by Suad Younan

Every time I see an ambulance racing down the street or hear its siren, I am in anguish, knowing that the person inside is likely another victim of the ongoing violence in our region of south Jerusalem. In many cases, the victim is an innocent bystander, shot in a military raid on a West Bank neighborhood. We live near the seam that supposedly joins — but in reality separates — this city and Bethlehem, Beit Jala, and Beit Sahour (Shepherd’s Field), and thus near the wall being built by the Israeli government to separate Palestinians and Israelis. Palestinians and Israelis in Jerusalem live in different worlds, and many are indifferent to each other. They have created artificial enclaves, encouraged by the Israeli government’s policy of segregation. Still, I am constantly amazed at the capacity of people to be oblivious to the pain in the eyes of women and men who are detained by soldiers at bus stops simply because of who they are.

I live in a world where hundreds of people look past each other daily, and I ask myself: What can I do to retain the com passion I feel for others? Even if we take pity on a stranger’s pain, we fail to do anything to show that we care. Instead, we withdraw because she is not one of us.

Resolving conflict in such an environment is difficult. Concern about justice, conflict resolution, and reconciliation is shared by many people and groups in my country. We have chosen to look into the lives and worlds of so called enemies, to see their truths, justices, and injustices, and to offer empathy. These groups that work toward peace vary from ultra-political to apolitical, from secular to religious. Yet they have a common denominator: a desire for human, social, and political justice, especially now, when there is a great deal of talk about peace, but violence is everywhere.

Women coming together for peace
As a woman involved in human rights advocacy, I often ask myself these questions:

• How can we so easily talk about peace while people suffer oppression, injustice, and loss of loved ones?

• How can I, as a Christian woman, preach about reconciliation when feelings of rage, defeat, restlessness, and fatalism tear me apart and weaken my faith?

• How can I develop a deeper attachment to my religious life and identity as a Christian woman and to my national identity as a Palestinian?

For the past four years, I have been a member of a women’s interfaith group that meets every three weeks. The presence of committed women who can discuss, criticize, and contribute to positive and realistic assess mentor our situation is vital, especially when we talk in terms of living our faith.

I have come to realize that unless Palestinians and Israelis understand that, as human beings, we live similar lives and share similar concerns, our attachment to our identities, national and religious, is superficial and meaningless. In our interfaith group, we keep the following questions in mind:

• Are we doing anything to eliminate violence?

• How can we put right the injustices perpetuated by people, media, ideologies, and so forth?

• How can we translate the facts stories, and wisdom we are discovering into social and political action?

• How can women help educate our communities about the social and moral costs of conflict?

God is doing something new
The degree to which political, cultural, and historical differences isolate our communities from each other is unimaginable. And the wall being built is reinforcing that isolation. Some exclusivist groups see the concrete barrier as the only way to preserve their own existence. Others believe isolation from each other breeds national arrogance and supremacist attitudes, which our religious heritages abhor and denounce.

For people separated by religious, national, and now physical barriers to cooperate with each other, we must believe not only in hope for the future, but that God is doing something new in our land. This conviction leads us toward transformation — into a way of life that is more responsible, a way of life that is capable of greater interdependence.

As women committed to stepping beyond boundaries that separate our communities, we are attempting to recognize, then release prejudices. We are also learning to question what have been our absolute truths and consider the truth of others.

Paving the way for reconciliation is a bold act of peace-building. Bold action means entering into the damaged world of so-called enemies, suspending judgment, learning, and struggling to bring hope to those who are destitute.

ABOUT THE WALL
In June 2002, the government of Israel began construction of a multi-billion-dollar "security barrier" intended to stop terrorist attacks on the country. At about 26 feet tall, this barrier is twice the height of the Berlin Wall. When completed, it will be about 454 miles long. The government argues that the wall will protect Israel against terrorists, but at many points it is constructed within Palestinian territory, sometimes miles from Israel’s internationally recognized borders.

CALL TO ACTION
The ELCA’s companion, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land has declared the situation extremely urgent and called upon the ELCA to join in saying no to the construction of this barrier on Palestinian land. At the2005 Churchwide Assembly, the ELCA voted to launch a special campaign, "Peace Not Walls — Stand for Justice in the Holy Land." The campaign calls for an immediate halt to the construction of the wall and for the removal of those portions built on Palestinian land. It also asked ELCA congregations, members, and synods to take action on this issue. This structure endangers the future of the region’s Christian community. It also undermines the "two-state solution" advocated by President Bush in the Roadmap for Peace, which calls for an independent, viable Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace with a secure Israeli state.

CHURCHES AND THE WALL
Christians believe that God breaks down dividing walls of hostility and works for reconciliation among people (Ephesians 2). The Lutheran church in the Holy Land carries out its ministry serving communities surrounded by concrete walls and barbed-wire fences that increasingly divide and dispossess the people. This companion church has stressed the urgency of the problem as construction of the wall in and around Bethlehem and Jerusalem undermines the church’s ministries.

Here are some things you and your congregation can do to join the Peace Not Walls campaign.

PRAY
Join others in the ELCA and around the world in prayer that peace with justice will flourish in the Holy Land. Sign up for the Prayer Vigil and pray in your congregation, your circle, your family, or your staff that walls of fear and concrete will comedown. Prayer Vigil and other prayer and worship resources are found at www.elca.org/peacenotwalls

SPEAK OUT
Call or write to President Bush. The phone number for the White House is 202-456-1111. Find a sample letter at www.elca.org/peacenotwalls

Ask the president to call upon the State of Israel to cease construction of the separation wall and to remove all existing portions of this wall from Palestinian land.

Express your concern about the impact of the wall on Palestinian communities and churches, as well as on schools, students, and teachers who are cut off from one another in Jerusalem and Bethlehem neighborhoods.

Point out that the wall impedes access by Palestinians to vital health care.

Sign up for easy e-Advocacy. Find out how at www.elca.org/advocacy

RESOURCES AND INFORMATION
To learn about the situation in the Middle East, go to www.elca.org/peacenotwalls or call 800-638-3522 ext. 6466 or 2635.

The Sixth Triennial Convention of Women of the ELCA voted in July 2005 to act boldly to help Augusta Victoria Hospital. Currently, the hospital is a tax-exempt organization. The State of Israel is seeking to revoke that tax-exempt status. Delegates to the convention asked that the executive director and all women write to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to request the U.S. government’s help in preventing the revocation of the hospital’s tax exemption by the State of Israel. The hospital in Jerusalem is operated by the Lutheran World Federation. The taxes that would be incurred would severely impact the hospital’s ability to serve Palestinians. A letter and address are available for download at the ELCA’s e-advocacy Web site at www.elca.org/advocacy