Testimony of Suffering and Hope

Description

In 2004 Jean Zaru delivered this talk. Quaker activist, theologian, religious leader and international speaker, she has lived all her life in Ramallah Palestine West Bank. All the harassments, humiliations and countless forms of oppression have been experienced by herself and her family. ‘The narrative of my life is one of exclusion’, she writes. Her brother is still missing. She, her late husband and family have endured the sufferings of the intifadas. Her mother had to leave the country for lack of medical treatment.

But her talk is far more than a personal catalogue of suffering. Set within the context of events since the nakba (catastrophe) of 1948, Jean Zaru chronicles the infringements of human rights and injustices of the settlements, the numerous prisoners in Israeli gaols, checkpoints, refugee camps, environmental degradation and the ‘Bantustanisation’ of Palestine which is a form of apartheid. 60 per cent of Palestinians live below the poverty level; 80 per cent of the country’s water is siphoned off – and yet the world remains silent. She is very clear that the Oslo so-called Peace Agreement was no peace at all, as – among other points – it left Israel in control of the economy. According to the late Edward Said: ‘How do you spell apartheid? O-S-L-O’ (p. 85).

Her response to this has been, all her life, to develop strategies and a spirituality of non-violence, which is one of the strengths of Quaker Christianity. First, she exposes the two-sided attitude to violence within the conflict, accusing the Israelis of a fake symmetry between occupier and occupied. The occupation is not simply a response to violence but is itself a form of violence! (p.59). Her strategy, in this, ‘the darkest night of the soul’, is the response of non-violent resistance. Convinced that power rightly shared is an enrichment for all, she argues that the way to peace is the way of truth-telling.

This programme can be rented on our Video on Demand system for £2.00, for this you can view as often as you like within a 48 hour period of your own choosing, the film is available to stream or download for £10.00.

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A Testimony of Suffering and Hope from Concord Media on Vimeo.