Justice and peace remain elusive

Patricia Mercer’s account (“Civil Activism can make a difference,” July 13) of her participation in the UN forum marking 50 years of occupation of Palestine (West Bank and Gaza) is both informative and sad.

It is good that the United Church of Canada sponsored her and many others in helping Palestinians and in working for a just peace for both Palestinians and Israelis. If only more Canadian churches, indeed all Christians, were as engaged in justice and peace in the land that gave birth to Christianity nearly 2,000 years ago, and will heed the many calls for truth and justice from Christians there. The latest is from the National Coalition of Christian Organizations in Palestine (NCCOP), representing 34 organizations, meeting in Bethlehem only a month ago.

The NCCOP dates the suffering of the Palestinian people from the Balfour Declaration of 1917 by Britain, then in charge of Palestine, though the Zionist project started well before that. With thousands of lives lost, towns and villages razed, millions of refugees, the suffering continues.

This, in a region with a complex history, home and battleground for numerous peoples over thousands of years, as evident in the Jewish Tora/old Testament. The present State of Israel can soon celebrate 70 years, and is a “fact on the ground.” Earlier independent Jewish states lasted only a few centuries, much less than the Muslim presence in Palestine, now for nearly 14 centuries. As elsewhere in the world, conversions by the peasant population to the faith of the dominant class, whether indigenous or immigrant, must have happened over time throughout history. In any event, by any modern standards, Palestinians, and its Christian communities, have a clear history and rights there.

It is about time all Christian communities, here and elsewhere, open their eyes and hearts to the realities of life in Palestine, supporting, rather than ignoring, the life and work of its Christians.

John Molgaard St. John’s