Finally We are Beginning to See

I have been thinking about all of the discussions and debates about books, libraries, histories, and what people don't want told. The political right has hammered on the subject of "Critical Race Theory", as if it was something that was taught in the class rooms -- which it is not. The political right doesn't want discussions on enslavement, LGBQTIA issues, women's rights, or the history of Blacks and people of-color. The right-wing doesn't want things to touch the ears of students that might make them think. It is a way to control the political agenda. If people don't know then there is nothing to be outraged about, challenged, or changed.

For years the political structures in this country along with the Zionist lobby has effectively kept the subject of Palestine off of the lips of students, away from the academic arena, and out of the media unless the discussion was sanctioned by the power structure and spoken of in superficial ways. Palestine, its history and struggle became synonymous with "terrorists". It is easier to malign people and compress their history into nothing, particularly when the history exposes the racist wrongs that have been done to a people. When October 7, 2023 occurred it was difficult for many to effectively and meaningfully discuss the events. The mainstream media missed the mark, and so did politicians and political pundits. Since before the Nakba Palestine had been rendered invisible, and was only a problem like a wart or a flea to be dealt with. But even as the mainstream rendered Palestine invisible there were some people who knew the story, particularly Palestinians, and they have labored over the years to transmit that history and culture to receptive ears. Those receptive ears have grown over the years, and the horrors of the Gaza genocide has coalesced voices into a chorus.

In September 2023 I went to the "Palestine Writes" conference held at the University of Pennslyvania. 2,000 people turned out to hear from writers, poets, and cultural artists. It was a celebration of families, the literary arts, and culture. But Zionists responded to this gathering of artists and supporters as if we had come to make a bomb. We encountered "anti-terrorism police" surrounding the conference, and trucks driving around the blocks denouncing our presence. Leaders of Zionist organizations went on the news citing how our presence made Jewish students on campus feel uncomfortable and calling for the President of the University to resign.

Does this all sound familiar? These statements have become a political tool that was used then, and in light of the many encampments on college and university campuses across the country. These statements of fear or being uncomfortable is another way to try and make Palestine invisible. I am sure some students felt uncomfortable which only shows how effective Zionists have been in conflating Israel with Judaism. But the encampments were a challenge to the apartheid system of Israel and not a condemnation or denunciation of Judaism. The students have not been engaged in a battle over religion, but one of justice and human rights. The tactics to derail debate, to squash discussion, and control the subject of Palestine has been successful until now. But thank God the students have persisted to speak. Their encampments have been dismantled, but they persist. Their demonstrations have been damned, but they persist. These students have stood up to invisibility and have made the invisibility of Palestine visible. Let them and us not stop in doing the work of justice and visibility.

The following is a reflection from a friend and colleague, Rev. Dr. Susan K. Smith. Her reflection caused me to reflect on the political use of invisibility, and how our job is to work consistently to make the invisible visible. I share her reflection with you.

Rev. Dr. Rev. Dr. Susan K. Smith

Crazy Faith Ministries

The Plight of Being Invisible

Every time I read the first sentence of Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man, I pause. 

           “I am an invisible man.”

I re-read it often – just that line – I cannot reconcile the reality of any human being believing in God and yet having no compunction about treating other human beings as objects.

 A video of a Native American was played on the 217^th session of ‘In Class With Carr” last week, where this man, in tears, talked about how he spent time in two different boarding schools set up by Christians. Native children were taken from their families and put into these schools, where they were not allowed to speak their native language or practice any of their customs. The goal of the schools was to “civilize” these human beings whom white Christians considered to be savages.

This man, a Chippewa Cree, said that any and every time he spoke in his first language he was beaten, and he said,  “I got hit so much that I lost my native tongue.”

His voice shook as he recalled his experience, and I could not control my own tears. How can we as people who say we love God treat other human beings, also created by that God, as if they are pieces of wood with no feelings, no emotions, no capacity to hurt or feel pain, and unworthy of having a decent life?

There are too many people in this country and in this world who, being treated as invisible, are or have been beaten so much by life that they have lost pieces of their souls. The plight of being invisible makes some sink into that invisibility because it is just easier, and less fraught with the possibility of being treated even worse for not complying with the demand of a ruling class that works to force us into being something we will never be. 

Being invisible, or sinking into our invisibility, releases us from struggling with our inclinations to give in and give up. 

But there are those who refuse to give up, who refuse to be defeated by evil forces that say they are of God. The reason the oppressed cannot be wiped out and have not been wiped out is because there are enough people who believe in a God who sees the preciousness of every human being. There are enough people who, though they may not ascribe to organized religion or embrace Christianity are fully committed to the principles taught in the Sermon on the Mount. 

If we embrace the principles of the Sermon on the Mount, we are in effect immunizing ourselves against the toxic infections caused by the particles of evil that are forced out from the very spirits of those who oppress – like droplets of spittle that explode in the air when someone sneezes.

When we do that we defy our culturally forced invisibility and look our challenges in the face. We stand eye-to-eye with evil and refuse to swallow their definition of us, who we are, and what God has called us to this earth to do. We become the dry bones that could not stay dry and dead with the spirit of God hovering over them. The oppressors ask, “Can the invisible live? Can they thrive? Can they survive?” and the invisible stand, filled with the spirit of God, and say, “Yes!”

The Chippewa man who wept as he recalled having his native tongue beat out of him caused me to weep as well. The memory of all that has been done to individuals and to groups of people in the name of maintaining power and control is painful to all who have experienced it.

The oppressors have tried to beat our individuality, our personalities, and our worth out of us. Making us invisible in general but having enough substance to be targets of their venom and ill-intents makes their goal easier of further demeaning us.

But we who know the God of ages past and of the present will not succumb. We have managed our forced invisibility so well that the oppressed may very well be worried; we will not stand down or go away.

And for that strength and determination, we should pause and give God thanks.

U.S. report says it's 'reasonable to assess' that Israel has violated humanitarian law

"The report looked at two key questions: whether Israel has violated international law while using U.S. weapons, and whether Israel is restricting humanitarian aid. 

On the first question, the report said: "It is reasonable to assess that [U.S.] defense articles ... have been used by Israeli security forces since October 7 in instances inconsistent with its [International Humanitarian Law] obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm."

The State Department findings cited multiple examples where large numbers of Palestinian civilians were killed in Israeli airstrikes. The reports said these instances raised serious concerns, but the U.S. did not have enough evidence to reach definitive conclusions."

Israel Orders Evacuation in Rafah, Hours After Raiding Al Jazeera Offices

“The biggest genocide will take place, the biggest catastrophe will take place in Rafah,” one Palestinian said.

"Israeli forces carried out the evacuation order just hours after Israel’s cabinet voted to shut down Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel and raided its offices. The outlet is one of the few international outlets that operates in Israel and Palestine, and its reporting has been crucial in showing conditions on the ground in Gaza that other outlets have not had access to. This is Israel’s latest and most sweeping attack on the outlet so far as Israeli forces have killed dozens of journalists, including Al Jazeera reporters, amid the genocide. This has severely hampered the media’s ability to depict the horror that Israel is inflicting on Palestinians — likely a goal of Israeli forces as officials seek to censor the atrocities they are committing in Gaza." 

This was recently appeared on the website "Radical Discipleship" (RadicalDiscipleship.net)

"So that people see it!"

"Magda is about to compete in her first triathlon. Last week, the five-year-old brought her Palestine flag to training. Her dad suggested that she put it in her basket so she wouldn’t drop it. Magda told him, “I’m gonna carry it so that people see it.”

Universities close encampments in the name of ‘safety.’ Whose safety?

'What some may actually be feeling is discomfort with the truth, and the truth hurts.'

Who feels safe? Who doesn’t? Whose safety matters? Are feelings of discomfort being conflated with feeling unsafe? Can different people’s perceptions of safety even be reconciled with each other? As the above Muslim student told me, “Do you think Palestinian students feel safe at institutions that invest in an openly genocidal regime?”  

Political and campus leaders, pundits and government officials have all waded in with inflammatory words that often ignore the push-pull, the exchange of beliefs, the respectful disagreements and natural tensions that occur in a protest movement. They ignore the idea that the universities themselves are making things more unsafe (while pledging to prioritize student safety) by seeking suspensions and expulsions for student protesters and calling in police to break up camps.

From the ADC: Congress Passes Dangerous Bill to Silence Criticism of Israel

"In response to the student-led, pro-Palestinian movement, the US House of Representatives today passed the Antisemitism Awareness Act, a bill which is steeped in anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism and dangerously conflates concern for Palestinian human rights with danger and hate. It stifles legitimate criticism of the apartheid state of Israel and that of the Biden administration’s complicity in the ongoing genocide. ADC firmly rejects this disingenuous attempt to paint pro-Palestinian and anti-war protesters as any sort of threat, particularly as these students and faculty are the ones facing a very real risk of being attacked by both police and pro-genocide agitators. We stand in solidarity with those facing violence and suppression for their courageous stance against genocide."

Union Theological Seminary votes to divest from companies profiting from Gaza war

Union, a private, ecumenical school that serves as Columbia University’s faculty of theology but maintains a separate endowment, is the first U.S. institute of higher education known to divest from the war in Gaza.

Union, a private, ecumenical school, shares a graduate studies program with Columbia University but is independent and maintains a separate, $127 million endowment, is the first U.S. institute of higher education known to divest from the war in Gaza.

“We do it with humility and we do it with a sense of moral conviction,” said Union’s president, the Rev. Serene Jones. 

In November, Union’s board of trustees, which includes Jones, hired Cambridge Associates, a private investment management company, to review the seminary’s investment portfolio to identify companies that are financially invested in the war in Gaza.

Luke 12:3 says: "Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light..."

Strapped down, blindfolded, held in diapers: Israeli whistleblowers detail abuse of Palestinians in shadowy detention center

"According to the accounts, the facility some 18 miles from the Gaza frontier is split into two parts: enclosures where around 70 Palestinian detainees from Gaza are placed under extreme physical restraint, and a field hospital where wounded detainees are strapped to their beds, wearing diapers and fed through straws.

“They stripped them down of anything that resembles human beings,” said one whistleblower, who worked as a medic at the facility’s field hospital.

“(The beatings) were not done to gather intelligence. They were done out of revenge,” said another whistleblower. “It was punishment for what they (the Palestinians) did on October 7 and punishment for behavior in the camp.”

Campus Protests Are Fighting Militarism and Corporatization at Home and Abroad

Student protesters know the fight for Palestinian freedom requires resisting militarization and fascism at home.

Campus protests in solidarity with Gaza have erupted across North America, spanning at least 45 U.S. states, Canada and Mexico. Similar demonstrations have surged across Europe, including in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Additionally, expressions of moral outrage and solidarity have erupted in Central and South American countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica and Cuba, as well as in Asia (including India, Indonesia and Japan), the Middle East (including Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon and Yemen), Africa (including South Africa and Tunisia), Australia, New Zealand, and beyond. Many faculty have protested alongside their students, and on May 8 a group of professors at The New School in New York City erected the U.S.’s first faculty encampment in solidarity with Gaza, signaling the growing momentum of the movement.

With the outbreak of Israel’s war on Gaza, students are courageously protesting the indiscriminate and massive killing of women, children and civilians by the Israeli government — with more than 35,000 killed thus far. The student protests have called for a permanent ceasefire, recognition of a secure state for the Palestinian people and for universities to disinvest from industries that produce weapons of war, particularly for Israel. The protests have struck a nerve and awakened the need for rethinking the role of higher education in a time of tyranny and war.

Flood their inboxes: Tell University Presidents to Stop Calling Police and Armed Guards on Students

Students need our support right now. 

As of April 30, over 1,100 students have been arrested for protesting on campuses. Instead of listening to student demands, university presidents are calling the police and armed guards to shut down their activism. 

Like a majority of people in the U.S., students want a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to genocide. 

It has been over 200 days of Israeli massacres of Palestinians. It must end. 

Students have played a pivotal role in changing the course of history, helping bring an end to the Vietnam War and South Africa's apartheid. And once again, students are making history.

Students are demanding that universities divest from corporations profiting from Israel's apartheid and genocide. They will not be silenced.

Take action with us. Email 27 university presidents and chancellors responding to nonviolent dissent with punishment and violence.  

** Once you send emails on the first tab you will get moved to the next tab with more targets. The list keeps growing.

Upcoming Actions and Events

Faith Strategies has CoSponsored this Event with FOR-USA, and Red Letter Christians

It is A Conversation with Israeli Conscientious Objectors - Join Us!

With the invasion of Rafah underway,  it’s easy to overlook that within Israel there are young Israeli Jews choosing prison in protest of their government’s war on the Palestinian people and in pursuit of repairing their society, deeply broken from racism, nationalism, and militarism.  Yuval Dag is one of those courageous leaders of the Israeli conscientious objection movement!

After growing up with a nationalist identity, Yuval began to question his privilege and how it was maintained through the oppression of Palestinians. "Resistance begins, first of all, with self-reflection and understanding. With the understanding that by wearing a uniform and symbols of a certain body, you choose to represent that body. With the understanding that enlisting in the army is a political choice, and its meaning is to support the military and political agenda, and to take part in it. The understanding that even a small cog contributes to the system's function." Yuval decided that he could not in good conscience accept his military conscription. He spent two months in prison for his refusal to serve and today works with the Israeli Refusers Solidarity Network to support other Israeli Jewish Refusniks. 

What makes Yuval and his fellow Refuseniks action so exceptional is that, while there are avenues to avoid military conscription and service in Israel, they are choosing prison bars as the best way they can have an impact for liberation.

Faith Strategies LLC is a proud co-sponsor of an Emergency Forum with Conscientious Objector Yuval Dag hosted by Fellowship of Reconciliation – USA on Thursday, May 23rd at 1 pm (EST).  Please join us for this urgent and important Zoom conversation with Yuval hosted by Ariel Gold of FOR– USA and Diana Oestreich of Red Letter Christians. Register below.

A Special Gathering Voices, May 23, 2024

We invite you to join us for a special Gathering Voices of FOR and Red Letter Christians in conversation with 

What: Emergency Forum with Israeli Conscientious Objector Yuval Dag

When: Thursday, May 23, 1:00 PM ET (10 AM PT)

Where: Zoom — Register now!

After growing up with a nationalist identity, Yuval began to question his privilege and how it was maintained through the oppression of Palestinians. "Resistance begins, first of all, with self-reflection and understanding. With the understanding that by wearing a uniform and symbols of a certain body, you choose to represent that body. With the understanding that enlisting in the army is a political choice, and its meaning is to support the military and political agenda, and to take part in it. The understanding that even a small cog contributes to the system's function."

Yuval decided that he could not in good conscience accept his military conscription. He spent two months in prison for his refusal to serve and today works with the Israeli Refusers Solidarity Network to support other Israeli Jewish Refusniks.

Join us for an urgent and important conversation with Yuval hosted by Ariel Gold of Fellowship of Reconciliation and Diana Oestrich of Red Letter Christians.

REGISTER NOW!         

Make Plans to Attend the FOR-USA National Conference

"Forging Peace in a Violent World"

October 4-6, 2024

Atlanta, Georgia

"The Fellowship of Reconciliation: Beating Guns into Plowshares and Creating Beloved Community Since 1915"



Consider Joining The Fellowship of Reconciliation USA.

I am The Senior Advisor, and Ms. Ariel Gold is our Executive Director. FOR-USA is the oldest Peace and Justice, Interfaith Organization in the country founded in 1915.