Étiquettes
Sami Awad is a Christian Palestinian from Bethlehem. He is the executive director of Holy Land Trust, a Palestinian nonprofit organization focused on empowering communities and promoting social justice, the arts, nonviolent resistance, compassion and love. In this interview, Awad discusses the role of Christian theology and nonviolence in the struggle for Palestinian justice.
Yoav Litvin: As a Christian who works out of Bethlehem, how do you interface with Christian Zionists who visit your ancient and holy city?
Sami Awad: Most Christians, whether Zionists or not, rarely meet and interact with the local Palestinian population and particularly the Palestinian Christian population. In fact, most are discouraged from doing so by their group leaders or Israeli guides who claim Palestinians are “dangerous.”
Christian Zionist pilgrims are dogmatically set in their fundamentalist views that the modern state of Israel is a biblical manifestation that must be accepted as an integral part of Christian faith, and a crucial step toward the end-of-times prophecy. Christian Zionists expect Palestinians (Christians or otherwise) to fully accept the Jewish state not as a political entity – a nation-state – but as a Godly construct that cannot be debated. Our rejections to inherently oppressive Israeli policies are immediately perceived by these pilgrims as anti-Semitic and anti-biblical. Further, some accuse us of promoting replacement theology (a doctrine that was historically used by some, mostly Christian Europeans, to justify violence against Jews). They defend Israel by undermining legitimate Palestinian rights to freedom and liberty.
How do you view Christian Zionist conceptions about Palestine and the rights of Palestinian people, Christian and Muslim, versus those of Jews?
Christian Zionists reject Palestinian rights and claims to the land, erasing our deep-rooted, historic and ancestral presence here. In concert with the Christian Zionist belief in an end-of-days prophecy that demands full support of Israel as a Jewish state, there is growing xenophobia among their followers.
Nowadays, Christian Zionism presents Islam as an evil/Satanic religion, demonizing its followers, and Israel as a defensive, Godly force on the front lines. Many Christian Zionists attack or ridicule Christian Palestinians such as myself for simply having relations with Muslims who are an integral part of our Palestinian national/cultural community. This xenophobia scapegoats all Muslims as radical, extreme and militant (e.g. groups like ISIS). They claim that we must condemn, reject and fight our Muslim Palestinian brothers and sisters and collude with our oppressors, Zionists — not as a means of attaining human rights, but for the salvation of our souls.
Christian Zionists ignorantly support Israel. That said, the more “liberal” Christian Zionists can be open to criticizing Israel…. However, their critique and activism rarely transcend finger-wagging at Israel for using too much force. Christian Zionists certainly refrain from demanding an end to the occupation and/or full and equal rights to Palestinians.
Was Jesus Christ a dark-skinned Palestinian? How do the notions of race and white supremacy play into the Zionist narrative and where do you attempt to challenge these notions?
Nowadays, as a dark-skinned Palestinian, Jesus Christ would have been treated very harshly and rejected for numerous reasons. He would be discriminated against for the color of his skin, undermined for a lack of capitalist money-making agenda, ridiculed and defamed for the people he associates with, and persecuted for his criticism and attempts to stand up and resist the system of control and fear.
Groupe Gaulliste Sceaux 