Listening with love for liberation
Listening with love for liberation
Resources for peacemaking through justice in the Holy Lands
During the last month, I have immersed myself in listening to the stories of those impacted by the horrific violence in Israel and Palestine. Most days, the first thing I do is check Instagram to see if the three young Gazan journalists I follow — Plestia, Bisan and Motaz — are still alive. On my morning drive, I listen to podcasts that feature Palestinians and Israelis describing their experiences of these harrowing days. I weep over photos of neonatal units in Gaza full of premature babies, now without power. I grieve with mothers whose children are injured, missing, or dead. The weight of it all is inescapable. I do not wish to escape it. I only pray to bear witness with courage, that I might not be crushed or contorted into someone I am not.
Under the nervous-system-straining effects of mass violence on our collective psyche, I am concerned with how we stay human in these times. I want to do my part to help us stay connected with one another and to what keeps us human, including our compassion, our creative capacity for transformative justice, and our work for change through collective nonviolent action.
When I am in a place of relative centeredness (relative, because I am perpetually undone by the suffering), I seek to hear all these stories with an open heart, asking myself questions like: What fears are stirred in me as I hear this? What stories that I tell myself have been activated while listening? Where do I hear hope, courage, tenderness, faith in this person? Where can I sense connectedness to their humanity?
I also bring to these reflections a longstanding commitment to the liberation of all who are oppressed within hierarchical systems of human worth. This necessarily includes a decolonial power analysis, which takes the long view of history, sees other struggles for liberation analogously, and asks questions like: Who experiences the greatest cost under the status quo? How are the existing structures and systems being upheld and who stands to gain by their maintenance? What interventions are available to those suffering under the status quo? What allies do they have? What is their vision for tomorrow?
These two commitments — openheartedness and conscientious analysis — have led me to unwavering support of Palestinian liberation (a conviction predating the events of the last month, yet recently keenly sharpened). My Christian faith in Jesus — a Palestinian rabbi whose family fled a genocidal government when he was a baby — has taught me that all people are deserving of safety, belonging and a place to call home, particularly those who have been maligned and marginalized by human-made empires. I hold this as an expression of my core belief in the belovedness of every person. This, of course, is inclusive of my Jewish siblings also. To paraphrase a speaker from last weekend’s ceasefire protest here in Denver: the dispossession of one people does not need to mean the retributive dispossession of another. Another — nonviolent — way is possible.
I have always been inclined to inhale copious amounts of information, especially under stress. Being attuned to my feelings is not always my first response, and I have been challenged to stay in touch with my grief as I read, listen, digest, and integrate what I am learning.
Mindful of this proclivity — which can sometimes lead to feeling adrift alone in a sea of content — I’m seeking to harness it for good by using this week’s newsletter to share some of the resources that have informed me, challenged me, and helped me stay human during these revelatory days. I share in hopes of promoting conversation and understanding, that we might join in the work of peace together.
As always, please feel free to share your reflections in the comments. It goes without saying, but… be kind. We’re all worn thin. Let’s enact the Soulful Revolution we long for in this space and time.
How did we get here? Some sociopolitical context
The Institute for Middle East Understanding provides an overview of the events of 1948 surrounding the establishment of the state of Israel called "Quick Facts: The Palestinian Nakba (“Catastrophe”)."
“Abandoning the basic moral principle that all human beings were created equal ("b'tselem elohim") is a loss of humanity.” So says B’Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, an Israeli human rights organization which published a 2021 report concluding that “the bar for defining the Israeli regime as an apartheid regime has been met.” Its website also features an interactive project called Conquer and Divide, an in-depth series of timelines and maps detailing Israel’s annexation of Palestinian lands.
In NPR’s 2021 Throughline podcast episode “Palestine,” historian Rashid Khalidi guides listeners through the history of settlements and displacement going back to the age of European colonialism.
We can’t talk about what is happening without talking about Christian Zionism. This article discusses the involvement of Western Christians in establishing Israel, and why evangelicals in particular continue to be infatuated with the Zionist project:
Christian Zionism responds positively to conflict, in particular Israeli State aggression toward Palestinians. Regard for Palestinian land and life — including Palestinian Christians — is absent from Christian Zionism since Jewish rule over Palestine is key to unlocking the End Times.
The voices of Palestinian Christians
I’ve been especially inclining my ear toward the voices of Palestinian Christians, whose identity and experiences tend to be particularly marginalized in conversations about the conflict. The following people and resources have been helpful for me in growing in understanding of the lived experiences of Christian siblings in Palestine and the diaspora.
The Rev. Leyla Kamalick King, a Palestinian American Episcopal priest, and her husband the Rev. Dr. Ben King, a priest and church historian, presented to students at Kenyon College about Leyla’s family story in the context of Palestinian history in relation to Israel, with a focus on the impact of the Nakba on Leyla’s grandparents. The presentation is as deeply personal as it is a call for recovering our collective humanity. (Leyla will be A Soulful Revolution Podcast guest soon — if you have questions for her, feel free to leave them in the comments!)
Leyla is also the author of "Hurt People Hurt People: Talking to Children about the Holy Land,” as well as "Speaking Faithfully on Palestine: Knowledge and resources about Palestine."
The Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac’s book, The Other Side of the Wall: A Palestinian Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope, is a powerful account of what life is like on the ground for Palestinians, and a call to nonviolent resistance of dehumanizing theologies and politics.
Isaac is one of the leaders of Christ at the Checkpoint, an organization based in the West Bank committed to providing opportunities for evangelical Christians to “prayerfully seek a proper awareness of issues of peace, justice, and reconciliation.” They recently streamed a service of lament on Instagram.
“God is under the rubble in Gaza,” a sermon preached by Isaac on Oct. 22 at both Evangelical Lutheran Church of Beit Sahour and the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, in the aftermath of the bombing of Gaza’s oldest active church, the historic St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church.
These articles speak specifically to the recent experiences of Gazan Christians:
The work commonly referenced by Kamalick King, Isaac and others as the starting place for understanding the Palestinian Christian perspective is the Kairos Document, written by an ecumenical group of leaders in 2009 and described as “the Palestinian Christians’ word to the world about what is happening in Palestine.”
The Presbyterian Church USA assembled this study guide of the Kairos document.
At the beginning of November, in solidarity with Kairos Southern Africa, Kairos Palestine group released the “Joint Kairos Southern Africa and Kairos Palestine Open Letter to Church leaders and Christians in the USA, Europe and the Ecumenical Family.” This letter begins by saying:
We are witnessing a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza unfolding in front of our eyes, not dissimilar to what happened less than 30 years ago in Rwanda and 80 years ago in Europe. Many in the West were complicit in those genocides. We cannot and dare not let it happen again. It must be stopped.
Fleshing out narratives
The use of the phrase “it’s complicated” in relation to the situation in Palestine has been — appropriately to my mind — challenged by Palestinians advocating for liberation, who assert that today’s violence is the result of Israel’s settler-colonialism, initiated by military force in 1948 and perpetuated through the “3-part system — the settlements, the Civil Administration, and the military.”1
What I would assert as truly complicated, is the state of relationships, especially across religious, generational, and political lines, which are fraught with intergenerational trauma and visceral grief. To that end, here are a few resources that have given me hope that we can indeed find ways to talk with one another.
Aziza Hasan, a Palestinian American Muslim, and Andrea Hodos, a Jewish American with deep ties to Israel, together run NewGround, an organization in Los Angeles that brings together Jews and Muslims for dialogue. They told their story of how they labor in love to preserve and grow their friendship to the New York Times. They also recently spoke at the church where I was raised up for ordination, All Saints Pasadena, about Seeking Peace and Love in a Time of Deep Pain and War.
Unsettled describes itself as “a podcast featuring difficult conversations and diverse viewpoints on Israel-Palestine and the Jewish Diaspora.” Some of the most powerful episodes I’ve heard have featured:
A woman whose family is comprised of Jewish, Muslim, American, Palestinian citizens of Israel living in the United States.
The voices of Palestinians in the West Bank who have been facing increased vigilantism and violence over the last month.
Noam Shuster-Eliassi, a comedian and “Israeli Jew with a deep connection to her Palestinian neighbors.”
Resources for action
Use the tools and scripts at Jewish Voice for Peace to call upon your representatives to push for a ceasefire.
Find a protest near you using this tool from Gaza is Palestine.
Nonviolence International has an extensive action list, including a list of its fiscally sponsored partners.
If you got this far, thank you so much for reading. Let’s talk. I wonder: What stories are working on your heart and mind? What questions are you carrying? Are there any we could hold together here?
This system is described in detail by Oriel Eisner of the Center for Jewish Center Nonviolence on this episode of Unsettled.