CRC - It is not Anti-Jewish to Promote Peaceful Middle East Solution

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

March 22, 2011 ? It is not anti-Semitic for a
Jewish person, or anyone else, to promote a
peaceful solution to the ongoing conflict between
the Israeli and Palestinian people, says Mark
Braverman, a clinical psychologist who grew up in
the conservative Jewish faith and whose has family has deep roots in Israel.

Braverman spoke about the conflict and ways to
seek a solution to it before a group this week at
the office of the Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Mich.
"I'm doing this out of a love for the Jewish
people? It is about social justice," said
Braverman, whose specialty as a psychologist has been in crisis management.

His visit to Grand Rapids was part of a winter
lecture series focusing on Israeli-Palestinian
peace, which already brought Dr. Izzeldine
Abuelaish and Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh, experts on what
is going on in the area, to speak.

The Monday event at the denominational

headquarters was sponsored by Hope Equals, a
Holy-Land-peace program of Christian Reformed
World Missions, Healing Children of Conflict, an
organization that brings children who have been
injured in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to
the US for treatment. Bert DeVries, a Calvin
College history professor, is one of the charter
members for Healing Children of Conflict.

Until a few years ago, Braverman says, he

basically supported the state of Israel?s policy
toward the Palestinian people. His roots are in
the Holy Land and he believed that the state of
Israel was ordained by God to exist and to serve
the needs and support the beliefs of God?s chosen people.

Growing up in the United States, Braverman was
reared in the Jewish tradition, studying Bible,
Hebrew literature, and Jewish history.
"I grew up believing that God protected the state
of Israel and that it was the first flowering of
our redemption. Our suffering was finally over.
This is the last chapter, the promise has been fulfilled," he says.

"In every age, a tyrant, we were taught, was
raised up to destroy us. We have a history of
being the chosen people and it was our role to
survive different attempts to do away with us. We
were taught to hate Germany" for what it did in perpetrating the holocaust.

He did not doubt the legitimacy of the state of Israel, formed after
World War II, and its right to exist and protect
itself when necessary from its enemies.

His entire attitude shifted when he visited

Palestinians communities in 2006 and, he says, he
was transformed by witnessing the
?apartheid-like? occupation of these Palestinian
communities by the state of Israel and by
encounters with peace activists and civil society
leaders from the Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities.

"It was horrible to see what we being done in my
name, to see the horrors of the occupation. This
really shattered all that I believed," said Braverman.

Every day during his visit he would visit the
West Bank and then return at night to stay with relatives in Jerusalem.

On those trips, he saw first-hand the differences
between how the Palestinians live ? in cramped
homes, lacking education, the necessities of life
and job opportunities ? and how his Jewish
relatives lived. They had nice homes, a stable
life and a chance to better themselves.

He then encountered the wall being built to

separate Israel from Palestinian communities. He
says he realized that that wall lived inside of
him and that he needed to break it down.

He began to see, he says, how in many ways being
Jewish in Israel also meant being a Zionist ?
someone who promotes and protects the existence of Israel at any cost.

"I started to see that our official state policy
in Israel is that there is no difference from
Zionism and being a Jew. There is this nationalistic ideology," says Braver man.

In a question and answer session, a man

questioned Braverman on the topic of Zionism,
saying that he had been taught that Israel was
the promised land and it is here that Jesus will
return and that that theology takes precedence over political consideration s.

Braverman said he disagrees with that approach
and says that Jews have not necessarily followed
the will of God and that ?we?ve made an idol out
of the land.? Jesus did not teach that salvation
comes from a particular land, but from his
teachings and following him, says Braverman.

Since his transformation in 2006, Braverman has
worked in many ways, trying to bring peace
between Israel and the Palestinians. He has no
strong political stance of how a solution ought
to be reached. Rather, he envisions one country
in which the groups can live in harmony together.
"I don't care how they carve up the land, but the
borders must be open," he says.

None of this will come quickly or easily and
Braverman calls on Christian denominations to
play a greater role in seeking peace between
Israel and the Palestinians. He offered no easy
answers to how peace can be created or the tight
bonds between the United States and Israel can be loosened.

But he did say: ?We have to be patient and
vigilant and keep our eyes on the political ball.
The United States needs to develop a new policy
on the Middle East. We are accepting things from
Israel that we wouldn?t accept from many other countries.?

Since his trip in 2006, Braverman has devoted
himself full-time to the Israel/Palestine
conflict. He is a co-founder and Executive
Director of Friends of Tent of Nations North
America, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting
Palestinian land rights and peaceful coexistence
in historic Palestine. He serves on the Board of
Directors of the Israeli Committee Against House
Demolitions-USA, the advisory committee of
Friends of Sabeel North America, and the advisory
council of the Washington Interfaith Alliance for
Middle East Peace. He is a charter member of American Jews for a Just Peace.

He is also the author of Fatal Embrace, in which
he shows how the Jewish quest for safety and
empowerment and the Christian endeavor to atone
for centuries of anti-Semitism have united to
suppress the conversations needed to bring peace.

> "I don?t see how the current situation is
> sustainable. Israel is living in a bubble,
> believing that it can solve its problems by
> making the wall go higher," he says. "Although I
> don?t know how or when we will get there, we are
> moving toward a tipping point."

In an informal talk the next day at CRC office in
Grand Rapids, U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, who serves
West Michigan in Congress and has roots as a
Palestinian Christian, said: ?I am very concerned
about the Palestinian-Christian issue. My father
is a refugee, forced from his home in 1948.?

He said that it is important that people across
the country, as well as in Congress, realize that
many Palestinians are Christians and not members
of the Islamic faith. This is the area in which Christ was born.
Key to addressing the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict is for people, including members of the
Christian Reformed Church, to educate the public
about the realities of life in countries such as
Israel and in Palestinian communities.

For him, he said, he would like to see a

two-state solution to the ongoing conflict. But
he emphasized that education is key.

"There does not seem a good understanding in
Congress that not everyone in the Middle East is Muslim," he said.
?Chris Meehan, CRC Communications