16. Learn from peers in other countries
Keep up your friendships abroad, or make new friends in other countries. The present difficulties in the United States are an element of a larger trend. And no country is going to find a solution by itself. Make sure you and your family have passports.
-Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny
Learning From Peacemakers in Ireland
Five years ago, I heard Pádraig Ó Tuama refer to the six counties north of the Republic of Ireland as “the Northern of Ireland.” I knew then I would have to visit that place — a place some call “the north of Ireland” and some call “Northern Ireland.” Like the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, even the name of the place is contested. I wanted to see a society struggling to put itself together after 30 years of violence (1968-1998), years that theologian Gareth Higgins calls the tail end of 800 years of conflict over who would share a stake in the stewardship of the nation — not only in matters of governance and formal equality, but culture and identity; and how the people of Ireland, north and south, Catholic and Protestant, ethnically Irish and ethnically British (and others) would treat each other.
I wondered if the Gaza war could turn out to be the tail end of 100 years of conflict over the rule of Palestine/Israel. I wondered if eventually, as in Ireland, there could be a stalemate. No side would get all of what they wanted. But after decades of fear, grief, trauma and moral injury, there could be an imperfect peace.
This summer was my third trip to Ireland in five years. I went not just to indulge my love of all things Irish (which is prodigious) but to engage in Snyder’s Practice 16, “Learn from your peers in other countries.” After a year of watching the situation in Israel/Palestine grow ever more dire, I signed up for a week-long retreat in the Belfast area. I met grassroots peace activists, writers, poets, theologians and politicians, all of whom were involved in working to end “The Troubles” and/or or are working today to build a shared society.
I am not the first person to notice the way in which the Irish experience is both similar to and different from that of Israel/Palestine. In area, Israel/Palestine and Ireland are about the same size. Both were British colonies; Ireland was the first (beginning with the Norman Invasion) and Israel/Palestine among the very last (ending in 1948). The Irish fought to claim their independence for centuries and in 1922 established the Republic of Ireland, with only six counties out of 32 remaining as part of the United Kingdom. There, the ethno-religious conflict persisted. In the case of Israel/Palestine, with the departure of the British and the failure of the U.N. partition plan, the ethno-religious conflict over ruling the land became one between Jews and Arabs.
In Northern Ireland, the British/Protestants have been there for so long that many see themselves as indigenous, as do the Irish/Catholics. In Israel/Palestine, both Jews and Palestinians can make an argument for being indigenous. Leaders from both sides were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize: Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan in 1977, Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin in 1994. In neither case did the violence end. The Good Friday Agreement finally brought the active violence there to an end in 1998, with another Nobel Peace Prize awarded to two of its architects: the Catholic Nationalist John Hume and Protestant Unionist David Trimble. There has yet to be a comprehensive peace plan for the region of Israel/Palestine that has held.
As I immersed in the stories of peace work in another society, I asked myself, as Snyder suggests, what I had learned as a Jew who cares deeply about Israelis and Palestinians. I had come assuming that we would get to hear from the “two sides” (British/Protestant vs. Irish/Catholic). Instead, I learned that was not the way the folks with whom we met understood the “sides.” Some of these people were British Protestant, and some were Irish Catholic. For them, the central binary of the conflict was not ethnic or religious. Simply put, there were those who were willing to achieve their ends with violence (both Protestants and Catholics) and those who wanted to achieve it through relationship building and political solutions. These two sides were in evidence throughout the 30 years of troubles. They continue to exist. For now, the peace is mostly holding.
I hope that someday the people of Israel/Palestine will have the challenge that the Ulster Museum in Belfast did when mounting an exhibit about “The Troubles”.
I came away strengthened in my resolve to support those peace activists and organizations working in Israel/Palestine for peaceful means to achieve political ends: relationship building across sectors and within their own, activism in the streets, at the voting booth, in NGO’s and grassroots community groups. I redoubled my efforts to lift up the voices of Combatants for Peace, Standing Together, Women Wage Peace and Family Forum.
Did anything change? Mostly, I reframed my hope for Jews and Palestinians. It is a more sober hope than before, although some might say it is still wildly optimistic. I hope that someday, the people of Israel/Palestine will have the challenge that the Ulster Museum in Belfast did when mounting an exhibit about “The Troubles.” They set out to tell the complex stories of that time, stories of sorrow, shame, tenderness, courage and anger.
Acknowledging that there would be no agreed narrative that visitors to the museum would share, they simply put together many artifacts of the time and confessed that it was “awkward.” I imagine it will be like that for decades — maybe generations — in Israel/Palestine. May awkwardness come soon and in our day.
