skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Peace is not the opposite of violence. Peace is the opposite of hate.
(...)
What
then, shall we do, outside the shadow of hate and blame? What shall we
do from the full feeling of the loss of Israeli and Palestinian mothers?
What shall we do, knowing the keening of a mother, the whimpering of a
child cowering in a basement? Those of us whose hands are far from the
levers of power may not be able to do much except call for this and
that: ceasefires, humanitarian corridors, and so forth. I support such
calls, but for the hate cycle to reverse, people from within the warring
parties will have to do something brave.
Brave would be for Hamas to release all hostages, unconditionally and unilaterally.
Brave would be for Israel to stop the bombing and restore humanitarian supplies, unconditionally and unilaterally.
You
may think, depending on which side you are on, that neither of these is
brave; that one is simply humane and should have been done before it
even started, and the other is foolhardy given how the other side would
just take advantage of it. It is precisely such calculations that make
these brave. To advocate peace in a time of war is always brave. As one
Israeli peace activist told me a few days ago, “If you say anything,
they will slap you.”
What motivates bravery? Let’s call it
courage. Courage means, “the capacity of the heart.” It comes when we
open our hearts to actually feel. Then, if we don’t channel the grief
into despair or the anger into hate, we do whatever it takes to stop the
cycle of harm. Another cycle can take its place, with each side
responding to the other’s brave gesture with its own, as the whole world
watches, affirms, and rewards each step. Yes, I am aware of the
fruitlessness of nonviolent protests and peace movements in the past in
Israel and Palestine, but now is different. All eyes are on them. Israel
/ Palestine is now the fulcrum upon which the whole world could swing
toward peace.
Charles Eisenstein
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário