Palestine and the Mohawks: Peace May be Found

By Doug George-Kanentiio.

I have been to Palestine-Israel twice-once in 1984 as part of a spiritual pilgrimage group and in 2012 accompanying my wife Joanne Shenandoah as she performed in Bethlehem.

During my first trip I saw the remnants of a region which was recovering from the 1982 conflict with Lebanon with exceptionally tight security throughout the country. Large groups of American armed soldiers patrolled the towns and rural areas supported by tanks and other armored vehicles. Small, specialized units trained in desert warfare would be dropped off by olive green trucks deep into the arid hills to monitor the movements of the Indigenous Palestinians and to prevent surprise attacks and ambushes by Arab militia.

The Israeli Defense Force was highly trained and lethal. While in Jerusalem there were squads of male and female teenagers dressed in khaki and carrying Uzi and M-16 assault rifles, on high alert and grim in their demeanor. They were not to be approached without approval from their officers.

I learned there are three general Jewish groups: the Azkenazi from central Europe, the Sephardic from the Mediterranean region and the Mizrahim from the Middle East including Palestine, Iran, Syria, Turkey and Iraq. Out of these distinct factions came the rebirth of the nation of Israel.

I was told that Israel was created in response to the Holocaust with thousands of survivors securing refuge in a territory which was possessed by Jews and Arabs. The 1948-49 war which resulted from the declaration of Israel as an independent nation caused many Palestinians to be evicted from their homes or to flee in terror of extremist groups such as the Stern Gang and the Irgun Zva Leumi. This dispossession is called by the refugees the Nakba, the catastrophe.

Since then, the majority of the current 5.4 million Palestinians have lived in “camps” in Jordan, Lebanon or in small enclaves such as the Gaza strip, a 140 square mile section of resource poor, arid land (in comparison Akwesasne has 42 square miles) with a population of 1,760,000.

When Joanne and I were there as guests of the Palestinians in 2012 the tanks and artillery units were not visible, but the 708 km (440 miles) “barrier” was in place. This formidable 10 meter (30 feet) high obstacle resembles the walls of Dannemora with glass enclosed, opaque towers, razor wires and electronic monitoring devices along its concrete ridge as it weaves its way across hills, valleys and communities.

Like Akwesasne, the wall arbitrarily separated Indigenous Arab people who, should they decide to visit relatives or conduct business outside of their immediate homes, must pass through multiple checkpoints at which are armed guards.

We were told that the Palestinians were subject to territorial dispossession by the Israeli government who based their authority on religious grounds, that their state was in accordance with the perceived will of their God and was superior to the rights of the Palestinians.

The broad narratives used against the Palestinians to rationalize their displacement is identical to the stereotypes applied to Native people in North America: people who were shiftless, immoral, technically backwards, primitive, and migratory.

In contrast we found the Palestinians to be hospitable, friendly, creative, and artistic. They were most intrigued by the Indigenous nations of this continent and observed that the Israeli policies imposed upon them were taken from the US and Canada.

That is what we saw-the West Bank was a reservation; the homes of the Native people subject to destruction by “settlements” the right to self-determination heavily qualified and their natural resources exploited by external companies or denied altogether.

We saw the poverty which defined the lives of most Palestinians. They had no choice but to live on the defensive. They were largely ignored by those Arab nations who had material wealth.

Israel outside of the Palestinian reservations is prosperous. It is a nation which has used its abilities to build communities which resemble suburban Los Angeles. But it is a nation living without peace or security, ever awake and aware of the growing rage, based on disparity, which caused the October 7 murders, rapes and kidnappings by Hamas, an extremist organization who is trying to provoke a regional war in which all Jews are exterminated.

There is no moral way to endorse what Hamas did or its plan for a repeat of the Holocaust. There is a need for intermediary groups to secure a cease fire and to expel Hamas from the Gaza Strip followed by the creation of the nation of Palestine.

Yet the killings continue, and the noncombatants are those who suffer. Children, elders, women-the casualties grow into the thousands and with each death comes grief and anger.

The Rotinosionni (Haudenosaunee) have experienced this in our own history. The Peacemaker gave us a solution, a way to resolve violence using ceremony, spirituality, and rationality. Perhaps those lessons can be brought forth to both peoples before this regional war becomes global. Given our history with colonial entities and our remarkable resilience there are those who may yet learn the ways of peace.