With Peace in Sight, Friends Reflect on the Israel–Hamas War

Under a ceasefire agreement brokered by the United States, Qatar, and Egypt, the Israel–Hamas war that has lasted more than 15 months will end, provided an initial six-week truce holds, The Washington Post reports. The current conflict began when Hamas killed approximately 1,200 people in attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, and took more than 250 Israelis hostage. The Israel Defense Forces killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, as of January 15, in the war that followed the attacks, according to Reuters. Approximately 1.9 million people are internally displaced in Gaza, according to the United Nations.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is weighing South Africa’s allegation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. A final ruling could take years. The ICJ delivered a preliminary opinion in January 2024 stating that the genocide accusation is “plausible.”

Prior to the announcement of the latest ceasefire agreement, three Friends with personal connections to the conflict discussed their views on the ICJ opinion, the future of the region, and how to foster dialogue about the war. The Quakers interviewed offered insights about the historic underpinnings of the conflict, as well as views on contemporary Friends’ responses.

“In the ’90s it felt like there were a lot of possibilities for peace,” said Marigold Bentley, who previously served as head of peace programs and faith relations for Britain Yearly Meeting. She also worked for the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel.

Beginning in 1993, the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Israel participated in peace talks that led to them signing the Oslo Accords in 1993 and 1995, which outlined a two-state solution to the longstanding conflict. The accords delineated restricted Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in exchange for recognition of Israel’s right to exist and for its citizens to live in peace.

The accords provided for electing officials to the Palestinian Authority, which would govern the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The agreement also called for Israeli security forces to move out of six Palestinian cities and more than 400 villages.

During the optimism that followed the Oslo Accords, a Quaker who was an art therapist traveled to the region in 1994 at the request of a Jewish psychotherapist to conduct therapeutic workshops. The Friend requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject. The source described an art therapy activity in which people from both sides of the conflict participated.

“Two women, one Palestinian, one Israeli, they were carefully drawing around each other’s pictures so as not to cross anything. Their interpretations afterward were the Palestinian woman said, ‘Well I felt like she was surrounding me just like all these settlements on the hilltops.’ The Israeli woman said, ‘I felt she was surrounding me just like all the Arab nations trying to push Israel into the sea,’” the source said.

Unresolved issues in the Oslo Accords included which side could claim Jerusalem as a capital, and the right of Palestinians displaced by Israeli settlement to return to their homes.

Approximately 5,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis died in the Second Intifada, which lasted from 2000 until the Sharm el Sheikh peace talks ended that conflict in 2005.

British Quakers believed they had something to offer to peacemaking efforts in the region. British Friends felt a deep responsibility because of Britain’s historic role in the creation of the state of Israel, according to Bentley.

The 1917 Balfour Declaration, written by British foreign secretary Arthur Balfour to a Jewish leader in Britain named Lionel Walter Rothschild called for a Jewish homeland in the Palestinian territory. Under the British Mandate for Palestine, Britain helped European Jews immigrate to the region.

Before the Balfour Declaration, Jews and Palestinians co-existed peacefully, according to the anonymous source. Problems arose due to one piece of land being promised to two groups of people, the source said. The source’s parents survived the Holocaust. The source’s cousin went to Britain on the Kindertransport and lived with Orthodox Jewish foster parents. The Kindertransport relocated children from Poland, Austria, Germany, and Czechoslovakia. The cousin’s country of origin is not being mentioned to protect the source’s anonymity.

After the current war began, Bentley noticed that members of churches in Britain were very nervous about the public response to the violence. Churches Together in Dorchester has run three facilitated meetings about the conflict, according to Bentley. The meetings each lasted 90 minutes and used a consensus-building model that invited participants to publicly articulate the kind of world they wanted. Two such sessions took place with just clergy and one involved both congregants and clergy members, according to Bentley. It is important for participants to speak from their own authentic experience, according to Bentley, who ran a session on the war for Woodbrooke Quaker Study Center in Birmingham, UK.

People in Britain have seen horrifying media images of the war. Watching media accounts and feeling helpless has caused high anxiety, Bentley noted.

“You’re meeting people who have traumatized themselves,” Bentley said of participants in dialogue about the war.

Topics such as the Israel–Hamas war make it hard to practice deep listening, according to Lori Piñeiro Sinitzky, program administrator in the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Villanova University and a member of Green Street Meeting in Philadelphia, Pa.

Sometimes people say others are wrong and there is nothing else to listen to, Piñeiro Sinitzky noted. Maintaining somatic awareness, expecting discomfort, and keeping in mind the complex humanity of all participants in the discussion are ways to stay in the conversation, she explained.

Many clergy members do not feel comfortable giving sermons on the war but do offer prayers about peace and care for people suffering in wars, according to Bentley. She noted that many members of the British public are unfamiliar with the language of human rights.

Quakers were involved in the Kindertransport, which evacuated Jewish children to England from Nazi-occupied Europe. In response to present-day Quakers’ participation in the ecumenical accompaniment program, some Jews in Britain felt betrayed, according to Bentley.

“They said, ‘You used to love us and now you hate us,’” Bentley said.

The October 7, 2023 attacks terrorized and traumatized Jews, reminding them of the Holocaust, the anonymous source observed. Israel’s military response to the October 7 attacks was “disproportionate and stupid,” the anonymous source said.

There is a significant difference between Jews seeking a land of safety and the aggressive Israeli settlers expanding ever deeper into Palestinian territory, according to the anonymous source.

“I grew up understanding what happened during the Holocaust on a very visceral level and also understanding that the world could be a dangerous place for Jewish people,” said Lori Piñeiro Sinitzky. Piñeiro Sinitzky’s father is a Holocaust survivor. Her mother converted to Judaism.

Growing up, she saw televised images of Israeli tanks and Palestinians throwing rocks at the vehicles. She noticed a power imbalance. She viewed Israel as a safe place for Jewish refugees, but she also came to believe that the Israeli government has practiced apartheid and oppression of Palestinians. The current Israeli administration has exacerbated the problem, according to Piñeiro Sinitzky.

“The ongoing expansion of settlers into Palestinian territory has made things worse,” said Piñeiro Sinitzky.

She traveled to Israel before October 7 and saw apartheid and oppression. Currently she notes destruction of life, culture, homes, and communities that members of the international community should interrupt.

Asked about the International Court of Justice’s finding that South Africa’s accusation that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians is “plausible,” she said, “I believe that ‘plausible’ is probably the right word. I know it feels like genocide to me. I know that there are semantic disagreements and I think that’s a distraction,” Piñeiro Sinitzky said.

Sharlee DiMenichi

Sharlee DiMenichi is a staff writer for Friends Journal. Contact: sharlee@friendsjournal.org.

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