"It's a miracle that the Palestinians are so nonviolent in spite of the
abuse we live with on a daily basis. If you lived here every day you would get
fed up too. The world assumes it is the Palestinians who are the violent ones,
but nonviolence is who we are. If you operate in a system of violence you will
also be violent when you go home.
"Palestinians who throw stones-and many think that is ok, but I say why do
that? One day you will throw stones at Palestinians too and that is exactly
what happened in Gaza, but the reason is the occupation! Where do you think
Hamas learned to torture? In Israeli prisons from their captors!
"There is no way to end the violence without first ending the occupation.
"Our Palestinian government was boycotted
for a year and a half by America and the EU: this is violence! As long as the
violence is exercised against us that is OK with the world. When the
Presbyterians talked divestment the Zionist rose up and said 'you can't do
that!'
"I started interfaith dialogue in 1985 because Christians should not be
islands and you don't dialogue just with yourself, you must dialogue with the
other and the biggest temptation for the church is to stay within their walls
and only be dedicated to their own members; which leads to a dead church. We
are called to go out, and we do not just preach with words, people here are fed
up with words; they hear one thing and see another with their eyes.
"They hear peace, peace, peace and for 85 years the politicians have been
working for peace and the situation gets worse. Blair, and all the politicians
are into PR for themselves; they do nothing for our situation. Blair got
himself a good job marketing himself and he will come and go and Israel will
continue building the wall, settlements and carving the West Bank into Swiss
cheese; Israel gets the cheese and we Palestinians fall into the holes!
"Fifty million American dollars went to build the checkpoints to 'make our
lives easier' we were told, but these checkpoints and terminals are not for
people, they are for cattle!
"We have too much religion and it suffocates us! If God would speak today
he would say, 'I am fed up with your religion!' The more religion there is; the
less spirituality."
Religion has been used to divide people but spirituality connects all.
The first mention of Israel in the Bible is in Genesis 32, when Jacob wrestled, struggled and then clung to the Divine being and was then renamed Israel.
This Christian Anarchist Buddhist with a dose of dervish contends that anyone who also struggles and clings to the Ultimate Mystery of the Universe that we call God for a lack of a better word, is Israel too- for Israel is not just a man made 20th century piece of real estate.
Sources:
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Anglican-Bishop-of-Jerusalem%E2%80%99s-visa-revoked-20875.html
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