Humanity mourns. We are shocked. Juliano Mer-Khamis, a friend and fellow
peace activist, was murdered in Jenin. The masked killer/s whoever they
were were cowards whose madness will not deter those of us who continue to
work for justice and peace for all. If they thought they could kill
coexistence and love in the holy land by killing a symbol and a great
activist, they are mistaken. Juliano symbolizes what many of us have
worked for: a transformation of our homeland into a pluralistic democratic
state where every human being regardless of his religion (Jewish, Christian,
Muslim) would be treated with dignity and respect. Fundamentalist notions
of superiority were at odds with this message. His killers will not get
their way and justice will prevail. But Juliano’s loss is a shock to all of
us.
Juliano was a superb human being who embodied the best qualities of activism
and dedicated leadership for human rights, justice and peace. He was my age
and I first met him a few years ago when we brought him for the Connecticut
screening of the film Arna’s children, the story of his mother and the
Children of Jenin Refugee camp (see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNGmA8Ma1UM for scenes from the film and
Juliano’s words). On numerous occasions over the past few years I visited
Jenin Freedom Theater that Juliano cofounded and that injected so much
beauty and hope into the lives of the people at Jenin Refugee Camp. See
http://www.thefreedomtheatre.org/
Juliano took the characters of compassion and caring of his Israeli Jewish
mother (she herself worked to challenge Zionist supremacy and fundamentalist
idiocies for decades) and gentile love of land and people and pacifist
characters of his Palestinian father. He exemplified everything that I and
millions of others aspired to: coexistence, tolerance, nonviolence, peace,
love, passion for life, richness in diversity and so much more. He had a
two year old child and his wife as I knew was pregnant or may have just
delivered their second child. His absence will be felt but I for one will
work to ensure that his work continues and accelerates. The best answer to
violence is to intensify our work and build on the vision thus never
allowing these forces of hate to destroy the future. As to who killed
Juliano: all humans are guilty.. our inability to rise as a species beyond
violence is largely due to our apathy and indifference to the suffering of
fellow human beings. It is telling that many political leaders (from Hamas,
Fatah, Israeli leaders) remain silent on the murder of Juliano when they so
readily spoke at other convenient political junctures. Those who are
apathetic are just as guilty as those fundamentalist racists who ordered
this killing or pulled the trigger to shoot fellow human beings. I for one
will have a lot of pain in my heart for Juliano, for Bassem, for Jawaher,
for Rachel and all the other friends we lost along the way. We must make
sure that their murders do not go in vain and the best thing we can do is
increase our efforts to continue the path and bring others to this
path. Killers must know that 10 will rise in place for every peace activist they kill. Those of us active in the same cause of coexistence and peace must intensify our work.
Ironically, I had yesterday given a sermon at a Unitarian Universalist
congregation addressing the issues of violence and nonviolence. It is
copied below and is appropriate for this occasion. But first, I urge all to
join the biggest chance to get attention for the Palestinian cause in the
U.S. the weekend of April 9 when tens of thousands will march against the
wars, occupations and the apartheid in Palestine and elsewhere. April 9 at
noon will see a huge rally and march in New York City. A major speaker is
Omar Barghouti one of the founders of the boycotts, divestment and sanctions
campaign. In the march there will be a "United Palestine Solidarity
Contingent" full of banners and flags. On the next day in San Francisco
there will be a similar demonstration. For more information see
www.unacpeace.org orwww.TheStruggle.org
500 endorsers include Ali Abunimah, Mazin Qumsiyeh, Ann Wright, Ilan Pappe,
US Palestinian Community Network, Al-Awda NY, Code Pink, Palestine Right of
Return Coalition, Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights, SJP’s from many
campuses, Middle East Crisis Committee, Middle East Children’s Alliance,
and many others.
Sermon at a United Universalist Congregation-Sacramento
About a year ago, I came back from a trip to Azerbeijan and was questioned
as usually happens in crossing the bridge from Jordan to the West Bank (the
only entry/exit point for us Palestinians). The obligatory good cop/bad cop
pair of Israeli officials questioned me for a very long time. At one point
I suggested they just google my name since everything about me is on the web
somewhere. But they kept questioning me. At one point the main
interrogater asked: “you are a Christian?” I answer “yes, and a Buddhist, a
Jew, a Muslim, and an agnostic among others”. He said angrily: you are
making fun of me. I said, no I believe there is truth in all these
traditions. He pointed at my ID card in front of him and said but it says
here you are a Christian. I simply said “but it is you all who put that
there not me”.
My family is indeed a mixed family like most humanity: my father was greek
orthodox, my mother Lutheran, my sister converted to Mormon Traditions, my
wife is Chinese American who comes from a Buddhist background, my son was
born in West Texas (I guess some would call that beinga red-neck) who is
exploring his world, some of my relatives married Jews, my friends are
Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and atheist of all gender identifications.
I cannot give you a sense of the suffering that is inflicted on 11 million
Palestinians; 7 million of us are refugees or displaced people. For that I
suggest you do what Doug Kraft and others have done before: come see it for
yourself. Spend a night or two at one of the refugee camps. Spend a day or
two at one of the villages like Al-Walaja in the seam zone between the wall
and the Green line. Spend an hour or two at the next demolition of
Al-Araqeeb, a village in the Negev that was demolished 18 times already. If
you are adventurous you may join us in nonviolent actions taking place every
day. The smell of spiked tear Gas and even the feel of tight handcuffs or a
shove by a burly security officer will be a totally unforgettable
experience. You can join us in morning those murdered by the mindless
violence of those with hate in their hearts.
But maybe I will simply stand here before you as this one fallible human
being and tell you about me and how I feel and what influenced me. I was
born literally down the hill of the Church of Nativity where tradition holds
that Jesus was born. Our village name “Beit Sahour” is Aramaic for the
house of those who stay up by night – in reference for the Shepherd’s who
watched over their flocks and saw that star. As descendant of those Aramaic
speaking shepherds, we Nebatean Canaanites took our mission of telling it to
the world seriously. While we adopted different and newer religions and
rulers came and went, we remained the people of that ancient land and we
were and remain pioneers. We were the first to develop agriculture (hence
the designations of fertile crescent and land of milk and honey). We were
the first to domesticate plants and animals. We were the first to develop an
alphabet – proto Aramaic alphabet evolved to the Arabic and Hebrew alphabet
right in this great land of Canaan. We were the first to develop law,
astronomy, math, and shipping.
The origin of the Aramaic word Canaan is debated and we see things like qna’
translated as satisfied or lying obedient or referring to the color purple
(hence the greek Phoenicia for that part of the world meaning also purple).
In our land various religious beliefs evolved and many people took them up
and used them for good or for evil. Our religions have statements that
clearly support the distinction between challenging and correcting evil and
harming the evil-doers. In Christian traditions loving our enemies does
not mean accepting the evil perpetuated (Jesus turned the tables in the
Temples). In Muslim traditions, yakrahu al-munkar (hate the evil) wala
yakrahu almunkireen (not thating eth evil-doers). This is the essence of
nonviolent transformation.
The problems for us are not the different religious beliefs or our own
tendency to spirituality. But it is religious dogma especially when married
to state power and uses violence to advance its agenda. Christianity became
state religion that led to the horrors of the crusaders. That is what my
friend and Jewish Theologian Marc Ellis calls “Constantinian Christianity”.
Ellis argues that Zionism today is essentially “Constantinian Judaism”.
I was reminded of this when I read a letter by Thomas Jeffersio to Mordecai
Noah, May 28, 1818:
“I thank you for the Discourse on the consecration of the Synagogue in your
city, with which you have been pleased to favor me. I have read it with
pleasure and instruction, having learnt from it some valuable facts in
Jewish history which I did not know before. Your sect by its sufferings has
furnished a remarkable proof of the universal spirit of religious
intolerance inherent in every sect, disclaimed by all while feeble, and
practiced by all when in power. Our laws have applied the only antidote to
this vice, protecting our religious, as they do our civil rights, by putting
all on an equal footing. But more remains to be done, for although we are
free by the law, we are not so in practice. “
He goes on to explain how religions would do well to keep the private myths
and discourses in the confines of their buildings while lending the more
common and respectful ideas to the public sphere (e.g. the golden rule). We
are reminded of these insightful and prophetic words of Jefferson about how
sects when feeble demand equality and when in power exercise discrimination
and violence.
The unfolding popular nonviolent resistance in the Arab world reminds us of
the power of such movements. We Palestinians have engaged in such
nonviolent struggle for over 130 years which I summarize in my recent book.
People can be very innovative in these nonviolent struggles. Palestinian
women thus were the first to use cars in mass demonstrations: 120 cars were
gathered and moved beeping their horns in a parade down the old city streets
of Jerusalem in October 1929, a spectacle at that time. When flying the
Palestinian flag was punishable by 9 months in jail, Palestinians hung
laundry in the colors of the flag. In 1988, Palestinians in my village
founded the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People which
brought internationals and even Israelis to nonviolently break the siege and
curfew laid on our town during the tax revolt. There were so many inspiring
and innovative acts of nonviolent resistance that were successful in so many
ways.
The key to understanding the power of these movements is to just look at the
history of how we got women’s right to vote, civil rights, the 40-hour work
week, ending the war on Vietnam, ending support for apartheid South Africa,
and many others. It is when people shed their fears, fears usually stoked
by those elites in authority, that they realize that nothing can stop as as
individuals working together nonviolently. In the 1960s civil rights
movement, the saying was “free your mind and your ass will follow”. Once we
free our minds, nothing can stop us. That is what Egyptians, Tunisian, and
others have realized. That is what we Palestinians of various religions
realized. That is what humanity is realizing. Howard Zinn said, you can’t
be neutral on a moving train. The choice before us as individuals and as
societies has always been between fear and courage, between hate and love,
violence and popular resistance to violence. Join us in Palestine July
8-16 for a week of activism and peace building. Thank you.
Reminder: Rallies in NYC and San Francisco April 9 and 10 (see above)
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
(still on the road in California but aching to come home to Palestine and be
with all who are suffering loss/bereavement).
http://qumsiyeh.org
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