A Voice of Reason for Palestinians

BY SANDRA WHITEHEAD

An AFSC staff member in Gaza with Palestinian refugees in 1949 (Photo: AFSC)

At their last stop on a seven-city American book tour, two Palestinian authors spoke about the “on-going nakba,” an Arabic word meaning “catastrophe,” referring to the destruction of the Palestinian homeland that began in 1948.

“We relive it every day,” Yousef M. Aljamal told the Milwaukee audience.

The American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization, solicited writers from Gaza to contribute to “Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire” (Haymarket Books, 2022), an anthology published last August to raise awareness of the 2 million Palestinians living under Israel’s more than 15-year military blockade of the Gaza Strip. The AFSC organized the book tour to bring some of its authors to meet Americans face-to-face.

“Palestinian stories need to be heard!” exclaimed Jennifer Bing, director of the organization’s Palestine Activism Program. “Without that connection, there’s no empathy. And with no empathy, there’s no hope for anything getting better.”

Quakers have championed Palestinians since 1948, when the UN asked Quaker volunteers to manage the influx of Palestinian refugees into Gaza. They set up housing, food stations, clinics and schools. At the end of the war, these volunteers tried to accompany Palestinian refugees back to their homes. Zionist militias fired on Quakers and Palestinians alike.

What started as humanitarian work soon shifted into advocacy.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning AFSC’s “long-term goal was repatriation of the refugees, and conciliation and coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians,” writes Nancy Gallagher in her book “Quakers in the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict: The Dilemmas of NGO Humanitarian Activism” (The American University in Cairo Press, 2007).

The organization’s license to operate in Gaza, as well as its Palestinian staff onsite, give it the means to do humanitarian work. “But we’re not interested in Band Aid® solutions,” Bing stated. “It’s not a humanitarian crisis; it’s a political crisis.” SECURING PEACE WITH JUSTICE “Quakers oppose war — all wars,” she explained. “But I was always taught instead of just saying, ‘I’m not going to pick up a gun,’ it’s our duty to take away the occasion for war, to address the underlying issues that drive people to be violent against one another.”

In 1982, on a university study abroad program in Jerusalem, Bing saw “how U.S. tax dollars funded Israeli settlements and Israeli soldiers. As an American, I had some responsibility for this conflict continuing,” she confessed. “It’s been 40 years and it’s only gotten worse, both for the people there and also in the U.S., being very clearly one-sided and fueling a militaristic approach.”

The Quakers’ long history of relief work, assisting Europe’s Jewish and non-Jewish refugees during World War II, led to a concern with the plight of Palestinians turned into refugees by the 1948 war and to a series of AFSC projects in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, Philip S. Khoury wrote in his review of the AFSC’s 1982 book “A Compassionate Peace: A Future for the Middle East (Journal of Palestine Studies,1983). British Quakers established the Friends School in Ramallah before World War I.

The AFSC’s pamphlet “Search for Peace in the Middle East” (1970) called for an independent Palestinian state, noted Jim Fine, a former Quaker International Affairs Representative and humanitarian worker, and lobbyist with the Friends Committee on National Legislation. “It was a watershed moment for the character of AFSC’s involvement in the conflict,” the product of a Quaker working party that had shuttled among Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Israel and the occupied territories in Jordan to listen and make recommendations. “It was met with a firestorm of criticism, and AFSC paid a heavy monetary price when Jewish contributors canceled their donations.”

A PALESTINIAN AMERICAN AT THE HELM In 2017, the AFSC hired Palestinian American Joyce Ajlouny to lead its global

program. Its general secretary, who has spent much of her life in Ramallah, has an “empathy born of experience,” then AFSC board clerk Phillip Lord told The Philadelphia Inquirer (Nov. 3, 2017).

In the West Bank, she “was exposed to violence, harassment and humiliation,” the Inquirer reported. “A childhood girlfriend was shot. Her husband was detained in the middle of the night by Israeli soldiers.”

“I was born there. I raised my children there,” Ajlouny said in an interview with Israel; and its Gaza Unlocked (https:// gazaunlocked.org/) campaign.

Its No Way to Treat a Child campaign succeeded in having three bills introduced to Congress to ensure that no federal funds go toward the detention of Palestinian children. By the time the third bill was introduced, the organization had a coalition of 180 organizations supporting it, including the Jewish Voice for Peace, other faith groups and human rights organizations like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch.

In 1982, on a university study abroad program in Jerusalem, Bing saw “how U.S. tax dollars funded Israeli settlements and Israeli soldiers. As an American, I had some responsibility for this conflict continuing,” she confessed. “It’s been 40 years and it’s only gotten worse, both for the people there and also in the U.S., being very clearly one-sided and fueling a militaristic approach.”

Islamic Horizons. “I’m not a refugee. I never had my house demolished or my trees uprooted, but I know what it is to live under military occupation.

“Just yesterday, a 14-year-old child was shot. Two weeks ago, my dear friends’ 16-year-old was abducted from his home and beaten in front of them. They took him barefoot with his pajamas on.

“Every day there are atrocities against children, against innocent men and women. Israel continues to violate every human right of Palestinians with impunity.”

The organization’s “strong stand on Palestine, its compelling work on the ground and advocacy in the U.S.” attracted Ajlouny. “I want to be clear. They were already doing this work—none of it is because of me,” she said. Nevertheless, she is proud of its record.

She pointed to the Israeli Military Detention: No Way to Treat a Child (https:// nwttac.dci-palestine.org/) campaign, which the AFSC co-leads with Defense for Children International-Palestine; AFSC’s Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against

“Palestinian rights advocacy groups abandoned D.C. politics for a while,” Ajlouny observed. “It’s very hard to infiltrate that space. But we found partners in Congress, and this work is succeeding more than we could imagine.”

Two years ago, AFSC and partners launched No Dough for the Occupation. The BDS campaign called on General Mills to stop manufacturing Pillsbury products on stolen Palestinian land. In June, General Mills announced it divested its Israeli business altogether, selling its stake in its Israeli subsidiary and ending production of Pillsbury products in an illegal settlement.

Gaza Unlocked “lifts Palestinian voices to the general public and to decision makers,” Aljouny noted. In 2019, the campaign organized a U.S. speaking tour for Gaza writer and peace activist Ahmed Abu Artemah, one of the founders of the Great March of Return.

“That tour opened up Americans’ hearts and also impacted him,” Bing recalled. “He went back to Gaza with a whole new perspective about solidarity with other struggles in America.”

When the Covid-19 pandemic halted plans to bring other Palestinians to the U.S., Bing’s colleague Jehad Abusalim suggested bringing voices from Gaza in an anthology, and “Light in Gaza” was born.

SUCCESS IN SOLIDARITY “In the past four to five years, the solidarity community has managed to link the dots, realizing the intersections of the struggles in our world,” Ajlouny said. “We did not just look at the military occupation of Palestine, but also [at] other oppressions in the world — the prison industrial complex, militarization of borders, systemic racism and others — and how corporations are profiting from them.

“Many mainline Protestant denominations have already passed divestment resolutions. They’re asking, ‘What’s next?’

“We plan to build energy around an anti-apartheid movement,” Ajlouny continued. “The goal is to have 200 faith communities pledge to join the ‘Apartheid Free Community’ and take action through boycotts, divestment initiatives and educational activities.”

What exists now between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River “is apartheid,” Fine said. Attitudes in the U.S. today remind him of the decades before the Civil Rights movement, “where awareness of the repression, injustice and inequality existed in some quarters but was not widespread enough.

“We are doing things that need to be done — challenging injustices, calling out human rights violations, supporting BDS against companies that profit from the occupation, building awareness and the conviction that the status quo is unacceptable, and forming alliances with contentious Jewish groups, of which there are many,” said Fine. “There are many groups working to challenge injustice. One of the things that makes me optimistic is the community of Jews, Muslims and Christians who are essentially on the same side.”

And young Palestinian Americans “who aim to change U.S. policies and are well connected with other movements that bring a justice frame to the conversation,” added Ajlouny. ih

Sandra Whitehead is an author, journalist and long-time adjunct instructor of journalism and media studies in the Diederich College of Communication, Marquette University, Wis.

BY JIMMY E. JONES

God proclaims, “O you who believe! Stand out firmly for God as witnesses to fair dealing and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just, [for] that is next to piety, and fear God, for God is well-acquainted with all that you do” (5:8).

Exactly 78 days after I was born in Baltimore, feminist Alma Bridwell White died on June 26, 1946, in Zarephath, N.J. While not well known, her biography reflects the racially toxic times into which I was born.

As a feminist. she was likely involved in the effort to gain American women the constitutional right to vote; it was ratified on Aug. 18, 1920. In this, the 21st century, we usually find feminists involved with other inclusive progressive movements. But this wasn’t the case with Alma White. As co-founder and ultimately bishop of the Pillar of Fire community of 61 Christian churches, she was indeed a progressive trailblazer as the first female bishop in the U.S.

Unfortunately, this legacy is tainted by her antisemitism, anti-Catholicism, nativism and racism. Much of her xenophobia was evident in her radio broadcasts over her two radio stations and her alliance with the infamous Ku Klux Klan, about which she wrote three supportive inflammatory books: “The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy (1925), “Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty” (1926) and “Heroes of the Fiery Cross” (1928).

While speaking at a Klan gathering (as she often did) during a 1929 “Patriotic Day” camp meeting, she preached a sermon entitled “America: The White Man’s Heritage.” In the version of this sermon published in “The Good Citizen,” one of her 10 periodicals, she stated, “This is white man’s country by every law of God and man and was so determined from the beginning of Creation. Let us not therefore surrender our heritage to the sons of Ham [black people].”

In the same sermon, she advocated the repeal of the Fifteenth Amendment, which granted African American men the right to vote. Meanwhile, further north at what was to become one of my alma maters, from 1921 until 1938 Yale University served as the headquarters for the American Eugenics Society (AES), which was dedicated to educating the populace about the genetic basis of social problems. This elitist approach was used by Nazi Germany in its attempt to exterminate the Jews.

This world, influenced greatly by the likes of Alma White, the KKK and the AES, was the one into which I was born on April 9, 1946. Despite such racial animus, which, according to the Equal Justice Initiative, caused more than 4,000 African Americans to be lynched across 20 states between 1877 and 1950, we, as Muslims, are still called on to “Be Just.”

BE QURANIC Verse 4:1 states, “O humanity! Reverence your Guardian-Lord, who created you from a single person, created, of like nature, his mate, and from them twain scattered (like seeds) countless men and women. Reverence God, through whom you demand your mutual (rights), and (reverence) the wombs (that bore you), for God ever watches over you.”

Being just under such circumstances is extremely difficult. We, as human beings, are prone to lash out emotionally and seek revenge against those who have wronged us. This thought pattern is often manifested in what I call the post-victimization ethical exemption (PVEE) syndrome. Much like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), its impact is often subtle yet powerful. Many of those affected by either condition are unaware that they have it or, if they are aware, when or how they got it. The PVEE syndrome gives those who have it a proverbial “pass” when it comes to being fair and just to members of groups who have oppressed “their people” — or worse.

When one talks to such people, one will find that their unethical position is the result of “their people” being or having been victimized by one or more groups. This is the Golden Rule turned on its head: “Do bad to others because they or someone else did something bad to you and/or ‘your people.’” Such persons often defend, rationalize or minimize the most outrageous attitudes held and/or acts carried out by themselves or members of “their group.”

In several places, among them 30:22 and 49:13, the Quran prohibits such attitudes and actions. Unfortunately, many of us who profess to follow Islam take on the language, attitudes and actions of the larger society to “fight fire with fire.” Consequently, we see many Muslims going beyond the bounds when it comes to fighting prejudice inside or outside the Muslim community. According to the Quran, we must always stand for justice in all circumstances and with all people (see 4:135). Therefore, we should not employ tactics that objectify and/or demonize members of other groups. A prime Quranic example is the story of Prophet Moses (‘alayhi as salam), the most frequently mentioned prophet in the Quran. Throughout his encounters with Pharoah, he was steadfastly respectful while always insisting on putting God first. Thus, when it comes to supporting modern movements like Black Lives Matter (BLM), Muslims should always remember Moses’s example. In other words, “BLM” should also mean “Be Like Moses.” Essentially, in all cases, no matter how oppressive, we are called to be Quranic in our approach.

BE COLLABORATIVE Verse 2:148 states, “To each is a goal to which God turns him [her]; then strive together (as in a race) toward all that is good. Wheresoever you are, God will bring you together, for God has power over all things.”

The Prophet’s (salla Allahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) hijra from Makka to Yathrib (the future Madina) changed not only the Muslim community, but the history of the world. Whether you call yourself a Muslim or not, the conquest of Makka and subsequent events led to what the 2000 PBS three-part documentary called “The Empire of Faith.” Historically speaking, Islam’s profound impact on world history, politics and economics continues to this day. Any unbiased intellectually honest observer has to affirm this fact.

On this topic of navigating Muslim cultures and identities, the Prophet’s seera is very instructive in several important ways.

First, the communities that formed around