"Non-Violence:
Options in the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict and Beyond"
Fr. George Wertin
Sunday, November 17th, 2002

Chesterton, the delightful English apologist wrote this about Christianity: “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. It’s that it hasn’t been tried!” It might also be said that non-violence has not been tried and found wanting. It’s that it, too, has not been tried. In fact it might be said that one of the great failures of Christianity is that it abandoned the non-violent teaching of Jesus. Since the time of Constantine is has accepted the conventional wisdom that a violent response will impede a violent assault.

It is certainly true that we live in a violent society. Violence is our first - and inevitable response to a crisis. Indeed, it was predictable that war is President Bush’s first - dare I say knee-jerk? - response to every international crisis whether in Afghanistan or Iraq. It has been pointed out by Howard Zinn and others that our history is a history of wars. I just saw Michael Moore’s new documentary movie “Bowling for Columbine” in which he examines violence in America. He looks at various aspects of our society from the NRA, sports and television to the shooting at Columbine and other national tragedies to hammer home the point in a rather humorous way: we are a violent people. In fact, there are more than a 100 times more homicides in the U.S. every year than there are in any other country. Violence has become the backdrop. It has become normative. We don’t even see it. We take it for granted - as long as it doesn’t strike us directly. Yes, conflict is normal in human relations. But the question is ‘What is the response?’

We need to reclaim the teaching of Jesus. Even though he never used the word non-violence, he lived it and taught it. “Love your enemies…do good to those who hate you…do not be afraid…confront the oppressors even if it costs you your life…

Yes, we need to resist evil vigorously. We need to confront ‘the principalities and powers.’ To be a Christian is not to be passive in the face of evil. We are told over and over again that violence and war are the only solutions. We selectively forget the thirty oppressive regimes overthrown through non-violent resistance in the 20th century. Think of the overthrow of the British oppression in India by Gandhi. Recall the defeat of Marcos in the Phillipines and the overcoming of apartheit in South Africa. Remember that wars that don’t happen don’t get reported! Recall too the advocates and teachers of non-violent including Jesus, Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy, A.J. Muste, Martin Luther King Jr. and Dorothy Day.

We forget the tools of non-violence:

• non-cooperation through strike and boycotts
• accompaniment and solidarity by third parties who offer their presence and protection
• symbolic actions: e.g. Gandhi’s famous march to the sea
• protests and rallies that create solidarity and awareness
• establishing a peace force: how proud we can be of our own Mary Lou Ott and Mel Duncan who are now in New Delhi preparing for the convening of a worldwide Nonviolent Peaceforce. And we are supporting it financial, too, through our Justice Fund.
• Civil disobedience (read MLK Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail”

All require a deep spirituality and a willingness to take risk. All focus on what we are saying ‘yes’ to instead of bombing, attacking, and killing. I understand there is a billboard in St. Paul that reads “The next step is compassion.” What is needed is compassion - an intense listening to and understanding of the other. We need COMMUNITIES OF COMPASSION. St. Joan of Arc needs to be a community of compassion.

When I look back on my recent trip to the Middle East I reflect on the spiral of violence. But I also take hope from the growing consciousness of the need for nonviolent responses.

This week we heard about the tragic ‘Sabbath Massacre’ in Hebron. It’s a place we visited and saw the oppression and humiliation of the 130,000 Palestinians kept under curfew so that 400 illegal settlers could be moved in under Israeli army protection. My second thought - after grieving the tragic loss of lives - was ‘What is the Palestinians had explored nonviolent alternatives.’ What if they found ways that made the military oppression too costly for the Israelis?

Time and again we heard people tell us that they are weary of violence. We heard from Lillian, a Dutch woman who works for the Quaker group, the American Friends Service Committee. She is getting more and more invitations to come to Palestinian villages and teach them the principles and techniques of nonviolence. We met with Ghassan Andoni, a keen proponent of non-violence. He is organizing internationals to accompany Palestinians who have been prevented from picking their olives because they are attacked by the IDF and settlers. We met with Rabbi Jeremy Milgrim, with Rabbis for Human Rights, who had just the day before accompanied Palestinians harvesting their olives.

(There is an old saying in the Middle East that if you wish to destroy a people, uproot their olive trees and fill in their wells. Since Oct. 2000 Israeli soldiers and settlers have bulldozed, uprooted or set afire 200,000 Palestinian olive trees, at a cost of $10 million to Palestinian farmers!)

We met with Christian Peacemaker Teams in Hebron who create an international presence and documents incidents of violence and oppression.

Yes, what is needed are three things: a stronger Palestinian nonviolent resistence to the occupation and oppression, a revitalized and growing peace movement in Israel and great pressure from the U.S. and U.N. to broker a peace.

Violence is not the only way. Violence is not the way of Jesus. Nonviolence resistance requires greater discipline than violence. In fact, it requires a spirituality. Give nonviolence a chance.