The Kairos Document

In this historic document, we Palestinian Christians declare that the military occupation of our land is a sin against God and humanity, and that any theology that legitimizes the occupation is far from Christian teachings because true Christian theology is a theology of love and solidarity with the oppressed, a call to justice and equality among peoples.

~From the Kairos Document

I came across this document on a blog that I occasionally read. I will readily admit that I have not thoroughly read through this entire document and have no intention of commenting on its entire worth and validity. This one quote caught my attention, though, and raised a number of thoughts which I will attempt to share.

I will start by saying that I am much less "pro-Israel" than I may have been at one point in my life. Indeed, there are times when I think that living in Israel is enough to turn the most Zionistic Jew a little anti-Semitic. (That was a joke...but living in Israel can be quite a frustrating experience at times, and most Israelis I know would agree with that assessment.) So bear that in mind.

...the military occupation of our land is a sin against God and humanity...

Is the Israeli occupation of Palestine a sin? While there would be people who would strongly argue against such a notion, let us assume for the moment that this is in fact a true statement.

And then let us consider a hypothetical situation where a marriage is falling apart. The wife, fed up with all the hurt and shame she has borne because of her philandering husband declares that "your unfaithfulness is a sin against God and me. You need to change your ways or this marriage will never work. There will never be peace between us."

See the parallels?

It is true that the marriage will not work out as God intended unless the husband is faithful to his wife, and it could also be said, in a rough sort of equivalence, there will not be peace between Israel and Palestine until Israel treats Palestinians correctly.

There's only one problem. In the marriage scenario, in her accusations and just confrontation of her husband, the wife utterly failed to mention the lovers she had taken, her indiscretions, her lies. The fact is, the wife is just as much to blame for the failure of the marriage as her husband. For the marriage to stand a chance, both husband and wife must take their eyes off the faults of the other and instead work on their own failures.

I really think that the same principles apply to the Israel-Palestine conflict. especially in the Christian communities of both of those groups. Instead of admitting to their faults, each side can only see how they've been wronged. Palestinian churches ring with the refrain: "The wall is unjust! Bring down the wall!" while Israelis (and probably Israeli churches) express relief that the wall has stopped the suicide bombings. What if, instead, Palestinian churches condemned violence committed against Israelis and Israeli churches lamented the hardship that the wall has brought to their Palestinian brothers?

Maybe, then, this marriage could work.