Communication Basics

Amid complexity, I return to some communication basics that I learned from a Muslim, Amir Hussain, chair of theological studies at Loyola-Marymount University, suggests how to make interreligious conversation respectful. It applies to political conversation, too. Hussain proposes five guidelines:

1. Find a friend who is a member of a religious community other than your own. (When someone mentions something despicable about another community, I ask, “Wow, that’s bad. Is that what your Muslim/Jewish/Christian friends are telling you?” Too often, the response is, “Well, I don’t have any.”)

2. Don’t assume you already know the other’s beliefs. Listen.

3. Don’t assume the worst of your friend’s community or claim that your friend is responsible, by association, for heinous acts.

4. Know the difference between a religion’s ideals and its real-world situation. (I am Christian, and I believe Christ preached love, forgiveness, and the embrace of the other. But Christians can also be sexual predators, war criminals, or white supremacists.)

5. Engage with your friend’s culture. Talking is good, but go to a movie or listen to music that comes from your friend’s culture.

Communicating about Israel and Palestine is extremely difficult, even between friends. And when the conversation takes place on a national and international level, the above principles may not apply because we hear points of view from people we’ve never met.

The problem with Muslim congressional members’ critique of Israeli policies and AIPAC is that they tap into what sounds suspiciously akin to anti-Semitic rhetoric. So I look to Jewish critics of Israeli policy to guide criticism of Israeli policies without veering into anti-Semitism. Many Jewish critics of Israeli policies object because these policies violate Jewish principles.

Equal Rights?

All of this became more complicated when TV host Rotem Sela exchanged social media posts with Prime Minister Netanyahu in 2019. Sela said she believed that all Israeli citizens, Jews and Arab Muslims and Christians, should have equal rights. The prime minister responded by reminding her that Israel “is the national state, not of all its citizens, but only of the Jewish people,” according to Ruth Eglash, writing for the Washington Post. Even the brave-hearted Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot, sided with Sela.

I trust Rabbi Michael Lerner’s approach to this impossible situation. Lerner is pro-Israel and pro-Palestine. In 2014 he wrote an article in which he mourns “a Judaism being murdered by Israel.” “We have two traumatized peoples here, and… the suffering and fears of each must be acknowledged and given empathy if we are ever to transcend the current circumstances.” He notes the disproportion between Israel’s military power and the Palestinians’ crushing poverty and insists that Israel “has the greater responsibility to show compassion.”

Love or domination?

Lerner also notes that “most of humanity has always heard a voice inside themselves telling them that the best path to security and safety is to love others and show generosity, and a counter voice that tells us that the only path to security is domination and control over others.”

When I was in Israel in 2007 I was surprised by the number of Israeli organizations that criticize their government’s policies. I recommend visiting ICAHD (Israeli Committee Against House Demolition), B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, Gush Shalom and Rabbis for Human Rights.

Is concern over Israeli policies any of my business? I’m tempted to say that Israelis and Palestinians need to work it out. But I recently became a taxpayer after thirty years of tax-exempt monastic life. I try to be conscientious. Rabbi Abraham Heschel said that in a democracy some are guilty and all of us are responsible. It is difficult to understand that the United States gave Israel $10.5 million dollars per day for military aid in fiscal year 2018, and cut off funds to UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

Palestinian violence against Israel is unacceptable. Since September 29, 2000, 1248 Israelis have been killed in violent encounters with Palestinians. Some of Israel’s neighbors do not recognize Israel’s right to exist. So the United States supports Israel’s right to defend itself. And many supporters of Israel laud its democratic society and economic prowess. But since September 2000, nearly eight times as many Palestinians have been killed. Israel has destroyed 48,448 Palestinian homes since 1967 and created 261 settlements and outposts on Palestinian land.

Face to Face

Face to face encounter is one of the most profound and effective ways to find healing and understanding, while hasty, disrespectful use of electronic media can fan hatred and spread falsehoods. The more distant and abstract the “other” is, the easier it is to create a caricature.

It’s heartening then that J Street, “the political home of pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans,” promotes “organized trips to Israel that include meetings with both Israelis and Palestinians and that show participants how the occupation impacts daily life in the West Bank.” Tessa Bielecki and I participated in such a trip in 2007, sponsored by Sabeel and Friends of Sabeel North America, who strive to instill “the Christian faith in the daily lives of those who suffer under occupation, violence, injustice, and discrimination” and seek “justice and peace… through nonviolent advocacy and education.” We met Palestinians and Jews who had become friends, often because of losing loved ones in violent outbreaks since 1948.

Now Jews, Christians, and Muslims are face to face in our House of Representatives. Some Jews lobby to strengthen Israel’s military might and expand settlements while others, like Rabbi Lerner, are brokenhearted by what they consider state idolatry. Some Christians believe God chose Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu to lead and secure the supremacy of Christianity and Judaism in their respective countries. Others believe each religious tradition is “chosen,” and we long for healing between the three People of the Book rather than the “triumph” of one tradition over the others.

My poet friend Luci Shaw shared this poem of hope about a Muslim woman she encountered at her church:

Covering

Her face, oval, framed by
its purple hijab, is a pearl, pale
against the dark silk. Her expression
a question.

Her glance drops, downcast.
Fear or modesty?
But as our eyes meet a slow smile
widens like sun through
clouds. Like turning the final page
in a suspense novel with its
happy ending.