Timothy Stoner

Nationwide Nonviolence Tour: Brown University

Posted on 26. Sep, 2010 by Tim Stoner in Blog, Screening Tour

Our second screening of Little Town of Bethlehem (LTOB) is hosted by Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and is co-sponsored by the University of Rhode Island. In my older more reflective years I’ve secretly wished I’d had the chance and inclination to attend an Ivy League Universtiy so I am vicariously pleased that Brown is one of those elite instituions with greenery growing up the sides of its ancient, granite walls. By the way, for those interested in such things, the Ivy League is comprised of eight private schools in the Northeastern U.S., the most famous of which are the triumverate of Harvard, Princeton and Yale.

Brown was founded in 1764 propr to American independence from the British Empire in the reign of King George III. Brown was originally a Baptist institution but was the first college in the nation to accept students regardless of religious affiliation. Which means that in English terminology it is the first public school in the U.S. It’s motto is In God We Hope. One would think that one cannot go far wrong with that phrase on the mast-head. However, it has gone the way of Harvard, a once strong Calvinist school, that is now thoroughly secular and aggressively anti-theistic.

Tonight we are joined by Teny Gross and Elik Elhanan. Gross is the Director of the Institute for the Study and Practice of Non Violence in Providence, Rhode Island. He is a former Israeli army sergeant.  “My job is not pretty,” he explains, “it’s not sending kids to Harvard, or anything fancy. It’s about keeping kids in this city alive between the ages of 14 and 23.” Elik, a former member of the Israeli military is a co-founder of Combatants for Peace. He is now a PhD student in Middle Eastern studies at Columbia University.

There are around 70 in the audience this evening—again, there are almost as many older folks as students. Our film seems to be attracting a lot of interest among activists who have been working in the peace movements for a long time. Judging by the responses and questions the documentary is a source of great hope and encouragement to them.

Elik is a friend of Yonatan Shapira, one of the film’s subjects. They know each other well since they were both involved in secret meetings in Bethlehem in 2004 between former fighters from both sides interested in nonviolent strategies for peace that became Combatants for Peace. “After brandishing weapons for so many years,” their public mission statement declares, “and having seen one another only through weapon sights, we have decided to put down our guns, and to fight for peace.”

It is their joint conviction that “only by joining forces, will we be able to end the cycle of violence, the bloodshed and the occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people. We no longer believe that it is possible to resolve the conflict between the two peoples through violent means; therefore we declare that we refuse to take part any more in the mutual bloodletting. We will act only by non-violent means so that each side will come to understand the national aspirations of the other side.”

Since he joined the tour late in the game Elik watched LTOB twice in preparation for the panel discussion. During the Q&A he states that his belief that the film “touches on the most crucial aspect in the political reality of our country that continues to be ignored by the major organs of communication.” In his estimation “this film brings a much more precise and accurate depiction of the most important thing taking place in the Middle East.”

Elik, whose 14 year-old sister was killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber, also gave one of the most compelling introductions to the impact of the nonviolence movement in the region. He described it as “a ghost that haunts the Holy Land.” In his estimation, the extreme response of the military “is a testimony to how frightening and terrifying this specter is for the occupying forces.” As a result of their daughter’s death, Elik’s parents joined The Parent’s Circle comprised of Israeli and Palestinian parents who have lost children to the violence

His further comments about the role of violence changed my perception of its role and impact in the conflict. He explained that, contrary to the common perception, “violence is not a problem for the military forces—in reality they welcome it.” He is convinced that it plays into the hands of the occupation forces for it provides direct, irrefutable justification for it. “The violence of the Palestinians is used by the military power to completely excuse its use of violence against them. Therefore, the worst case scenario for the occupier is a mass nonviolent movement which robs it of its plausible use of military might.”

Teny Gross, in an eloquent response to a question about the viability of this strategy to bring peace, stated simply, “Love breaks any walls.” Though a graduate of Harvard, he speaks not from the elevated heights of academia, for he walks the streets of Providence every day among gang members, seeking to create Martin Luther King’s “nonviolent Benevolent Community.”

 He encouraged the audience to resist the societal and emotional pull of apathy and hopelessness. “During the Nazi era,” he explained, “the people who were the most significant were not the soldiers but the bystanders.” Looking at the audience of students and older folks, he challenged them: “We must refuse to be bystanders.”

After the screening Sami Awad, the Palestinian Christian whose story is highlighted in the film explained that the most impacting event for him was visiting Auschwitz. “It totally changed my perspective. It shifted my self-identity as a Palestinian from the posture of a victim and forced me to look behind the cruelty and oppression to its cause.”  Exposure to the historic suffering of the Jews opened his heart to the pervasive fear that grips the Israeli psyche. It freed him to look beneath the surface injustices and cruelty of the occupation and begin asking, “are there deeper issues at the root of the problem.”

The change in Sami’s heart did not stop there for it led him to ask a more difficult question: “What is my responsibility as a Palestinian and as a human being; how do I respond to this terrible tragedy?” It was this that laid the groundwork for a genuine compassion out of which the true power of nonviolence comes. And it was this that prompted him to pronounce one of the most moving statements in the film:  “Israeli society was born and continues to be based on a fear of annihilation,” he concedes. “We have to ask ourselves as Palestinians, what can we do to allow them to break these barriers of fear?”

The audience at the Brown University campus was respectful and thoughtful. On this second night of the tour the panelists gave them as much food for thought as the movie had. There were many nonviolent activists who took the opportunity following the movie to engage the panelists in further conversations. The interchange was lively and excited. There was a sense of excitement and appreciation for the theme which gave them grounds for hope and a motive to continue in the struggle for peace.

Tomorrow we will drive to New York city for a screening at Riverside Theater which is connected to Riverside Church.

As we drive back to the hotel I feel that, like Sami, my own heart is changing. 

Later, I look up some information about Bassam Aramin, co-founder of Combatants for Peace. I am reminded about what I had read weeks earlier in preparation for an article about that bi-national organization. After its establishment in 2005 Bassam’s commitment was tested, quite literally, by fire. His 10-year old daughter was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier’s rubber bullet as she walked home from school. She died several days later. I now find that Bassam and Elik’s father Rami have become friends and are members of The Parent’s Circle. Rami Elhanan writes movingly about their friendship and an event in Poland where they were both asked to speak on about the loss of their children. Bassam was refused a visa and could not make the trip so Rami took the place of his Palestinian friend and shared about the death of his little girl. 

My eyes were stinging as I read. Something is shifting inside. I have always had this certainty that had I lived during the pre-civil rights years, as a Christian, I would have been compelled to  march on behalf of justice and against the evil of segregation. I am beginning to wonder if this conflict may not in fact pose a similar imperative for a follower of Christ, calling one to make a similar commitment as those who joined their black brothers in support of their right to be treated as human beings. 

If you wish to read the article entitled “I am Bassam Aramin” it can be found at http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=22853&lan=en&sid=0&sp=0&isNew=1.

Tags: Auschwitz, Brown university, Combatants for Peace, elik elhanan, Jr., Little Town of Bethlehem, Martin Luther King, nonviolence, Palestine, Shapira, Teny Gross, The Parent's Circle