Terrorism, I believe, is a response of powerlessness. The violence of terror and the violence of oppression are not signs of power. Power does not come out of the barrel of a gun. Power comes, as Hannah Arendt insisted, from people coming together and creating a public space by their collective action.
I did not see the terrorism of suicide bombers or of rocket attacks on Israel, but I heard of the fear it instills and I saw the military preparedness that Israel belives necessary for its survival.
I also heard the frustration of many Palestinians who feel oppressed, but most of those I met proposed nonviolence as the way to confront the injustices they experienced and as the way to help construct a strong civil society. I remember vividly the discussion I had with a Palestinian family on nonviolence.
I only hope that the voices in Israel and Palestine that speak for justice and nonviolence are not drowned out by those who think, wrongly I believe, that violence as the way to peace.
* * *
The
Israeli Jews seek peace with security,
and the Palestinians seek peace with justice.
Palestinians must come to acknowledge Jewish fear and
need for security,
while Israeli Jews must recognize
that
the only authentic security for them is through justice
to the Palestinians.
Naim Ateek, Anglican priest
founder of Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center,
Jerusalem