CPTer Elizabeth García from Texas led the August 2011 delegation to Israel/Palestine.

I am in Hebron, located in the Judean Hills, south of Jerusalem in the Holy Land.  Although this place is on the other side of the world from my home in Brownsville,   Texas, many things here are similar to what we experience in the Rio Grande Valley.

As people of color, Palestinians have to put up with daily harassment from the IDF (Israel Defense Force), just as our brothers and sisters of color coming from México and other parts of the world are harassed by the CBP (Customs and Border Patrol).

In Israel, if you are a Muslim, Arab, or Palestinian whether you are four years old or twenty, you are probably considered a “terrorist.”  Chances are, the thinking goes, you are preparing to hurt the Jewish community.  North American Anglos think that if you are not white, you become automatically a threat to the nation, and thus you must be removed.  

In July as the second international flotilla of ships tried to break Israel’s siege on Gaza, hundreds of internationals organized a “flytilla” to Israel’s Ben Gurion airport.  Participants challenging Israel’s denial-of-entry policy, which prevents Palestinians living abroad and internationals from entering the Occupied Territories, carried invitations to visit a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

CPTer John Lynes was among 12 people who flew from the United Kingdom.  In explaining his decision to join the “flytilla” Lynes wrote:

“For years I’ve felt ashamed at the way my Palestinian friends and their Western well wishers have been humiliated, intimidated and dehumanised when trying to enter the West Bank through Ben Gurion airport… The Israelis have destroyed Palestinian airports near Ramallah and Gaza City, so it is now impossible to reach the West Bank except through Israeli Security.

The Israeli army demolished three dwellings and a bathroom in the Palestinian village of Umm al Kheer in the South Hebron Hills early on the morning of 8 September 2011.  According to UN field workers at the sight, the demolitions left eight adults and sixteen children homeless.

“This [has been] done many times here, and it’s catastrophic,” said a resident of the village who, due to fear of retribution from the Israeli government, wished to be referred to only as Suleiman.  “The toilet doesn’t make problems for Israeli security; the tent does not make problems for Israeli security; neither does this house in which live twelve kids.  How will these kids live?  How will these kids sleep tonight?  How can we explain the truth to these kids?  Maybe these kids will grow up with fear.  They must think about that.”

by Jessie Smith, intern

On 28 June 2011, 60 bicyclists attempted to ride from Hebron to al-Bweireh to demonstrate that Palestinians must have freedom of movement on roads connecting them to their neighbors.  Palestinian participants in the demonstration live primarily in the  Hebron area and 20 internationals accompanied them.  Many people lined the streets, cheering the bicyclists along.

Near the first checkpoint, at least 15 Israeli soldiers and two police officers stopped the cyclists and refused to let them proceed.  Authorities also installed  razor wire to prevent anyone from crossing the blockade.  Soldiers claimed the area was a closed military zone, but could not prove that the paper they showed from a distance was current for that action.

On 27 July 2011, four masked settlers from the Havat Ma’on settlement outpost attacked shepherds grazing their flocks on Palestinian land and their international  accompaniers near Meshaha Hill.

The shepherds were able to get away, but settlers hit a CPTer in the head with an iron bar and destroyed his camera.  The head injury required eight stitches.

by David Hovde

“The tomatoes will be ready in a few days,” Mahmud told CPT-Iraq team members.  “Yesterday there was bombing on this mountain.”

Mahmud is the leader of Kani Spi, a village in the mountains of the Kurdish region of Iraq a few kilometers from the Iranian border.  He described intensifying battles between the PJAK (a resistance group fighting for the rights of Kurds in Iran) and Iranian military forces.

by David Hovde

Ismail Abdulla worked as a driver in Suleimaniyah for a retired leader in the government.  On 17 February 2011, people began to demonstrate in the city’s Azadi Square against corruption in the Kurdistan Regional Government’s ruling parties.  

Along with thousands of others, Ismail went daily to the square, becoming one of the regular speakers on the stage.  He continued working, but started to receive many threats and a salary cut.  A high government official called him and asked him to stop speaking from the stage, offering him a new apartment if he obliged.  Ismail said he would not sell himself or his beliefs.  He recorded the conversation, played it from the stage, and gave it to a local TV station.

For the last five years, CPT has accompanied Iraqi Kurdish families displaced on an annual basis from their villages along the Iraq/Iran border.  What was once a rich agricultural region within Iraqi territory has become a battleground between Iranian military and resistance fighters.

In August, CPTers took the villagers’ concerns to the doors of the Iranian Consulate in Erbil, the capitol city of the KRG (Kurdish Regional Government).  

Take One

by Peter Haresnape

 The Algonquin First Nation of Barriere Lake is celebrating because mining company Cartier Resources, Inc. has suspended work on their traditional territory.     

Re-imagining Partnerships for Peace: a 25th anniversary celebration

13 - 16 October 2011

What do CPT’s partners have to say about our relationships and   working together for peace in the coming years?  Hear grassroots peacemakers from Palestine, Iraq, and Colombia.

In mid-August, Colombia hosted the FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) U-20 World Cup.  International mass media portrayed Colombia as a nation at peace during the games.

However, facts on the ground in the Magdalena Medio region tell another story.  A wave of human rights violations, assassinations, and massacres shook the region the same week, belying the mass media image and pointing to a country under the grip of organized armed violence.

In Barrancabermeja, where CPT is based, human rights groups documented two assassinations (Fernando Peña Betancourt and a 15-year-old boy), two forced disappearances (including 23-year-old motorcycle-taxi driver, Jarlinson Andrés Guzmán), five attempted assassinations (including a 56-year-old man and a teenage boy), and the kidnapping of three contract workers from 13-18 August. 

by Stewart Vriesinga      

Those most affected by the war in Colombia – indigenous communities, Afro-Colombians, and subsistence farmers from rural areas all over the country – are seldom heard from and almost never consulted about solutions to the violence.

Over 15,000 of them travelled great distances to meet in Barrancabermeja from 12-15 August.  They gathered for a People’s Forum to work out and propose their own solutions to a conflict that continues to threaten their lives and livelihoods, their traditional lands, and their cultural identities.

by Gladys Gómez and Kryss Chupp

CAHUCOPANA member Angela Castellanos will speak at CPT’s 25th anniversary Peacemaker Congress October 13-16 in Chicago.  See www.cpt.org/congress/registration

CAHUCOPANA (cow-coh-PAH-nah) is one of those delightful acronyms, a mouthful in any language.  In Spanish it stands for Corporación Acción Humanitaria por la Convivencia y la Paz del Nordeste Antioqueño.  In English it means Humanitarian Action Corporation for the Coexistence and Peace of Northeast Antioquia, but the translation doesn’t really do justice to the spirit and work of the organization.  

Founded in 2004, CAHUCOPANA is an initiative of campesinos (subsistence farmers) united to defend nonviolently their human rights.  Their primary objective is to “build solutions to the social and human rights crises plaguing rural communities in the municipalities of Segovia and Remedios in Northeast Antioquia.”

No Violent Toys!
The Christian Community “Manantial de Vida” (Spring of Life) in Margarita Island, Venezuela is working hard to rid the island of violent toys as part of their efforts to reduce violence among children and youth on the streets.  Members of the church, several of whom are recovering addicts and have been imprisoned, are now serving youth and children currently involved in drugs, assaults, etc.  So far the campaign has reached 36 schools with workshops and public service announcements aired on public television and nine radio stations in four counties on the island.

Moving On...
On 1 September 2011 Doug Pritchard retired from serving as one of two CPT Co-Directors.  He was appointed, together with Carol Rose, in 2004 when CPT’s founding director Gene Stoltzfus retired.

Pritchard first became involved with CPT when he attended a 1990 CPT consultation with the Innu people regarding low level NATO flights over their traditional lands and joined the CPT Southern Ontario support group for the Innu.  In 1995, he joined the CPT Steering Committee as a representative of the Mennonite Church and became CPT Canada Coordinator in 1997.

“In CPT I have had the opportunity to try to show a different face of Christ than that claimed by Emperor Constantine and the Crusaders, both ancient and modern,” said Pritchard in a parting letter to CPTers.

In reflecting on the 10th anniversary of  11 September  2011, CPTers looked back to recall our responses a decade ago.  The following includes excerpts come from “In Harm’s Way,” by Kathleen Kern (available at www.cpt.org/resources/books).

The Al Qaeda hijackings and subsequent carnage at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 happened at a particularly busy period in CPT history  [with teams in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Colombia, Palestine and New Brunswick all facing significant local developments].

Claire Evans, working in the Chicago office, voiced the feelings of many CPTers when she wrote, “My first thought was how everything we do is so, so small compared to that big event.  How can what we do in CPT have any significance in the wake of that large catastrophe?

Doug Pritchard, who had been posting a weekly “Prayers for Peacemakers” on CPTnet since 1996, wrote: “In light of the events of September 11, pray that we may walk in Jesus’ way of nonviolence, both locally and globally, and that we may ‘get in the way’ of comfortable analysis and unjust structures that lead to violence.

by Ali Gohar and Lisa Schirch

CPT Associate Ali Gohar is a rahbar (guide) and founder of Just Peace International in Peshawar, Pakistan.  Lisa Schirch is professor of Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University.  Excerpts reprinted with permission from Common Ground News Service (CGNews).

People power and the use of mass nonviolent action are not new to Muslims.  Even before Gandhi, political and spiritual leader Abdul Ghaffar Khan – now more widely referred to as “Bacha Khan” – was drawing on Islamic and tribal teachings to train “nonviolent soldiers” in 1920s India (now Pakistan) to rely on their honour, courage and the truthfulness of their cause to confront the powerfully armed British Empire.

Thank you so much for being a beacon of light and a message of hope.  There is something about your courage and kindness that overcomes evil with good.  May God bless you and keep you (and bring more folks to be on the team!)
Marcus Hyde - Colorado, USA

I commend your mission and keep it in prayer.  The world will be different because of your efforts.
Sister Monica Zore, OSF - Internet

Peacemaker Delegations
• Depleted Uranium Weapons: Jonesborough, Tennessee USA - 21-30 October 2011
• Aboriginal Justice: 13-23 April;   10-20 August; 28 September - 3 October 2012
• Colombia: International: November 2011 (tentative, special for Latin American church leaders); 24 May - 6 June; 12-25 July;   20 September - 3 October 2012; National:  31 March - 7 April 2012.• Iraq (Kurdish North): 13-26 October 2011;   12-25 April; 4-17 October 2012
• Palestine/Israel: 15-28 November 2011;   10-23 January; 13-26 March; 22 May - 4 June;   4-16 July; 2-15 October; 6-19 November 2012

Peacemaker Corps Trainings
• Winter: 4 January - 4 February 2012;   Chicago, Illinois, USA (apply by 15 October 2011)
• Summer: 13 July - 13 August 2012;   Chicago, Illinois, USA (apply by 1 May, 2012

Listing of CPTers and where they served...

Summer Training
Ten people participated in CPT’s summer 2011 training in Chicago.  *Eight completed the training with 3-year commitments to serve as members of CPT’s Peacemaker Corps.  Left to right, back row: *Peggy Holm & *John Holm (Illinois, USA), Rod Hopp (Iowa, USA), *Daniel Fritzon (Malmö, Sweden), *Pat Thompson (Cardiff, Wales); middle row: Caitie Roberston (Oregon, USA), *Merwyn De Mello (New York, USA); front row: *Chris Sabas (New York, USA), *Adriana Cabrera (Bogotá, Colombia), *Evarossa Horz (Frankfurt, Germany).