Loving Your Enemy
2007 July
The town of Sderot (pronounced “Ster-ot”), one-half mile northeast of the Gaza Strip, has been the favorite target of Islamic Jihad. In the past four years, several thousand Qassam rockets have hit Sderot, killing ten, wounding many more, and traumatizing thousands.
Christian Peacemaker Teams has been having a vigorous internal debate about the wisdom of working in, or at least visiting, Sderot. My Friend John Lynes’ contribution to the debate (2007 July 16) is both striking, and useful:
“I’m not a particularly loving person, but I have learnt that the only certain effect of loving your enemies is to infuriate your friends (including long-suffering team-mates). Jesus, living under Roman occupation and addressing a Palestinian audience, did not preach, “Seek ye first the end of the Occupation”. Maybe we too are called to accept the consequences of loving our enemies, which will certainly include being misunderstood.
“I’d also suggest that a team in Sderot could have a distinct, if small, chance of reducing violence. Maybe hotheads in Gaza would be less inclined to fire rockets if their friends were at the receiving end?
“Some peacemakers are called to be “prophets”, some are called to be “reconcilers”. CPT needs both. Reconcilers will always be a minority. That’s OK. So thanks, Sean, for being a faithful prophet. I’ll carry on trying to be a reconciler.”
The knot of fear and hatred that has tied the peoples of Israel and Palestine into conflict is immensely complex and deep. I have given some thought to the question of how to begin to untie and unravel this knot. When my friend Sean worries that “publishing press releases about rocket attacks in Sderot would contribute to the (Israeli) narrative”, I wish to disagree. We would publish both narratives, and ask our readers to embrace both peoples, and to break out of the trap of power and domination.
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