Lessons in Peacemaking - Hope

BELOW IS PART THREE OF A THREE-PART SERIES REGARDING MY EXPERIENCES AND OBSERVATIONS WORKING FOR PEACE IN THE HOLY LAND.

HOPE

So what is the answer? Where do we go from here? How do we change the hearts and minds of Jews, Palestinians, AND Christians to love our enemies instead of fearing and hating them? In Palestine and Israel, there are a growing number of people responding to the status quo of fear and hate, with love and a desire for peace while addressing injustice in a non-violent way. They are made up of Christians, Muslims, and Jews. I had the opportunity to work with and provide some marketing help with a few of these groups while I was there.

HOLY LAND TRUST

Holy Land Trust is a non-profit Palestinian organization committed to fostering peace, justice, and understanding in the Holy Land. Located in Bethlehem, I spent most of my time working with them on their marketing and business development. They’re doing incredible work, working directly with Jews and Palestinians, exploring the root causes of violence and seek to develop peaceful solutions to address them. They believe true peace is achieved through personal and spiritual transformation. The results have been impressive. They have brought together some of the most extreme adversaries and facilitated healing and a newfound sense of respect and dignity between them. They are one of the most established peacemaking organizations in Palestine and have a proven track record of peacemaking work. Unfortunately, because they work with both sides of the conflict they often receive criticism and opposition from both Jews and Palestinians, which makes their work challenging to say the least. Check them out and consider booking a tour to the Holy Land through Holy Land Trust.

HOUSE OF HOPE

House of Hope Is the only Waldorf-inspired elementary school in Palestine. It’s located in area C, one of the poorest and most oppressed areas in the territories. They provide hope and trauma healing to the youngest and most vulnerable. Their primary mission is to build peacemakers through early childhood education and trauma healing and an overarching commitment to nonviolence. I had the privilege of meeting the founders Milad and Manar while I was there and to see first hand the amazing and inspiring work they are doing. Everywhere we went in town Milad received warm hellos from former students, I told him he must be famous! If he is, it would be for the hope and love he and Manar have given to their Palestinian community. Please consider supporting House of Hope and the amazing work they are doing.

Here are a few more organizations doing important work fostering peacemaking in this part of the world. Please consider supporting them.

“But what holds us captive from following Jesus’s lead? I would say its fear. Fear of facing and experiencing another’s trauma, thus interrupting our life of comfort and privilege.”

SO WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT ALL THIS?

So how do we as followers of Jesus respond? What is our role? It would be very easy to shrug our shoulders and say it’s hopeless.

Do we look at the suffering and conflict in the world, in places like Palestine, South America, Africa or even in our backyard here in the US, and say it’s too difficult?

Most people have.

Most people, including Christians, when you get down to it, believe that love and peace are fine for Sunday mornings, but in reality; political power, brute force, money, and greed are the way of the world. Loving one another sounds nice but fear is what really rules us.

Is this true? Is fear truly more powerful than love???

This journey of peacemaking for me has been tremendously inspiring. I’ve met amazing people all over the world who truly believe and act on Jesus’s call for us to be peacemakers and to love our enemies. I believe this is one of the central tenants of being a Christ-follower.

But what holds us captive from following Jesus’s lead? I would say its fear. Fear of facing and experiencing another’s trauma, thus interrupting our life of comfort and privilege.

I’ve heard it said that the definition of privilege is the ability to walk away. Could it be that we are slaves to privilege and comfort, making us incapable to bring life, peace, hope, and love into a violent and fearful world?

As Americans, we have a life of great privilege that provides us the ability to walk away or ignore the profound suffering in the world. And let’s be honest, we are even more privileged here in Summit County CO. We have an amazing lifestyle which is the envy of most Americans, proven by the millions of visitors we see each year.

There is nothing wrong with being privileged, but how can we use it to be light and peacemakers to the hurting world around us, including in our homes, our families and communities. How can we bring reconciliation to a family member you’ve sworn never to talk to again. How can we develop relationships with people who belong to an ethnic or social group you’re afraid to interact with?

One of the more memorable experiences on my trip was to meet Father Elias Chacour. He was one of the 700,000 Palestinians forced to flee their villages in 1947. He has spent his life working towards promoting nonviolence and peacemaking between Palestinians and Jews. He is the author of the book Blood Brothers and currently lives in Haifa, Israel. He describes himself as a “Palestinian-Arab-Christian-Israeli”. One of his quotes I leave you with is this: “Will you raise hell for the kingdom of God, for the poor the oppressed, the orphans the widows?”

My prayer is, as followers of Jesus, we would be known for our love and not our ambivalence or worse yet, our fear of the other.