Palestinian-American Roger Harb Reaches out for Peace

                  I received an impromptu invitation from a friend to address his bible study group from a non-denominational protestant church. This is a group of professional men who are friends and who meet monthly for lunch, fellowship and bible study.   My friend invited me so his group could get a Palestinian perspective on the “Gaza crisis” at their July 31, 2014 gathering.  My friend reached out to me because I was the only person of Palestinian heritage whom he knew personally.  When I accepted his invitation, I made it clear that I was not any kind of authority or academic on the subject of Gaza or the greater Palestinian Israeli conflict.

         For the bible study group’s nine men, I attempted to present some historical background and explain some root causes that have led to and contributed to the current conditions.

         First, I explained that my family came from Ramallah, Palestine (historically a Palestinian Christian town founded in the 1500s and situated in the Occupied Territories, land occupied by the Israeli Army and Jewish settlers since 1967). I shared my grandmother’s narrative of the “everyday people.”  She would tell us that her experience was one of Jews, Christians and Muslims coexisting in peace, friendship, dignity, and commerce (“the good old days,” turn-of-the-twentieth-century through WWII). To her the common people were agrarian people who primarily lived off of the land and who played roles in an emerging tourism industry—come to see the Holy Land. Moreover, regardless of religion they respected, worked and lived in peace with each other. I explained that the brutal violence of today should not distort that former reality nor should it lead people to the false conclusion that Jews and Arabs have always been in conflict.  

I also gave a brief description of what I consider to be the “root cause”, the Palestinian Diaspora.  I expressed the view that the current conflict between Palestinians and Israelis stems from post WWII tensions in British controlled Palestine. The newly created United Nations approved Resolution 181 “The Partition Plan of Palestine” that passed in November of 1947. UN 181 was an ill-fated partition plan that divided the territory between Palestinian Arabs and Jewish immigrants. The Jewish public in Palestine (now mostly from Europe) and the UN approved Palestine Zionist Executive, now known as the Jewish Agency for Israel (responsible for bringing millions of Jews into Palestine/Israel, post WWII) were overwhelmingly in favor of the 181 plan.  The Palestinians and Arab nations were overwhelmingly not in favor of the 181 partition plan, because it violated the principles on national self-determination in accordance to the UN charter which granted people the right to decide their own destiny. Additionally, Palestinians rejected the plan because it gave the smaller Jewish population the larger territory and more importantly gave the prime Mediterranean-trading Sea ports in Jaffa and Hafia (the Partition Plan was never an equitable deal).  UN 181 was administered by the United Kingdom (as mandatory power for Palestine).  

The partition would eventually lead to war and the dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and it accelerated the dissolution of relations between the indigenous Jewish, Christian & Muslim populations.  The 1948 Arab – Israeli War led to what is known  in Arabic as the “Al-Nakba” (the catastrophe).  Extremist Zionist militants attacked, massacred, and dispossessed Palestinians.  Seven hundred thousand Palestinians were expelled from their homes creating an instant Palestinian refugee crisis.  

I also discussed how the 1967 Six-Day War contributed to displacing and creating another 300K Palestinians refugees (including my grandmother and other family members).

The 1948 and 1967 wars led to greater Israel land control through continuous military occupation that subsequently led to illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian owned lands. For 50 years, Israel has occupied Palestinian land, and has confiscated and colonized hundreds of choice sites. The occupation’s primary financial support comes from US citizen tax dollars (3B+ aid annually).  

Additionally, I explained that the Palestinian refugee problem has never been resolved even though the international community and the UN have repeatedly called for resolutions to address the problem (UN Resolution 194).  I also noted that Palestinian refugees in refugee camps in bordering Arab countries of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan have suffered under cruel restrictions and abuse by their host country.  They are unfortunately treated like second-class citizens and have lived in refugee camps for several generations.  Ironically, Arab countries in conflict with Israel will use the “Palestinian Cause” as a central rallying point against U.S. and Israeli issues or actions when in reality many Palestinians rights have been abused by these Arab countries. 

The primary obstacles to achieving peace and ending violence has been the failure to equitably resolve the Palestinian refugee crisis and Israel’s continued control and colonization of Palestinians.  If Israel’s apparatuses of colonialism, the occupation and separation wall, continue in what is an apartheid state, then Palestinians will never feel or be free and the popular two-state solution will be further eroded if not impossible.

I pointed out that Gaza is frequently referred to as: The World’s Largest Open-Air Prison.  Gaza is about the size of the District of Columbia with three times as many residents (1.8 million).  For years, the Israeli military has maintained a siege/blockade, restricted the passage of Palestinians in and out of Gaza, restricted Palestinians from fishing off of their own coast, restricted importation of adequate food, medicine, water, electricity, construction materials and other basics civilian needs.  These daily deprivations have taken a toll on the civilian population who are mostly made up of refugees.  Even without war, Gazans struggle to survive in horrid living conditions.

I ended with the only biblical reference that I made to the bible study group: I quoted Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”

Q: Don’t we have to support Israel because they are the only ones in the Middle East who protect our “Western Values”. 

R: What exactly are Western values?  And if I’m right about what you mean, don’t these values come from the Middle East via the Torah, Bible and Koran.  

One guy was surprised that I am Palestinian Christian and asked when we converted from Islam.  I told him that I think that we were Jewish before we became Christians.  And that I think some Jewish dude named Jesus talked my ancestors into it. We all had a laugh with that one.

--Roger Harb, Knoxville, TN

I want to thank Roger Harb for going out and engaging a religious community, sharing his family’s story, and providing the Palestinian perspective. Roger’s cousin Robert went through a similar outreach experience and you can read his take six posts down. Thanks to both of you.  It’s not easy to do what you guys did but so important and more and more will get involved if we keep spreading the news and encouragement.

Roger, it would be interesting to know if your friend, who is part of the bible study and invited you to speak, has heard feedback from his fellow study members since your visit.  Please encourage him to e-mail me any thoughts he has.

Peace,

Andreas Rubinstein