Opinion Editorials, April 2010

Dear Christian:

Resurrect This and Know That

By Eileen Fleming

Al-Jazeerah, ccun.org, April 5, 2010


Taybeh is the last remaining self sufficient Christian Village in the West Bank, and they produce olive oil and beer. Life long resident, Maria C. Khoury, Ed. D. wrote regarding holy week that, “Especially since September 2000 there has been no change on the ground from the awful (Israeli) military occupation that strips people from their very basic human rights. And at the same time seeing all our hope in Christ who offers eternal life, we remember the most important words of all, ‘Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’ (Luke 23:34).
 
“Thus on this most holy day, we must forgive that we live behind the huge Apartheid Wall that keeps us as prisoners in an open space…forgive 600 military checkpoints all around us…all the natural resources, the roads, the seaport, the airport are all controlled by the Zionist State of Israel…seven million dollars each day of American taxpayers money is spent in the name of security for Israel…more than 24,000 Palestinian houses have been demolished…one million trees have been destroyed…Israel ignores more than 65 UN Resolutions” and wiped from the map 531 Palestinian villages since 1948.

I am a Christian who became an Anarchist during my first of 7 trips to Israel Palestine in June 2005. Anarchy is best understood as Rebellion against UNJUST laws. The Yang/male force of anarchy resists authority and causes disorder and is socially and politically incorrect by the norms of the status quo for it seeks the higher ground of justice. The Yin/feminine force of anarchy births a new order out of the chaos and chaos is creativity in action.
 
The gospel-which means good news, that Jesus preached, was very political and a direct challenge to the politically powerful and the arrogant, self-satisfied, self-righteous teachers of the law.

Two thousand years ago the Cross had NO symbolic religious meaning and was not a piece of jewelry.

When Jesus said: "Pick up your cross and follow me," everyone back then understood he was issuing a POLITICAL statement, for the main roads in Jerusalem were lined with crucified agitators, rebels, dissidents and any others who disturbed the status quo of the Roman Occupying Forces.
 
Jesus was never a Christian. The term 'Christian' was not even coined until the days of Paul, about 3 decades after Jesus walked the earth as a man.
 
Jesus was born lived and died a nonviolent Palestinian devout Jew and he was also a social justice, radical revolutionary road warrior who rose up and challenged the job security of the Temple hierarchy by teaching the people they did NOT need to pay the priests for ritual baths or sacrificing livestock to be OK with God; for God already LOVED them just as they were: sinners, poor, diseased, outcasts, widows, orphans, refugees and prisoners all living under a brutal Military Occupation. What got Jesus crucified was disturbing the status quo of the Empire by teaching the subversive concept that God preferred the humble sinner, the poor, diseased, outcasts, widows, orphans, refugees and prisoners all living under a Occupation above the elite and arrogant.  
 
When Jesus said you must be born again, he was talking about a TRANSFORMATION of heart and mind to see the Divine in oneself, all others, all of creation and every situation.

The early followers and lovers of Jesus were called members of THE WAY-being THE WAY he taught one should be; Nonviolent and one who did the will of the Father. "What does God require? He has told you o'man! Be just, be merciful, and walk humbly with your Lord." -Micah 6:8
 
Christians usually agree that God is LOVE, and as Dorothy Day, 20th century Christian Anarchist said: "Love is not the starving of whole populations. Love is not the bombardment of open cities. Love is not killing......Our manifesto is the Sermon on the Mount, which means that we will try to be peacemakers." -Dorothy Day 
 
Jesus challenged those who ignored and those who tried to suppress the truth. He promised that the peacemakers are the children of God and the truth will set you free. 
 
Maria Khoury is one voice from Palestine “appealing to all my Brothers and Sisters in Christ to please express their solidarity by endorsing the Kairos Palestine Document.” 
 
Palestinian Christian leaders issued the Kairos Palestine Document calling on Christians around the world “to say a word of truth and to take a position of truth with regard to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land.”   
 
The Kairos Palestine Document “is the Christian Palestinians’ word to the world about what is happening in Palestine…the document requests the international community to stand by the Palestinian people who have faced oppression, displacement, suffering and clear apartheid for more than six decades. The suffering continues while the international community silently looks on at the occupying State, Israel. Our word is a cry of hope, with love, prayer and faith in God. We address it first of all to ourselves and then to all the churches and Christians in the world, asking them to stand against injustice and apartheid, urging them to work for a just peace in our region, calling on them to revisit theologies that justify crimes perpetrated against our people and the dispossession of the land. In this historic document, we Palestinian Christians declare that the military occupation of our land is a sin against God and humanity, and that any theology that legitimizes the occupation is far from Christian teachings because true Christian theology is a theology of love and solidarity with the oppressed, a call to justice and equality among peoples. 
 
“This document did not come about spontaneously, and it is not the result of a coincidence. It is not a theoretical theological study or a policy paper, but is rather a document of faith and work. Its importance stems from the sincere expression of the concerns of the people and their view of this moment in history we are living through. It seeks to be  prophetic in addressing things as they are without equivocation and with boldness, in addition it puts forward ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and all forms of discrimination as the solution that will lead to a just and lasting peace. The document also demands that all peoples, political leaders and decision-makers put pressure on Israel and take legal measures in order to oblige its government to put an end to its oppression and disregard for the international law. The document also holds a clear position that non-violent resistance to this injustice is a right and duty for all Palestinians including Christians…We are grateful to our friends for their solidarity with us.” [1]

Please read more and thank you for signing: http://www.kairospalestine.ps/ 
 
1. http://www.kairospalestine.ps/
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Only in Solidarity do "we have it in our power to begin the world again."-Tom Paine


Eileen Fleming,
Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org
A Feature Correspondent for Arabisto.com
Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"  
Producer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu"
http://www.youtube.com/user/eileenfleming