By Emma C. Johnson
Cody
O’Rourke, a
native of Gladwin, Michigan, didn’t know it at the time, but in
2004 he was about to attend a presentation that would end up changing the
trajectory of his life. “It was really by chance that I ended up being involved
in the conflict in the Holy Land,” said O’Rourke.
Held
at the Church of the Brethren in Beaverton, Michigan, Speaker Bob Schnepp discussed
the situation in Palestine/Israel. Afterwards, O’Rourke expressed admiration for Schnepp’s commitment to
peace. Schnepp suggested O’Rourke travel to Palestine/Israel, but O’Rourke said
he couldn’t afford it. Schnepp offered to pay. It was settled.
“So
there I was, Bob was paying for me to go to Hebron on a two-week delegation
with the Christian Peacemaker Teams in 2005,” O’Rourke said.
O’Rourke
says his 2005
trip had a huge impact on him. Today O’Rourke has been living in Bethlehem
for seven years fighting for social justice.
“I
wasn't political,” said O’Rourke. “I had no historical background and I wasn't
even that religious ... And I wasn't much into social justice. Because, why
would I be? As a white, straight guy from northern Michigan, I had never experienced
institutionalized violence.”
“I
had never witnessed, or could have imagined for that matter, the intentional
system of control that Palestinians were forced to live under in Hebron,” he
said. “After witnessing the oppression, hearing the personal stories, it
bothered my conscious in a way that I couldn't turn away from,” says O’Rourke.
Speaker
Cody O’Rourke’s talk is titled “South Hebron: The struggle for human rights in
the Holy Land.” He will discuss Israel's military occupation, the
implications of the Oslo Accords, and ways to work toward peace in the Holy
Land.
O’Rourke seeks to “unpack the way in which the Israeli state
exercises military control over the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, the West Bank,
and the Golan Heights and how that system is directly connected to the
political and social dynamics of the United States.”
O’Rourke will focus on the
Palestinian village of Um al-Khair in South Hebron.
In Um al-Khair, “[Palestinians] aren't allowed to have
water, electricity, or any infrastructure – while the Israeli Jewish settlement
of Carmel has full services and public transportation.”
In South Hebron, Palestinians must get building permits from
the Israeli military, which approves less than 1 percent of Palestinians’
applications. “[I]t is basically impossible for them to stay on their land,” explains
O’Rourke.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there are 151 structures slated for demolition
in Um al-Khair. Only two homes would be left standing.
“Israel is trying to carry out an impossible colonization
project, in which it wants all the land, but to retain a Jewish demographic
majority on the land,” says O’Rourke. Currently, there are about 6.5 million
Jews and 6.5 million Palestinians living in Palestine/Israel. “Israel cannot
retain a Jewish democracy while simultaneously granting rights to 6.5 million Palestinians,”
he said.
“[T]o secure any sort of peace in the Holy Land, we have to
start working on … one democratic state in which all people have equal and
inalienable rights,” he said.
“This violence isn't rooted in hate like some people want to
frame the conflict,” says O’Rourke. “The violence is rooted in political
inequalities which are represented in thousands of laws enacted to suppress
Palestinian rights. … We need a change in the laws, which are only changed
through a political process.”
“[U]nless we put a premium on a one-state solution that
focuses on creating systems of economic equality, we will have failed. Essentially
we will have just reorganized oppression and violence from the military level
to an economic level,” O’Rourke said.
While O’Rourke’s presentation
focuses on South Hebron, he says these social justice issues transcend
geography.
“[A]ll
these systems of oppression are interconnected,” says O’Rourke. “I could see
how on various levels the Palestinian experience was intrinsically connected to
the experiences of People of Color. I began to see … that in order to make any
sort of change, I was going to have to be an ally not only to those oppressed
in the Holy Land, but to marginalized and oppressed everywhere.”
“My son is an Israeli Jew. He goes to well-funded Israeli
Jewish schools. … [W]e talk often about how life is different for the
Palestinians. So when my son goes out with me to Um al-Khair, it's pretty clear
to him that the Palestinians aren't being treated the same as Israeli Jews. My
son gets this reality pretty easily, but yet for some adults, this basic
reality evades them,” he said.
The
event is sponsored by the Islamic Center of Midland and Reaching Out for
Justice and Peace Work Group of Memorial Presbyterian Church and will take
place on Sunday, June 17, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Creative 360, located at
1517 Bayliss Street in Midland.
