Peaceful Warriors Speak at the U of R

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Bassam Aramin and Yaniv Reshef spoke at the U of R last night as representatives of Combatants for Peace, an organization of Palestinian and Israeli men who turned away from the conflict and found the way of peace.

The presentation took place in a luxuriously beautiful room in the University of Rochester library building, with glowing hardwood details and large stained glass windows, a few rows of hardwood chairs lined up in front of a podium and backed by oak tables and comfortable overstuffed Bassam Aramin Speaking for Combatants For Peace chairs under a high ceiling. The speakers sit, still wearing their coats, on a plush couch to the right of the podium. Yaniv Reshef pauses as he comes to the podium, to observe the opulence of the venue, and to point out that it is the kind of space he is not accustomed to inhabiting. At one point, Bassam Aramin says that, obviously, there is no way to win by use of force. The Palestinians, he says, are fighting a great power, not just Israel, but the United States. They are fighting, he says, the resources and power of the US. Aramin was forcefully introduced to this perspective when his daughter was killed by a rubber coated bullet made in the US, fired by an M16 made in the US, from a jeep made in the US by a soldier who may have been trained in the US.

Both SDS Student from the University of Rochester asks about Divestment Campaign these men were fighters early in life. They fought on opposite sides of a conflict that has been going on for over 100 years. And yet, they have found peace through working together to end that war. Peace through understanding. During the Q/A that followed the talks, the responded to questions by giving substance to some of their ideas. They talked about the power of peaceful resistance, and the potential of change that begins with a small shift of power, a seed that can grow. To a University of Rochester student who asked about the Divestment Campaign which aims to have the school divest from corporations that support war and occupation, Reshef replied that perhaps it would be better to suggest re-targeting investments to peaceful projects, as they are shifted from military uses.

To a question about 1 state vs 2 states, Aramin responded that he really didn't care which case was resolved as long as it was the choice of all the people. He said the point was to use nonviolence to change the the balance of power. He said that the Palestinians have a right to resist, any way they can. He extended that in response to another question to say that the Arabs in the region have a right to be angry. But the Palestinians have been resisting, and the Arabs have been angry for 100 years, and it hasn't solved the problem. It is time to try something new. Reshef suggested the idea of 300,000 Palestinians standing together at the Israeli border in passive resistance for a few days, instead of sending rockets to Sderot.

I have to say that, after hearing Dr. Mehr and other recent visitors to Gaza talk about the sharpshooters and drones protecting the Israeli border with Gaza, I would like to think there is some other place to have those 300,000 people take their stand. I'm also ambivalent about incremental shifts of emphasis. Even so, I love what these men are doing. Their group is not the only one that consists of Israelis and Palestinians who have been hurt by the violence, and have healed themselves by taking a stand for peace. There is a group of Palestinians and Israeli Jews who are parents of children killed by the occupation. Bassam Aramin is a member of that group as well. His 10 year old daughter, Abir, was killed outside her school a couple of years ago, by an Israeli soldier. With the help of an American group, The Rebuilding Alliance, Combatants for Peace has built a playground in her memory, and are raising funds to build the next playground.

According to Reshef, 2,500 people in Sderot signed a petition opposing war on the Palestinians. It seemed to me that he was saying that the people, in Israel and here in America, want peace, but the governments chose war. Yaniv Rashef speaks for Combatants for Peace at the University of Rochester Americans don't know what is really going on in the Occupied Territories, but as they learn, they express their opposition to the ongoing occupation of Palestine, and the continuing theft of Palestinian lands through settlement building and the construction of the wall. This is becoming clear through my own experience. If the people conquer their fears and turn to the Way of Peace, then the governments will not be able to fight wars. I give a more immediate description of their presentation in the following post.

A year and a half ago, I had the opportunity to chose whether to visit Palestine and Israel, or Iran. I chose Iran, though I knew very little about it at the time, because I felt too angry at the abuses being committed against the Palestinians. I didn't think I could be a fair participant in a peace mission there. Just over a week ago, I participated in hosting a presentation by Dr. Ismail Mehr of The American Doctors Mission to Palestine. The information Dr. Mehr presented was very disturbing. Backed up as it was with vivid photos and clinical descriptions of the injuries to innocent people, and the absence of necessary treatments, the presentation was, in effect, devastating. For the first time in my experience, not a single person stood at the end, to make excuses for the perpetrator. There could be no excuse for what we had seen.

The presentation by Bassam Aramin and Yaniv Rashef was really a very healing experience for me. I have not been particularly impressed by the stories of this or that Israeli who deigned to share her house with it's original owner, from whom it had been stolen years before. The Israeli government is still stealing Palestinian land and giving it to people who don't appear to have any qualms about taking it. But somehow, the relationship between these two men, their humility and their apparent exhaustion, their sincerity and their suffering, and through all this, their commitment to peace and nonviolence touched me. They make me believe it can happen.