Peacemaking in a Troubled World

Address by Rebecca Johnson of Christian Peacemaker Teams (Canada) delivered to the forum on “Peacemaking in a Troubled World” in Toronto on April, 23, 2006 sponsored by the Olive Tree Foundation.

Thank you, and I bring greetings of peace to you on behalf of Christian Peacemaker Teams.

Introduction

I would like to thank Muneeb Nasir and the Olive Tree Foundation for inviting me to speak to you this afternoon. It is a great honor to be here, invited into your company, and into the company of a scholar such as Sheikh Ahmad Kutty. I expect to learn much from him today. 

I don’t claim similar expertise on Christian theology. I do have some experience now with Christian Peacemaker Teams, and was certainly drawn to CPT from a spiritual calling and understanding of Jesus’ command that we love one another, indeed the transformative power of that call, and the everlastingness of that call.

Purpose

I will try then firstly: to provide some of the theological and historical under-girding for Christian Peacemaker Teams as it has inspired me; and secondly to give examples of how CPT practices this theology, and in particular how we work in two projects in Muslim environments; i.e. in Palestine and Iraq.

Theological & Historical Foundation of CPT

Scriptural

When I read the gospel accounts of Jesus in the Bible’s New Testament, I am struck by the creativity of Jesus in his story telling; his use of parables, and his use of very real examples that would resonate with his listeners. In the gospel of Matthew, which scholars conclude was written primarily for a Jewish audience, the writer quotes Jesus with the following:

You have heard that it was said: An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, “Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak (or undergarment) as well, and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.

Now, at least two of these examples have reached into common discourse, and are understood by Christians and non-Christians alike as synonymous with a sort of twisted noble masochism, or at least acquiescence - If someone strikes you, turn the other cheek. Go the extra mile.

Walter Wink, a Christian theologian and widely known lecturer has provided an explanation which is so enlightening that I’m enraged when I know this isn’t commonly taught in our Sunday schools and bible classes. He explains this passage per the following:

Amongst other significant cultural norms, first century Palestine was a right-handed culture. The left hand was only used for unclean tasks, with penalties enforced for its unlawful use. The only way that I can strike a person on their right cheek with my right hand is by using the back of my hand. This is a dismissive gesture, used for one’s inferiors. Masters backhanded slaves; husbands, wives, Romans, Jews, etc.

We have here a set of unequal relations, in each of which retaliation would invite retribution. Remember that the listeners of Jesus are the very people who suffer these indignities, and he counsels them what? not to retaliate (fight); not to run away (flee), but to offer up the other cheek, the left cheek.

And what does this action do? Well, it robs the oppressor of the power to humiliate. The person who has been struck in effect is saying, “go ahead, your first blow failed to achieve its intended effect”. I deny you the power to humiliate me. I am a human being just like you.” Such a response would create enormous difficulties for the striker. He cannot backhand with his right hand. If he makes a fist and strikes, he acknowledges the victim as a peer. While there is no penalty for striking an inferior, striking a peer carries a monetary penalty, especially exorbitant if it is a backhanded (humiliating) slap. (4 zuz for a fist; 200 zuz for a slap, 400 zuz for a backhanded slap; a zuz is a days wages). So this is a very cleverly conceived predicament for the striker.

How about the suing for the coat in a court of law? In first century Palestine, indebtedness and poverty was all too common for the majority of subjects under imperial Rome. The debtor has sunk deeper and deeper into poverty, the debt cannot be repaid, and his creditor has summoned him to court to exact repayment by legal means. But why, if a person’s coat were literally all he has left, would Jesus counsel him to give over the cloak (or undergarment) as well. Well, such a situation turns the tables on who is shamed and who is shaming. Imagine the scene: The creditor stands there, the debtor’s coat in one hand and undergarment in the other, and the debtor is stark naked before him. The debtor has risen above shame and registered a stunning protest against the system that created his poverty. He is in effect saying: You want my robe? Here take everything! Now you’ve got all I have except my body. Is that what you’ll take next?”

The third example is drawn from the relatively enlightened practice of limiting the amount of forced labor that Roman soldiers could levy on subject people, to a single mile. Laws were enacted to punish soldiers who would press a person to carry a pack beyond one mile. Jesus’ counsel that “if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile”, is not aimed at building up merit in heaven or killing the soldier with kindness, but rather seizes the initiative. It takes back the power of choice. The soldier is thrown off balance by being deprived the predictability of his victim’s response. This is not a message of spiritual world-transcendence, but rather a worldly spirituality in which people at the bottom of society or under the thumb of imperial power learn to recover their humanity.

Three examples that in their context were practical strategic measures for empowering the oppressed. Note how the examples always point to a third way. Jesus doesn’t counsel flight, cowardice, and acquiescence. He doesn’t counsel fight, or response to the aggressor in kind. He counsels a third way, which aims at exposing and lampooning and chipping away at the structures of oppression. He never advocates aggression against the individuals taking on the role of the oppressor, not even verbal aggression. Such advocacy would be inconsistent with Jesus’ greatest teaching and that is “to love your enemy”. This is the lynchpin in effective and principled non-violent resistance. We must never separate resistance from structures of oppression, from the commandment to love our enemies. They must walk hand in hand if we are to dismantle structures of oppression, unchain the oppressed, and unburden the oppressor from the need to oppress.

Contemporary Beginnings of CPT

Let’s fast-forward a couple of thousands years to the 1984 Mennonite World Conference in Strasbourg, France. Ron Sider, a Christian Mennonite theologian gave the keynote address that year, after which I’ve heard it said that you could hear a pin drop. Not everyone was immediately swept up with Sider’s vision, but Mennonites quietly went to work in study groups over the next two years, and in 1986 inaugurated the beginnings of Christian Peacemaker Teams.

And what did Sider say that got the Mennonites revved up? Well we must remember that the Mennonite Church is one of the historic peace churches, started in the mid 1500’s, whose members have faced persecution over the centuries for their pacifist beliefs and non-cooperation with state military apparatus.

Sider challenged the Mennonite church to be active in its peace witness. He said that as long as Mennonites simply disengaged from the activities of the world, they were merely in passive complicity with war making. As long as they stood by while soldiers risked their lives and died in wars, while not willing to risk their own lives for peacemaking, they were hypocrites. Importantly, Sider pointed out that if pacifism wasn’t God’s will for all Christians, then it wasn’t God’s will for any, including Mennonites. Conversely, if we believe in the one who taught us to love our enemies, then the peaceful way of nonviolence is for all Christians, and not just Mennonites i.e. it is central to Christian theology, and it is a call that Mennonites must take up within a Christian context.

It is logical then, that the mission of Christian Peacemaker Teams, developed by Mennonites, fellow Anabaptist historic peace churches such as the Church of the Brethren and Quakers, and embraced by an ecumenical following of Christians, is to engage the whole church in conscientious objection to war. Our accountability is to ourselves as Christians.

Remember that Jesus aligns himself with the oppressed, against structures of oppression, and it is an alignment that we seek to follow. While indeed we condemn all acts of violence, including suicide bombings and the infamous toppling of the twin towers in New York on September 11, 2001, killing several thousand, we focus our energy on exposing and dismantling structures of oppression. And so, for example when the United States, the recognized world super power without equal abuses its super power, we focus our energy on exposing that abuse, walking in solidarity with those suffering from that abuse, and seek to transform that abuse. It is particularly incumbent upon us given our mission, to challenge our Canadian and American governmental policies where oppressive, as these are secular states with strong Christian roots. And indeed where we can be most effective is in conflict areas where our governments are involved. We have some leverage, some right of access to our representatives.

Nuts and Bolts of CPT: What we do, how we get started

So how do about 40 full-time and 160 part time ecumenically and congregationally based and supported Christian Peacemakers from United States, Canada, a growing number from Colombia, a few from U.K and New Zealand, on a combined budget of about US $1 million dollars annually make a difference in the five projects – Kenora Ontario, Arizona borderlands, Colombia Palestine and Iraq. How do we live out with others in a conflict zone that third way, which is neither fight, nor flight, but is a nonviolent resistance to oppression.

Well, we start by hearing the news of conflict, by hearing stories of abuse. We start with some communications to potential partners, follow up with an exploratory delegation, maybe requiring a return visit. We find one or more welcoming bodies or organizations. And if we have a welcoming body, that we know understands who we are, they’ll know that we do not proselytize or try to Christianize our partners, nor do we provide material humanitarian aid.

While specific work of a project differs depending upon the nature of the conflict and the need of the community that we’re walking with, some broad aspects of our work are a constant.

With a project up and running, delegations, usually about two weeks in duration, offer to the group of perhaps 10 members, a more in-depth understanding of the nature of the conflict, as well as the work of CPT. Delegations are in fact a required first step for anyone wishing to join CPT, and delegates pay their own way for this experience. For the community, delegations can offer solidarity support, a reminder that representatives from outside have not forgotten, and will bring their stories to a wider audience, hoping to effect change.

A component of each delegation, something that distinguishes CPT from other study tours, is a non-violent direct action, or public witness. These are important events to publicly show support for the oppressed, expose an injustice, and alert the oppressor that the oppression does not go unnoticed. Any such actions are always undertaken in consultation, and sometimes joint participation, with local partners to ensure we are not entering into an action that will have unforeseen or detrimental repercussions for the community for which they’re not prepared. In Hebron, for example, in the first delegation that I joined, we participated, with media attention, in an action reclaiming Palestinian market space, which was promised under the Hebron protocols but never restored.

On all projects CPT members are prepared and trained to document with still and video cameras, and write reports and reflections used by our home constituencies in their support and advocacy work, and by other human rights organizations. Our documentation has been critical in providing first hand alternative interpretation to mainstream media.

We’ve exposed abuse that has changed public opinion and changed practices. (e.g. At-Tuwani – accompaniment of children after reports of CPT beatings.) And we provide news of grass roots organizing of cooperation, and nonviolent resistance that mainstream media seems to ignore (e.g. Iraq MPT, Israeli solidarity visits in Palestine).

In Iraq, for example, we became virtually the sole international human rights organization left. Our reports on life for ordinary Iraqis were unique amongst reports embedded in coalition forces reporting, or provided from the safety of distant rooftops. We went to Falluja and reported on the consequences of the bombing there, where few foreign reporters were present.

Let’s look a little more closely at the projects in Palestine and Iraq.

Palestine

Our project in Hebron, West Bank is the longest standing CPT project, started in May 1995, at the invitation of the Mayor of Hebron. Concerns then, focused on the potential for violence as Israeli soldiers were to be redeployed from the Israeli occupied Old City of Hebron under the Oslo Accords Hebron protocols. Although still in the honeymoon phase of trust in Oslo, there was concern from Palestinian experience with Hebron settlers, that there would be extreme violence and resistance to removal by the settlers.

Over the years in Hebron, the team has monitored the many checkpoints that Palestinians must pass through in and out of the Israeli occupied Old city. We engage with soldiers, questioning their participation in a system that oppresses an entire people, encouraging them to join the growing Israeli movement that refuses to serve in an occupying capacity, and intervening when they harass, beat or detain for a lengthy period a Palestinian.

With this opportunity and persistence, we’ve seen some results. Although difficult to measure, we’re quite sure from anecdotal evidence, that our presence has reduced harassment of Palestinians at these places, and therefore perhaps opened some space and assisted in the claiming by both the Palestinian civilian and the Israeli soldier to each one’s inherent humanity.

Make no mistake, we abhor this military occupation by Israel as intrinsically evil, but in our dealings with Israeli soldiers we try to connect with their essential humanity, while they serve this very inhuman institution. We feel some gratification that over several years we had contact with some of the soldiers participating in an exhibit mounted in Tel Aviv in June, 2004 entitled “Breaking the Silence”. The exhibit included photos, articles and video clips of soldiers’ statements of their dehumanizing experiences serving in Hebron – service dehumanizing to both themselves and to Palestinians.

We’ve accompanied children in their walk to school, including those prepared to defy illegal Israeli imposed curfews, through harassing checkpoints, and through areas terrorized by militant Jewish settlers. I recall vividly a day of accompanying literally hundreds of Palestinian students from the littlest child already dwarfed by an equally little backpack, to the slightly swaggering adolescent of 15 or so. 2 Army jeeps stormed up to an intersection, churning dust and gravel as they lurched to an abrupt halt. 8 soldiers jumped out and took up firing position as the children fled screaming in 3 different directions.

Their crime? According to a soldier we questioned later, some youth had apparently thrown stones at soldiers in the vicinity earlier in the morning. What amazes me is the significant impact of having a few people like ourselves, clearly outsiders, commanding the soldiers to stop shooting. It seemed to throw the “script” off balance. I don’t quite mean that the soldiers laid down their weapons and walked away from it all, but I saw soldiers, obviously ready to fire, abruptly lower their guns when I screamed at them “Don’t shoot”. My colleague sternly warned the commander of the unit who he identified by his insignia, that these actions were illegal under international law, and that as commander of the unit he bore more responsibility for these crimes. I saw this commander shrink, try to hide his face, and literally jog around the army jeep trying to get away from my colleague as he filmed him on video and denounced these actions. I don’t claim that our work stopped this incident in its tracks, but I believe our presence reduced the actual number of shots fired, and may have given cause for reflection on the part of the soldiers participating that their actions don’t go unnoticed. They get away with a lot, it’s almost impunity, but not total.

School accompaniment in the South Hebron Hills community of At-Tuwani is an example of an incident and practice that illuminates a larger ill. In autumn, 2004, after repeated harassing and violent actions by nearby settlers at Ma’on, CPT took up a presence there in cooperation with another peace and justice solidarity organization from Italy called Operation Dove.

One of our tasks was to accompany the few school children from their homes to school, which passed nearby Ma’on settlement. On October 9th, during a morning accompaniment by two members of CPT, 5 masked settlers charged the group. The children scattered, and the settlers beat our members so that one was hospitalized with a punctured lung, and the other had severe injuries to her leg and arm. While no one has been charged with these beatings, and there appears to be continued impunity for the perpetrators, there was a minor stir of general condemnation that has resulted in Israeli orders for military accompaniment of the children to school. Now the military is hardly enthusiastic about this role, and frequently is late or doesn’t show up, in which case our CPT members are there to provide the accompaniment, continuing to shine a light on the absurdity of accompaniment required while illegal settlements continue to expand.

We’ve accompanied farmers and shepherds tending to their crops and flocks. While settler harassment and violence too frequently occurs, and while soldiers’ claims that suddenly these crops and flocks have found their way into a closed military zone which requires that we immediately leave, these days are particularly meaningful to participants. They are often days spent with families and with other individuals and solidarity organizations, including Israelis all engaged together in the basics of life. It’s probably one of the most significant resistance actions that Palestinians - and Israelis can take, both to the occupation, and to the inclination to vilify and dehumanize the other. That inclination is the emotional building block to personal participation and investment in war making on another. They refuse to be enemies, defy the normative divisions, and are present to each other in the life giving work of planting and harvesting.

Iraq

In Iraq, we’ve been amongst the very few Westerners there over the last three years without a gun or engineering contract. Almost all aid agencies, including CARE, Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross, closed their programs because of danger to their staff.

Our focus of work has changed, as the circumstances there have changed. Before the war, we supported the UN Weapons Inspection Program as an alternative to war; we exposed the injustice and deaths from US lead economic sanctions. We stayed throughout the so-called “Shock and Awe” campaign of March and April 2003 to stand alongside Iraqi families. After the bombing, the team travelled and worked to draw attention to the huge and under-reported problem of unexploded ordnance. 

After hearing stories of abuse of Iraqis held in detention, our team documented 72 cases, held a press conference in January 2004 and were pretty roundly ignored. When the Abu Ghraib prison scandal broke with those infamous images now burned into our collective conscience, our work was recognized, referenced by Seymour Hersh in his stories on Iraq for the New Yorker magazine, and was testament that the abuse was not just the work of a few bad soldiers, but was systemic.

Some of our most exciting grass roots work has been in assisting to build bridges amongst Iraqi groups committed to non-violence. Our sense is much of Iraqi society didn’t formerly see itself divided along sectarian lines, whether religious or ethnic. A Karbala resident noted to us that “in the 60’s, Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together peacefully in Karbala. It was after the 1991 uprisings against Saddam Hussein that his regime spread tension among the different groups.”

Last year, we helped train a new Muslim Peacemaker Team in Karbala at the invitation of human rights activists there. We joined this predominantly Shia group in a thoughtfully planned solidarity action cleaning the streets of the predominantly Sunni city of Fallujah, after its bombing. Watching and listening to them grapple with their own fears to overcome this imposed sectarian divide was a moving experience.  We heard things like: “We must not make excuses. We as Iraqis are complicit with the mass graves and killings in our past. We must begin with ourselves to build a new Iraqi humanity. This suggestion of going to Falluja helps me to understand more deeply what non-violence calls us to.” And, “We must move on to overcome the divide.”

I would like to end with a reflection on some recent events within our organization. On November 26th, 2005, Tom Fox, a full-time member of the CPT Iraq team, and delegation leader James Loney, along with delegates Norman Kember and Harmeet Singh Sooden were kidnapped after having just left a meeting with the human rights officer of the Muslim Scholars Board. The body of Tom was found on March 9th. He had been murdered by gunshot wounds to the head and chest. On the morning of March 23rd, our beloved friends Norman, Harmeet and James were rescued by a special multinational military team, an irony that is not lost on us and I’m sure not lost on Harmeet, James and Norman as we all struggle with what it means to live faithfully to a non-violent discipline.

We are still recovering individually and as an organization from this trauma. At the same time we’re experiencing vilification from some media and sectors of the public in Canada and United States for our actions as naïve, stupid, ungrateful, useless, wasteful of taxpayers money, etc. etc. Some of the comments may come from ignorance of our work and of civilian peacemaking, so we continue to educate; and some, I would suggest, more insidiously come from a willful desire to maintain structures of oppression that benefit our critics.

During the plunging depths between November 26th and March 23rd, we experienced in a raw and more intimate way the suffering of the very humanity that we seek to serve. Our daily and then weekly vigils remembering our 4 missing peacemakers, included remembrance of 14,000 Iraqis held illegally in detention. And now, while our four have returned home dispersed in heaven and on earth, 14,000 Iraqis continue to languish in illegal and possibly abusive detention, with justice denied them.

So, while the US lead war and occupation of Iraq continues, we will continue to vigil on the fourth Thursday of every month at 5:30 pm. across from US Consulate at 360 University Ave. The next vigil is scheduled this Thursday, April 27th.

James Loney speaks of the wellspring of goodness that sprang from this crisis, and so I borrow from him. We’ve been so very humbled and overwhelmed by the support we’ve received from so many individuals and organizations throughout this ordeal, and particularly from Muslim groups around the world who rallied behind us.

The support includes scholars and clerics from organizations such as Muslim Scholars Board, the Islamic Party of Iraq, the Al Quds Conference, and the Popular Islamic Conference of Iraq. It includes Iraqi human rights activists, calling themselves Independent Activates, members who held vigils in Iraq for our colleagues, and took to the streets with banners and leaflets calling for their release. One of the Activates offered to exchange his life for the release of the four. It includes Canadian organizations such as the Islamic Congress of Canada, whose Montreal based member Ehab Lotayef traveled in December to Iraq attempting to secure their release. It includes the Muslim Association of Canada, Muslim Council of Montreal, Canadian Arab Justice Committee, and movingly, the Muslim detainees still held in Toronto under Canadian Security Certificates.

We may never know who exactly was behind the kidnapping of our friends and colleagues, or what exactly their motives were. We have good reason to believe however, that media savvy as we assume the captors to have been, the tremendous outpouring of support testifying to the work of our organization and personal integrity of our peacemakers, and the unequivocal call for their release from such a broad range of well known Islamic organizations was instrumental in keeping all of them alive as long as it did, until three were rescued and finally restored to us. Thank you for this walk with us.

Rebecca Johnson is the Administrative Coordinator for Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) Canada. She has been a CPT Peacemaker Corps Reservist since 2000 and has served with CPT projects in Esgennoôpetitj (Burnt Church, New Brunswick) and Hebron. From 2002-2004, she was the Local Coordinator of the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).

For more information, visit http://www.iqra.ca and www.olivetreefoundation.ca