In
his book Kairos for Palestine,
Rifat Odeh
Kassis deals with a topic that is as fresh as the destruction of a
Palestinian home by Israeli-driven, US-built bulldozers, and as ancient as the
use of the term kairos,
derived from an ancient Greek word which refers to a specific moment
in time.
Why
does this wanton destruction of private Palestinian homes continue unabated?
The answer is simple: Israel
controls the narrative that justifies its conduct by reporting the demolition
of a Palestinian home as a “necessary step” for the “security” and well-being
of Israel.
The Israeli narrative keeps the Western world locked into a permanent state of
ignorance, following the pattern of previous Western colonial invaders
and occupiers.
The
Israeli narrative, carefully honed by Israel
well before Israel’s 1947-48
war of conquest, has skillfully made the case that Israel is a state whose inhabitants
deserve their own state as victims of oppression and genocide. They chose the
ancient biblical lands of Judea and Samaria (the
West Bank) on the grounds that the land was
“given to them” by Yahweh (the Hebrew word for God).
That
narrative — mixing ancient biblical beliefs with modern political strategy —
has so totally dominated the perspective of the Western world outside the Middle East, that it has emerged as the only view of
reality known to the West. It is in this narrative that Israel is the “victim” and the
Palestinian people are an enemy that seeks to drive Israelis “into
the sea.”
It
has been Israel’s
goal since it gained UN recognition as a state in 1949 to control this
narrative and prevent any contrary narrative from obtaining a hearing. The
occupation of the Palestinian people is sold to the West as a necessity.
Palestinians in this narrative are perceived as a threat to the well being and
security of all Israelis.
The
large majority of Americans have accepted this narrative as the only available
reality. They permit their government to function as a financial backer of Israel, and to politically support Israel in world
forums. American politicians function within a bipartisan political operation
which accepts and promotes the “Israel
is a permanent victim” narrative. This narrative obscures the political reality
that Israel serves as an
important part of the American empire, which seeks to control the people of the
Middle East through military power and
political deceit.
The
invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan and the current role the US plays in Libya
and in the agitation for war against Iran, are the most recent examples
of this power and deceit.
The
Palestinian narrative traces its history through Arab history, from which
Palestinians emerged as an important part of the Ottoman
Empire. Following Arab support for the Western allies in their war
in 1917-18 against Germany
and Turkey, Palestinians
were assured they would retain their homeland in their corner of the Ottoman Empire. The Palestinian narrative in the modern
era emphasizes the Nakba
(catastrophe), the ethnic cleansing that led to Israel’s establishment. That
narrative has been denied a part in American discussions of the Middle East.
Israeli propaganda saturates American society
It
is the Israeli narrative that enables Israel
to be an important American ally in the Middle East.
That narrative saturates American society through the media, the economy,
political structures, nongovernmental institutions involved in education and
religious groups.
The
Zionists were amongst the last of the western colonial invaders to arrive in
the Middle East to conquer a land and exploit
its population. This invasion was built on military power and deceit, the twin
sins that continue to shape the US/Israel alliance in the Middle East.
Kairos
for Palestine traces the
history of what led to the Palestine Kairos Document that emerged from the
situation created by that alliance. It tells the story of the Christian
churches’ effort to communicate the suffering imposed by Israel on Palestinians and it does
so from a Christian perspective.
The
document originated within the Christian churches working inside Israel, the occupied West Bank and Gaza. It is a
community-created document written out of the experience of the Palestinians.
It calls upon Christians everywhere to wake up to the conditions under which
all of the people of Palestine
— Christian, Muslim and non-religious — and respond appropriately to gross
injustice created by the US/Israel alliance of empire-building
through oppression.
The
political strategy of boycott,
divestment and sanctions (BDS) is a separate project from the Kairos
Document. The two run parallel, however, as different ways in which
Palestinians address the outside world.
BDS
is a strategy of nonviolence that advocates economic pressure on Israel
to halt its oppressive military occupation. It calls attention to the manner in
which outside corporations endorse that occupation and profit from it.
BDS
originated as a political movement in July 2005 as a “call from Palestinian
civil society.” It was signed and sent out from a large number of civil society
groups within the West Bank and Gaza.
It is important to note that, unlike the Kairos Document, BDS is a strategy
which the civil society of Palestinians has developed.
Kairos
Palestine, which is the primary focus of Kassis’ book, originated in Bethlehem as a statement
from Palestinian Christian leaders. The document was released in December 2009.
It is a theological document of faith, not a proposal of strategy.
Circumstances since the original document was written in 2009 have grown even
worse as Kassis explains (9):
Jerusalem is being forcibly de-Arabized and
systematically Judaized with unprecedented speed and aggression: Life for
Palestinians there becomes less and less bearable as house demolitions,
evictions, arbitrary arrests and interrogations, residency revocations, and the
imprisonment and house arrests of children all increase. The siege on the Gaza
Strip remains and intensifies unabated.
The
Israeli government is forgoing its longstanding public relations campaign — its
ongoing propaganda as the only ‘democracy’ in the Middle East — and reverting
instead to openly racist laws like the one that seeks to criminalize
individuals and organizations that call for boycott.
BDS,
with its secular origins, is not promoted by the Kairos Document, but BDS has
been adopted by some Christian groups as a practical strategy which
Palestinians propose the West adopt as a means toward putting economic pressure
on Israel
to give up its oppressive control of the Palestinian people.
Resistance
of Americans to BDS illustrates how effectively the Israeli (“we are the
victims under outside threat”) narrative works to prevent Americans from
hearing the call of either the Kairos Document, or the economic strategy
of BDS.
Confronting apartheid
The
modern use of a Kairos statement by an oppressed population dates back to the
first edition of a statement from South African Christians in 1985, a document
intended, Kassis reports, “to provide an alternative discourse to the dominant
theological thinking” of the day. This South African document confronted the
apartheid structures maintained by the minority white population of
that society.
Subsequent
Kairos documents have emerged in Kenya,
Zimbabwe, India and Latin America,
each in ways appropriate to the historical moment addressed, all insisting that
the Christian faith calls for the oppressors to acknowledge the sinfulness of
their oppressive conduct. The various Kairos documents all pursued the same
goal, a prophetic call to those in power to acknowledge that the New Testament
commands them to halt their oppressive conduct and identify with
the oppressed.
Kassis
writes (83) that these Kairos documents all emerged from similar contexts:
oppression, injustice and the denial of equality and human rights.
They
are also “united by their timing, by the kind of moment at which they came into
being. They aren’t written at any time; rather they are created when there are
no options than true participation in a process of collective change.” To use a
theological term, kairos
“speaks to the qualitative, not sequential, form of time; for example, the New
Testament defines it as “the appointed time in the purpose of God.”
Kassis
adds that this moment is one in which God acts. It is a moment, as well, in
political terms, that implies “a crucial time, an appointed time, in which the
message of the text is delivered” (83).
Adopting
a more modern form of expression, Kassis concludes that “the message of the
Kairos is both the SOS signal of a sinking ship and a call for hope in the face
of despair.”
The
Palestine Kairos Document, Kassis explains, arose from a dialogue within
Palestinian Christian communities, in short, not from outsiders, but from those
who suffer under occupation, which is to say, oppression and captivity.
The
Kairos Document emerged from a Palestinian dialogue among a group of 15
interdenominational Palestinian Christian leaders.
After
two years of work, prayer, many meetings and discussions, along with debates
and draft, the leaders produced a final draft of the document, which they
called “A Moment of Truth: A Word of Faith, Hope and Love from the Heart of
Palestinian Suffering.”
The
final document was released to the public at an event in Bethlehem on 11 December 2009. Kassis was
deeply involved in preparing the final document. With its release, Kassis was
selected to serve as the General Coordinator of the Kairos
Palestine Group.
He
began his career as an activist and religious leader in 1988 when he served as
director of the YMCA rehabilitation programs in the West
Bank, the first of many assignments he has handled since.
In
2005 he became the international manager of the World Council of Churches (WCC)
Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine
and Israel.
From
September 2007 until March 2009, Kassis was the WCC’s general secretary’s
special advisor on the Middle East. His
current task is to write about and explain the significance of the Palestine
Kairos Document.
Demand to pay attention
The
kairos moment places a
demand not only on Christians, but on people of other religions or no
religions, to pay attention to the message that Israeli occupation is
“oppression” in the same way South African apartheid and Latin American
economic oppression of the poor were oppressive.
The
challenge to readers of this book is for its readers to bridge the gap between
the Christian theological language of a “right and opportune moment” and the
universal cry for justice for those who suffer and are oppressed.
However
the reader understands the term kairos,
the impossible-to-refute “facts on the ground” in Israel
and Palestine, are clear; this is the “right
moment” for the world to recognize and acknowledge that Israel’s occupation of Palestine is unjust, immoral, illegal and
destructive. Read this book, learn from it, and use it for small group
discussions, and as an instrument with which to fight the wall of ignorance
that endorses Palestinian suffering. It is a book that demands that attention
must be paid to the conduct of the governments in Israel
and in the United States,
the two military powers who have the power to maintain or end
this suffering.
James
M. Wall is a contributing editor of The Christian
Century magazine, based in Chicago,
Illinois. From 1972 through 1999,
he was editor and publisher. He writes a personal blog, Wallwritings.me, which he began
in April 2008.
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