팔레스타인 헤브론에서 활동하고 있는 평화운동단체 CPT에서 보내오는 소식입니다.
번역을 통해 많은 분들과 소식을 나누기를 바라는 분 5명을 찾고 있습니다.
번역이 가능하신 분들이 번역해주시고 댓글로 달아주시면 많은 분들과 나눌 수 있도록 하겠습니다.
"팔레스타인 평화를 위한 소식 나눔 네트워크"
(한국YMCA전국연맹 생명평화센터 이윤희)
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REFLECTION
At-Tuwani: Seeking the Peace of Palestine by Engaging Our Own Settler Reality
by Steve Heinrichs
“All things are interrelated!” The great social activist, Martin Luther King Jr., used to thunder that conviction from his pulpit repeatedly. “All things are interrelated, for God has made it so!” And his point was a powerful one: the Creator has structured the cosmos in such a way that injustice in one part of the world necessarily impacts the rest of the world, and since that is so, none of us can close our eyes to the plight of any peoples, for their oppression – no matter how far away – is ours too. King proclaimed that belief throughout his ministry, and everywhere he went. But he didn't make up the idea. It was a core teaching of original Christianity. “When one part of the body rejoices, all rejoice,” wrote the apostle Paul. “When one part suffers, all suffer” (1 Cor. 12).
But if this truth-claim is actually true, what might it mean for us who long and work for the end of Palestinian oppression? A life-changing thought came to mind this past week while serving in the village of Tuwani. I was out with Palestinian shepherds, watching the Jewish settlers of Ma'on construct another large chicken barn on stolen Palestinian land, and as I watched, a dream came to me. All of a sudden, the armed Jewish settlers and their bulldozers vanished from sight, only to be replaced by other white settlers – persons of European origin, carrying Bibles, guns and Christian civilization. Then the Palestinian shepherds next to me, a couple of young Muslim teenagers, also disappeared, and in their place stood two dark skinned men of First Nations origin. And before I knew it, the desert land beneath my feet began to tremble, and thousands of huge Douglas Firs erupted from the hillsides, while a raging river chock full of salmon and steelhead burst forth from the rocky valley below. There was no mistaking it. It was obvious where I was; my “home and native land,” my country of Canada, my province of British Columbia. And as I looked around, I perceived the disturbing truth of the dream. “All things are interrelated, God has made it so.”
The parallels between the oppression of indigenous peoples in Palestine and the indigenous of Turtle Island (North America), have been noted by many. Renowned Israeli critic, Norman Finkelstein, for instance, thinks it is the best analogy one can draw on to understand current events in Palestine; both communities suffering ethnic cleansing, the theft of lands, racist policies and so on at the hands of settlers. But I'm pressing beyond illuminating parallels: Could it be that the oppressions of these two peoples are connected in some deeper way? And could it be that we North Americans who seek justice in Palestine cannot actually do this work with efficacy, let alone integrity, unless we are seeking the same justice for the host peoples in our countries?
We see (or read about) the Israeli colonialists grabbing more and more land, and getting rid of more and more natives. We see and we cry out, we rage and resist! But where is the similar protest on behalf of the peoples who have suffered the largest holocaust the world has ever known? Conservative estimates assert that there were at least 10 million Native persons living on Turtle Island when Columbus came. By 1900 more than 9 million were gone, only 250 000 left. Today, the aboriginal population is much larger, but plagued with all the white demons of settler society; hence the highest suicide, addiction, sexual abuse, and poverty rates in both Canada and the US, hence the pervasive and paralyzing sense of “nobodiness” in aboriginal communities. Where is our rage? And where is our repentance as inheritors and benefactors of the North American settler movement? If we “damn” today's Jewish settlers for stealing Canaan from the Palestinians, what will we do about the Promised Land our settler forefathers wrested from ancient Palestinians, land that we've inherited, land that we live on (and land, of course, symbolizing all stolen wealth, power, privilege, culture, etc.) Is that simply “all in the past”. . . or does the past still haunt us and the world, and invite – if not demand – reparation and reconciliation?
If Martin Luther King is right, and “all things are interrelated,” then we North Americans who are seeking justice and peace for the people of Palestine, need some new priorities; to get to know the “Palestinians” back home, to hear their stories, and seek justice in solidarity with them. If we did such, greater integrity would certainly come our way, but also something much more important. For in a cosmos in which Creator has made everything “inter-related”, the fight for justice in both places (abroad and at home) might mean that some kind of just peace will be realized much sooner for both peoples.
The distinguished Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish never heard Martin Luther King preach. But he too believed and proclaimed that all things were interrelated, that Palestinian and Native suffering were profoundly connected. In his poem, “The Speech of the Red Indian,” he tells settlers of all stripes – be they Jewish or North American like us – the posture that we need to adopt in order to heal our one human body. It is not a comfortable posture for us settlers. But it is the right and necessary one, and so deserves the last word.
There are dead who light up the night
of butterflies,
and the dead who come at dawn
to drink your tea
as peaceful as on the day your
guns mowed them down.
O you who are guests in this place,
leave a few chairs empty
for your hosts to read out
the conditions for peace
in a treaty with the dead.
