A month of peaceful dialogue S
haina Lidd, a Jewish Ameri- can, and Mathilda Nassar, a Lutheran from the occupied
West Bank, have a friendship that might seem unlikely to some. When they met and Nassar said she was from Palestine, Lidd didn’t say much. Ten a couple years later they got
acquainted in one of their classes at ELCA-affiliated Roanoke College in Salem, Va. “I don’t know how it hap- pened, but we became really good friends,” Nassar said. Teir friendship made it pos-
sible for them to have difficult, eye-opening conversations about Israel. “I hadn’t had a Palestinian friend,” Lidd said. “Tere have been tears and laughter. Just to know somebody, know why they think or believe what they do, makes every- thing more real.” Teir conversations led them
to create “Israel-Palestine Peace Month” at Roanoke.
Expanding the conversation Peace Month got started when Nassar invited her uncle, Daoud Nassar, an activist and educator in nonviolence whose family runs Tent of Nations near Bethlehem, to speak on campus. She looked to Lidd and freshman Leah Weinstein, who is also Jewish American, for help “get- ting someone to present an Israeli perspective.” “We wanted constructive discus-
sion and dialogue, not blaming,” Nassar said. Once it got rolling, the women
involved faculty members in plans to present five events in spring 2015. Te lineup included Maen
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www.thelutheran.org Nassar’s family experienced
Leah Weinstein (left), Mathilda Nassar and Shaina Lidd, students at Roanoke, Salem, Va., were the organizing force behind the college’s first “Israel-Palestine Peace Month” last spring. Although Nassar and Lidd have gradu- ated, Weinstein will plan the 2016 event.
Rashid Areikat, Palestinian ambas- sador to the U.S.; Shlomo Brom, retired brigadier general in the Israeli army; Lara Friedman of Americans for Peace Now; and Nassar’s uncle (he Skyped in from the West Bank). “I have the feelings of any Pales-
tinian, that the only way forward is a sustainable solution,” Nassar said. “I believe in peace, in coexistence and co-resistance. Together we act in resistance to the occupation and Israel’s denial of our human rights. “With Peace Month, we went
toward opening up dialogue on the campus for the first time to educate about the real Israel and the real Palestine.”
Resources
The ELCA’s Peace Not Walls campaign works for justice and peace in Israel and Palestine through accompaniment, advocacy and raising awareness (www.
elca.org/peacenotwalls).
Imm Mathilda: A Bethlehem Mother’s Diary, the story of Mathilda Nassar’s family by Alison Jones Nassar and Fred Strickert (Kirk House Publishers, 2003).
Israel’s 2000 military incursion into Beit Jala and Bethlehem. In 2003 they moved to Richmond, Va., and became members of Christ the King Lutheran Church. Lidd, from Stafford, Va., said,
“We have to find room to see each other’s side, hear each other’s story and say, ‘You’ve gone through a lot and I’m sorry.’ ” For Nassar, the highlight of Peace
Month was meeting Heartbeat, whose concert opened the event. Te band is made up of young Israeli and Palestinian musicians who seek to build understanding and develop creative nonviolent tools for social change. Areikat’s speech drew the big-
gest crowd—more than 200 people from the campus and community. Around 60 to 70 people attended the other events. Te ambassador told a local TV
reporter: “My objective is to provide [the students] with a better under- standing of Palestinian aspirations, what the Palestinians want to do, that we all aspire to live in peace.”
Roanoke students raise awareness of Israeli-Palestinian struggle By Ann Hafften
“We have to find room to
see each other’s side, hear each other’s story and
say, ‘You’ve gone through a lot and I’m sorry.’ ”
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