CPTnet
24 September 2015
AL-KHALIL (HEBRON): Privilege in
Palestine and Pennsylvania
by Lowell Brown
A month ago I visited
Israel and Palestine for the first time to learn about the Israel-Palestine
conflict. Instead, I learned about the United States. That place, seven hours
ahead of my home time, made me feel like I was living in an America past.
When I rode past the
barrier separating Israel from the land outside, I wondered about the origins
of Wall Street in New York City. When I saw Palestinians get off the bus at a checkpoint
to have their documents reviewed while the border guard hopped on the bus to
glance at my U.S. passport, I couldn’t help thinking of Rosa Parks. When I
heard stories of how Palestinians lost their homes to demolitions, evictions,
arson and unemployment, I thought about the Lenape who used to live where I
live in central Pennsylvania—but over the course of decades were pushed to
reservations in Oklahoma.
The guns are different,
the land is different, but the ideologies are the same. People with power—people
like me—use any means to take what we want. We talk a good line about laws and
rights, but deep down we’re selfish, and fearful. We’re afraid of strangers,
afraid of scarcity, afraid of death, and we do everything in our power to keep
those fears at bay.
Israel also reminds me of
America present. It is a vibrant, democratic society, with amazing cultural and
educational institutions. But when I saw Bedouins, who were Israeli citizens,
deprived of the public water that ran right past their door, I thought about
sub-par schools and missing medical services in many poor U.S. neighborhoods.
In the U.S., as in
Israel, human need is politicized. Contested. Justified. Ignored. People like
me can pick and choose whom we care about. We don’t have time to engage issues
that don’t affect us. The world is full of problems. Someone else will figure
it out; it will turn out okay in the end.
As my interfaith
delegation talked to Palestinians and Israelis, I heard several themes emerge.
The Israel-Palestine conflict is too big for any one person to solve, and yet I
have come back with a few modest proposals to change myself.
On the rare occasion that I have a conversation with someone who
doesn’t agree with my values, I resolve to say what I think. As Protestant pastor
Martin Niemöller said following World War II, “First they came for the
Socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist….” Or, as the
New York gay rights group Act Up succinctly proclaimed in the 1980s, “Silence =
Death.”- Many people who my Christian Peacemaker Teams delegation met
encouraged us to write to our U.S. senators and representatives. I admit that I
often think the U.S. political process is unwieldy and ineffective. But if
people in Palestine and Israel see the U.S. Congress as a way for their voices
to be heard, then I will write. I used a link at the bottom of https://mcc.org/get-involved/advocacy/alert/stand-solidarity-susiya.
The automatically generated letters (which reference a beleaguered Palestinian
village we visited) can be edited. - Finally, I’ve been thinking about the young settlers pictured
here, walking to Friday evening Shabbat services in Hebron. They
carry guns as they pass Palestinian women, who have been given a court order
that allows them to use the same road because they live nearby. These young men
don’t think of themselves as oppressors, or their home as stolen land. They’re
just kids who grew up in Hebron. This is the only reality they know.In the same way, my
people have been in Lancaster County for more than a dozen generations. I don’t
have any memory of pushing Indians out of Pennsylvania, or trying to make them
Christian at the Carlisle Indian School. I just grew up enjoying the wealth
that comes from land my people acquired in a variety of questionable, devious
and disgusting ways. So I’m thinking about what my responsibility is to Native
Americans.If I don’t want to be
like these kids, what do I owe to the Lenape?
