Threatening Incident in Hebron Draws Attention to Personal Sacrifices of Christian Peacemaker Teams

By Dr. Fred Strickert

A near tragedy was averted in Hebron on Jan. 10, when two North American bystanders stepped between armed Israeli soldiers and 100 Palestinian demonstrators. Sara Reschly, 26, from Mount Pleasant, Iowa and Pierre Shantz, 24, from Ontario, Canada put the name of their organization, Christian Peacemakers, literally into action.

The Chicago-based organization, The Christian Peacemakers Teams (CPT), are an initiative of traditionally pacifist denominations such as the Brethren, Mennonites, and Friends. They had their start in 1984 when Ron Sider challenged socially active members, saying that pacifists need not be passive, but should deliberately wage peace in troubled spots throughout the world. Similar to the more familiar Witness for Peace programs in Central America, the Christian Peacemakers chose the strife-torn city of Hebron for their work in 1995 and have had teams active there ever since.

Conspicuous with brightly colored hats and arm-bands, members of the peace-making team, usually numbering from six to eight, live in the heart of Hebron and make their presence known by mingling among both Palestinians and Israelis on a daily basis. The assumption is that through the presence of a few American individuals, the city’s pervasive level of violence may be reduced.

Sometimes their ready cameras serve as a deterrent. Sometimes it is merely the calming affect of carefully worded comments that may defuse a tense situation. Sometimes they are even invited to “get in the way”—to place their own bodies between opposing forces bent on confrontation.

That is what happened on a Sunday morning in January when Palestinians had organized a nonviolent demonstration to protest a week-long curfew on Hebron’s Muslim residents. Holding long banners reading, “No For Closure of Ibrahimi Mosque,” and “No for Collective Punishment,” about one hundred protesters were walking toward the mosque, where they planned to pray. At that point Israeli soldiers positioned themselves behind barriers with weapons raised.

That’s when the CPTers placed themselves in danger in front of the ready Israeli weapons. “Don’t shoot,” they shouted. “This is a nonviolent demonstration! They are not throwing rocks!”

Although as it developed the incident was not totally devoid of stone-throwing, scuffling, and stun grenades, there was no shooting that day in a situation where it otherwise seemed inevitable.

Reschly and Shantz, however, were arrested for, according to Israeli police spokeswoman Linda Menuhin, interfering with police acts and attacking an officer.

Associated Press coverage of this incident has given new visibility to the role of the CPTers in an environment where the constant cycle of violence has numbed many American editors and their readers. The presence of a group of North Americans “in the way” has forced readers in the U.S. heartland of Iowa, no less, to once again take notice.

An AP photograph published in the Waterloo Cedar Falls (Iowa) Courier (which accompanies this article) showed the CPTers standing vulnerable before armed soldiers, as if raised hands could stop bullets. It was one of those penetrating images that challenges one to look deeply.

As is common to Middle East reporting in North America, most newspaper stories were short on detail. They mentioned the curfew in Hebron, the earlier shooting of two Israeli settler women driving by in a van, and identified those arrested as “peace activists.” Yet there was much more to the story.

For those who are interested, detailed reports are available through a Christian Peacemaker Team web page <http://www. prairienet.org/cpt/> and an e-mail network CPTNET (phone [312] 455-1199 for information). There one reads also about the Christian commitment of CPTers and their pledge to nonviolence.

From the CPTers one sees no attempt to cover up acts of violence directed against the settlers. The victims are mentioned by name: Flanny Elazra, a 55-year-old nursery school teacher, who was shot in the chest and neck, and Flori Hofi, in her 40s, who was shot in both legs. “Thankfully,” the CPTers wrote, “both injured women will survive the attack.”

They also include a statement underscoring their aversion to all acts of violence: “We believe that all violence is evil and goes against everything that is holy,” write the CPTers. “We plead for the violence to stop and ask for prayers for the two injured women, for their families, for their community and for the 30,000 Palestinians who have been placed under curfew.”

At the same time, the CPT members express concern about the effects of the curfew, and include a detailed report about a less publicized fatal incident on Wednesday of that same week. A 24-year old mentally handicapped Palestinian, Bader Qawasmi, was fatally shot by Israeli border patrol soldiers as he wandered through the deserted streets and failed to respond to shouted orders.

Typically, CPTers were quickly on the scene. After watching Qawasmi struggle for his life, CPTer Sara Reschly said, “He was the age of my brother. That could have been my brother lying on the cold asphalt road—shot in the side—breathing his last breaths. This violence must end.”

Thus it should be no surprise that several days later Sara and the other CPTers themselves stood in the way, even when that meant risking their own lives.

The CPTers also describe in detail their arrest and subsequent appearance before a judge in a Jerusalem court. According to the peacemakers, the charges included claims that they pushed the border police and hit one on the helmet. Regarding these charges, Reschly said, “I believe in nonviolence. I would never do that.”

Said Shantz, “I intervened with the soldiers trying to shoot at the nonviolent demonstrators, but I never hit one or pushed one.” A third charge, by a Russian-speaking Israeli soldier, that Reschly called him a Nazi, was dropped after it was discovered that he didn’t speak English.

CPTers noted that Shantz was slapped hard twice and kneed in the back by a soldier, but no permanent injuries were sustained. Reschly was released on her promise to return the next day, but Shantz was held in prison overnight and arrived in court with hands and feet shackled.

Police pressured Reschly and Shantz to avoid a courtroom hearing by agreeing to stay out of Hebron for 15 days. But both CPTers refused to accept this limitation on their movements.

When the charges were presented in a Jerusalem court, the Israeli judge informed the police officer that there was not a strong enough case to prohibit Reschly and Shantz from returning to Hebron. Rather they would be freed while the police continued their investigation.

The pair posted bail of 2,000 shekels each and relinquished their passports until Feb. 1, the time allotted for the police investigation. If no charges were brought by then, the passports and bond money were to be returned.

CPT’s lawyer, Jonathan Kuttab, said he doubts that the police will bring charges. “You have a lot of moral power that both sides recognize,” Kuttab said. “Running around without guns throws [both sides] off and gives you leverage.”

What moves the CPTers to act? Sara responded to the question by telephone after returning from court to her apartment in Hebron. “This is about ‘I’m a human being. Life is beautiful,’” she said. “When I saw another human being about to shoot, I had to intervene.”

Dr. Fred Strickert is professor of religion at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa.

SIDEBAR

Letter of Sara Reschly

The effect of one of the incidents described above on Sara Reschly is made evident by the letter she wrote home just the previous day, exerpts of which were included on CPTnet. Her comments are worth sharing:

Yesterday morning I awoke to gun shots...We are under curfew right now because two days ago a van with two Jewish settler women in it was shot at and one woman is still in the hospital. As a collective punishment [on] the 30,000 Palestinians who live in this area, curfew was imposed. This means that no Palestinians are allowed to leave their homes.

Yesterday a 24 year-old Palestinian man broke curfew and was out in the streets. According to the military, he began running away from a patrol of six Israeli soldiers (a later report said that he was running towards them). They fired three shots in the air...He didn't stop. They shot him. The military claims he had a pistol in his hand. They later discovered it was a toy gun.

There was indeed a toy gun at the scene...lying near his head. I don't know what to believe—Palestinians say that this man was mentally retarded, so it could be that he had a toy gun in his hand.

The shooting happened one block from our apartment—I arrived on the scene about 10 minutes after it happened, and saw the man lying there. His eyes were open. Blood and some of his insides were coming out of his side where he was shot. He lay just two feet from me, struggling to breathe. That scene keeps playing in my mind…I wonder if he was conscious. I just stood there watching his stomach go up and down. God, I hope he wasn't conscious. I keep seeing his face—he was lying there helpless.

His face—his eyes—won’t leave my mind. I had to leave the scene because I started crying. It was just too much. I couldn't watch any more and the anger began welling within me.

Anyway, I was walking home and our neighbors were looking out their window and saw me crying and called for me to come up (I know them because one time their son was arrested and beaten and I accompanied the mother to the police station). I went up to their house and explained everything that happened. They called the municipality and the hospital to inform them.

The mother hugged me and then took me to the sink so I could splash cold water on my face. They peeled an orange for me to eat. Oh, it was such a comforting moment amidst this unrelenting sorrow that continues to envelop this land.

In the evening yesterday, we learned that he indeed died a few hours after he arrived at the hospital.