WAWA/WeAreWideAwake is my Public Service to America as a muckracker who has journeyed seven times to Israel Palestine since June 2005.
WAWA is dedicated to confronting media and governments that shield the whole
truth.
We who Are Wide
Awake are compelled by the "fierce urgency of Now" [Rev MLK, Jr.] to raise
awareness and promote the human dialogue about many of the crucial issues of our
day: the state of our Union and in protection of democracy, what life is like
under military occupation in Palestine, the Christian EXODUS from the Holy Land,
and spirituality-from a Theologically Liberated Christian Anarchist
POV.
"Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave...a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils." George Washington's Farewell Address - 1796
"My aim is to agitate & disturb people. I'm not selling bread, I'm selling yeast." Unamuno
"Imagine All the People Sharing All the World." John Lennon
"If enough Christians followed the gospel, they could bring any state to its knees." Father Philip Francis Berrigan
"You can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won't back down." Tom Petty
"If I can't dance, it's not my revolution." Emma Goldman
"We have yet to begin to IMAGINE the power and potential of the Internet." Charlie Rose, 2005
Only in Solidarity do "We have it in our power to begin the world again" Tom Paine
"Never doubt that a few, thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead
"You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free." John 8:32
DO SOMETHING!
Photo of George shown here and in web site banner courtesy of Debbie Hill, 2000.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that, among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. -July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence
March 9, 2012: Christ at the Checkpoint and Up Against The Apartheid Wall
March 9, 2012: Christ at the Checkpoint and Up Against The Apartheid Wall
"When I come here and see the situation here,
I find that what is happening here is ten times worse than what I had
experienced in South Africa. This is Apartheid."- Arun Gandhi, after his
2004 visit to The Holy Land.
This week in Bethlehem, the second international Christ
at the Checkpoint Conference concluded with a “major breakthrough in the
evangelical world” and was attended by over 600 Evangelical Palestinian
Christians, Christian Zionists and Messianic Christians.
They came together with “Hope in the Midst
of Conflict” under the banner “Christ at the Checkpoint,” to seek understanding
between Jews and Christians and reflect on 'what would Jesus do’ about the
Israeli occupation of Palestine and concluded with:
The Christ at
the Checkpoint Manifesto:
The Kingdom of God has
come. Evangelicals must reclaim the prophetic role in bringing peace,
justice and reconciliation in Palestine and Israel.
Reconciliation recognizes
God’s image in one another.
Racial ethnicity alone
does not guarantee the benefits of the Abrahamic Covenant.
The Church in the land
of the Holy One, has born witness to Christ since the days of Pentecost.
It must be empowered to continue to be light and salt in the region, if
there is to be hope in the midst of conflict.
Any exclusive claim to
land of the Bible in the name of God is not in line with the teaching of
Scripture.
All forms of violence
must be refuted unequivocally.
Palestinian Christians
must not lose the capacity to self-criticism if they wish to remain
prophetic.
There are real
injustices taking place in the Palestinian territories and the suffering
of the Palestinian people can no longer be ignored. Any solution must
respect the equity and rights of Israel and Palestinian communities.
For Palestinian
Christians, the occupation is the core issue of the conflict.
Any challenge of the
injustices taking place in the Holy Land must be done in Christian love.
Criticism of Israel and the occupation cannot be confused with
anti-Semitism and the delegitimization of the State of Israel.
Respectful dialogue
between Palestinian and Messianic believers must continue. Though we may
disagree on secondary matters of theology, the Gospel of Jesus and his
ethical teaching take precedence.
Christians must
understand the global context for the rise of extremist Islam. We
challenge stereotyping of all faith forms that betray God’s commandment to
love our neighbors and enemies. [1]
Also this week, peace and justice activists
in Johannesburg concluded a week of programs highlighting the similarities
between the Apartheid regime in South Africa and that of Israel.
Israeli Apartheid Week is a global annual
international series of events held in cities and campuses with the goal to
educate people about Israeli Apartheid and because ‘it’s always about the
money’ to build Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaigns.
Last year, Israeli Apartheid Week took place in
more than 40 cities across the globe and the good news is that over 100 participated this year!
When it came to South African Apartheid, the US was
one of the last to get on-board and only did so when President Ronald Reagan was
forced to sign a Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act “because the citizens’
movements in the United States had so effectively turned around United States
politics that the Republican senators were telling him that it was in the
interest of the Republican Party to sign.”
Last week in D.C. thousands of US Christians united
with Jewish AIPAC supporters who converged on the Capitolto lobby Congress in support of the state of Israel and push
America into war with Iran.
The Christians who attended the“Christ at the Checkpoint” conference sought
to answer, “How should Christ followers respond to this political,
multi-faceted conflict?”
They desired “to promote awareness, a
message of unity, and contribute to peace and justice for all of the world's
inhabitants. [With] hope to be challenged and to challenge the global church on
its moral, ethical, and prophetic responsibility.”
In 1948 there were 29,000 Palestinian
Christians living in the land many call Holy but because of The Christian
Exodus, they number less than 10,000 today; not because of Judaism or Islam,
but because of a brutal and illegal military occupation that denies their human
rights and prevents them from reaching their jobs, land, holy sites and
families which have been separated by Israel’s wall.
"Financed
with U.S. aid at a cost of $1.5 million per mile, the
Israeli wall prevents residents from receiving health care and emergency
medical services. In other areas, the barrier separates farmers from their
olive groves which have been their families' sole livelihood for
generations." [Washington Report on Middle East Affairs,
Page 43, Jan/Feb. 2007]
During the conference, the Mayor of
Bethlehem, Victor Batarseh, spoke about the Apartheid Wall and other “walls in
this world – walls of religion, race, gender... we want to break down all the
seen and unseen walls in the world. [he thanked the delegates for] breaking
down the wall – not physically, but psychologically [and continued] we live in
a big prison in this city but as Muslims and Christians we always have hope”
and he concluded by saying that “with your help we can achieve peace.” [3]
The first time I met Mayer Batarseh was when he traveled to Florida in 2005, to
meet with Mayor Buddy Dyer, with the hope to re-ignite The Twinning Agreement
that was signed in May 2001 by the then Mayors of Bethlehem and Orlando.
The Twinning Agreement is a sister-pact that
affirmed Orlando and Bethlehem would encourage tourism to the other and promote
a global community. I followed up on Mayor Batarseh’s visit with my own visit
to Mayor Buddy Dyer’s office one week after the Mayors had met.
I informed the Orlando Mayor’s public
relations representative about an opportunity to help the city of Bethlehem and
was seeking the Mayors support in getting the word out about two events that
were already scheduled and my involvement with Palestinian Children’s Welfare Fund, who imported goods crafted by
the artisans in Bethlehem that volunteers sold throughout the world. We returned
100% of all proceeds back to the crafts people and any remaining went to help
support the children who endure in the refugee camps of the Holy Land.
Mayor Buddy Dyer did not even have the common courtesy to respond to any of my
three follow up emails and multiple phone calls.
I also informed The Orlando Sentinel about
the opportunity for the Central Florida community to do something to make true
the words of the Twinning Agreement without traveling all the way to the Little
Town of Bethlehem in occupied territory.
I got nowhere, but I keep writing about it
because the proverb is; 'if you want to change the world: WRITE!'
In 2006, while I was in Bethlehem I again met Mayor Batarseh and
he told me:
“When the occupation is ended there will be
peace. If the world boycotted Israel for six months they would comply with the
UN Resolutions which is all we want! There is state terrorism and Israel must
be forced to recognize our right to exist. For the past ten years Hamas has
worked with and helped the poorest of people, they have built schools and
orphanages. The PA took the money but Hamas was providing the social services!
“Israel is a state built on religious beliefs. The US and EU and all the free
world are against theocracies. But Israel has the right to do anything! The
world needs to WAKE UP! If there is no peace in the Holy Land there can be no
peace anywhere. End the occupation and there will be peace the very next day.
All the terrorism in the world can be traced back to the Palestinian situation.
All the money spent on weapons and war could eliminate world poverty.” [4]
There can be no peace without justice and
there is no justice without accepting the truth.
There is more than enough blame to be shared
by all but playing that game- as well as living in the past- has got no soul!
For this American struggling Christian
Anarchist and candidate for US HOUSE of Representatives, who seeks to change US
foreign policy and challenge all Christians, I propose believers and unbelievers
would do well to consider just WHO their Jesus is.
The gospel [which means good news] that Jesus
preached, was very political and a direct challenge to the politically
powerful, arrogant, self-satisfied and self-righteous.
Two thousand years ago the Cross had NO
symbolic religious meaning and was not a piece of jewelry.
When Jesus said: "Pick up your
cross and follow me," everyone back then understood he was issuing a
POLITICAL statement, for the main roads in Jerusalem were lined with crucified
agitators, rebels, dissidents and any others who disturbed the status quo of
the Roman Occupying Forces.
Jesus was never a Christian, for that term
was not even coined until the third decade after his crucifixion.
Jesus was born, lived and died a devout
Jewish nonviolent Palestinian whose last message to his community was “Put down
the sword!”
In the latter days of Nero's reign [54-68 A.S.] through the domination of
Domitian [ 81-96] Christians were persecuted for following the nonviolent,
loving and forgiving Jesus.
That Jesus was first left behind when
Augustine penned The Just War Theory.
Augustine was the first Church Father to consider the concept of a Just War and
within 100 years after Constantine, the Empire required that all soldiers in
the army must be baptized Christians and thus, the decline of Christianity
began.
With the justification of war and violence supplied by Augustine’s Just War
Theory, wrong became right. Nothing much has changed in two millennial, for in
today’s Orwellian world politicians claim the way to peace is through war and
that nuclear weapons provide protection.
The first mention of Israel in the Bible is
in Genesis 32, when Jacob wrestled, struggled and then clung to the Divine Being and was then renamed Israel. I contend that ANYONE who does the same
is that Biblical Israel too!
In 2006, Israel’s Nuclear Whistle Blower,
Mordechai Vanunu issued this invitation to Hillary Clinton and all US
Christians:
I am Eileen Fleming for US HOUSE of Representatives 2012 and I approve of this-and all of my
messages.
"HOPE has two children.The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it."-St. Augustine
"He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust." - Aquinas
Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
" In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."-Mother Teresa
“You cannot talk like sane men around a peace table while the atomic bomb itself is ticking beneath it. Do not treat the atomic bomb as a weapon of offense; do not treat it as an instrument of the police. Treat the bomb for what it is: the visible insanity of a civilization that has ceased...to obey the laws of life.”- Lewis Mumford, 1946
The age of warrior kings and of warrior presidents has passed. The nuclear age calls for a different kind of leadership....a leadership of intellect, judgment, tolerance and rationality, a leadership committed to human values, to world peace, and to the improvement of the human condition. The attributes upon which we must draw are the human attributes of compassion and common sense, of intellect and creative imagination, and of empathy and understanding between cultures." - William Fulbright
“Any nation that year after year continues to raise the Defense budget while cutting social programs to the neediest is a nation approaching spiritual death.” - Rev. MLK
Establishment of Israel
"On the day of the termination of the British mandate and on the strength of the United Nations General Assembly declare The State of Israel will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel: it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion it will guarantee freedom of religion [and] conscience and will be faithful to the Charter of the United Nations." - May 14, 1948. The Declaration of the Establishment of Israel