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Rev Clarence Musgrave  
and his wife Joan  
are our mission partners. 
They  work at 
St Andrews 
Church of Scotland Church 
in Jerusalem.

Article written for Insight magazine of the Board of World Mission

July 2002

Partnership. For us in Jerusalem, working at St Andrew’s Church and Hospice, partnership means that we have colleagues who are Israeli Arab Christians and Israeli Jews. We have people coming to our church, for worship or to visit, who are Arab Christians, and who are Jewish Believers in Jesus. We relate to organisations which represent Jewish people, and to others which represent Palestinians. Yet another major community with which I personally have less to do is the Muslim community – but they too are our partners.

We are all partners in living, and suffering, - partners in anger at what is being done around us, and in bitterness at what we see being done to the countries, the communities and the people with whom we live. So, when we meet, whether it is Arab or Jew; Christian, Jew or Muslim, and we greet each other by asking how things are, the response is almost always the same – a sort of shrug of the shoulders, and a recognition that the “:situation”, as it is called, is hurting everyone. Of course opinions vary as to who is responsible for what, and who is suffering the most – but all are affected and all are hurting.

So, one of the questions about “partnership” is how we can understand the feelings of “the other”, or “the enemy” or perhaps just “them” – that is the people with whom we come in daily contact. The Accountant for the Church of Scotland in Israel – a Jewish man - stands in for a short spell in the Hospice so that the Manager of the Hospice – an Arab Christian – can go to the edge of Bethlehem to pick up his wife who has been spending a few days with her parents. And so there is co-operation, understanding, and a sense of trying to help one another. Yet there is also the realisation that the son of the Accountant could be one of the soldiers at a checkpoint, who may prevent the relative of the Manager from crossing. How do they understand “the other”?

Conflict. On the road to Bethlehem are clear illustrations of communities in conflict :

1. the military check point with the soldiers armed with automatic weapons, the walkways for pedestrians where they can only pass one at a time, and the “dragon’s teeth” in the road to prevent cars going where the army does not want them to go;
2. the wasteland that is the ground close to what is seen as the border, with buildings razed to the ground to give clear line of sight and fire to the soldiers, and a 2-metre deep trench dug and filled with coils of razor wire;
3. the 3 metre high concrete wall around Rachel’s Tomb, to protect it and those who worship at it from possible attack;
4. the air filled with tension as people wait to get through the checkpoint, or as the soldiers warily eye up each person who approaches them in case they should be carrying a bomb.

Conflict. In the e-mails that come in from all over the place. Stories of families torn apart by bombs. Stories of families torn apart by tank shells. Stories of people afraid to get on a bus. Stories of people tear-gassed as they walk home in their own towns, on to be confronted by an Israeli army jeep. And so one could go on.

Conflict. In the people who demonstrate each week about 400 metres from our home in Jerusalem. There are The Women in Black, who hold up signs in Hebrew, Arabic and English, which simply read “End the occupation”. There are the young Orthodox Jewish men who want the present policies of occupation to continue. Both have recently been joined by The Women in Blue and White, (the colours of the Israeli flag) who see the whole land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River as their land. Across the road signs are put up saying “Start the Transfer (of Palestinians out of Israel and the West Bank) now.” And all these groups are Jewish, and this conflict between them is within the Jewish community.

Conflict. The stories are legion that are told of young people being so hope-less that all they can see as a way to contribute to the future of their people is to be a suicide bomber. The stories are also told of those who see violence as only leading into a cul-de-sac, and who are advocating change. And these groups are Palestinians.

Conflict. What is its goal? Normally one thinks of winning a conflict – but that also means someone losing. That certainly is the prospect held out by many here. Both sides are fighting to win. But where does that leave the people who are going to be defeated?

Partnership in Conflict means that we who live here in Israel and Palestine, whether we are Israelis or Palestinians or expatriates, are all involved in, and influenced by, the conflict. We are partners in the suffering, even if our “suffering” is only the inconvenience of random road checks in West Jerusalem. But the suffering goes deeper, much deeper, when we see the struggle of brother against brother – because the two peoples are both Children of Abraham.

But Partnership in Conflict also imposes on us a duty, to try to share a vision of a different way of resolving conflict in which there is neither victor nor vanquished. In a fundamental way, it is the witness of the Christian faith in reconciliation that has to be the contribution that the Church makes to being a Partner in Conflict. But reconciliation means, among other things, justice, and justice sadly does not grow on trees. It has to be struggled for. And there is the paradox, that in trying to desist from a conflict where one defeats the other, we are engaged in a conflict of ideas or faith, where the belief in reconciliation has to overcome the belief in vengeance and revenge.

While we in this part of the world are daily caught up in this struggle, so also are you, wherever you are, who are part of the Church – the Body – of Christ. For bedside reading at the end of the day you read this, turn to I Corinthians 12 and 13.

Shalom, Salaam, Peace, from Jerusalem.

Clarence Musgrave.

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