Combatants for Peace Speak out
Dan Clore
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
http://www.ww4report.com/node/8136
ISRAEL & PALESTINE: COMBATANTS FOR PEACE SPEAK OUT
by Bassam Aramin, Sara Burke and Yaniv Reshef, Peacework
Combatants for Peace is a group of Israeli and Palestinian individuals
who were actively involved in the cycle of violence between their
peoples. The Israelis served as combat soldiers and the Palestinians
were involved in acts of violence in the name of Palestinian liberation.
Yaniv Reshef is a former infantry soldier in Israel's elite Golani unit;
he now lives within range of rockets launched from Gaza. Bassam Aramin
served seven years in jail for planning an attack against Israeli
soldiers. Two years ago, his seven-year-old daughter was killed when an
IDF soldier shot her with a (US-made) rubber-coated steel bullet.
Together with the 600 other members of Combatants for Peace, they have
pledged to abandon violence and work together using creative nonviolent
tools to build justice and peace�and playgrounds in memory of Abir
Aramin. Peacework Co-Editor Sara Burke spoke with them on March 17,
2009, during their speaking tour of the Northeastern US.
What do you draw on for your commitment to nonviolent solutions? Is it
part of a wider commitment to pacifism?
Yaniv: No, I am not a pacifist. It's just that I am learning how to use
a new way. In Israel, we've gotten too used to the use of
force�especially our leaders, who are not evil but can't let go of the
old ways. With one hand they give a handshake, while they are thinking
about what hill to grab, or what settlement to build, with the other
hand. I was told in my unit, "If you can't get something by force, use
more force."
Having made this commitment to find another way, I feel great. I heard a
lecture by two members of Combatants for Peace, doing what Bassam and I
are doing now, and I knew it might be the beginning of a beautiful
friendship. And it's still a beginning�I don't want to burn out. I want
this to be a long-term relationship.
I am not a full-time activist�this is only one part of my life. When I
said this recently at a speaking event, one audience member was upset.
She said, "You are only doing this part-time, but Bassam doesn't have
that luxury." But Bassam is doing this so that he can have a life�so how
is it going to help him if I don't live mine? I'm trying to tell my new
peace friends to be gentler, more welcoming. Sometimes on both sides,
right and left, some kind of "holy justice" is invoked. If I have one
piece of advice for peace activists, it is "Don't be so holy."
Bassam: Yes, I am committed to nonviolence in all situations. This comes
from my experience, my life, my sufferings and the sufferings of my
people. We live in hell. I wish I could bring Palestine with me on my
shoulders to show people how we live. I want even my enemy to see my
humanity. My power comes from seeing my enemy change, when she or he
begins to recognize that in fact we have a common enemy, the Occupation.
What are you learning on your US tour? Have there been surprises?
Bassam: This is my third tour with Combatants for Peace, including
visits both to the US and to Europe. Europeans tend to be better
educated, and more open to learning about what is happening. Here in the
US, sometimes people don't even know who occupies whom�even though the
US is so heavily involved. They need to know that the soldier who shot
and killed my daughter was firing an American M-16, from an American
Jeep. But when US Americans do learn the facts, sometimes it brings more
action, as they are moved to say "Not in our name."
Yaniv: Sometimes I am surprised, when we speak in synagogues, by how the
liberal Jewish community here doesn't know the facts. They don't grasp
that the settlements are built in a certain way specifically to prevent
the building of a Palestinian state, and to prevent peace. But I
shouldn't be surprised, since they are simply believing their leaders,
just as Israelis do. Even in Israel, people don't understand�they think
that the hand of peace has been extended to the Palestinians and that
the Palestinians did not accept it. I myself am not against the
Separation Wall, if it was on the legal line, but instead it is being
used to create facts on the ground that make peace impossible.
At one synagogue where we spoke, they welcomed Bassam as their
first-ever Palestinian guest. I said, "How can this be? We've been
occupying them for forty years and you haven't had a single Palestinian
in your synagogue? As you've been celebrating Passover, year after year?"
What do you see as the greatest challenges, internal and external, to
the peacemaking work that you and others are doing?
Yaniv: The challenge is not to hate, but instead to forgive your enemy,
because then you don't fear them any more. If you try to understand your
enemy's humanity, you become very strong and it helps both of you. It's
the most powerful thing you can do for yourself.
Bassam: In each of our societies, we need to face the deep fear, and to
bring people awareness of what is really going on. Especially the
Israelis, who know so little about the Occupied Territories. That is
what we do with our talks, and it works. Once they understand, many of
the Israelis we speak to change their minds, and become active in
peacemaking. But the separation and the war make it more difficult.
Combatants for Peace is often unable to get the permits that allow us to
meet, and the group is financially very poor.
The last battle, in Gaza, made it more difficult for people to hear us.
In Tel Aviv, one of our members was attacked in the street after a
demonstration, but the police were helpful. In the Occupied Territories,
of course, it is different�the Israeli army is more brutal.
We are at our best when we are trying to be as peaceful as we can get.
People notice this�even the army notices it. One of our group leaders
says, when we are demonstrating at the Wall, that we should not even
remove a brick or a stone from the wall, so that we will not be seen as
provoking hostility. When we act entirely peacefully, whether we are
demonstrating, speaking, or helping with the olive harvest, we can
educate some of the soldiers this way.
I don't ask other Palestinians to join me in this work. Most of my
friends are ex-prisoners, and are not ready to join -- but they do agree
that there is no solution to the problem through violence. I tell Hamas
about our meetings, and they are amazed and incredulous. I tell them
they are welcome to come to our meetings and see for themselves. None
have come -- so far.
----
This article first appeared in the April 2009 issue of PeaceWork.
Resources:
Combatants for Peace
http://www.combatantsforpeace.org
--
Dan Clore
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Skipper: Professor, will you tell these people who is
in charge on this island?
Professor: Why, no one.
Skipper: No one?
Thurston Howell III: No one? Good heavens, this is anarchy!
-- _Gilligan's Island_, episode #6, "President Gilligan"