International Quaker Working Party on Israel and Palestine
When the Rain Returns: Toward Justice and Reconciliation in Palestine and Israel
(Philadelphia, PA: American Friends Service Committee, 2004, 326pp.)

The 9 January 2005 elections among the Palestinians to select new leadership may be a turning point in Israeli-Palestinian relations.  We must do all that we can to see that the changes are positive and help to heal the bitterness, anger, frustration and hatred which exists within Israeli-Palestinian society.  The tensions in the Middle East have been so great and so long lasting as to discourage many people of goodwill.  If people of power such as American Presidents, Secretaries of State or Secretary-Generals of the United Nations are not able to make much headway since 1947 when the "Middle East" came on the world agenda, what hope is there for efforts carried out by small non-governmental organizations even if they are led by the Spirit?

Can the Theosophical movement and, in particular, the Theosophical Order of Service play any role, especially in the Middle East where there are few members?  What contacts do we now have with esoteric groups in the Middle East among the Sufis, the Druze, the Jewish practitioners of the Kabbalah, currents within Coptic Christianity and among Middle East Freemasons?  K. Paul Johnson in his book The Masters Revealed
(Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994, 288pp.) deals with people who were in contact with Madame Blavatsky and the early formation of the Theosophical movement, such key figures of Islamic reform as Jamal ad-Din Al-Afghani and his close co-workers James Sanua and Lydia Pashkov as well as the exiled Algerian resistance leader Abdel-Kader, close to Sir Richard Burton.

One way of evaluating our potential of peacemaking is to look at the efforts of a small Protestant movement - the Society of Friends, often called Quakers.  The Quakers are among the smallest and least typical of the Protestant groups, but they have long played an active role in peacemaking efforts.  Although there are at least some Quakers in a large number of countries, active international peace work has often rested with English and US members.  The Quakers have long been interested in education, and in the early 1900s established schools in Ramallah, Palestine  which trained both women and men who would later play a role in Palestinian affairs.

The American Friends Service Committee, a relief agent of the Quakers, had been active in the Middle East in the late 1940s with Arab refugees, while many Israeli Jews had known of Quaker relief efforts in Europe after both the First and Second World Wars.  Thus, the Quakers had contacts in the Middle East.  It is always useful to have such contacts so that the first question local people ask is not "What did you say the name of your organization is, and what does it do?"

There have been a number of Quaker efforts to discuss issues with people involved in the Middle East, most particularly Israelis and Palestinians.  These discussions, reflections, and recommendations have led to a number of studies.  Chief among these studies is a 1969 report  Search for Peace in the Middle East.  This working party was made up of nine people, of which three were women, led by Landrum Bolling, then president of the Quaker college in Indiana, Earlham, who is still concerned with the Middle East and was interviewed in Israel for the new study.  One member of the 1969 group was Don Peretz, a specialist on the Palestine refugee issue.  He is the author of a US Institute of Peace study Palestinians, Refugees and the Middle East Peace Process (1993).  He is one of those who commented on the current report.

There is a second 1982 report A Compassionate Peace: A Future for the Middle East.  This is the report of a five-person working group led by Everett Mendelsohn, Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University.  This working group had two women.  One of the members, Arthur Day, had been the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs.  This study drew on the reports of James Fine who was then working as the Quaker International Affairs Representative in the Middle East.  Fine is the co-leader of the new working party.  It is important to have continuity in the people involved as well as adding some "new faces."

These studies are not the official position of the Society of Friends or even of the American Friends Service Committee which published When the Rain Returns.  Rather  the reports are the result of the experience and reflections of the Working Party who write "In lifting up the voices of those Palestinians and Israelis who work against imposing odds for justice and reconciliation, we hope to help fashion a new discourse about peace in the Middle East: one that speaks of love not hate, of reconciliation not revenge, of hope not despair."

My emphasis for this review is not upon the recommendations of the Working Party which are set out clearly in the concluding section "Toward a Just Resolution" and presented in "Epistle to Friends" but upon the methodology of the study, thinking of what we can learn for similar studies for the Middle East or for other parts of the world.

The Make up of the Working Party

This Working Party had 14 members, six women, nine were from the USA, two from Canada, one a South African (Black) and one a Palestinian, head of the Ramallah Friends and active in the work of the World Council of Churches.  Eight were university professors, usually in political or social science, one a world affairs columnist for the Christian Science Monitor.  Others were or had been involved in Middle East peace efforts.  Only one person, a poet from Wales, active in interfaith activities could be considered  representing "everyman".  Thus most were used to working with ideas and expressing them clearly and were probably used to working in a committee style.

Before the report was finalized, it was read and commented upon by at least 18 people who are thanked by name, most of whom are active on Middle East issues.  Some 20 months were spent in writing and discussing the report.  So that although the interviews were carried out in June 2002, the report is only issued near the end of 2004.  As is noted in the Preface, "In the months after we returned to our homes around the world, we continued to labor together over how best to describe the situation we had experienced so that we might help build a just and lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis.  That process of post-trip deliberation delayed the production of this report, but we feel that it enriched (or to use a Quaker term, 'seasoned') its content considerably."

Interviews

Probably the prime virtue of such a working party member is the ability to listen, to ask key questions, and to hear "between the lines" - both what is said and what is not said.  The Working Party spent basically three weeks in the Middle East -12 June to 2 July 2002, one week divided into smaller groups going to Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan and then as a full group for two weeks in Israel/Palestine.  Interviews had been set up in advance by Quakers and Mennonites already working in the area.  95 people were interviewed.  They are listed in an appendix.  Given the travel restrictions within Israel/Palestine some places were not able to be visited and so some balance was lost.  

An effort was made to draw upon a cross section of officials, academics, religious leaders, and activists.  The "man in the street", taxi driver, chance contact with a shop keeper is not listed.  There are no cultural workers (artists, writers, film makers etc) listed.  No one is listed as belonging to the military or the security services (Israeli or Palestinian) and none to the armed movements. Although some hard views are presented in quotes from those interviewed, can one get a sense of how willing are people to use violence if one does not talk to the violent?

There is a good bibliography of books in English as well as a list of organizations, usually with websites, working for Israeli/Palestinian reconciliation.  No obvious "hardline" groups are listed.

While there are some recommendations put forward, the study ends with questions which can be addressed to all of us: Will the new political movement in Israel/Palestine "be in the direction we would like to see, of justice, peace and reconciliation?  Partly, that is up to those of us who live outside the area of the conflict: What can we do to support the work of the peace activists in Israel and Palestine?  What can we do to organize in support of a just peace in our meetings, our congregations, our communities?  What can we do to build relationships with other like-minded people, or to steer our national governments into wiser and more peace-oriented paths?"

René Wadlow