No More of This!

I moved to At-Tuwani last Thursday, June 15. There is no internet there. But I get a day or 2 off every 7-10(ish) days. So I’ll try to write something during those days off. CPT has an apartment in Yatta, a town not too far from Tuwani (I don’t know the miles- I know it is a 25 minute walk and then a 15 minute taxi ride.). We come to Yatta for a shower and internet on an off day. I just had 2 wonderful and relaxing days off. I spent all day yesterday at a spring outside of Jerusalem with a good Israeli friend of mine, with whom I volunteered at an AIDS orphanage in Ethiopia. Now I’m in Yatta for the night. When people go on “days off,” they usually return with world news, fruits, peanut butter, and other treats.

Last Friday a teammate returned from days off in Yatta with news of a bombing in Basra, Iraq, of dead soldiers, and of a “state of emergency” in Baghdad. After hearing the world news that she shared, I walked up a hill to sit under “the big tree,” amidst the beauty of At-Tuwani and to try to remember that there is a good God- A God who sustains hope and life amidst the despair and death in Iraq, and the injustice and imprisonment in Palestine.

I love the village of At-Tuwani though I do still want to be in Iraq … But I learned that I will not be going to Iraq this summer. Two women from CPT went on a short trip to northern Iraq a couple of weeks ago. Now no CPTers are in Iraq, but they are looking to send a small experienced team in again. The team will be CPTers with Iraqi residency because it is becoming close to impossible for us to get visas. Because I have neither a lot of experience nor a visa, I will not be able to go to Iraq this summer. It’s frustrating to hear news from Iraq and not be there with people.

I keep wondering how many more people have to die before we realize what a terrible, terrible mess we have made in Iraq. When will we learn that more guns and more bombs will not bring peace to Iraq or security to the U.S.?

In Iraq, coalition forces hold over 14,000 people in prison. According to the Red Cross, 70-90% of these detainees have no charges (not to mention that the U.S. has no authority to imprison people in an occupied country- therefore making 100% of Iraqi detainees without legitimate charges). There is no way that actions such as these by the U.S. help U.S. security. Actions like these make people all over the world legitimately hate us.

When I was in Baghdad last June we met with a man at the Iraqi Assistance Center in the fortified Green Zone. He told us that they used to track detainees by a name, number and crime. But they had stopped using the category of crime because “most of them are not real anyway.” Can you imagine a whole society terrorized by the threat of prison- specifically the threat of brutal prison where many have been tortured and some killed? People are taken from their homes and families because of their gender, race, and/or location. Families often do not know the whereabouts of those detained for months or years. Most detainees are innocent sons, husbands, and brothers. About 70-90% have NO charges against them. This is completely illegal and immoral.

Families who have suffered through sanctions are now struggling to survive in a country ravaged by urban warfare. Many Iraqis have fled, causing Iraq to lose large numbers of workers- doctors, teachers, etc. Others cannot get to work because of bombs and checkpoints. Last summer several Iraqi people told us that they wanted the U.S. occupation to end, but they were afraid that if the U.S. left there would be civil war. Others simply wanted the U.S. to leave immediately. The U.S. did not leave and now, a year later, the headlines read “At Least 26 Killed in Iraqi Violence,” “Iraqis Call State of Emergency in Baghdad,” and “Deadly Street Battles Prompt Daytime Baghdad Curfew.”

Over 2,500 U.S. troops have died and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, mostly civilians. We invaded Iraq in the name of democracy, freedom, security and even in the name of Jesus. But we have not brought democracy or freedom. We have brought death, captivity and civil war. And I find it difficult to fathom that the God who dwelt among us as Jesus, and who dwells among us now, condones such bloodshed.

How can we kill in the name of Jesus? In the name of a man who, while being executed, prayed, “Father, forgive them…” A man who preached turning the other cheek, love of enemy, and unconditional forgiveness… a man who, when his own disciple defended him by cutting off the ear of one who came to arrest him, Jesus healed his enemy’s ear and reprimanded his disciple saying, “No more of this!”…”Put away your sword.” (Luke 22 & Matt 26)

If we wish to act in the name of Jesus in the world, I wonder why we do not try living as Jesus lived- selflessly, justly, and honestly.

While sitting under the stars, sipping mint tea in a village meeting in At-Tuwani last week I started giggling. My teammate looked at me funny so I turned to her and said, “So this is a what a meeting of terrorists is like, huh?” She smiled & sarcastically said, “I guess so. I guess this is what the U.S. and Israel are searching for”- a group of Arab men sipping tea and discussing the stars, water shortages, and the possibility of using their land and keeping their homes.

Often when we ask the Israeli soldiers why they are in the village or why they are preventing shepherds from watering their sheep or why they are detaining young children on their way to school, a common answer is, “We are looking for terrorists.” One of the villagers said that once when a soldier asked him about the location of terrorist activity, he paused, thought about the meaning of terrorism, and then said, “I think they live in Havat Ma’on,” the illegal Israeli settlement nearest Tuwani.

Settlers in Havat Ma’on have poisoned the village’s drinking water and grass, causing many sheep (the villagers' livelihood) to die. The sheep that did not die could not be sold because neighboring towns heard of the poisoning and would not buy Tuwani products. This winter a settler entered the village and began shooting a machine gun. Thankfully, no one was hurt. Almost daily the settlers prevent shepherds from using Palestinian land and water cisterns. Despite these acts of terror, it is the Palestinian shepherds and farmers who are labeled “terrorists.”

It seems that our understandings are twisted. We can open a dictionary, read the meanings of democracy, freedom, security, and terrorism, and see that the definitions and many of our claims do not match. We can look at the outcome of the Palestinian democratic elections and see that it is not democracy that the U.S. or Israel wants. Palestinians democratically elected Hamas. We can look at the horrendous prison “system” in Iraq and see that the U.S. is not overly concerned with the freedom of the Iraqi people. If we want security, we should not make more enemies by abusing and killing people. And if we are looking for terrorists, we should look to all who use unlawful and extreme abuse and violence. Perhaps we need to rethink the question that the Israeli soldiers are always asking, “Who are the terrorists?” Who is illegally detaining and imprisoning people? Who is killing hundreds of thousands of people in the world? And Who is making money from it? Who are the terrorists? And, is all of this really in the name of God? or is Jesus still crying out, “No more of this! Put away your sword.”?