BOOKS, FAITH, WORLD & MORE

THE PEN, MIGHTY OR NOT
A Review of Justice and Only Justice and Bethlehem Besieged

Daniel Hertzler

Naim Stifan Ateek. Justice and Only Justice. Orbis Books, 1989.

Mitri Raheb. Bethlehem Besieged. Fortress Press, 2004.

The conflict in the Middle East drags on. For more than 50 years Israelis have been oppressing Palestinians and Palestinians have been responding violently. The recent majority vote received by the radical Hamas party with typical negative responses by Israel and the United States prolongs the standoff.

In light of these developments, it may seem redundant to review Naim Ateek’s Justice and Only Justice more than 15 years after it first appeared. But like the Old Testament prophets who got into the canon and are read and pondered whether or not anyone follows them, Ateek has made a statement. As a representative of the Christian Palestinians, a small minority among the Palestinians, Ateek has studied the Bible and drawn from the thinking of liberation theology, first developed in Latin America.

He begins the book with his own experience, telling how his middle class family living in the Palestinian town of Beisan was evicted after the Israeli occupation of the town on May 12, 1948. His father pleaded with the military governor to let his family of 17 stay in their home. "But the blunt answer came, ‘If you do not leave, we will have to kill you’" (9).

So the family moved to Nazareth, where Naim grew up in the Episcopal church. Eleven years later, in 1959, he left for the U.S., where he entered university. He eventually wrote a dissertation in Berkeley, California, and this serves as background for his book.

In chapter 2 he reviews the history and reality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, tracing it back to Zionism in the nineteenth century. He reports the contradictory promises the British made to Jews and to Arabs in connection with the expected breakup of the Ottoman Empire:

During the war years (1914-1918) Britain entered into three separate agreements that contradicted one another. Besides the McMahon-Hussein agreement with the Arabs and the Balfour Declaration addressing the Jews, on May 16, 1916, Britain reached a secret understanding with France and Russia . . . stipulating that the Ottoman Empire was to be divided among the three countries. (28)

He describes the Palestinian disaster of the 1940s as an outgrowth of these conflicting British policies.

Ateek writes with the knowledge of the first Intifada which erupted in Gaza and on the West Bank in December, 1987. As an Israeli citizen, he has had a different experience from persons in the occupied territories. Although oppressed, he still has the advantages of Israeli citizenship and as such has developed a theology which he proposes for Christian Palestinians.

But first he reviews the history of Christianity in the Middle East. "After Constantine the church was caught in some bitter controversies that eventually left it weak and fragmented" (50). That fragmentation continues today. However, he observes that the church has "fared better than the Muslims because of its organization around bishops and clergy, whether indigenous or expatriate" (55).

His own Episcopal church, with a membership of "a little over one thousand" (55), has more influence than one might expect from so small a group. His ability to study in the U.S. and return to publish a book is an example. He concludes that "To pursue peace with justice is the church’s highest calling in Israel-Palestine today, as well as its greatest challenge" (73).

So Ateek goes into the Bible as a basis for a Palestinian perspective on liberation. But right away there is a problem. As I myself once heard from a Christian Palestinian, some do not find the Hebrew Bible reassuring. Ateek observes that numbers of Jews and Christians have read the Old Testament "as a Zionist text to such an extent that it has become almost repugnant to Palestinian Christians" (77).

He concludes that they need to begin with Jesus, interpret the God in the old Testament through Jesus and move on from there. He proposes that "A Palestinian theology of liberation stands in the authentic biblical tradition and affirms the inclusive character and nature of God" (100).

He bases this theology on two points. The first is that all land belongs to God: "The land that God has chosen at one particular time in history for one particular people is now perceived as a paradigm, a model for God’s concern for every people and every land" (108).

The second point is that as biblical Israel matured, it learned God is not confined to one strip of land but is universal. "Theologically speaking, what is at stake today in the political conflict over the land of the West Bank and Gaza is nothing less than the way we understand God" (111).

He observes also that "the great enigma is how can the Jewish people who experienced such suffering and dehumanization at the hands of the Nazis turn around and inflict so much suffering and dehumanization on others" (116). Indeed, many of us have wondered about this.

Ateek suggests that Palestinian Christians have a special contribution to make to the Middle Eastern cultural and political dilemma. "Even now, when many Muslims and Jews are living in the spirit of militant triumphalism, the church continues to live in the shadow of the cross. . . . For the church to follow in the footsteps of Lord Jesus Christ, it must walk the way of the cross" (116).

So he proposes his own major premise and solutions. This is that "Palestrine is a country for both the Jews and the Palestinians. There is no other viable, just option that can be adopted." His preference would be "one united and democratic state for all Palestinians and Jews" and he finds it of interest that the U.S., that champion of democracy, has not supported this (165).

The trouble, of course, as he observes, is that in such an open society, Jews would eventually become a minority. So he concludes that the only present solution is to allow the Palestinians to have their own state alongside Israel. "It is for the security and well-being of Israel that a Palestinian state should be established" (167).

For this he proposes that the Palestinians need to recognize the Holocaust, and Jews should acknowledge having wronged the Palestinians by the way they grabbed their land. And, he says, Jerusalem needs to be shared.

This proposal separates itself from the Muslim assumption that the state of Israel is a colonial incursion that will eventually go away as well as the Jewish vision of expelling all Palestinians so they can have the whole land to themselves. In the end he proclaims, "The challenge of Palestinian Christians, and indeed to all Palestinians and to all people in this conflict in Israel-Palestrine is: do not destroy yourself with hate, maintain your inner freedom, insist on justice, work for it, and it shall be yours" (187).

This was a brave vision published in 1989, but life moves on. I’ve been curious to know what Ateek has been doing since then, when the second Intifada became violent and Israel responded in-kind. From the Internet, I find that he continues his efforts.

Among the things he has done has been to organize in 1994 the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem, the base from which he now works. "Sabeel strives to develop a spirituality based on justice, peace, nonviolence, liberation, and reconciliation for the different national communities." His organization has been able to organize "Friends of Sabeel" in various other countries and to sponsor conferences highlighting its concerns. It also publishes a quarterly English language magazine called Cornerstone.

Among the things I found was a clear-cut statement against suicide bombings. This extensive document seeks to account for the development of the bombings and observes that "There were no suicide bombings before the Oslo Peace Process" and suggests that "It is the result of despair and hopelessness that started when an increasing number of Palestinians became frustrated by the Israeli oppression and humiliation."

Nevertheless, "Although some people in our Palestinian community admire the sacrifice of the suicide bombers . . . and although we understand its deeper motivation and background, we condemn it from both our position of faith as well as a legitimate method for resisting the occupation."

Mitri Raheb’s book is more narrowly focused. But like Naim Ateek, he has used his training and contacts outside of the country to enable his ministry. Raheb in Bethlehem lives within occupied territory, so his life has been even more constricted than Ateek’s. Born in the early 1960s, Raheb has lived most of his life under Israeli occupation. Yet he received a scholarship to study in Germany and returned to serve his people in Bethlehem.

His story is a reminder of the extent to which an occupying power will go to harass the citizens: petty regulations which cause ongoing irritation and sometimes death. He tells how his father-in-law, a businessman, died because he was not allowed to get to Jerusalem in time for medical treatment. He had a business permit to cross the line but was repeatedly turned away because going to the hospital was not a business trip.

During the siege of Bethlehem by the Israelis, the Lutheran parsonage was invaded by Israeli soldiers. They were removed only after the Lutheran bishop in Jerusalem called Sweden, Sweden called the office of Ariel Sharon, and the soldiers were sent away.

As a theologian, Raheb reflects on the case of the mysterious sufferer in Isaiah 53. Jews have seen themselves here, Christians have seen Jesus, and Raheb sees the plight of the Palestinians reflected in this text. He observes that there is plenty of guilt to go around. "We suffer because of our own sins, but also because of the sins of many others." His list includes the sins of the Europeans who persecuted and destroyed Jews, the sins of the Jews themselves, the sins of other Arabs, the sins of the Jewish lobby in America. "Then we have the Christian Right in the United States. I do not find much in them that is Christian or right" (88-90).

Despite these burdens Raheb insists that the Palestinians will press ahead. The latter third of the book describes efforts to cope with their restricted environment. Examples he reports include a candlelight march in December 2000, when 2,500 people defied an Israeli curfew. Also there is what he describes as a "Bright Stars" program in which children are "invited to gather in different art, music, sports, communication, and environmental clubs, according to their talents and gifts" (114).

In the end, Raheb is hopeful. He concludes that "Christian hope does not surrender to the forces of death and despair but challenges them" (156). I heard it reported that 30,000 Christian pilgrims were expected in Bethlehem over the last Christmas season even though they would have to enter through a checkpoint in the Israeli wall. No doubt the local Christians find support and encouragement from this activity.

And not all the Jews are against them. Marc H. Ellis has written a book Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation (Orbis, 1987) in which he states, "A Jewish theology of liberation is unequivocal in this regard: the Palestinian people have been deeply wronged in the creation of Israel and in the occupation of territory. As we celebrate our empowerment, we must repent of our transgressions and stop them immediately" (116).

The powers that be are not listening to him either. But these words have been written.

—Daniel Hertzler, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, a longtime editor and writer, contributes a monthly column to the Daily Courier (Connellsville, Pa.).