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Vol. XXV, Number 6
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June 2002
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Israel v. Palestine:
The Spokane Connection
Okay, Spokane. You can talk about the Israeli occupation
now. You can register an opinion on the struggle between the young
country of Israel and the dispossessed Palestinians, the military might of
the Jewish state and the random terror of Muslim homicide bombers, the refusal
of the leadership on both sides to promote nonviolent solutions and the thwarted
efforts of peace activists on both sides to turn away from the self-destructive
routine of terror.
The Spokane connection makes it possible to engage in
informed dialogue instead of snippy regurgitation of what passes for news
from the Middle East. Itās like having Paddy Inman making the SOA a
local issue or John Stockton raising the level of discussion on the NBA.
Tom Sneva did the same thing for motor sports, and there was Mark Rypien
in football and Jan Michael Gambill in tennis.
Now, meet Nathan Mauger, Israeli prisoner. The young
man who graduated from Ferris has run afoul of the authorities in Israel
for his efforts to get food and supplies inside Bethlehemās Church of the
Nativity during the long and violent siege that ended only after Nathan and
several other Americans were arrested for an action with the International
Solidarity Movement.
Since May 2, Nathan has been held in several prisons.
He could have been home weeks ago, but he resisted any deal that would keep
him from studying Arabic at Birzeit University and working with Palestinian
peace activists. One of his colleagues has returned home to Seattle
and is unclear if he will be allowed into Israel for the next ten years.
Nathan is a student at WSU, but has shown an affinity
for getting an education rather than a degree. He went to school in
China for two years and had established himself as a world citizen before
beginning his studies in the occupied territories. Unable to resist
the desperate needs of the embattled Arabs seeking sanctuary in the famous
shrine, he was drawn into a nonviolent scheme that worked beautifully.
The cost was high, but it was a cost he is willing to pay. Perhaps
there will be dividends beyond the end of the siege and exile of some of
those considered terrorists and outsiders in their own ancestral home.
It seems apparent to adherents of peace that the risks
taken by Nathan and others are the antidote to suicide bombings and lethal
bulldozing alike. A person of conscience and good will does not recognize
a choice between Hamas and the Israeli Defense Forces. The choice is
between love and hate, violence and nonviolence, war and peace, life and
death. Peace cannot be won at the point of a gun or lost by a failure
to exact vengeance. The only hope for the security of Israel is the
establishment of security for Palestinians.
Remember when Mubarak Awad was in Spokane about 13 years
ago? He had been banished from Israel for his nonviolent vision of
a Palestinian state. The Israeli government feared his nonviolent activism
and preferred to deal with someone like Yassir Arafat whom they felt they
could understand. Bad choice.
PJALS will follow the plight of Nathan Mauger, hoping
that he is able to return to Spokane, soon and without restrictions to his
coming and going. He has much to teach us about reality and choices
in the ravaged Middle East.
Now, can we talk about conflict without succumbing to
hate for one side or the other? Can we talk about humanitarian aid
without being seen as a threat? Can we ask for reconciliation without
being hypocritical? Can we ask Israel to do the right thing without
wanting to destroy Iraq?
Americans quickly forget that hundreds of thousands of
Jews, Muslims, and Christians in the Middle East are praying, pressing, and
working for peace, every day.
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Every time we do something, you
tell me America will do this and will do that . . . I want to tell you something
very clear: Don't worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish
people, control America, and the Americans know it."
- Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, October
3, 2001,
to Shimon Peres, as reported on Kol Yisrael radio.
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Copyright © 2003
Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane
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