The peace process that works

Think of Israel and what comes to mind? Whatever images the word 'Israel' may conjure up, the picture of Jews and Arabs breaking bread and worshipping together will probably not be among the first.

How can people who are poles apart politically in a land torn by bitter strife find any common ground for friendship and reconciliation? What can bring together the members of two communities, who from childhood learn to distrust each other?

It is almost ten years since Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat shook hands on the White House lawn. Since that historic moment violence in the Middle East has escalated, the death toll in Israel and the Palestinian Authority has increased, Jewish bodies have been blown apart with sickening regularity and attitudes on both sides of the conflict have hardened.

Politicians of all stripes, including our own Prime Minister, can conceive of no solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict other than a political one. But by now it should be evident to all that a political solution, however desirable, is not practical. You can't please all the people on all sides, and ink on legal documents can no more change attitudes than pouring sugar into the sea can sweeten the oceans. Nevertheless, behind the scenes in Israel, a peace process is at work that the international media and politicians on all sides would do well to consider.

Political polarisation

There are an estimated 5,000 Jewish Christians, or Messianic Jews, living in the state of Israel and up to twice that number of Palestinian Christians. Traditionally, Jewish believers have been strongly Zionistic. They are loyal to the state, pay their taxes and serve in the armed forces, participating in tours of duty to trouble spots. Arab Christians on the whole identify themselves as Palestinians and share the aspirations of their neighbours for an independent, sovereign Palestinian state.

According to Canon Naim Ateek, 'Since 1976 there has been an awakened consciousness among the Arabs in Israel. This can be called their "Palestinianisation". They have rediscovered and revivified their root.' The Intifada intensified that process and contributed to a conflict with, and reversal of, the previous 'Israelisation' of Arabs living in Israel. Lisa Loden, a Messianic Jewish believer living in Netanya, observed: 'The Intifada strained the tenuous fabric of the relationships between Palestinian Christians and Messianic Jews. Suddenly there was an atmosphere of conflict and violence that required a response. Should Jewish believers serve in the military in the West Bank and Gaza? How does the Palestinian Christian relate to an occupying presence?'

Lisa continued: 'At the same time as Israeli Arabs (including the Christians) began feeling solidarity with their Arab brothers in the West Bank, many Messianic Jews were being drawn to the political right, this because of the dominant understanding of Messianic Jews in regard to eschatology and the divine promise of Israel's place in the land of Israel. All too often the nationalistic aspirations of both parties in the Arab Israeli conflict have sabotaged God's grand design of a reconciled community of believers living in harmony.'

People who pray together...

In spite of the difficulties listed by Lisa Loden, over the past 20 years evangelical Christians on both sides of the Israel/Palestine divide have learned to put nationalistic aspirations to one side in the cause of the gospel. According to Israeli pastor Baruch Maoz, Jewish and Palestinian believers 'find their faithfulness to their nations questioned by non-Christians and therefore, by way of a defence, tend to be more radically nationalistic'. Maoz goes on to point out that on both sides there are exceptions, 'where God's Word reigns supreme and (there is) a willingness to go outside the camp, bearing Christ's reproach'.

Examples can be seen in the activities of the Israeli equivalent of the Inter-Varsity Fellowship, which has brought together Jewish and Arab students in universities. Evangelistic campaigns sponsored by the National Evangelism Committee have seen Jewish and Arab believers co-operating together and have resulted in Jews leading Arabs to Christ and vice versa. For several years the King's Kids ministry arm of Youth With a Mission has sponsored joint summer camps and outreaches involving both Messianic Jewish and Palestinian Christian youth.

In the mid-70s a small group of Israeli and Palestinian Christian women began to meet for prayer. The example of the women motivated their husbands to also gather for fellowship. Eventually, an annual family picnic was established and this has led to pulpit exchanges, joint conferences and co-operation in evangelism. Today, between 40 and 60 women from an area stretching from Haifa and Nahariya on the Mediterranean coast, to Nazareth and Tiberias by the Sea of Galilee meet regularly for fellowship, teaching and prayer.

Lisa Loden observes that the 'Jewish and Palestinian believers who remained involved with each other unanimously testify to the mutual benefit that their contacts have been to them personally and for their two communities. A telling comment made by a Jewish believer after one of the women's meetings in the north of the country was "You made me love Arabs".'

Musalaha (Arabic for 'reconciliation') was founded in 1990 as a vehicle to bring about reconciliation between Arabs and Jews. Since its inception, Musalaha has focused on bringing together mixed groups of Israeli Messianic Jews and Palestinian Christians, with an emphasis on the inclusion of West Bank Palestinian Christians. Musalaha also sponsors teaching seminars on subjects such as peace, conflict resolution and aspects of Palestinian and Jewish culture and mentality. Other activities include women's conferences, youth activities, and theological conferences.

Efforts are being made by other groups and individuals to bridge the gaps between the two communities. The House of Prayer, located on the Mount of Olives, focuses on intercession and brings Arab and Jewish leaders together in a framework devoted to prayer. The Bethlehem Bible College has a Messianic Jewish believer on the teaching staff and David Loden from Netanya travels weekly to Bethlehem to teach music.

In spite of these encouraging signs of unity, the ability to discuss difficult issues such as justice and peace, the interpretation of prophecy and the divine promises relating to the Land, is still lacking in the relationships between Messianic Jews and Palestinian Christians.

Grace and Truth

At the level of the local churches, there have been significant developments. Arab fellowships in Galilee have hosted Jewish congregations from as far away as Beersheba in the South and Rishon LeTsion on the Mediterranean coast. Relations between the predominantly Jewish Grace and Truth congregation in Rishon LeTsion and an Arab fellowship in Galilee have been particularly warm. The congregations visit each other three or four times a year and during the 1991 Gulf War, after the first Iraqi Scud missiles fell on Rishon LeTsion, the Arab congregation offered to let the entire Grace and Truth church stay with them for the duration of the war.

Elias, the pastor of the Galilee congregation, identifies himself as an Israeli Arab, not as a Palestinian. Unlike many of his Arab Christian brothers, he believes the land belongs to the Jewish people by divine mandate and has a deep concern for the material and spiritual welfare of the Jewish people, particularly immigrants from Russia. He has organised collections of food, clothing and money to help Russian Jews settle in the country. When asked by his neighbours why he is helping Jews, Elias replies that God has put a love for Jewish people in his heart and he wants to express that love in a practical way.

Grace and Truth in turn has sought to cultivate ties with non-Jewish congregations and for a number of years the fellowship has supported a Palestinian orphan at a school near Bethlehem. Though the majority of those who attend the church are Jewish, including many Russian immigrants, there are Arab congregants who play an active role in fellowship activities. One of the Sabbath school teachers is an Arab woman who was at one time the church treasurer (where else but in a Christian church would Jews put an Arab in charge of their money!).

The way ahead

Lisa Loden believes 'there are issues that have potential to perpetuate the long divide between the two peoples but the steps that are being taken are encouraging. Areas of cultural, theological, and political difference stand as obstacles to real relationship. Commonalities between the two groups are also sources of problem and pain. These can be briefly identified as their shared minority role identification, the results of war and survivor mentality, marginalisation from their respective societies on account of their faith and the common tendency to dehumanise and demonise the other side.'

The situation is compounded, Baruch Maoz believes, when Christians in the West adopt a naive, one-sided, pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian stance. Christians abroad should support their Jewish and Arab brothers and sisters in Israel and the Palestinian authority 'above all by prayer and by viewing the news with a greater and more consciously biblical and morally critical attitude'.

In the end, whatever their failings may be, Jewish and Arab believers hold the key to peace in the Middle East. There may be theological and practical problems still to be resolved, but as Christ reigns in their hearts (if not always their heads), Israeli and Arab followers of Messiah show that the only permanent peace is that established through the blood of their Lord.

Mike Moore,
Christian Witness to Israel

© Evangelicals Now - April 2003
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