Israel/Palestine/Lebanon: Combatants for Peace

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As the Lebanese and Israeli people suffer from the horrors of war, what can we say about this catastrophe? How do we make sense of it?

We call it what it is: the insanity of violent conflict.

Yonatan Shapira is a former elite Israeli helicopter pilot, now a refusnik (combat refuser) who recently co-founded Combatants for Peace. He had this to say last week on Democracy Now!:

…We finally understood that we are just part of this circle of mutual violence, circle of revenge. And once you understand that you are part of this circle, you understand that there is [not] much difference between the terror that you are suffering from and the terror that you are involved in. And it’s a very, very hard thing for one to understand and to go through. It involved personal crisis sometimes….

…I have friends [who] are now sitting in shelters and all this kind of stuff. I know the suffering also of my people. But we believe that it’s our obligation now to shout this and to call [to] the world: “If you care about my country, if you care about the Israeli people, as well [as] the Palestinian and the Lebanese who are now suffering, you must put massive pressure on the Israeli government, and putting pressure on the Israeli government means putting pressure on your government.”

Yonatan Shapira of Combatants for Peace

Shapira’s organization, Combatants for Peace, is comprised of former Israeli and Palestinian combatants who have agreed to lay down weapons and work together, nonviolently, “to terminate the occupation and stop all forms of violence” and establish “a Palestinian State alongside the State of Israel…in peace and security.”

One of Shapira’s partners is Bassam Aramim, a Palestinian former Fatah fighter. He had this to say in another Democracy Now! interview:

We have the main principles of our group, our courageous and moral group, first of all to put an end for Israeli military occupation to the West Bank and Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem; to be free from settlers and soldiers and walls and checkpoints; to replacement of killing and bloodshed by peace and reconciliation between the two peoples; to implementation of the two-state solution, living side by side in full cooperation and peace.

And we have an important message in this group. We want to say to the Israelis and to the Palestinians and to all the world that we have a partner. We are partners. And the Israeli government must stop saying that there are no partners, there are nobody to speak or to negotiate with [on] the Palestinian side.

According to Shapira:

…We were all part of the violent struggle of our people, Israelis, as well [as] Palestinians. And we decided a year and a half ago that we have to meet together and find a nonviolent way to struggle against occupation and against the circle of mutual violence, and we found out that these guys have a lot in common with us.

I personally believe that a just peace that recognizes the rights and humanity of everyone in the region is not only possible, it’s a moral imperative.

Resources:

  • Enemy soldiers gather – to strive for peace (Amelia Thoma, Christian Science Monitor, April 6, 2006): Shunned by their respective governments, former Israeli and Palestinian fighters have been meeting in secret, seeking common ground.
  • No to Confiscation, Yes to Community (Michael Nagler, Tal Palter-Palman, Matthew Taylor, PeacePower, Winter 2006): Current Palestinian nonviolent resistance to land confiscation, especially Bil’in.