Letters - 23 May 2014
From Quaker Friends of Israel to Private Peaceful
Quaker Friends of Israel
Like Sarah Lawson (2 May), some of the members of the Central England Peace Committee felt uneasy about the high-profile Quaker position on Israel, Palestine and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). We agreed that while the sufferings and tribulations of the Palestinians are clear and apparent, as is the imbalance of power in the situation, a more constructive approach might be to support groups which try to bring Jews and Palestinians together, and also to get to know our local Jewish community better – and not just our friends from the Progressive Synagogue.
I attended a meeting of the West Midlands Friends of Israel group and was very warmly received; I hope that in due course (which, of course, may mean years rather than months) it will be possible to raise our concerns with them. I am also at the moment trying to facilitate the request of a Palestinian asylum-seeker to join the local Jewish-Muslim discussion group after he met one of the local rabbis at our house. As Quakers, we are called upon to listen to all sides. It is never helpful to deny the humanity or goodwill of any one group, and while it is understandable that Friends will rally to the support of the perceived underdog, we might also need to exercise greater compassion and imagination in trying to understand the Jewish perspective.
Barbara Forbes
We forget, at our peril, that the Jews and the Palestinians are our brothers and sisters. For Quakers to wade in with punitive measures against one side or the other seems unwise. Questions of the legality of occupation of any piece of nation-sized territory are almost impossible to disentangle, anywhere in the world. Follow up in the Old Testament, and elsewhere, the claim by Abraham’s descendants to the huge land of Canaan and you soon realise that title to land in the Middle East is hopelessly complicated – legally and theologically.
Once some British Quakers formally decided – without sufficient discernment in my opinion – to apply trade sanctions against Israel, it was inevitable that other British Quakers would disagree and plead for a more balanced approach. The tension between Israelis and Palestinians is now being replicated within the Religious Society of Friends. Harsh words are being uttered between Quakers. We should never have got into this position.
There is a strong case to be made that both Isreaelis and Palestinians have some legal title to land in the disputed areas of the Middle East. Checking the source of oranges in your local supermarket is a futile gesture which helps neither side, yet adds to the war of words.
The ideal Quaker way forward is not hostile sanctions against one side or the other but friendly persuasion.
All mankind is kin.
Peter Hancock
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