Jewish author proposes one-state solution
Israeli-Jewish author and organizer Jeff Halper spoke at a June 25 lunch gathering organized by the Mennonite Church Eastern Canada (MCEC) Palestine-Israel Network (PIN). Halper heads the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and is the author of Decolonizing Israel, Liberating Palestine: Zionism, Settler Colonialism, and the Case for One Democratic State. Halper said that while it…
The path to peace includes Hamas
I am not, and have never been, a supporter or apologist for Hamas. I am a Christian, and Hamas is an avowedly Muslim organization. I am a pacifist, and Hamas believes in armed struggle as the path to liberation. Yet, I know that there is no path to peace that does not involve Hamas, as…
Public and protests pressure decision-makers in the war against Gaza
Following community pressure, in early July, the University of Waterloo (UW) in Waterloo, Ontario, dropped all legal charges against a group of students and concerned community members who were calling on the university to divest of any company that supports Israel as the war against Gaza continues. Occupy UW is part of a significant movement…
Winnipeg churches hold Nakba Day service
A call from Christians in Palestine to lament and pray for people suffering in Gaza prompted Mennonites in Winnipeg to organize a service. The May 15 service took place on Nakba Day, the day when Palestinians commemorate what they call The Nakba, or catastrophe. That’s when over 750,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes during the founding of the state of Israel…
Beyond revenge: The story of Maoz Inon
Maoz Inon is an Israeli Jewish social entrepreneur and peace advocate. During a February online event—Part I of the Peace & Possibility events—he shared the story of his parents being murdered by Hamas and his family’s astonishing journey to peace. The following excerpts are from an online event with Inon that Canadian Mennonite convened in…
A prayer for impossible peace
The gulf appears impossible to bridge. As bombs continue to fall onto Gaza and rockets somehow continue to fly out of Gaza, a conflict nearly as old as time and as entrenched as the Jordan River spirals to depths unthinkable. To listen to people on either side is to hear vastly different narratives about the…
Jewish perspectives
An interview with Gustavo Zentner By Will Braun Gustavo Zentner will never forget visiting areas attacked by Hamas. “We walked into the homes where you can still smell the smell of burned flesh,” he recalled. “That smell will always accompany me.” Zentner travelled to Israel last November as part of a solidarity mission comprised of…
Mennos gather at MP’s office for Day of Action
About 30 Mennonites assembled in the lobby of Garden Park Tower on December 19 to make their voices heard on the Mennonite Day of Action asking for a ceasefire in Palestine. Organizers originally planned to assemble at the second-floor office of Ed Fast, Abbotsford Member of Parliament, but due to the larger-than-expected gathering, organizers decided…
Attending to war
First-hand from Gaza The following is a string of messages received by a reader of Canadian Mennonite who worked in Israel-Palestine. She received the messages on October 30 from a friend in Gaza who lost 19 family members in the bombing two days before. The person has two pre-school sons and is now sheltering in…
God have mercy on the Middle East
As we prepare to send this peace-themed issue of the magazine to press, all eyes are on Gaza. Israeli tanks sit poised at its northern border, ready to invade. Long lines of transport trucks laden with aid sit at its southern border, as a humanitarian catastrophe unfolds. The people of Gaza, mostly civilians, sit in…
