This week and last week the Speaking of Faith radio program has featured interviews presenting two perspectives on the Israel-Palestine conflict. The first week's interview with Yossi Klein Halevi provided an insightful look at the situation through the eyes of a Jew who is sympathetic to Muslim religion and the Palestinian people. This week, Mohammed Abu-Nimer and Sami Adwan give a Palestinian perspective.
If you're interested in this topic, you should also check our Water from the Rock from the Lutheran Voices series. It's an anthology of short pieces written by Palestinian Lutherans.
Saturday, March 18, 2006
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4 comments:
I heard the segment last week, and loved it. This week I couldn't catch it, owing to the sick child sitting on my lap watching Elmo and Dora. I'll try to listen online.
We give each year a small gift to the Talitha Kumi school (a lutheran school serving palestinian children in Israel) via the ELCA Division for Global Mission. I think the address is www.talithakumi.org. Thanks for lifting up this issue!
The thing that I really liked about the first part was that it presented an Israeli voice for peace along side of the Jewish fears. So many of the presentations I've heard that recognized that the Palestinians aren't just terrorists have tended to ignore the Jewish perspective. And then to have a Jewish voice that knows the Palestinians aren't just terrorists was outstanding.
The second part has me rethinking the book of Joshua.
My pastor just got back from a trip to Israel with an ecumenical group of about 40 other clergypeople. One of their guides was a Palestinian Christian, who gave the group a new perspective on the "Palestinian question." Christians once made up about 35 percent of the Palestinian population in Israel; now that's down to less than 2 percent due to emigration -- the Christians feel oppressed, and are moving out of the country. They experience discrimination both from the Muslim majority of Palestinians and from Jews. The guide expressed resolve to stay in his homeland no matter what, but also expressed hope that, some day, there would be peace and tolerance.
It's a terrible situation, isn't it? The tragedy of it is that the Christians have such a capacity to bring a voice of peace and they are being driven out.
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