Still need to do some adapting on this for my February Mennonite Weekly Review column, but thought I'd post the longer version here.

To the Israeli Ministry of the Interior:  Things you may not know about internationals working in Palestine

Dear MOI Personnel,

At church this past Sunday in Jerusalem, the pastor read the names of church members to whom you had recently denied entry into Israel.  Several worked for organizations that have been trying to meet human need in this area for decades.  Everyone in that congregation probably felt the same chill I did as I imagined the interrogation, the airport jail cell, and the police van parked, blue lights flashing, on the tarmac to prevent us from leaving on the jet deporting us to our home countries.

I will operate on the assumption that you think Palestinians should have the same human rights as Israelis, and that you honestly think internationals working in Palestine represent a threat to Israel’s security.  If that is so, then I would like to enlighten you on a few points:

1)      Most individuals who come to work for aid, development, peace, and human rights organizations in Palestine and Israel are compassionate people who have chosen their line of work because they want to alleviate human suffering.  If you showed up at their doorstep, hungry, cold and unarmed, they would take you in, give you a hot meal and listen sympathetically when you told them how you ended up in such an unfortunate condition.

2)      You should really get to know human rights workers.  For one thing, most of them are really funny.  More importantly, many of them became interested in their field after they learned about the Holocaust and the centuries of anti-Semitic persecution leading up to it.  They want to work toward a world where these evils never happen again to anyone.  I am puzzled that you welcome support from Christian Zionists, who view Jews as mere pawns in a demented end-times scenario but want to prevent people who support universal human rights from entering Israel.  Trust me, if persecution of Jews becomes widespread again, you’re going to want us human rights advocates around, not the people who think most of you are going to Hell.

3)      And as long as we’re on the topic of anti-Semitism:  Ouch.  It really hurts when you accuse us of that.  Those of us who did not already have Jewish friends and family members when we came here have developed, over the years, warm relationships with Israelis, who, like us, think human rights are important.  I have met international workers who are anti-Semitic, but they are a small minority.

4)      When you accuse us of siding with Palestinians, you should know that a lot of us, particularly church workers and members of peace organizations, came over here determined to listen to both Israelis and Palestinians and to present a balanced view of the situation to the folks at home.  You should know that every international I have met who did this sort of careful, even-handed listening, every single one of them, eventually just accepted the fact that Israel has shafted the Palestinians.  And for most of us, it’s not about an Israeli side and a Palestinian side, but a side comprising Israelis and Palestinians seeking justice and reconciliation against the side of Israelis and Palestinians who are not.     

As I said, the above points are relevant if you value human rights.  If you think Palestinian lives are worth less than Israeli lives, that they should not have the human rights you claim for yourselves, and that Israel has the right to dominate, brutalize, and rob them indefinitely, well, never mind.