Two Traumatized Communities Collide
Decades ago I became haunted by a question: When does a war end? The suffering of refugees and veterans endures long after and far away from the hell of war. If not faced, the trauma passes from one generation to the next. Since 1948, Jews traumatized by Europe’s pogroms have traumatized Palestinians, who have further traumatized Israelis. I am devastated by the horrors unleashed on October 7, 2023. It is difficult to say anything at all. But silence can be complicity.
I’ve always loved Proverbs 29:18, which can be translated “Without vision, the people perish,” or “the people run wild.” In a recent post from Rabbi Marc Gopin, who has worked for peace and reconciliation in the Middle East for decades, he laments that almost no one is envisioning, let alone building, a new reality. If we continue to run wild, annihilationists on both sides may gain power and influence.
Tessa Bielecki, at right, stands with Machsom Watch in Jerusalem.
I find consolation in the vision of Rabbi Tirzah Firestone’s Wounds into Wisdom: Healing Intergenerational Jewish Trauma. She cites many examples of people who have recovered from trauma and proposes seven principles of healing. The fourth, “Resisting the Call to Fear, Blame, and Dehumanize,” goes a long way toward creating a vision that may guide us through this murderous chaos toward a Promised Land of healing, transformation that “eye has not seen,” but for which we groan in travail.
Hope for Healing and Wisdom
I was heartened by Nicholas Kristof’s recent New York Times article, “Meet the Champions of Nuance and Empathy We Need.” He describes the work of Parents Circle–Family Forum. They bring together Israelis and Palestinians who have lost children to the violence that has persisted since 1948.
In 2007 Tessa and I met two men whose lives were shattered by the loss of family members and then set on a path to healing through the Parents Circle. Guy was a Jewish Israeli who had served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Omar was a Muslim Palestinian physician. Omar’s father was killed in 1972 by the IDF. Later Israel demolished his home and he lived in a refugee camp. Then his brother was killed by the IDF and Omar spent twenty years in exile in Jordan. Guy’s sister was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber. Both men became completely disillusioned with all forms of violence. (Read my longer account of our 2007 trip to Israel.)
Firestone notes the healing power of this group as she recounts the story of Rami Elhanan, an Israeli whose daughter Smadar was killed by a suicide bomber in 1997. You can read an expanded version of his story in Colm McCann’s novel Apeirogon. It includes the tragic tale of Rami’s close Palestinian friend Bassam Aramin, whose ten-year-old daughter Abir was killed by the Israeli military.
Amid all the shock and discouragement, I was consoled to learn about Standing Together, a grass roots movement in Israel dedicated to uniting smaller groups into a mass movement of people who “support peace and oppose the occupation, … support equality and oppose racism, … support social justice and oppose rule by wealth.” Two of their leaders, Sally Abed and Alon-Lee Green recently visited the United States’ East Coast. They spoke with NPR and received coverage from the New York Times. They see the path forward as “one in which millions of Israelis and Palestinians would remain on the land they each call home, and one that would require enough popular political will to demand peace, according to the Times.
The vision that may help transform this nightmare will arise from people like Gopin and Firestone, Omar and Guy, Rami and Bassam, Abed and Green. In the meantime, we pray that “the dawn from on high will shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:78-79).
Thank you for writing this. Visions of peace and another reality are sorely lacking from our world leaders, and even many spiritual leaders. I’m feeling very alone in my wishing for a different way forward. I appreciate this so much. Violence is never the answer.