some serious oversight and accountability for how our aid to Israel is actually being used.”

He likened Palestine to Ukraine under Russian invasion and said we have to ensure that in our “tax dollars aren’t being used to abet settlement construction, home demolitions or other actions that deepen occupation.”

He said such accountability is key to the survival of the U.S. Jewish community:

“We believe our community for its own sake even more than for Israel’s sake must root its identity in a commitment not to a flag or a piece of land but to a set of principles and values. My friends, if we don’t do this, we will see large swaths of our community walk away. Not only will they walk away from engagement with Israel– that’s already happening. They’ll walk away from the Jewish community itself.”

Ben-Ami said blind support for Israel by AIPAC and other old-line Jewish organizations poses a “fundamental crisis” for Jewish life in America because it contradicts traditional liberal Jewish values.

(From Mondoweiss: West Bank Dispatch)