wfn.org | Palestinian Theologian Predicts Triumph of Justice and Love

[JerusalemRelOrgs@aol.com]

Contact:  Rev. Dr. Naim Ateek
Sabeel Center
Sheikh Jarrah, P.O. Box 49084
Jerusalem
Tel: (972-2) 532.7136
Email: sabeel@sabeel.org
Website: www.sabeel.org

JERUSALEM, March 15, 2001--A prominent Palestinan pastor-theologian, the Rev. 
Naim Ateek, offered a critique of Zionism that "was noble" in its origns, but 
"was corrupted," and that "may be redeemed."  

Ateek, the founder of the Sabeel Liberation Theology movement in this Holy 
City, was the keynote speaker at an "Alternative Assembly" last month at the 
Notre Dame Catholic Center in Jerusalem.  Plans for the international 
gathering were dramatically changed when violence broke out between Israelis 
and Palestinians.  Despite significant concerns, more than 250 Christian, 
Jewish and Muslim participants from 21 nations came to Jerusalem for the 
Assembly.  (See website cited above.)  Ateek is an Anglican priest known 
widely in Europe and North America as the author of a book "Justice and Only 
Justice."

Excerpts of his address follow:

THE ULTIMATE TRIUMPH OF JUSTICE AND LOVE 

By Naim Ateek 

Living under the Principalities and Powers 

In the letter to the Ephesians, the writer mentions that in our struggle 
against evil, we are not fighting against flesh and blood alone, we are 
fighting against evil structures that oppress and dominate people. 

"…Our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the 
rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present 
darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.  
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to 
withstand…" (Ephesians 6:12-13). 

This is a call to Christians to be alert and to recognize and identify the 
powers that operate around them.  It is also a challenge to resist the powers 
and struggle against them....  These destructive powers are forces of 
darkness that undermine life itself.  They must be resisted with the full 
armor of God.  

Yet it is clear that this armor is not the armor of war.  It is not military 
might and it is not violent resistance.  The author is using military 
metaphors but he is talking about weapons of non-violence.  The God we know 
in Jesus Christ is not a God of violence and war, but a God of peace and 
reconciliation....  We must [struggle] with the armor of God.  According to 
Ephesians, this armor is composed of the following: truth, righteousness 
(justice), peace, faith, salvation, the word of God, and prayer. 

Every one of these is a powerful weapon in our resistance against the evil 
structures that oppress and dominate people. 

Jesus suffered under the powers  

During Jesus' lifetime, these powers of darkness were also operating.  They 
were represented in at least three personalities mentioned in the Gospels.  
King Herod represented the power of the local government, especially one that 
operated on behalf and in the orbit of a higher power.  Herod had a vassal 
state under Rome.  

Pontius Pilate, on the other hand represented Rome directly, the highest form 
of power in those days. 

Caiaphas, the high priest, represented the power of religion, especially that 
which works in collaboration with the state.  

It was not these people as individuals alone who had the power to oppress and 
kill, it was the powers and principalities they represented....
  
Jesus was aware of these powers.  In fact, he was killed by the collusion of 
both state and religious powers.  He did not, however, bow down to them.  He 
gave us a way to resist them without being absorbed by them, to struggle 
against them without using their means and methods.  This he did through his 
life and teaching on non-violence as well as his own suffering and death at 
the hands of the powers.... 
 
There are Christians, many of whom are clergy, who are very skeptical of our 
liberation theology.  I am sure you find them everywhere.  They believe that 
we have no business working against structures of domination.  As Christians, 
they maintain, we are only called to evangelize individuals.  When 
individuals are changed, they will change structures. 

We believe that we are called to do both.  We must work on individuals and on 
systems.  As Walter Wink has observed, "We are made evil by our institutions, 
yes; but our institutions are also made evil by us."

It is our responsibility to resist evil wherever it is found.  Indeed, to 
begin with, within ourselves, within our churches and homes, as well as 
within society, nation, and the world.... 

Where Zionism Has Gone Wrong 

Let me now apply my words to the evil structures that have dominated the 
Palestinians for the last hundred years.  I believe that the background to 
the Zionist movement was good, but it got corrupted and I hope it will be 
redeemed.  I can appreciate the noble reasons for the rise of Zionism among 
European Jewry.  

Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), the founder of Zionism and his friends must have 
deeply felt the plight of their Jewish brethren.  Anti-semitism was a menace. 
 One can only admire Herzl's perception of the problems and determination to 
do something about it rather than sit back and complain.  The Jewish 
religious leaders had passively accepted their people's predicament, but the 
secular Zionists were not going to be apathetic to the agony and misery of 
their brethren. 

The assessment of the Zionist leaders regarding the suffering of their people 
in 19th century Europe was correct.  Anti-semitism was rife and many Jews 
were suffering as a result of causeless hatred and prejudice.  The Zionists 
intention to help was noble.  The questions they raised were right, how can 
they help their fellow brothers and sisters who were being oppressed due to 
the fact that they were ethnically and religiously different from the 
majority of the population around them? 

Tragically, it was difficult for the Zionists to anticipate the evolution and 
development of democracy in Europe.  Democracy was the right answer to the 
problem, a true democracy with equality for all.  They did not anticipate the 
day when Europe would have democratic systems of government that attract many 
people to its shores as we see happening today.  The Zionists could not 
foresee this.  They decided to opt out of Europe. 

Herzl, who was a journalist, went to France to cover the case of Alfred 
Dreyfus, a Jew who was a captain in the French army.  Dreyfus was accused of 
espionage.  When he was condemned though innocent, Herzl concluded that if 
this can happen in France, the bastion of freedom, equality, and fraternity, 
then there was no hope for Jews in Europe.  They must leave.  It is important 
to mention that even then, most Jews opted to go to the United States and not 
Palestine.  By 1900 almost one million Jews had left Europe to the United 
States.  

The decision to set up a Jewish state in Palestine was, therefore, very much 
bound by the colonial spirit of the time.  It made perfect sense to the 
Zionists to set up a state for Jews away from European Christian 
prejudice....  This is when a noble idea was turned into a colonial and 
oppressive project.

The Zionists undermined the importance of the people of Palestine.  They 
considered them a non-entity.  It was part of the nature of colonialism to 
negate the worth of the colonized.  The indigenous people of the land were 
considered dispensable.  So Herzl plainly stated that the Zionists would 
"spirit the penniless (Arab) population across the border".  Herzl felt that 
they could live and find employment in the neighboring countries. 

This was the original crime.  This was the beginning of the setting up of the 
structures that eventually contributed to the expulsion, destruction, 
oppression, humiliation, and domination of the Palestinians.  This was how 
the powers that are meant for good became corrupt and destructive.  Once the 
powers became corrupt, a chain of reaction was set in motion that lead to 
further corruption. 

In order for Zionism to maintain and sustain their domination they began to 
employ lies, deception, falsification of history, stereotyping of their 
victims, torture and many other methods.  The end began to justify the means. 

Two Examples of Domination  

Let us consider two important examples of how Zionism has used different 
structures that were meant for good, but were turned into destructive forces. 
 Let us take the case of religion.  After the 1967 war, secular Zionism began 
to give way to religious Zionism.  Today, in fact, the strongest form of 
Zionism is not the secular that gave the vision and birth for the state of 
Israel, but religious Zionism. 

We need to remember that religious Jews, in their three main denominations, 
Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform, opposed Zionism at its inception and 
considered it a heresy.  Rabbi Hirsch of Jerusalem declared "…Zionism is 
diametrically opposed to Judaism.  Zionism wishes to define the Jewish people 
as a nationalistic entity.  The Zionists say, in effect, 'look here, God.  We 
do not like exile.  Take us back, and if you don't, we'll just roll up our 
sleeves and take ourselves back...." 

One would expect that when religion takes over from a secular movement, it 
would work to transform it and infuse it with a religious morality and 
ethics.  We would expect religious Jews to use the best values their religion 
can offer to bring about peace between Israel and the Palestinians.  What 
happened was the total opposite.  Religion was used to justify the 
confiscation of Palestinian land and even the expulsion of Palestinians.  
Religion was used to oppress the Palestinians.  Emphasis was laid on all the 
exclusive material in the Hebrew Scriptures, our Old Testament, that negated 
the indigenous people of the land, i.e. the Palestinians.  

Instead of using inclusive material, and there is plenty of it that talks 
about God's love and mercy for all, the focus has been on everything that is 
derogatory and denigrating to the Palestinians. In other words, the Bible 
that is supposed to bring justice and mercy was used as a weapon to oppress. 

Today, the greatest obstacles to peace are the settlements that were inspired 
in large part by religion.  The Hebrew Bible has been translated into a 
structure of domination instead of a structure of justice and peace.  

Even God has been Zionized.  Stickers on cars carried the words, "God is a 
Zionist" and some even added, "God is a religious Zionist". 

The second example has to do with the Oslo Peace Process.  Many of us recall 
the exuberant feelings within the Palestinian community when Arafat and Rabin 
shook hands on the lawn of the White House.  Many of us breathed a great sigh 
of relief that finally we were witnessing the end of a long struggle of the 
use of violence and bloodshed and were now entering into an era of peace. 

We anxiously waited for the implementation of international law, i.e. UN 
Resolutions 242 and 338, where Israel will retain most of the land of 
Palestine, but will leave to the Palestinians less than a quarter of the land 
to establish their own sovereign state.  

This was the hope.  The Palestinians had resigned themselves to accepting a 
small state, although before 1948 they constituted the majority of the 
population and had control of most of the land.  

What transpired in the peace process was the opposite of what was hoped for 
and expected.  The peace process itself was turned into an instrument of 
further oppression.  Since Oslo, illegal Jewish settlements expanded 52%, and 
there was an increase in the confiscation of Palestinian land, the torture of 
Palestinians, the demolishing of their homes, the closures, the siege, and 
the fragmentation of Palestinian areas, let alone the daily humiliation and 
dehumanization of a whole nation.  The peace process was another way of 
deepening the structures of domination. 

I believe that the original sin and crime was Zionism in the way it turned 
into a colonial force. Israel still lives and acts in the same basic 
ideology. The structures of domination that have been set up started in the 
hearts and minds of people who could not see the Palestinians as human beings 
with rights. Ze'ev Sternhell, Israeli professor of political science was 
rebelling against such a Zionism when he wrote in Tikkun (May/June 1998) "If 
a 'Jewish State' that does not recognize the absolute equality of all human 
beings is considered to be closer to the spirit of the founding fathers 
(Zionism) than a new liberal Zionism, then it is time to say good-bye to the 
ghosts of the founders, and to start forging for ourselves an identity 
detached from the mystical ramifications of our religion and the irrational 
side of our history." 

-end-