Letters - 01 November 2024
From language and dialogue to long-term solutions
Language and dialogue
No one who has visited Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories can disagree with Tim Robertson (18 October) that ‘outside interventions that bring the two communities into dialogue’ are immensely helpful.
In addition to the organisations he mentions, there is also the wonderful Tent of Nations and the village Oasis of Peace/Wahat Al-Salam, both working for decades on bases of cooperation, equal rights, mutual respect, and understanding.
EAPPI [Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel] members are carefully selected and trained, entering into their responsibilities with similar values in mind. They do not set out with bias. However, they cannot ignore what they witness on a daily basis, such as a twelve-year-old shepherd boy being edged off his grazing land with menaces and threats from settlers; a toddler playing in the streets having his tricycle casually picked up by a passing soldier who strides away without returning it – the bafflement on the child’s face is eloquent. Families taunted in such ways are afraid to go to the police for fear of reprisals at worst, indifference at best.
At the Tent of Nations the encroachment of settlers has become so destructive that the future of this peaceable organisation is seriously threatened. Recourse to the law frequently is ignored by settlers.
Children aged twelve are removed from their families in the middle of the night and interrogated without an adult present, then held without trial for months on end.
These are a few examples of reports from trusted sources, and are facts on the ground, on which ecumenical accompaniers report back. Facts are facts and the reporting is important to help us all understand the nature of the Israeli occupation, and if these call out criticism of the occupying country this is an essential part of reportage. Ecumenical accompaniers report back in a spirit of ‘principled impartiality’ and use language appropriate to this spirit. But it is impossible to hide behind language that obfuscates what is really happening.
The language might make us uncomfortable, but if facts demonstrate that an occupying country is in the wrong these issues must ultimately be honestly addressed. There is a growing body of research from trusted sources demonstrating the justification of terms ‘apartheid’ and ‘genocide’ (for example the Israeli academic Jeff Halper, An Israeli in Palestine).
Dialogue must continue, but we cannot fall into the morass that was called ‘Appeasement’ in 1939.
Anne M Jones
Reviewing structures
I have read the Meeting for Sufferings report on ‘Reviewing central structures’ (11 October) with interest. Margaret Bryan said: ‘Right now was a period of testing and consultation with the wider community of Friends’ and then asked: ‘Have we missed anything?’
I would answer that with a resounding ‘Yes’. We in Chippenham Meeting only learned of the PDF asking for comments six days before the final date for replies, giving us no time for discussion and understanding of the proposals. Several of us have contacts with other Meetings and they hadn’t heard of it either.
So, I have to ask why there has been so little communication with the wider community of Friends? I don’t recall seeing any reference to it in Quake, and no discussion in the Friend.
Margaret Sadler
Chippenham Meeting
‘Intelligent’ species
Anne Marie Brian’s letter (4 October) really spoke to me. I agree – who do humans think they are? Created in God’s image? Top of the chain? I would go further than Anne Marie. Not just other creatures, what about plants? How does a plant know what colour to make its flowers and what scents to make it issue to attract just the right insect?
Personally, I don’t believe humans are the only creature that is capable of spirituality. I believe everything on this planet, including the planet itself, has some sort of spirituality.
Why do I feel the most spirituality when I sit quietly in our small garden with all the plants, insects and birds around me? So, thank you Anne Marie for saying what I feel. It may have upset some Friends, but you put it beautifully.
Ian Smith
Pray for the weak
Tim Robertson tells us he prays for Quakers to be more impartial on Israel. I feel he should pray for the weak and for the powerful to exercise restraint. Israel is the superpower of the Middle East with complete backing from the superpower of the world. Israel enjoys unrivalled superiority of arms. Our own support for Israel makes me feel terribly complicit because we are aiding the powerful in oppressing the weak.
Maybe Tim’s reference to antisemitism shows where the confusion comes in.
As Quakers we need to feel free to speak truth to power – to name the evil done. Killing innocent people, including children, is evil behaviour no matter who does it. We are not taking sides against people but against deeds.
Beside brutal and radicalised Jewish settlers beating up defenceless farmers with impunity, we find Jewish peace activists and those calling out the apartheid in their own country, people who need a lot more courage and resilience in doing so than I need writing this letter.
While I can speak out feeling I may well be with the majority, they face arrest and worse. Publicly opposing the war as a Jew in Israel, according to one activist, is dicing with your life. The least we can do is support these heroes’ efforts from the safety of our own living rooms.
Oliver Müller
Thanks for the wake-up call
I hope that Imi Hills’ powerful urgent demand for Quakerism to harness the radicalism of young Friends (27 September) will be heard by Quakers everywhere. It comes amidst gloom about financial difficulties caused by our declining membership.
While acknowledging that some efficiencies are needed, Imi insists that ‘the long-term solution has to be an increase in membership, with an emphasis on gaining young Friends’. This is not a vague wouldn’t-it-be nice suggestion. According to Imi: ‘Young people are just asking for space… space where we are allowed to speak about what we feel needs to be heard.’
That shouldn’t be too difficult to provide, but Imi reports that between Yearly Meeting sessions young Friends complained again and again that Quakers are not saying anything about the issues that concern them. This is a sure way to lose those young Friends whose passion and commitment we need, if Quakerism is going to survive.
According to Keith Runyon from Quaker Earthcare Witness, we need a radical shift into prophetic and practical action ‘to be as bold as our times are urgent’. Yes, this requires courage, but we should expect no less from a faith which promotes itself as simple, radical and spiritual – and of course we should include young Friends.
Hilary Saunders
Long-term solutions
Young Friend Imi Hill’s ‘Long-term solutions’ exposé, in which she shares feelings about and ideas she and other young Friends have about their Quaker faith and community at this turbulent time, and which in my view was so aptly featured in our Quaker Week 2024 edition of the Friend, spoke to me in a way that nothing regarding the future of Quakerism has ever done before.
Not being able to stop thinking about it, nor knowing what to say or respond to her, I remembered a conversation during a lunch break at Britain Yearly Meeting 2024 with a visiting Quaker living in Germany (www.quaekers.org).
They told me that their German Yearly Meeting 2024, that took place at the end of last month in Bonn, was organised, agenda and all, by Germany Young Friends who had asked to be given space, just like Imi Hills and other young Friends are asking for from us now.
Could such a significant and wonderful opportunity like this, that Quakers in Germany have given their young people, not only to arrange and organise this year’s gathering for their community but also and, very importantly, get their concerns, and by extension their futures, on to the agenda, be given to young Friends in Britain? This to me, so important – and even existential – matter, is before us Friends.
Maris Vigar
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