​Dear editor,
 
I write to applaud your courage and journalistic integrity in publishing the opinion piece, "Palestinian families and children are being killed. Why is it so quiet?", by Shenaz Kermalli.
 
It represents, in my experience and knowledge, the Palestinian viewpoint in this terrible situation, very ably and factually. It is in no way anti-Semitic, but represents, in my opinion, fair comment on the actions and ethos of the leadership of the state of Israel vis a vis its relationship with the Palestinian population. She is correct to emphasize that the Palestinian population of the West Bank is an occupied population, and that Israel's "right to defend itself" is outside of the context of the occupation.
 
It is very clear that the Israeli government and military response to the rockets fired by Hamas (which certainly are weapons of terror) is way out of proportion to the provocation under international law, and is depriving an entire population of people in Gaza of basic life necessities, such as clean water, a working sewage system, and civilian infrastructure. Israeli-American Miko Peled, whose father was Matti Peled, general in the Six-Day War, has explained that the actions of the Israeli Defense Force, of which he was a decorated member, amount to terrorism in and of itself.
 
In 2013-14, I served, along with my wife Joyce, as part of a team of international human rights observers with the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI). We saw firsthand the occupation and its effects on the population of the West Bank. We were also briefed by the UNHCR and by Israeli dissidents, such as Breaking the Silence, about what the Israeli occupation is doing to the Palestinian people.
 
There is undoubtedly a lot of negative reaction to your publishing the opinion piece. I thank you for having the courage and journalistic integrity to publish it. Please continue to publish pieces that show the real human cost of the current situation in the Middle East.
 
Sincerely,
 
Peter Fergus-Moore

Larry Harder

I rarely post anything on FB. And if I do, it is almost never political. For me FB is about friends and family. Those of my friends who know and share—or tolerate—or do not share but respect—my political and humanitarian views do not need convincing. Those of you who might not be aware of the situation or my point of view, might be just fine with that, or don’t care, or may strongly disagree. Whatever I might have to say to them will not likely make any difference anyway.
 
But sometimes silence is not enough.
 
This is on a day when 8 children have been killed in a refugee camp in Gaza. This on a day when low-tech, inaccurate, short-distance rockets are intercepted by some of the most sophisticated anti-missile systems on the planet and responded to by the artillery and air arsenal of one of the most powerful military institutions on the planet—sometimes described as the 4rth strongest army in the world.
 
This on the day that marks the beginning of what in Arabic is called the Nakba, roughly translated as the “the catastrophe,” the beginning of the displacement of the Palestinian people in 1948 when the state of Israel was created, and the beginning of a modern cycle of violence and hatred that continues today. It has been said that this is one of the longest unresolved human rights issues in modern times. This in the month that marks Israeli military victory in Jerusalem in 1967, which for some Jews is the fulfilment of the promise of the return to the promised land, but for Palestinians is the beginning of a military occupation that has become progressively more oppressive over time.
 
I realize that for most people this is a very distant and abstract thing that has nothing to do with you or me and has been going on forever and will likely keep going on forever.
 
But it is not abstract.
​​

Walter Brynjolfson
 
I was recently asked by a couple friends to explain the Palestinian perspective in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Having lived and studied in the occupied Palestinian territories for a couple years, I thought I might have something to contribute in this area. If you likewise feel confused by the flurry of often-contradictory messages in the media and are curious to know how Palestinians might see things, I invite you to read on. Even if only as an exercise of empathy and curiosity (both values worth having in our increasingly polarized world).
 
Bear in mind a few caveats: Firstly, this rather simplistic summary is intended for a North American audience (with a bonus to people living in my local area). Anyone reading it who lived in Israel or Palestine might, for good reason, be put off by its reductive simplicity and the fact that I, a non Palestinian, have the gall to be a self-appointed ambassador. I hope the need for brevity is enough to justify the simplicity, and as for the latter concern, I feel Palestinians have bigger fish to fry right now than to try to explain their perspective to a bunch of suburbanite Vancouverites. So I hope my I/P readers will forgive me. Secondly, I want to give the caveat that if you'd like to learn the Israeli perspective, I have not included much of it here. However, you should be encouraged to know that since the pro-Israel perspective tends to be the default among North American political parties and news organizations, you won't have to look too far! In fact, it already might be entrenched in how you view the conflict. Finally, I'm pretty certain I have primary and/or secondary sources for all the historical claims and figures I mention below, so if you'd like to see any of those please don't hesitate to comment.
 
So, without further ado, here is my summarized Canadian white-boy understanding of the Palestinian perspective. 

Palestinians trace their lineage and connection to the land as far back as pre-biblical times. Even in the Jewish Holy scriptures, the Torah (specifically the book of Genesis) it talks about how when Abraham first arrived to settle the land he encountered people who were already living there known as the Canaanites. One group of Canannites were the Philistines. It’s from these influential people where the name Palestinian is derived. In fact, the Arabic language doesn’t have a “P” sound so to this day Palestinians call themselves “filastiniun”. That said, current day Palestinians see themselves as a mix of various people groups who came and settled in the fertile crescent over the course of 2 millennia of trade, war and settlement. For example, my landlord in Bethlehem had red hair and blue eyes and believed he was a descendent of a European crusader.
 
Fast forward a bit. During the mid to late 19th century Palestinians were living under the rule of the Ottomans. At the time, about 5% of the population was Jewish-Palestinian, 30% was Christian, and the rest were Muslim. All of these people lived, for the most part, very peacefully with each other. They hadn’t formed a concept of Palestinian national self-determination, per se, (the idea of a nation state arrived relatively late in the Middle East compared to Europe and the Americas) but the yoke of Ottoman oppression was heavy and the concept of an Arab nation was beginning to foment. It’s important to know that Palestinians did have a distinct identity with their own culture, Arabic dialects, and traditions.
 
Enter the Jewish settlers. Bolstered by the Zionist movement and a hope for a Jewish state, they began to arrive from Russia and Europe. They were escaping harsh persecution (mostly pogroms, like in Fiddler on the Roof) and were desperate for peace and safety, but the way they chose to interact with the locals was inherently problematic. Imagine if thousands of Syrian refugees arrived in Langley, bought huge chunks of land in Brookswood from absentee landlords, then isolated themselves in religiously and ideologically zealous communes. Then imagine those refugees refused to participate in Canadian society, refused to learn our language, and generally treated everyone with suspicion and derision. Then further imagine that they often boasted about their belief that they would someday conquer all of Canada, and they continued to immigrate en masse to do so (with the help of extremely powerful foreign countries, I should add). Everything I described is pretty much exactly what the Palestinians experienced, or at least, how they saw things. Under these conditions, it seems understandable that the locals would become a bit frustrated. After all, to the natives of Palestine, this is basically the all-too familiar history of settler colonialism.
 
The British didn’t help with their colonial scheming either. They convinced the Arabs to help them fight the Ottomans, and in return, promised to give them national self-determination on the land where they lived. This strategy worked and they pushed back the Ottomans (see Lawrence of Arabia for a fun depiction of this) but they simultaneously promised the land to the Jewish people (see Balfour Declaration). Turns out the Brits just wanted it for themselves. Go figure. And the British administration was terrible. Conflict between Arabs and Jewish Settlers started getting violent in 1913 and quickly escalated into general strikes and occasional riots (1910s, 20s, and 30s). At this time the idea of Palestinian National Self Determination was growing very strong and widespread (as shown by primary documents like Palestinian newspapers). I mention this point just to contrast with the Israeli narrative that says “Palestine never existed” or “there was never a country called Palestine.” While the latter claim has some truth, neither was there a nation-state called Israel in modern history. Both existed in the minds and hopes of their forbearers.
 
By the late 40s, Jewish settlers, many of whom came to flee the furnaces of the holocaust, had by now taken huge chunks of previously-held Palestinian land. Jewish immigrants now made up a sizeable portion of the demographics of the British Mandate of Palestine. The settlers were also often very well armed. Understandably, the Palestinians were feeling increasingly resentful of the British occupiers and the threatening Jewish immigrants. Then in 1948 the colonizing Brits did what colonizers do best and started arbitrarily drawing up territorial boundaries without consulting the locals. They divided the land between Israelis and Palestinians, giving the most fertile lands to the Israelis. Then the Brits left.
 
The sudden power vacuum resulted in what Palestinians Call “Al Nakba”, or “the Catastrophe” in Arabic. In the ensuing war, the well armed Zionist forces expelled around 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and villages (approximately 500 villages in total), creating what is still to this day the largest refugee population in the world and perpetrating crimes on the scale of ethnic cleansing. They also took more land than was originally given to them by the British. So if we imagine the Refugees in Langley Scenario that I described above… that would be everyone in Langley, Surrey, and Maple Ridge suddenly forced to flee for their lives. Those of us who live in Langley would lose everything and have to start from scratch in a shanty town. All because some colonizers decided to give your land to a bunch of fundamentalist and violent refugee immigrants (that is, at least, how the Palestinians saw things).
 
Luckily, the neighboring Arab countries tried to join in the fight and help, but the fighting ultimately ended in a stalemate with a long contentious ceasefire line known as the "green line." This line is now the internationally recognized border between Israel and Palestine.
 
Fast forward to 1967. War breaks out again between Israel and neighbouring Arab countries. This “war” (I put that in quotes because it only lasted 6 days) was used as an excuse by Israel to steam-roll into the rest of Palestine and occupy it all. The result was another huge refugee crisis (estimated 300,000 refugees). More towns were depopulated. It was another catastrophe.
 
When I talk about these facts and figures it’s hard to really understand the tole of human suffering. These are people who had worked for generations on their land. They had centuries-old olive trees on their properties that had been planted by their great-great-great grandfathers. EVERYTHING was suddenly lost, leading to a society-wide collective trauma on a scale that we as Canadians could never truly understand.
 
I go into all this detail because it’s important to understand the sheer level of injustice and despair felt by Palestinians. On top of that, they felt completely alone. The international community generally sided with Israel (being as the Jewish people had just barely survived the worst atrocity in human history) while the political leaders of Palestine’s old allies Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon had mostly lost interest in their cause. With this context, it’s easy to understand how so many Palestinians eventually became susceptible to the extremist and violent messages of groups like Hamas.
 
After the 1967 war, fully occupied by the Israeli military, things only got worse and worse in the occupied Palestinian Territories. People were being crushed under the boot of military oppression. Land was arbitrarily taken. People were arbitrarily arrested, harassed or beaten. Settlers kept pouring in and taking all the remaining fertile lands from peasant farmers. Despite all of this, Palestinians had no recourse since Israeli Military Law courts dolled out lopsided justice. All of this led eventually to the Intifadas (“tremors” in Arabic). These were masss uprisings. Every single Palestinian living in the OPT participated in these massive protests, from the grandmas to the little kids. Despite what is often portrayed in the media, only a small minority of people who participated were violent. Most people resisted non-violently and were subsequently beaten or arrested for going on strike, refusing to obey curfews, waving Palestinian flags, and even doing things as innocuous as milking their own cows (see a wonderful documentary called the Wanted 18).
 
Some Palestinians started to retaliate with extreme violence perpetrated against civilians. For example, the first bus bombings started to happen in 1994 as a retaliation against a mass-shooting that happened in a Hebron Mosque. A right-wing extremist Israeli settler named Baruch Goldstein walked into the mosque of Abraham and shot a crowd of worshippers, killing 29 people. After this Hamas called on people to begin explosively violent retaliation.
 
At this time, Israeli officials kept blaming Palestinian leaders. They claimed (and continue to claim) that Israel was trying to support a two-state solution and they blamed Palestinians for refusing to negotiate… but the reality is, when you look at what the Israelis were willing to concede, it was often insultingly insufficient. If we go back to the Refugees in Langley scenario. Imagine those refugees have now occupied and terrorized all of the lower mainland including Vancouver with their extremely powerful army. Then imagine they offer peace by saying they will concede Whalley and Aldergrove. Would you be willing to accept that offer?
 
Eventually an agreement was reached in the 90s (mediated by Israel's long time ally, the USA). It stipulated, in part, that Israel would gradually pull out of the occupied Palestinian territories. In reality, the very opposite happened. Even as these negotiations were happening Israel continued to build illegal settlements. At no point did Israel show any signs of relenting its expansionist policy. To this day, if you visit the OPT, there are massive sprawling Israeli settlements all over the place. Hundreds of them. The sheer scale of construction revealing Israel’s true intentions, to stay forever in the OPT.
 
Throughout all of this, and especially after the 1967 war, the international community gradually began to realize the hypocrisy and injustice of Israel’s actions. Several UN resolutions were made to declare the illegality of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and their settler expansionism, but to no avail. With the determined support of the U.S. (who had veto power in the security council), Israel continued to get away with everything.
 
So now, imagine you’re living in a refugee camp in Aldergrove. Your camp used to be a hastily built tent-city on some farmer’s land, but over the decades it became a sprawling concrete jungle of badly built 7-story cement buildings. You and your family depend on the UNHCR for basic provisions and education for your kids. There’s a massive 18 foot concrete wall with barbed wire running down Fraser Highway. The economy is piss-poor and there’s a family of your "enemy" living in your home. Not the most pleasant experience to say the least.
 
Now, fast forward to today. It is estimated that over 80% of children in Gaza have PTSD. Despair and hopelessness have become cultural norms in Palestine. The news and peoples’ Facebook feeds are constantly bombarded with stories of arbitrary arrests, police brutality, land confiscations, home demolitions, settler expansion, and to make matters worse, global apathy. Mix a bit of religious zealotry in there, and you can see why people might be motivated to throw stones at tanks, launch crudely made rockets at a global military superpower, and otherwise behave like any living creature would when it's been threatened, cornered and abused.
 
Sadly the story of the evictions in Sheikh Jarrah (a neighborhood of East Jerusalem) that led, in part, to all the violence we see now, was a straw that broke the camels back. These kinds of evictions happen all the time. Here in the West, we only catch glimpses of daily reality for Palestinians.
 
Anyways… this could somewhat be qualified as the Palestinians perspective. Though it mostly consists of the Palestinian perspective of the people I met, who might not be representative of the entire population. For example, I don’t believe I ever met any Hamas supporters, so they might summarize their perspective differently.
 ​

By Marianna Harris

​Two teenage girls, both living under occupation, albeit some 2000 years apart.
​
We have no photos of Mary, although of course there are thousands of paintings, statues, and icons.
​
We do have photos of Ahed, looking straight at the world as she is placed under arrest at Ofer prison in Israel.

​We know little of Mary’s life prior to the coming of the angel to announce that she would bear a child.  That seems to have been irrelevant to the gospel writers.

And while, to most reporters, Ahed’s life prior to this week seems irrelevant, much is known about the 16 years of her life.  Ben Ehrenreich, a Jewish American, tells us about the family life of Ahed and the experience of living within her village of Nabi Saleh.   (The Way to the Spring – Life and Death in Palestine).   Her home is a village in the Occupied West Bank, a village which has been resisting the impact that illegal settlers have made on their life.

The resistance has been costly for her family.  In 1993, her father Bassem was interrogated by the Shin Bet.  They shook his head back and forth for so long that he lost consciousness.  He came out of a coma paralyzed after having a surgery to relieve a cerebral hemorrhage.  This was one of the 10 times he had been arrested and held under administrative detention. In 2012 Ahed’s cousin Mustafa was killed, shot in the face by a tear gas canister.  A few months later, in November, her Uncle Rushdie was killed, shot in the back by an Israeli soldier. 

Hours before Ahed confronted soldiers at her home, her 14 year old cousin Mohammed was shot at close range by an Israeli soldier.  The bullet entered his face below his nose, broke his jaw, and lodged in his skull.  His future is uncertain. 

Given this history, it is no small wonder that Ahed slapped the soldiers invading her home. After Ahed’s arrest, her mother Nariman was arrested.  Her charge of incitement was for filming the incident at their home.

In writing about Ahed following her arrest, Ben Ehrenreich pleads “Please don’t make Ahed a hero. Heroes, when they are Palestinian, end up dead or behind bars. Let her be a kid. Fight to set her free, so that one day she can be an ordinary woman, in an ordinary land”.

On December 22, Jeannie Alexander chose Mary to be the focus of her reflection on Advent in The Daily Advent Reader.  She declares that “Advent is the stillpoint in the midst of war.... Mary’s words of hope are most surely a declaration of war as well; not as the aggressor, but as one whose body is the target of a system that displaces and crushes; one whose body refuses to yield. The child growing inside of her is an act of resistance, and there is nothing meek or mild in her declaration of soul force. Systems hide their war on targeted populations through language and words…...

“Mary knows that Rome’s justice offers no peace to her people, no security for her child. And so she holds space in the tension of resistance, and clings to a hope which must surely look like madness in the face of empire. Giving birth to a child you know will be targeted by a system is an act of Advent. Living with purpose and intention in the face of an impossible life sentence, is an act of Advent. ……Advent is the beginning of the end of domination. The mighty will be brought low, the walls will fall, the prisons will burn, deportation centers will crumble, those who are occupied will inherit the earth, and the hard-fought resistance will yield reconciliation. But all of this exists in the not yet, in the going forth. And so we keep going forth, daring not to die, birthing a new world, one Advent act of resistance at a time.”

2000 years after Mary’s birth-giving, the witness of Ahed challenges us to be active participants in giving birth to a new reality for the people of both Palestine and Israel, and indeed the whole world.

​Marianna Harris

October 17, 2017
 
Dear Minister,
 
When I was in Palestine and Israel four years ago as a human rights observer, I quickly determined the best way to introduce myself to most others was to say, “Hi, my name is Steve Berube. I am a Canadian and I would like to apologize about my government.”
 
Many Israelis, Palestinians and internationals asked me what had happened to the Canadian government. They asked, why was our government so pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian in comparison to our traditional role as honest broker? Why had Canada fallen out of step with European nations and turned a blind eye on Israeli violations of human rights and the rule of international law with respect to Palestine? I was ashamed of how the previous government had abandoned our traditional diplomatic position rooted in John Peters Humphrey and Lester Pearson. This led me to apologize for Canada when I introduced myself.
 
Sir, I need to apologize to you and through you to foreign affairs officials. An erroneous report in the Jerusalem Post led me to believe that you met with an Israeli cabinet minister in occupied East Jerusalem. I was pleased and relieved to learn that the meeting occurred inside of the internationally recognized borders of Israel.
 
I reacted harshly and should not have relied on a single media report.  I apologize for my criticism.  
 
My initial reaction was rooted in the reality that many Canadians and I hoped your government would revert to a more balanced position vis-a-vis Palestine and Israel.

The installation of Gov. General Julie Payette reminded us of the importance of signs and symbols. Remembrance Day reminds us of Canada’s history of support for peace and justice internationally. 

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale recently attended a meeting in occupied East Jerusalem. This was a symbolic pat on the back for the Netanyahu government and a slap in the face to Palestinians.

In December, the UN Security Council chastised Israel for its ongoing violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention.   

The meeting occurred shortly after the Israelis demolished four elementary schools in Palestine. In response, the Belgian deputy Prime Minister condemned this action, “By undermining such humanitarian projects, Israel contravenes its international obligations as an occupying power.” (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-destroys-west-bank-palestinian-schools-new-term-belgium-netherlands-compensation-a7912186.html)

These actions are tantamount to collective punishment targeting vulnerable Palestinian children and will inflame tensions for generations to come.

As a former human rights observer in the West Bank, I witnessed on a daily basis Israeli violations of international human rights and humanitarian laws. It was especially disturbing to witness the intimidation tactics of the Israeli military against Palestinian children including arresting and putting on trial children as young as 12 in Military Courts.

Minister Goodale needs to explain this significant breech of diplomatic protocol. After all, would he meet with Russian officials in the occupied parts of Georgia? Does his government reject the concerns of the Security Council? This meeting tarnishes Canada’s reputation as an honest broker for peace.

This Canadian government needs to stand up for human rights around the world – especially for the rights of children. 
 
Rev. Steve Berube
Chair: United Network for Justice and Peace in Palestine and Israel