SETTLEMENTS, SETTLERS, AND NON-VIOLENT RESISTANCE

We enter the Israeli settlement of Susiya.

It’s one in a whole line of settlements being built to separate 16 southern Palestinian communities from the north. It’s another wall –not built of concrete, but of occupation.

We walk down walkways, lined with beautiful flowers and fruit trees. There is plenty of water here –enough to create lush green lawns out of the dry land. “We are making bloom the desert” the settler announces.

We enter the front door of Ary’el Tsion – one of the settlers in Susiya. It’s a beautiful two story house. We sit in a circle in his comfortable living room as he speaks with great passion:

This area is a sacred site –the area where David hid in a cave from Saul. We are here because of God’s promise – if you keep the 630 rules, I will give you the land, God says. As long as the stars and moon shine, you will have this land!

And in 1948, God’s miracle took place. This used to be a terrorist base, & now look what God has turned it into. He carries a gun wherever he goes. “It’s necessary! I’m not safe without it.”

Someone said, “There are two lessons the Jews have learned from the Holocaust.”

One Jew says: NEVERMORE! Never again will such terrible injustice, suffering and persecution take place anywhere in the world.

The second Jew says: A Jew without a gun is a dead Jew.

We travel to the nearby Palestinian village of Atuwani. What a contrast. We listen to a CPT’ER tell us about the constant fear the Palestinian shepherds have as they go out with their sheep for grazing. They never know when Israeli soldiers or settlers will show up to torment, provoke, arrest or capture them.

Recently the settlers spread poison pellets on the grazing fields of the Palestinians. Many of their sheep were poisoned and died. The few that lived, no one would buy, for fear of the remaining poison.

We walk up a hill where they often graze their sheep. When we get to the top, we see fields that the villagers are farming. This is important farm land for the farmers. The land to the right of these fields also used to be their land.

But now, their land belongs to new Israeli settlement you can see at the top of the hill. They are now filled with cherry trees the settlers have planted. They have also just recently claimed the field to the left of the cherry trees.

How do they do it? I ask. The CPT’ER answers: One of the Palestinian women was working in the field. The settlers came and attacked the woman. The next day they put up the fence. Now it belongs to the Settlers.

We move to another spot, and sit under a tree overlooking the village. One of the local men tells us the story of how his mother influenced his life for peace.

My mother is now 81. One day she was grazing the sheep right over there, he says. Seven settlers came with sticks and chains. They attacked my mother and hurt her badly.

I was in the village and heard her screaming. I was told settlers were here. So I went running as fast as I could in the direction of the screams. When I arrived, I saw 3 settlers surrounding my mother, one armed with a gun.

I continued to run towards my mother. The soldier shouted, “Stop! If you keep coming, I will kill!”

I kept running. He started shooting. There were bullets all around me. The other settlers took my mother and began to run away.

The settler kept shooting, but I kept running after my mother. When I got to her, she was bleeding. When the soldier saw she was bleeding, he stopped shooting.

The army and police came and closed off the area. They arrested my two brothers and took them away – accusing them of bothering the settlers.

My mother was hospitalized for three days. When she was released, I kept getting angrier and angrier about what had happened.

My mother saw my anger and said to me, “My son, those people do whatever they can. What happens is difficult, but we have to think of a good way to resist it.”

I asked her how. She said, “I don’t know, you have to think.”
I felt no justice at all. I wanted to respond violently!

But as I thought about it, I realized that if I responded with violence, I would give the settlers exactly what they wanted – an excuse to keep doing this terrible injustice. If I choose non-violence, the Israelis lose their power and their authority. I decided then to never give them an excuse to arrest and kill. I began organizing nonviolent ways to resist the injustices.

His mother’s words continue to haunt me: “Think of a good way to resist it.” It’s almost as though she is speaking to me: “Ron, you also need to think of a good way to resist this injustice and evil.”

Don’t just sit passively by and accept the evil and injustice that is happening here. Get involved, do something good to resist it.

I think of Romans 12:21: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
And 1 Peter 3:9: Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing.

Don’t be like the terrorist, who has no patience, hope, or trust.

Don’t be like the Israeli soldiers and settlers who choose guns, violence, and occupation to secure their future and hope.

And don’t sit passively by doing nothing. But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and herbs of all kinds, and neglect justice and the love of God; it is these you ought to have practiced, without neglecting the others. Luke 11:42

So I continue to ask: God of justice, how are you calling me -- to do something good to resist the injustice experienced by our new friends in Palestine and Israel – those who have taught me so much through their courageous acts of non-violent resistance & their incredible joy and strength in the mist of suffering and pain?