Nearly two years after police forcibly evicted 123 families from Las Pavas, the community returned home on 4 April, 2011.

Accompanied by national and international supporters including CPT, the families defied threats of violence directed at their leaders, gathered their belongings and walked for two hours to reach their lands.

Police were waiting for them but offered no resistance as community members began the work of building houses and planting crops.

Several weeks later, the Las Pavas community celebrated another victory when Colombia’s Constitutional Court ruled in favor of their land claim.  The ruling upheld the legality of the community’s process to gain title to the land, declared the eviction of the families illegal, and ordered that the land be returned to the families.  This decision trumps all other lower court rulings.

In March 2011, Colombia CPTer Eloy García joined representatives from around the world gathered in New Delhi, India to form a new alliance called “South-South Solidarity – Global Action 2012.”

The group Ekta Parishad (Unity Forum), a federation of 11,000 organizations with more than one million supporters in 15 Indian states, convened the event.  They espouse Gandhian principles of nonviolence and work at the grassroots level so that all Indians can live with dignity.

In another example of their work of “overcoming fear,” members of CAHUCOPANA (Corporation for Coexistence and Peace in Northeast of Antioquia) organized an International Workers’ Day demonstration, 1 May 2011, in the city of Segovia, Antioquia.

Founded in 2004, CAHUCOPANA is an organization of small farmers from the rural areas of northeast Antioquia united to ensure respect for their human rights.

Despite intimidation by police (who filmed the demonstration) and provocation by recognized paramilitaries (who entered the place where the group was sleeping), protestors marched through the streets of the city and held a rally in the town square.  CPTers and other internationals accompanied the gathering. 

(in cooperation with Witness for Peace)

The U.S. Congress and the Obama Administration are pushing passage of a NAFTA-style trade deal with Colombia that would hurt workers and the poor in both countries.

The Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) threatens to exacerbate the ongoing human rights catastrophe in Colombia.  Last year, more labor leaders were killed in Colombia than in the rest of the world combined.  Colombia recently surpassed the Sudan as home to the most internally-displaced people in the world.

by Michele Naar-Obed

The people’s uprising against corruption and lack of basic rule of law in the Kurdish north of Iraq has come to an end for now.

For 62 days, from 17 February to 18 April 2011, the people of Suleimaniya Province fought a valiant nonviolent campaign in the form of street demonstrations and strikes.  Thousands participated in open-mike rallies in the public squares of numerous cities where people from different sectors had a chance to express their ideas about how to move forward as a society.  They presented a list of demands and structural changes, developed a “Road Map to the Peaceful Transition of Power in Southern Kurdistan,” and appealed to the international community for support.

by Michele Naar-Obed

Every week during the 62-day nonviolent people’s uprising in Suleimaniya (Kurdish north of Iraq), organizers gave a different name to the demonstrations at “Freedom Square.”  One week, the choice was, “Days of Hope.”  CPTers found signs of hope in Shakespeare – and the Kurdish university students studying Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116.

About 50 students, both women and men, grappled with words, metaphors, meanings, and their implications for their world (in English!).  Encouraged by a professor who gingerly drew out their thoughts and gave them space to articulate their ideas, they tackled such concepts as spiritual love versus physical love, fixed marks, bending love, time’s fool, sickle’s compass.  The depth to which both professor and student delved was inspiring.

by Peggy Gish

“I felt responsible to go to the demonstrations after the violent response of the authorities to the protesters on 17 February,” Mamosta* Mullah** Kameron Ali Khwarham told CPTers.  “I wanted to let the protesters know that they are not alone, that some of the religious leaders are with them.”

“There’s a passage in the Holy Qur’an that says if you see those in power oppress the poor, but you remain silent and don’t do something about it, you are standing with the powerful,” he said.  “Islam teaches us that there is no justice without freedom and freedom brings justice.”

Mullah Kameron was arrested twice after speaking out in the anti-corruption demonstrations (Kurdish uprising) this spring.  His speeches called for a revolution without violence – a “jihad.”  He urged the armed militias to put down their guns and appealed to the demonstrators not to throw rocks or hurt them.

by Carol Tyx

We start slowly, our CPT delegation, several local men, a handful of women, a sprinkling of children.

As we walk out of the Palestinian village of at-Tuwani the procession grows, women cutting across fields, children scrambling down hillsides.  Some of the boys carry hoes; the women swing buckets; a young child waves a Palestinian flag.

We are on our way to a small olive orchard in the valley to take part in a healing ritual, but the conversation, in Arabic, sounds chatty, neighbors exchanging the tidbits that make up daily life.  A few of the children try to bring us into the loop with their schoolroom English; we try a few Arabic phrases.

On 23 May, Israeli intelligence agents, escorted by about fifteen soldiers, entered the South Hebron Hills village of at-Tuwani.

The military invaded and searched the home of one of the community’s nonviolent resistance leaders at gunpoint, and threatened violent retaliation if Palestinians persist in peacefully asserting their land rights. 

Four men in civilian clothes with military gear and assault rifles, approached and questioned local residents, asking for addresses, phone numbers, places of employment and other personal details.  

by Inger Styrbjorn

“Biladi, Biladi...” (my country, my country…) – the Palestinian national anthem echoes from loudspeakers all over al-Khalil (Hebron) as children make their way to school every morning.

We CPTers stand at the checkpoint and note how many of these school children have their bags searched.  As I count the children, I notice that today the Israeli soldier stays inside the trailer where the metal detector is, probably so we cannot see how he treats the Palestinians.

The metal detector beeps for every person who passes.  It beeps several times but no one comes out, which means that people inside are undergoing a thorough search.

CPT-Palestine urges supporters to join a letter-writing campaign protesting the continued destruction of Bedouin villages in Israel.  Many CPT delegations have met with residents of unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev and learned firsthand the impact of Israel’s demolition policy.

The Recognition Forum, a coalition of organizations working for Bedouin rights, initiated the campaign.  Find information, a sample letter, and addresses for Israeli government officials at: http://goo.gl/uCdVm.  You may also send letters to the Israeli ambassador in your home country and to your own country’s foreign minister.

• 20 April 2011 – Israeli soldiers prevented a kindergarten student, accompanied by his teacher and CPTers, from passing through two different gates to get home from school; one gate was several meters from the child’s house.
• 21 April 2011 – Israeli soldiers invaded the Bin Tarek School where 700 Palestinian teenage boys study, cutting a heavy chain on the school’s gate, setting off two sound bombs, and occupying the schoolyard.
• 3 May 2011 – a group of 30-40 Israeli settlers, both men and women, attacked the home of a Palestinian family above Shuhada Street destroying a portion of a concrete block wall and throwing stones, dirt and scrap wood into the courtyard before leaving with over $400 worth of construction tools belonging to workers who had been repairing a section of the house.

“I consider the presence of CPT really something great.  They support the Palestinians and the nonviolent resistance,” says CPT partner Hafez Hereini in the new video, “An Introduction to CPT Palestine.”

Produced, filmed and edited by journalist and former CPT delegate Catherine Rabenstine, the nine-minute film features CPT’s Palestinian partners who nonviolently resist the Israeli military occupation in Hebron/Al Khalil and the South Hebron Hills.  Rabenstine also interviews CPT-Palestine members who describe their work and their partnership with Palestinians.

Available on YouTube (http://goo.gl/D0Lyb) or DVD (contact CPT Chicago office).

By Kathleen Kern

I was in al-Khalil (Hebron) on September 11, 2001.  Old men approached me, eyes full of tears, telling me that God would help me and my fellow citizens.  Palestinian friends called us, sobbing, as they described what they were watching on TV.  I remember experiencing a reaction I had not felt before, and for which I had no name. 

Almost ten years later, Palestin-ian’s reactions to the killing of Osama Bin Laden flowed over me.  I experienced that same nameless feeling.

by Tim Nafziger with Peter Haresnape

During my CPT delegation to Treaty #3 Territory (Grassy Narrows, Ontario), I saw continuing effects of the 500-year history of colonization and genocide on this continent.  I had never come face to face with these realities in a personal way before. 

As a child, Fred* followed the trap line with his family in the winter.  Then the Royal Canadian Mounted Police took him away from his family and placed him in a residential school where staff beat him if he spoke his language. 

Over 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were placed in church-run residential schools.  The first were established in the 1840s and the last one closed just 15 years ago in 1996.  Recorded mortality rates at these schools reached as high as 69% through a combination of poor nutrition, brutal discipline, disease, abuse and neglect.

In May, Undoing Racism Coordinator Sylvia Morrison represented CPT at the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) in Kingston, Jamaica – an eight-day gathering sponsored by the World Council of Churches (WCC) as a “harvest festival celebrating the achievements of the United Nations’ Decade To Overcome Violence” which began in 2001.  She presented a workshop, set up an information table, and engaged conference participants in many conversations about CPT’s peacemaking work.  Following are some of her reflections from that experience.

During our time together I kept hearing the question, “How do you practically make peace?”  The WCC had a decade to overcome violence and there was a lot of time to talk.  They did listening projects and storytelling.  So the question that kept coming up was, “What is the praxis?”

GAZA FLOTILLA – CPT “PRESENTE!”

As we go to print, a number of CPTers and supporters are preparing to join dozens of other peace activists boarding ships from Canada and the USA in late June as part of the second international “Freedom Flotilla” to Gaza.  The nonviolent humanitarian action seeks to break the illegal and deadly Israeli siege of Gaza.  Israeli forces attacked last year’s flotilla, killing nine activists, and have vowed to let no ships cross into Gaza.  CPT-Canada is an official endorser of the Canada Boat to Gaza.

Many churches, meetings, peace groups and individuals raise support for the work of CPT in  creative ways.  We share your stories as a way to say “Thank You!” and as an inspiration to others.

Columbus (Ohio, USA) Mennonite Church holds an annual rummage sale which raises up to $3000 for CPT.  The church is located on a main road in Columbus, so that helps bring in customers.  Everyone seems happy to get rid of unused things and people really pitch in and have fun.  It’s a two-day event, and the last hour is “fill-your-bag-for-a-dollar.”  That’s a huge hit!  What doesn’t sell goes to the local thrift store.  It takes some work to organize but it pays off.

Wars continue to boil.  Occupations char the land.

Nonviolent uprisings sizzle with hope.  CPTers stand side by side with peacemakers in those hot spots.

During the first half of this fiscal year, individual donations to CPT were down 20%.  Even with our best efforts to trim already-reduced expenses, we are $67,000 (U.S.) behind our budget projection for this point in the year – roughly the amount it takes to support 4 full-time CPTers for a year or cover a year’s travel and on-site expenses for the Iraq or Colombia teams.

If our income does not increase in the coming months, important project work will need to be cut.  Can you help heat up the donations during these warm months?  Please donate now!

CPT’s 25th anniversary year provides fertile ground for reviewing the past and looking towards the future – a process that includes reflecting on our collective vision as an organization.  What would the world look like if CPT were completely successful in our work?  Here is just a sampling of thoughts from CPTers.  What are yours?  E-mail them to peacemakers@cpt.org.      

 A world of communities that together embrace the diversity of the human family and live justly and peaceably with all creation.
 Solidarity, justice and healing for all in a world without war.

Bebol Bower*

by Ehab Lotayef (CPT Delegate)

They came
The rich and the boor
The tall and the small
They came
The cultured and the crude
The young and the old

They came
Leaving back the fear
they wore for years
… and came

Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers

In a bold action, several dozen Afghan youth from all ethnicities celebrated their widespread wish to live without war by walking hand-in-hand through the streets of Kabul in March.  Then, joined by a 28-member international delegation organized by Voices for Creative Nonviolence, they planted trees of peace and held a candlelight vigil commemorating children who have been killed by war in Afghanistan and throughout the world.  “I see the unchanging system of the rich and powerful in which my world is violently collapsing, and human hope for a decent life leaves my heart,” said 15-year-old Afghan student Abdulai.  “So, in solidarity with the people of Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq, Gaza, the Middle East, North & South America, Europe, Africa and Asia, and with the people of the world, I will walk for peace, I will light my candles, and I will plant my trees.”  See www.livewithoutwars.org.

Now Available! “Captivity”

Jim Loney tells the story of his 2005 CPT delegation’s kidnapping, with Harmeet Sooden, Norman Kember and Tom Fox, in Baghdad, Iraq.  He reflects on 118 days of fear, hope and waiting and his continuing commitment to pacifism in the face of his paradoxical rescue by Special Forces.  Jim brings the reader into the terror, the banality, the friction, and the moral dilemmas of surviving captivity.  Available at www.cpt.org/resources/books and CPT offices. 

International Book Awards Finalist  

“Create Space for Peace,” a collection of writings by CPT founding director Gene Stoltzfus, earned the honor of finalist in the category of Spirituality: Inspirational in the 2011 International Book Awards.   It was among 300 winners and finalists announced on 11 May in California, USA.  Available at CPT offices and www.cpt.org/resources/books.

My delegation to Israel/Palestine was absolutely a transformative experience.  Sharing my trip upon return has also been very life-giving.  Thank you so much and blessings on your continued work!
Jenn Svetlik - Washington DC, USA

We have been collecting our allowance throughout the year, saving 10% to give to a charity.  We have decided to give this to you to help the team in Iraq where our Great Aunt Peggy Gish has worked for many years.  We feel this project is very important to this world.
Renée, Jonah, and Hannan Neher - Illinois, USA

Peacemaker Delegations

• Aboriginal Justice: 12-22 August; 24 September-5 October
• Colombia: International: 14-27 July; 22 September-5 October; November dates tba (Latin American church leaders)
• Iraq (Kurdish North): 13-26 October
• Palestine/Israel: 19 July-1 August; 6-19 September (German  language); 15-28 November

Peacemaker Corps Trainings

• Summer: 15 July - 15 August 2011; Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Winter: 4 January - 4 February 2012;   Chicago, Illinois, USA (apply by 15 October 2011)

A listing of CPTers and where they served.

Signs of the Times is produced up to four times a year.  Batches of 10 or more are available to institutions, congregations, and local groups for distribution.  Any part of Signs of the Times may be used without permission.  Please send CPT a copy of the reprint.  Your contributions finance CPT ministries including the distribution of 17,000 copies of Signs of the Times.