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Monday, March 07, 2005
Israel-Palestine Conflict Is Called A ‘Human Rights Challenge To Us All'
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Israel-Palestine Conflict Is Called A ‘Human Rights Challenge To Us All'
By DAN PEARSON
Education Reporter
Published on 3/7/2005
Old Lyme — An activist for non-violence said Sunday that peace can be achieved in the Israel-Palestine conflict through a global commitment to human rights. Jeff Halper, a Jewish American who is the coordinating director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, said this is possible because basic human rights both transcend and join diverse religious beliefs.
“If, in the light of day, right in our faces, the (Israeli) occupation wins and almost four million Palestinians are confined and imprisoned behind 26-foot walls, a new apartheid can emerge,” said Halper. “It compromises human rights and makes a mockery of religious values.”
Calling himself as an “engaged anthropologist,” Halper said his group seek peace through nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience to the Israeli Occupation Authorities. The group opposes the demolition of Palestinian homes, settlement expansion, land and water confiscation and a separation/barrier wall. Halper has taught at Haifa and Ben Gurion Universities in Israel.
Halper delivered a sermon called “The Israel-Palestine Conflict: A Human Rights Challenge to Us All” as part of an Interfaith Worship Service Sunday morning at the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme. During his sermon, Halper said two elements “blur the sacred and secular” because they are essential to both religion and human rights: that human dignity must be preserved because humans are created in image of god; and, that humans can distinguish between right and wrong.
Halper said that he stands in front of Israeli bulldozers ready to demolish homes because he is in a “privileged position as a Jew:” Israelis would shoot a Palestinian attempting the same civil disobedience. He said his group also helps Palestinians to reconstruct their homes as a sign of “political solidarity and resistance.”
He said 12,000 homes have been demolished in the occupied territories since 1967. He called on people to oppose the United States sales of arms and bulldozers to Israel and called on Jewish organizations worldwide to oppose occupation and construction of a separation wall.
At a discussion following the service, some criticized Halper's presentation as “biased” because he neglected to address civilians killed by Palestinian suicide bombers or the Israeli proposal to withdrawal from Gaza and four West Bank settlements.
Halper said “any attack on civilians is unacceptable.” But he said terrorism's central place in news coverage illustrates how Israel has been able to “frame” perceptions of the conflict. He said Israel is a nuclear power with U.S. backing “who portrays itself as a victim, when it is not.”
He also said the withdrawal plan was a diversion, meant to “put the peace process in formaldehyde” by drawing attention away from flashpoints and caging Palestinians behind the barrier wall.
Halper also discussed global perceptions Saturday at a retreat at the Voluntown Peace Farm hosted by the Westerly Friends Meeting. The committee is a member of the trust supporting the farm, which is a gathering place for peace advocates.
Halper appeared with representatives from the American Friends Service Committee, who has an international office in Jerusalem and is a partner of Halper's group.
Halper's sermon in Old Lyme comes one month before First Congregational Church will sponsor a Tree of Life Journey to Israel and Palestine with Jews, Muslims and Christians.
“When you think of the enormity of the crisis, you ask, ‘What can we, in New London County do, it can be so overwhelming,” said Imran Ahmed, a member of the Islamic Center of New London who will travel with the group. “But when you think of the ocean, it is made of single drops of water. If communities come together, we can be an ocean.”
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