The Human Face of the Other

The war in the Persian Gulf presented extraordinary dangers to the entire world community. More than a year after the "victory" celebrations and parades throughout the United States, it is increasingly clear that most of the central political and economic issues fueling the confrontation were not resolved by the massive military assault on Iraq.

The intense media focus during the crisis provided an opportunity to see several systemic problems more clearly. People of faith living comfortably in the West were then and are now challenged to wrestle with our own complicity in the politics of oil, the escalating arms race, and ongoing human rights abuses. The issues are many and sometimes converge in volatile ways.

The Gulf crisis illustrated vividly the interconnected nature of regional and global politics. This "linkage" was readily apparent in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian-Arab conflict. During and after the war, various political and religious leaders underscored the necessity for measurable progress in resolving this central and most destabilizing issue in the Middle East.

With encouragement from the international community, the Bush administration has actively facilitated a new peace process. Nine trips to the Middle East and persistent diplomacy by then-Secretary of State James Baker III during 1991 and 1992 have borne fruit. Negotiations between Arabs and Israelis are now under way.

The resounding defeat of Yitzak Shamir's Likud coalition in Israel's June elections provides added impetus. The new government, led by Yitzak Rabin, appears committed to reaching a negotiated settlement. Even in the best case scenario, however, the peace process will be slow, tedious, and fragile. Viewed from the perspectives of the various parties, there are no easy answers to the interconnected issues of land, political autonomy, security, economic cooperation, sharing of natural resources, and the proliferation of armaments.

One key to finding a way forward can be discerned in the human face of the other. Now, perhaps more than ever, it is imperative that all of us who care deeply about this tragic conflict seek to understand better the people who live in these ancient, holy lands. The various issues are real, but they cannot be detached from the lives of people enmeshed in the conflicts. Understanding the hopes, fears, and dreams of all the children of Abraham is crucial if we hope to pursue a genuine ministry of reconciliation.

SEVERAL RECENTLY published books assist us in this process. We Belong to the Land: The Story of a Palestinian Israeli Who Lives for Peace and Reconciliation is a good place to begin. The subtitle of Elias Chacour's autobiographical text indicates the thrust of the book. Chacour, a Greek Catholic (sometimes called Melkite) priest in Galilee, has focused his ministry on fighting injustice and pursuing reconciliation.

Through a series of superbly told stories, Chacour invites the reader into the daily struggles he and others face living a few miles from Nazareth in the village of Ibillin. Despite citizenship, Israeli Arabs encounter obstacles constantly. In addition to limited economic opportunities, Arabs are excluded from various government benefits that are linked to military service. For Jews, military service is compulsory; for Israeli Arabs, it is forbidden.

The allocation of government resources for Arab villages and municipalities is also highly disproportionate to their Jewish counterparts. To make matters worse, bureaucratic obstacles sometimes block privately funded initiatives to rectify the imbalance. Chacour recounts, for example, his efforts to improve educational opportunities in his village by building a new school. The process of securing routine building permits took many years. With persistence, he and others peacefully confronted and overcame blatant discrimination and injustice in this instance.

As with his earlier book, Blood Brothers (Word Books, 1984), Chacour provides poignant insights on Jewish-Christian-Muslim dynamics. He doesn't hesitate to expose and explore various ways people in all three communities fuel the conflict. In the end, he argues that all of Abraham's children must build bridges.

Always there is the temptation of violence and might, but the ones who build bridges acknowledge, 'My friend is also right, and I am also wrong'...This land, this Palestine, this Israel, does not belong to either Jews or Palestinians. Rather, we are compatriots who belong to the land and to each other. If we cannot live together, we surely will be buried here together. We must choose life.

In this highly readable and engaging text, Elias Chacour helps us build the bridges needed to span the chasms separating people in the Middle East--and elsewhere. The model he examines, commends, and seeks to emulate is found in Jesus, the man from Galilee whose ministry of reconciliation changed the world.

Justice and the Intifadah: Palestinians and Israelis Speak Out provides another way to encounter the people of Israel/Palestine through a series of interviews. The interviews were conducted by Kathy Bergen, David Neuhaus, and Ghassan Rubeiz, often in Arabic or Hebrew in order "to get beyond the superficiality that often results from people trying to express themselves in a foreign language."

Bergen is a Canadian who has lived for several years among Palestinians; Neuhaus is an Israeli doctoral student in political science; Rubeiz, a Lebanese social scientist, has served as Middle East Secretary for the World Council of Churches for a decade. The three co-editors also translated the transcripts.

A wide diversity of people and perspectives can be found among the 30 people included in this collection. In contrast to political leaders and highly visible spokespersons, we hear from Palestinian youth in refugee camps and Jewish settlers in the Occupied Territories. The voices of women, political activists, and religious leaders figure prominently in the mix.

As with any collection of interviews, the contents are uneven. Poignant insights and predictable clichés are lodged within poetic and prosaic utterances. The book is well organized, but readers must work their way through the text. Those who do will be rewarded with deeper understanding.

THREE OTHER NEW BOOKS offer additional perspectives on the multifaceted dimensions of Israeli-Palestinian and Jewish-Muslim-Christian encounters. In contrast to the two previous books, these three are more formal, edited collections of papers and presentations. While some chapters have a more academic flavor than others, all three books include numerous personal stories that illuminate and punctuate the issues under scrutiny.

The first of these collections, Voices from Jerusalem: Jews and Christians Reflect on the Holy Land, has a distinctively theological focus. The text was co-edited by David Burrell, a professor of philosophy and theology at the University of Notre Dame, and Yehezkel Landau, an Israeli peace activist with a master's degree from Harvard Divinity School.

The "land of Israel" is the unifying theme of this book. Eight authors explore the spatial and temporal dimensions of Christian and Jewish religious identity. The sacred character of the land and forms of Christian presence and witness in the Holy Land today are among the topics addressed. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is also woven into the fabric of several articles since nationalism and religious identity are inextricably linked in this ancient crossroads of civilization.

This thoughtful collection adds texture and nuance in a setting where religious convictions draw us in, albeit in different ways. For many Christians in the West, modern-day Israel and dramatic events in the Middle East are largely viewed through the lens of premillennial, dispensational theology. If television ministries and religious book sales are indicative, Armageddon scenarios are of primary importance to millions of Christians.

For many others, however, the gospel of Christ requires active work for justice and peace at the same time as they seek to meet the needs of people who are hungry, dispossessed, or homeless. In the Israeli-Palestinian context, the urgent need for justice and humanitarian assistance immediately pulls these people of faith into the political sphere.

Many of the issues present in this setting are operative in other places as well. But there is something distinctively compelling about the place where more than half the world's population perceive that God's unique revelation to humankind has been manifest. Voices from Jerusalem invites us to think more deeply about our religious heritage as it intersects with contemporary interfaith relations and Middle East politics. Regrettably, the voices of Muslims, who also share in the tradition of Abraham, are missing. Their inclusion would both strengthen and complicate this volume.

Muslim voices are present in Israel/Palestine: The Quest for Dialogue. The focus for this text includes, but goes well beyond, the religious realm. Haim and Rivca Gordon, the Israeli educators who assembled and edited the book, explore various dimensions of dialogical encounter. In addition to religious perspectives, political leaders, lawyers, academics, and women activists are featured in this volume.

A striking feature of this collection is seen in the composition of the Palestinian authors. The three most visible Palestinian representatives in the current negotiations with Israel are included: Dr. Haidar Abdel Shafi heads the Palestinian delegation; Hanan Mikhail-Ashrawi and Faisal Husseini are the spokespersons most frequently seen in the media.

The chapters prepared by these three focus on integrity in and principles for dialogue as well as the urgent need for Israel to accept the PLO. The reader who reflects thoughtfully on their words will come away with a deeper appreciation for the strength of character and clarity of vision they embody.

In the process of dissecting and analyzing "dialogue," this book offers us a measured hope. If, as Hanan Mikhail-Ashrawi urges, Israelis and Palestinians can find the "honesty, candor and courage...to convey and receive the truth (or truths)," these co-inhabitants of the Holy Land may yet break the cycle of violence that has engulfed them during most of this century.

The final collection, Faith and the Intifadah: Palestinian Christian Voices, grew out of an International Symposium on Palestinian Liberation Theology held near Jerusalem in March 1990. Collectively, the papers given at the week-long gathering provide a multidimensional, theological response to Jews and Western Christians who claim an exclusive, divinely mandated Jewish right to the land.

Naim Ateek, Canon of St. George's Cathedral in Jerusalem, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Marc Ellis are co-editors of the book. All three have written extensively--and provocatively--on Christian and Jewish theological concerns as they converge in the contemporary Middle East.

The volume is divided into five sections: The Palestinian Reality; Palestinian Christian Identity; Power, Justice and the Bible; Women, Faith and the Intifadah; and International Responses to the Quest for Palestinian Theology. All but two of the 19 chapters in the first four parts were prepared by Palestinian Christians. Six Christians and two Jews offer their responses in the last portion of the book.

During the seven years (1983-1990) I served as Middle East Director for the National Council of Churches, I had numerous opportunities to work with many of the contributors to this volume. Some of these Palestinian Christians--such as Jonathan Kuttab, Elias Chacour, Hanan Mikhail-Ashrawi--are familiar, while others are not well known in Western Christian circles. All have insights and perspectives that we need to hear. Several, for instance, speak directly to Western Christians who support the political policies of Israel uncritically. Jean Zaru puts it this way:

Wherever injustice and wrong exist, we should be there to say, this is not the will of God, this should be changed. But, we cannot fulfill this duty if we are not at peace with ourselves....There are many Christians whose theology brings to me, as a Palestinian and a woman, strife and confusion. These Christians are part of the structures of injustice we are facing. An example of this is the phenomenon of Christian fundamentalism in the West. Many of these Christians give blind support to Israel. They never question what Israel is doing....

Faith and the Intifadah offers breadth as it helps to widen the more focused theological dialogue found in Voices from Jerusalem. In addition to a wider range of issues, we are introduced to the rich diversity of Christians--Greek Orthodox, Greek and Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Quaker, Lutheran, and others--who live, work, bear witness, and worship in the very lands where the church began.

There are no easy answers or simple solutions to the problems plaguing Arabs and Israelis. Understanding the deep concerns and perspectives of people caught in the conflict is, however, a critical step in any process that seeks to address the sources of conflict, build trust, confront injustice, and secure a durable peace. Upon these foundations, people of faith can help forge a more hopeful future for all the children of Abraham.

Charles Kimball was associate professor of religion at Furman University when this review appeared. His book, Angle of Vision: Christians and the Middle East (Friendship Press, 1992), was used in many U.S. and Canadian churches during the 1992-93 ecumenical study on the Middle East.

Faith and the Intifadah: Palestinian Christian Voices. By Naim Ateek, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Marc Ellis. Orbis Books, 1992. $13.95, paper.

Israel/Palestine: The Quest for Dialogue. Edited by Haim and Rivca Gordon. Orbis Books, 1991. $14.95, paper.

Justice and the Intifadah: Palestinians and Israelis Speak Out. Edited by Kathy Bergen, David Neuhaus, and Ghassan Rubeiz. Friendship Press, 1991. $10.95, paper.

Voices from Jerusalem: Jews and Christians Reflect on the Holy Land. Edited by David Burrell and Yehezkel Landau. Paulist Press, 1992. $9.95, paper.

We Belong to the Land: The Story of a Palestinian Israeli Who Lives for Peace and Reconciliation. By Elias Chacour. Harper and Row, 1990. $16.95, cloth.