The reason I haven't been writing more recently is that I am sick at heart about Gaza. Now, as an invasion of Rafah begins, it's hard to breathe when I think of the Palestinians there - who are, in fact, people like me who once had families, dreams, lives, homes, and an idea of a future - but who now have nowhere safe to go. I am thinking of the courageous student demonstrators who are risking their educations, risking arrest, and, in some cases, bodily harm, in order to stand up for what is evident to most of the people on this planet -- that this extraordinarily disproportionate violence, that has already killed thousands and thousands of innocent women and children, is the moral issue of our time, just as the Vietnam War was the issue for my generation. I stand with them, just as I stood for peace back in 1968, and have done ever since.
But let us remember: there cannot be real peace without justice. Everyone on earth deserves a home and a homeland; this is not a right granted only to victors and conquerors. The current destabilization of the Middle and Near East began in 1948, when the state of Israel was established and over 700,000 Arab Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes; this led to the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 and to all of the subsequent conflicts, terrorist attacks, and wars. This terrible problem cannot be solved by rooting out terrorism, which is the symptom but not the underlying cause. In the decades since 1948, there have been genuine hopes for peace led by visionary individuals including American presidents and leaders of both Israel and Palestine. How many of us remember that in 1994, thirty years ago, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, and PLO leader Yasser Arafat were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the Oslo Accords peace talks? Rabin was later assassinated by an Israeli right-wing extremist who opposed those accords. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who signed the Camp David Accords with Menachem Begin in 1978, was also assassinated by an Egyptian rightwing extremist who opposed Sadat's progressive vision for Egypt and the region. And so it has gone -- high hopes after the Camp David Accords in 1978, witnessed by Jimmy Carter; high hopes at Oslo, high hopes under Bill Clinton, attempts by Barack Obama to bring the two sides together...but ultimately a failure to come to an agreement acceptable to both sides, while terrorist attacks, military reprisals, expansion of Israeli settlements and further loss of Palestinian lands, homes, and orchards have continued, and political leadership has hardened into the current extremes.
Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin at the presentation of the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize.
Most of the students demonstrating now were not yet born during the great expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, during the second intifada in the 1990s, during the war across the border in Lebanon, or even at the time of 9/11. All of these events are directly related -- including the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which killed hundreds of thousands and, instead of securing peace, created massive suffering, migration and displacement, as well as contributing to greater enmity and the rise of new terrorist groups. All were direct results of a long chain of political decisions and policies. Many could have been prevented, as some of us tried our best to say, and plead for, throughout these times. When I look back at this history from our present moment, I am filled with intense sorrow.
Today I read a quotation, attributed to Albert Einstein, via Fr. Richard Rohr, that says "no problem can be solved by the same consciousness that created it." I think all of us understand the intense pain caused by violence and displacement, terrorism and war -- on both sides of every conflict -- and how this creates a desire for revenge. But that pattern, as we've seen throughout history, merely creates an escalating cycle of violence. As the great peacemakers have taught us, only love can overcome hatred and lead toward justice and reconciliation, and true safety and peace. Where are the true leaders when we most need them? Instead, children in tents are saying the truth that the world sees, and being punished for it.
So it is very difficult to write anything else, or to focus on art, or the coming of spring, or new wardrobe items, or the endless stream of distractions that flood the internet and social media and keep us consuming, complacent, and quietly complicit. Nevertheless, I am trying to be grateful as I look out my secure Canadian windows at the greening trees, the blue sky with billowing clouds devoid of bombers, an urban landscape that is vibrant and alive, not rubble, and home to a mosaic of people from all over the world. From my building I can see schools and hospitals and universities; buildings being used and built; unconcerned children and dogs playing on the new grass. I seldom hear sirens, or human cries; I have never heard a gunshot or explosion. I am grateful that my husband's parents - Armenian and Syrian Christians - left the Middle East back in the 1940s for the sake of their children. Because of their foresight and sacrifices, I have a husband who has lived a full and normal life. We can imagine tomorrow, and next month; we not only have hope but the expectation of meeting and holding our friends and family again. How fortunate we are.
This is not a time to keep silent; if you are like me, you do not want to be on the wrong side of history and you don't want to make a grave moral error. So I urge you to write to your representatives, to sign petitions, to put your feet on the street, and if you are alumnus of a university where there is an encampment or ongoing demonstration and you support the students and their demands, please write to the administration. State your opinions, noting that you, too, are a potential donor, and that protecting all students AND their right to free speech and debate is not only vital, but the bedrock of higher education. And if you are a person who prays, please pray for peace, and that human beings can find enough love in their hearts for one another to stop killing. However, prayers and wishes are not enough when so many lives hang in the balance.
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