March 22, 2011

It is not anti-Semitic for a Jewish person, or anyone else, to promote a peaceful solution to the ongoing conflict between the Israeli and Palestinian people, says Mark Braverman, a clinical psychologist who grew up in the conservative Jewish faith and whose has family has deep roots in Israel.

Braverman spoke about the conflict and ways to seek a solution to it before a group this week at the office of the Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Mich.

"I'm doing this out of a love for the Jewish people… It is about social justice," said Braverman, whose specialty as a psychologist has been in crisis management.

His visit to Grand Rapids was part of a winter lecture series focusing on Israeli-Palestinian peace, which already brought Dr. Izzeldine Abuelaish and Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh, experts on what is going on in the area, to speak.

The Monday event at the denominational headquarters was sponsored by Hope Equals, a Holy-Land-peace program of Christian Reformed World Missions, Healing Children of Conflict, an organization that brings children who have been injured in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the US for treatment. Bert DeVries, a Calvin College history professor, is one of the charter members for Healing Children of Conflict.

Until a few years ago, Braverman says, he basically supported the state of Israel's policy toward the Palestinian people. His roots are in the Holy Land and he believed that the state of Israel was ordained by God to exist and to serve the needs and support the beliefs of God's chosen people.

Growing up in the United States, Braverman was reared in the Jewish tradition, studying Bible, Hebrew literature, and Jewish history. "I grew up believing that God protected the state of Israel and that it was the first flowering of our redemption. Our suffering was finally over. This is the last chapter, the promise has been fulfilled," he says.

"In every age, a tyrant, we were taught, was raised up to destroy us. We have a history of being the chosen people and it was our role to survive different attempts to do away with us. We were taught to hate Germany" for what it did in perpetrating the holocaust.

He did not doubt the legitimacy of the state of Israel, formed after World War II, and its right to exist and protect itself when necessary from its enemies.

His entire attitude shifted when he visited Palestinians communities in 2006 and, he says, he was transformed by witnessing the "apartheid-like" occupation of these Palestinian communities by the state of Israel and by encounters with peace activists and civil society leaders from the Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities.

"It was horrible to see what we being done in my name, to see the horrors of the occupation. This really shattered all that I believed," said Braverman.

Every day during his visit he would visit the West Bank and then return at night to stay with relatives in Jerusalem.

On those trips, he saw first-hand the differences between how the Palestinians live – in cramped homes, lacking education, the necessities of life and job opportunities – and how his Jewish relatives lived. They had nice homes, a stable life and a chance to better themselves.

He then encountered the wall being built to separate Israel from Palestinian communities. He says he realized that that wall lived inside of him and that he needed to break it down.

He began to see, he says, how in many ways being Jewish in Israel also meant being a Zionist – someone who promotes and protects the existence of Israel at any cost.

"I started to see that our official state policy in Israel is that there is no difference from Zionism and being a Jew. There is this nationalistic ideology," says Braverman.

In a question and answer session, a man questioned Braverman on the topic of Zionism, saying that he had been taught that Israel was the promised land and it is here that Jesus will return and that that theology takes precedence over political considerations.

Braverman said he disagrees with that approach and says that Jews have not necessarily followed the will of God and that "we've made an idol out of the land." Jesus did not teach that salvation comes from a particular land, but from his teachings and following him, says Braverman.

Since his transformation in 2006, Braverman has worked in many ways, trying to bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians. He has no strong political stance of how a solution ought to be reached. Rather, he envisions one country in which the groups can live in harmony together. "I don't care how they carve up the land, but the borders must be open," he says.

None of this will come quickly or easily and Braverman calls on Christian denominations to play a greater role in seeking peace between Israel and the Palestinians. He offered no easy answers to how peace can be created or the tight bonds between the United States and Israel can be loosened.

But he did say: "We have to be patient and vigilant and keep our eyes on the political ball. The United States needs to develop a new policy on the Middle East. We are accepting things from Israel that we wouldn't accept from many other countries."

Since his trip in 2006, Braverman has devoted himself full-time to the Israel/Palestine conflict. He is a co-founder and Executive Director of Friends of Tent of Nations North America, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting Palestinian land rights and peaceful coexistence in historic Palestine. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions-USA, the advisory committee of Friends of Sabeel North America, and the advisory council of the Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace. He is a charter member of American Jews for a Just Peace.

He is also the author of Fatal Embrace, in which he shows how the Jewish quest for safety and empowerment and the Christian endeavor to atone for centuries of anti-Semitism have united to suppress the conversations needed to bring peace.

"I don't see how the current situation is sustainable. Israel is living in a bubble, believing that it can solve its problems by making the wall go higher," he says. "Although I don't know how or when we will get there, we are moving toward a tipping point."

In an informal talk the next day at CRC office in Grand Rapids, U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, who serves West Michigan in Congress and has roots as a Palestinian Christian, said: "I am very concerned about the Palestinian-Christian issue. My father is a refugee, forced from his home in 1948."

He said that it is important that people across the country, as well as in Congress, realize that many Palestinians are Christians and not members of the Islamic faith. This is the area in which Christ was born.

Key to addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is for people, including members of the Christian Reformed Church, to educate the public about the realities of life in countries such as Israel and in Palestinian communities.

For him, he said, he would like to see a two-state solution to the ongoing conflict. But he emphasized that education is key.

"There does not seem a good understanding in Congress that not everyone in the Middle East is Muslim," he said.

Christian Reformed Church News Service