kar0ling

 This letter comes from Kairos with additions from me. Sign your own version here Israel’s blockade is pushing Gazans deeper into famine. On May 20, you joined leaders from Britain and France in stating that “the level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable,” promising further action if Israel failed to halt its offensive and lift restrictions on aid. You have since made similar public statements and promises with other countries and allies, stating that you are prepared to take further action. We welcome your words and intentions. But where are the actions? An ultimatum means nothing when it is not followed up on. You cannot keep using “strong words” with no action and think history will absolve you of complicity in war crimes. The bombardment, displacement, blocked aid and the deaths of civilians – desperate for food and water – continues.  Now is the time for action, including the use of all  diplomatic, political, and economic measures to: Secure an imme...

I’m getting pretty tired of not being able to read the news without an urgent need to write a letter to at least one if not several levels of government regarding the wrongheadedness of their pursuits.  Today, at least, I got a little encouragement. PM Carney’s office replied to me regarding *one* of my messages, assuring me it had been read. Of course, it was the one where I thanked them for deciding to recognize Palestine and stayed mostly in the realm of positivity.  So *I* replied:

Another form letter adjusted with my own sentiments added. Click here to send your own, either as is or comments added . 

To the 20 (re-elected) Liberal MPs who signed the Vote Palestine platform.  You signed the Vote Palestine platform.   The time to fulfill your pledge is now.  Gaza is facing mass starvation. This isn’t food scarcity. This is intentional blockage of food as a tool of genocide. Canada’s joint statement with 25 other nations called on all the parties to “uphold the obligations of international humanitarian law.”  But Israel has been flagrantly violating multiple obligations of international law almost daily since October 8, 2023 and certain on every day since Canada’s statement was released. There is no need to wait, to give Israel the benefit of the doubt to do the right thing.  “We are prepared to take further action”, the statement reads. So do it.  Canada must immediately impose a true arms embargo on Israel – a two-way arms embargo – and it must actually put it into force and close all loopholes.  Canada must immediately levy sancti...

 A letter to the organizers: While Russia is carrying out unprovoked war against Ukraine, Folklorama is eschewing holding a Russian pavilion, even though such a display is about 100s of years old Russian culture, not today's regime led by Putin. That's a fair and compassionate decision.  So why is the Israeli pavilion allowed to continue without any censure while Israel commits war crimes condemned by the International Court of Justice? *Jewish* culture is thousands of years old but it's not a Jewish pavilion, it's an explicitly *Israeli* pavilion. It's celebrating the state that is committing genocide. It's celebrating settler colonialism that is going on to this very day. Why are you allowing the Israeli pavilion to continue?

 How many times can they make utterly meaningless, toothless "strongly worded" statements and keep doing nothing while hundreds die from Israeli violence each day and hundreds more quietly slip away from starvation? Dear Minister Anand and others If you are truly "prepared to take action" to respond to the suffering of civilians in Gaza, the time to do so was more than a year ago. The time to do so was the day after your May statement when it was obvious there was no "if", but Israel would continue its actions unabated. The time to do so is now.  There is no need to wait and see. We know Israel is ignore this statement as it did every other one.  You will not escape the charge of genocide for having made these "strongly worded" statements accompanied by no meaningful action.  You must enforce ​ a two-way embargo now. You must use all the means within your power to get food into Gaza now.  There is no time to wait.  No more meaningless word...

Famine is not a natural disaster -- it is caused by political decisions. Gaza is already in a medical crisis due to bombed hospitals and blocked supply chains, it's already in a humanitarian crisis from relentless bombing turning entire cities into rubble and now it is in crisis due to starvation. Famine.  I saw the outline of the synagogue in Heidelberg (destroyed on Krystallnacht) today, and I walked past gold blocks on the sidewalk marking the homes of Jewish people who perished in the Nazi era. What are these memorials doing if not urging us not to stand idly by as atrocities happen again to a group that has been dehumanized? Mr Carney and Ms Anand, I wrote you the letter below back in May when you came out with a joint statement opposing Israel's military operations in Gaza.  It is long past time to stand up and do something about it.  The Hague Group has already done so. The Western nations no longer have any claim to moral high ground on international...

Dear PM Carney, In a recent interview you told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour “what’s needed is a Zionist Palestinian state.” Sir, Zionism is what is wrong with the existing Israeli state: it’s not even possible to have a Palestinian state if it’s “Zionist.” Why would you make recognizing Palestinians’ inherent right to self determination based on their accepting the supremacist ideology that has dispossessed them? How would that be any different than the situation that currently exists? As Craig Mokhiber noted in response to your comment, “calling for a ‘Zionist Palestinian state’ is like calling for a ‘Nicotine-based cure for cancer’ or a ‘Ku klux klan civil rights bill.’”  I beg of you to reconsider what I shall generously assume to be ignorance-driven poorly chosen words. It’s high time Canada get serious about Palestine. For years, Liberal governments have been pledging support for “a two-state solution” meanwhile refusing to recognize one of said states. If you have no intent...

Re: Joint statement on Gaza Dear Mr Carney and Ms Anand First of all, congratulations to you both on your election to Parliament. Mr Carney, thank you for the beautiful words of your acceptance speech, touting humility above all else and your desire to “fight for” all Canadians (although I might suggest “ govern for” is both more accurate and less adversarial in framing). Thank you for your joint statement with the leaders of the UK and France. Thank you for “strongly oppos[ing] Israel's military operations in Gaza.” Thank you for denouncing the “wholly inadequate” trickle of food aid. Thank you for “denouc[ing] the denial of essential humanitarian assistance as “unacceptable.” Please note that it does not merely “risk breaching international humanitarian law” but has clearly already done so. Thank you for the call to release the Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity. Please note that should have been accompanied by a demand to release the Palestinian hostages in Israeli “adm...

I met Jesus in Israel-Palestine a few years ago. I found him not in the rocky, desert ground he trod, nor in the ancient stones of the towns and cities he visited; not in the subterranean grotto in the Church of the Nativity, nor in the mammoth Church of the Holy Sepulchre, encompassing the traditional site of his death and resurrection. No, I met him in the lives of Palestinians who incarnate his spirit, in humble, passionate people who are convinced that love is the only way. I met Jesus in people who spoke like this: “We need to be soaked in the love of Christ. Love is not a hug and a kiss. Love is to seek the life of the other that the cost of one’s own.” --Labib Madanat, coordinator of the Palestinian and Israeli Bible Societies “Love is not an opportunity to overlook justice. Love is an opportunity to pursue justice…. [But] we want to resist any form of evil with the heart and mind of Jesus Christ.… There is no love without justice. And there is no true justice without lov...

In northern Manitoba this weekend, I was struck by the ubiquity of water in this province compared to the paucity in Israel. As we drove from our campsite to Thompson to get a backcountry camping permit for our planned two-day hike, my friend, looking at a GPS, nonchalantly noted that a lake lay concealed by trees on either side of the highway as we drove. It brought to mind Israelis' and Palestinians' pride at their small but woefully over-fished Sea of Galilee and unique but rapidly disappearing Dead Sea. We take our water for granted in Manitoba. In our province with an area of 649,950 km, 101,593 km is water surface, according to Travel Manitoba. That means (if my math is right) about 17% of the surface is covered by water. Whereas according to Wikipedia, the area of Israel (not including the Occupied Territories) is 20,770 square kilometres, with 445 square kilometers of water surface -- about 2%. And since the Sea of Galilee is a mere 166 square kilometres, a good portio...

The day of visiting Passion Week sites left me strangely passionless, and I'm not sure why. We saw a lot in one day, but it all followed one after another, so there was no confusion. There were plenty of tourists, to be sure (always an irritation), but fewer than expected (and I could hardly complain, being one of them). At each site, we received both religious and historical accounts -- of which I often found the latter more compelling. No, I wonder if it comes back to pilgrimage, and my unfamiliarity with it. The moments of transcendence, the moments when my soul was lifted to praise God had more to do with the beauty of the unfamiliar architecture and vibrant tropical foliage I saw than with a connection to standing in the spot where Jesus stood. It occurs to me that I should be excited to stand/take pictures "in the very place where..." because it is a connection with the Jesus of history -- an important part of my belief. For it is not enough that Jesus be fully G...

Throughout the tour, as I heard over and over again about violence, injustice, and oppression, I wondered, in what areas and to which people are my actions oppressive? Where am I oblivious to the injustice I support? As a first-class member of one of the most privileged societies in the world, I find it unlikely I can claim immunity from having perpetuated violence on anyone.

The irony is that both Jews and Palestinians are the best placed to understand each other's persistence: both cling tenaciously -- irrationally, perhaps -- to their devotion to the land. But at what cost? A constant deadlock in negotiations where either side refused to budge, to make concessions? At the loss of multiple family members? And what about the damage to the land itself? It seems both groups have allowed the land to be degraded simply for the sake of holding on to it. I appreciated the settler who spoke to our group for his willingness to share his perspective with a folks he surely anticipated may be unsympathetic, if not hostile to it. As the many Palestinians we spoke to put a human face on their story of the conflict, so this settler put a human face on that particular Israeli faction -- the desire for a peaceful and meaningful place to raise a family, the desire to practice one's religion without difficulty. The conversation also offered a glimpse into how throug...

The tour leader directed us to ponder "servant power" in contrast to Herod's imperial might as we visited Herodium, the magnificent palace by the noted first-century builder, Herod the Great, also the chosen site of his mausoleum. Political might is undeniably a force to be reckoned with, while true servants wielding the awesome power of God are hard to find, and often found in a hard place. But as we gazed upon the excavations of Herod's splendor, buried for more than a thousand years (his tomb only unearthed in the past year or two), and heard how there remains no trace -- on the mount, anyway -- of his architectural garnishes (marble steps, columns), I couldn't help but think of Shelley's "Ozymandias." ("...And on the pedestal these words appear:`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!' Nothing beside remains...." ) Herod matches his enormous hubris and his vanished empire. Then I consider t...

My post on May 2, "Some stories from the city of David," and this entry spring from the same set of experiences. I'd just heard Bishara Awad speak about how the worldwide church needs to stand with Palestinian Christians and I felt convicted to use my platform to speak to the MB church in Canada. Is it overly grandiose, I asked myself, feeling the answer was likely yes -- and no -- to believe that I might be on the study tour, one last application slipped in after the closing date, "for such a time as this"? How can I not do my part in showing concern and solidarity with Palestinian brothers and sisters in Christ by taking their struggle to my captive audience? In the time that has passed, I have actually done so, with much procrastination, trepidation, and early morning writing (you'll find my "Viewpoint" in the July Herald ). But Awad's presentation raised other questions that weren't so inspiring. To what degree should the West take resp...

Very early on in the tour, I was struck by the international variety of the tour groups we encountered as we visited the sites significant to Christians. I was ashamed to find myself surprised that on many days none of the other groups we encountered were English-speaking. What made me think North Americans are the only ones to take a "pilgrimage" to the region? Did I subconsciously think we are the only Christians in the world? I was truly delighted to mark the diversity of nationality among the pilgrims at every stop along the journey. There were French-speaking groups, Indians, Nederlanders, groups from African countries, Italians, Spanish-speaking groups, Russians, groups from South-East Asian countries -- the list goes on. There, in the "Holy Land," was a small picture of heaven.

"I'm surprised there aren't more suicide bombers." I acknowledge that our tour was heavily biased in favour of a moderate Palestinian perspective; nevertheless, what I saw and heard in a short period of time was a people in a perpetually frustrated and hopeless existence. I was astonished by the capacity of each person who addressed our group to continue, if not always to forgive, at least to seek ways to live peaceably with their Jewish neighbours; by their persistent absorption of discrimination and violence without retaliation. Thus the shocking statement above came to me over and over as we listened. After a day of stories from several people from different demographics and walks of life, I better understood why one would choose to stand in front of a bulldozer. After hearing such litany of indignities, I itched to put my body in the way of continuing the separation wall. To come to the land, to hear the stories and share the pain, to offer our pathetic tourist do...

Initially, my bias on the Israel-Palestine situation was influenced by an overly optimistic story of the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. When the accounts I heard as I began to listen to current news from the region led me to conclude that the State was treating its original inhabitants badly, I assumed it was an aberration, a failure to live up to the good intentions of the founders to live at peace and in equality with their neighbours. To a degree, I blamed Palestinians for the harsh treatment they received at the hands of the State -- after all, one can hardly blame a nation for retaliating against terrorist acts. Yet at the same time, I held the Israel to a higher standard. As a people, having suffered so much, how could they turn around and cause another group to suffer similarly, incited by the same nebulous yet polarizing excuse (race/ethnicity/religion)? If anyone should have a sense of mercy and justice, I thought, oughtn't it be this people who have been so...

Pilgrimage. Is that what I did in Israel-Palestine? It was an easy answer for the border and customs officials asking the know purpose of my visit, accustomed as they are to the ranks of religious in that part of the world. My evangelical-Mennonite soul felt uncomfortable with the word, though. And in all honesty, my main aim in going was not to "walk where Jesus walked," but to see a country that has long fascinated me, and not just because it provides the setting for many of the events of the Bible. Were the tour entitled "See the Holy Land," "In the footsteps of Jesus," or "The land of the Patriarchs," it would hold little appeal for me. But "Ancient Stones, Living Stones"? That caught my attention. I wanted to interact with this convergence of ancient history and current affairs; with the juxtaposition of religious thrill-seekers and present political feuders. And perhaps that's half of what true pilgrimage is -- not only seekin...