Palestinian Peace and Justice
Today, I’m reflecting on a recent roundtable discussion in which I participated. It was held at the Peaselee Neighborhood Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, and it dealt with peace and justice issues involving Palestine.
I was especially moved by the intelligence and fervor exhibited by three students representing the substantial, national activist Students for Justice in Palestine. They spoke at length about their recent visits to Palestine and their concern for the injustices they’ve observed being leveled by Israel against Palestinians.
See RED!’s slide show of the roundtable and the video of Nancy Paraskevopoulos talking passionately about her visit and especially Shuva Street.
The students’ calm articulation of incursions against the Palestinian people captured a series of intense depictions of poverty, isolation, and struggle. I’m still thinking about some of the intense activity Nancy described that has taken place on Shuva Street - in one of the oldest neighborhoods in Palestine.
In this part of Hebron, for example, Nancy met with “Youth Against Settlements” whose members gave her a tour of the area. It was dangerous, she said. “I have never seen poverty like this,” she said.
Shuva Street, which is in the “old City” of Hebron, has had its economy and commerce effectively destroyed, as a result of the Israeli occupation and settlements. “You don’t feel safe here,” said Drew Gobel, of Students for Justice in Palestine. “There are people with guns all over.”
While visiting Shuva Street, Drew asked a Palestinian, “What do you do to resist the Israeli occupation?” The man told Drew, ”We stay in our homes.”
At the same time, in Nancy’s conversations with families, she realized that one of the Palestinians’ sentiments was a desire for their families to group up safely - without conflict. “They were clinging to a belief that their children would see hope and safety and even peace,” Nancy told the guests at Peaselee.
Paul Erb, also of Students for Justice in Palestine, along with Drew, presented a condensed yet vivid history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It was a necessary recap. And very clear.
It was punctuated by Drew’s assuring the group that recent hopeful developments do exist in that part of the Middle East, in spite of the Israeli government’s hard-line stance: the Obama Administration is pressuring Israel to stop building settlements inside the West Bank. It’s also sending envoys, even while the Israeli government, for now, refuses to stop building new settlements. The U.S. subsidizes much of the facilitation of the building of these settlements, which has presented its own concern to President Obama.
Students for Justice in Palestine is visibly growing in its international outreach. It is on the move. These students care and their convictions are bold. We should all care.
Tags: 1948 arab-israeli war, 1967 israeli-arab six day war; golan heights, 1978 camp david peace accords, gaza, israeli-palestinian conflict, justice, middle east, palestine, peace, students for justice in palestine, war, west bank