| by Jonathan Kuttab Everyone says they are in favor of peace, yet the term has been so misused in the past that it is sometimes rejected, particularly among Palestinians, by those who are most in need of peace. The reason is that in our experience, that term has been used for so long by our oppressors as a cover for their repressive policies and violent practices that we have become suspicious of the very term itself. “Peace” has been used as a justification for violently suppressing any challenge to their power and domination. In Israel, and all throughout modern Hebrew, the very word shalom is ubiquitous. Good morning is shalom; good evening is shalom. Hello is shalom, and goodbye is shalom. Buildings, organizations, and institutions all use the term “shalom.” Even military campaigns, like the invasion of Lebanon in the 1980s was referred to as “Peace of the Galilee.” Somehow, the word shalom sounds different to me than the Arab greeting assalam alaykum (“Peace be upon you”), which also means peace. The incongruity arises from the fact that the most militarized society in the Middle East does not cease speaking about shalom. Until recently, it had convinced much of the Western world that it indeed wants peace, while it pursued very aggressive policies and developed a culture that glorifies war and violence and treats military solutions as the first option for all its problems and disputes. As a society, Israel has raised its young and its entire population to believe that all its neighbors are vicious war-mongers, who are only prevented from destroying Israel through its own overwhelming superior military might. The historical experience of millennia of anti-Jewish discrimination in the West culminating with the Holocaust is projected upon the current realities, with the added conviction that only violence and overwhelming military force constitute the path to survival and life. An entire society has learnt that it has no option but to live by the sword while proclaiming all the time that it wants peace. Even the peace treaties signed with two neighboring Arab countries were viewed as tools to neutralize them and to keep them out of the struggle with the Palestinians. The treaties were used to push them into forced acceptance of Israel’s ongoing oppression. On the political front, the vaunted “peace process” has served as the best alibi to prevent any action seeking to put an end to the occupation. However, it was not a process built on justice, self determination, reconciliation, or the need to address the true needs of all parties. Rather, it aimed to “manage” the occupation in a manner that gives it permanence and stability. Violence by one side is considered legitimate self defense in the service of peace, while any violence, or even nonviolent resistance, by the other side is considered terrorism, illegal, and a crime against peace. The US has contributed to this orientation by resisting all actions to put economic, social, diplomatic or legal pressure on Israel as being contrary to “the peace process,” and therefore illegitimate. Even attempts to appeal to international courts were viewed as a hostile act disruptive of the peace process. Recently , a “Peace Board” was established for Gaza (without Palestinian participation) to turn Gaza into an investors’ Riviera and finish off the ethnic cleansing of its population. For Israel, apparently, peace means the submission and acquiescence of Palestinians and other Arabs to its demands and dictates. Resistance, even peaceful and nonviolent resistance, to Israeli actions and oppression is viewed as a hostile threat which must be met with overwhelming military force. Peace means acceptance of an unjust status quo and recognition of Israel’s superiority and domination. One of the early Zionist thinkers, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, argued in the 1930’s that Zionists cannot expect the Arabs to ever accept their plans, and that only an impenetrable iron wall of power and violence will convince them that it is futile to resist, and only that way will there be peace. In his final message to the disciples, as presented by John, Jesus recognized the danger of misusing the term peace when he said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives” (John 14:27). What then is this peace that Jesus speaks of? What is true peace? I believe true peace cannot just be the absence of violence and the acceptance of the status quo. It must be of a different quality than the world’s peace, which often just recognizes the existing balance of power and imposes a particular order, often violently repressing anyone who challenges it. Pax Romana (and some would say Pax Americana) are examples of a world order imposed by force. True peace, by contrast, includes the essential ingredient of justice, with elements of equality, fairness, human rights, respect and dignity, as well as an atmosphere where people can not only survive but also thrive and flourish without fear or oppression by those who resort to violence and disrupt their lives. It is a world where the weak and the strong live peacefully side by side. The Old Testament prophets spoke of turning swords into ploughshares and of a future where “the lion lies with the lamb, and a little child shall lead them.” It is not a world where the powerful silence and suppress the weak with military might, but it is a world where tranquility is the result of justice and mutual respect. Jesus’ teachings about the Kingdom of God also provide further illustration of this peace. It is a Kingdom where leaders are servants, where there is no fear, no want, no tears, and no disease. As citizens of the Kingdom of God, it is our task to give witness to that Kingdom, and to start even now to live according to its precepts. In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This is not a recitation of “other worldly platitudes” but an invitation to action and a program for taking positions now that are reflective of that Kingdom. It is why Jesus is celebrated as the “prince of peace” and his followers are taught, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall inherit the earth.” The irony is that such a true peace is not only something good for Palestinians but that it will be better also for Israelis, providing them with a true security that no amount of military force can ever achieve. |
