Conscientious Objectors in Israel: Witnesses for Peace

The bloody mess in GAZA has not been a major item in Anglican Blogland, save for Kantinho Do Rev, the work of The Rev. Canon Francisco Silva, General Secretary of the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil (IEAB, and TitusOneNine that has carried several notices about the three week war. The Episcopal Church as part of an Ecumenical effort made a statement concerning the GAZA war. It can be found HERE. The Archbishop of York issued a profoundly heartfelt statement HERE.

Kantinho Do Rev points us to a remarkable group of young people in Israel, the SHMINISTIM, 12th Graders, who have become CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS. The website for this movement is http://december18th.org. Please visit and sign up in support of their witness for peace. Here is a video of their witness.

Our daughter, Ema, said once something that I have repeated in a poem, "Snakes in the Churchyard."

I reported,

"The Artist is DADA drunk.

'After the wars,'

she slashes with her hands,

'all we know

is that we are all meat.'

'There is no story,' she says,

'that holds for everyone,'

as she beats me at double solitaire again.

She has a proximate future.

It is yellow.

For the moment it is her guarantee

that there is something

more than carnage."

What has been gained in three weeks of devastating bombing and mostly misspent rockets? Meat for the coffin makers, bad blood between neighbors and the foul smell of chaos in the ghetto. No story about who is justified holds water. There is nothing but lament and the grinding down of meat and bones.

These young people see a new case for peace in their objection. For a moment perhaps some of us in Anglican Land (myself included) can look beyond our stories and our convoluted games and find a new place to stand for peace.