AN OPEN LETTER

TO MY PALESTINIAN AND ISRAELI BROTHERS AND SISTERS 1

Like millions of others, I have shared your pains and sufferings from a distance and over a long period of time. I am a Muslim by birth, but I have a Jewish son and therefore emotional ties to both sides. I am also a proud disciple of Buddha, Jesus, Rumi, Gandhi, Buber, King, and Hosseini. Following the seven years of the slow Oslo peace process and the breakout of the new Intifada of October 2000, I feel that the time has come for you to seriously consider a new mass strategy towards peace, namely a strategy of NON-VIOLENCE.

A new PBS documentary on the history of non-violence during the 20th century, "A Force More Powerful," makes it abundantly clear that time and time again the struggles for justice have best succeeded through carefully planned strategies of non-violent and active resistance. In order to take its moral and practical lessons to heart, this excellent documentary must be viewed by all of you. We now know how in India, the United States, the Philippines, South Africa, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia, non-violent struggles for independence, civil rights, and freedom from the tyrannies of apartheid and dictatorial rules have succeeded.

This is not a romantic appeal to abstract moral principles. Non-violence is both moral and practical. It takes the highest possible moral grounds, but it also works. It requires commitment, courage, discipline, and persistent hard work. These are qualities that are not lacking among the Israelis and Palestinians. First of all, it takes for two small groups of Israelis and Palestinians to come together and pledge themselves to a joint non-violent struggle for peace and justice in the Holy Lands. Second, the group would have to go through a period of careful training in non-violent philosophy, strategies, and tactics. Third, the group needs to set out its long, medium, and short-term objectives.

The short-term is easy to define. All acts of violence on both sides must unconditionally stop before a process of confidence building can start. The medium term is more difficult, but considerable progress has already been made on that front by the peace process. An independent Palestine must be part of the plan, but an end to terrorism against Israelis must be its quid pro quo. The long-term objectives are the most difficult on which to agree. The Israeli and Palestinian economies have already become so interdependent that the basis for long-term cooperation between the two states and an eventual federation is not impossible to imagine. Wars and violence are failures of human imagination. We must have the courage to imagine the impossible in order to achieve what is within our grasp in the short run. An Israel at peace with its Arab neighbors is such a dream. Exchanging Israeli scientific and technological know-how with the enormous Arab human and financial power presents an unmatched complementary.

Last but not least, a non-violent active resistance for peace and justice requires leadership. Credible leadership for non-violent struggles emerges only out of traditions of civility and in the trenches of the struggle itself. Authentic Jews, Christians, and Muslims are second to none in their profound commitment to peace and justice. The greetings in both Hebrew and Arabic convey Peace (Shalom, Salam) upon the recipients. For Christians who also consider the Holy Lands as their sacred grounds, Jesus of Nazareth was a Prince of Peace. Pious wishes, however, are not enough. It is in the process of the non-violent struggle itself that Gandhis, Kings, and Mandelas are made.

Some Israelis and Palestinians have tried violence for sometime to achieve their objectives. It has brought them and innocent by-standers nothing but pain, suffering, misery, and death. I appeal to you, dear bothers and sisters, to give peace a chance.

Majid Tehranian

Kyoto, Japan,
October 22, 2000