Painting Cages

A reflection on peacebuilding.

In 2024, I went on a solidarity pilgrimage to Palestine (and attended a conference), and one of the things we did was to travel to Sderot, Israel, which is less than a mile from the fence surrounding Gaza and was the site of a major attack on October 7.

We were there to listen to two Israeli Jewish survivors of October 7, both of whom have been committed for many years to building peace in their own ways. One speaker was an older woman who was once a settler when Israel occupied the Sinai Peninsula and, after Israel’s withdrawal, moved to the border of Gaza. She told how she decided to be a “peacebuilder.”

One day, she saw images of Palestinian children in Gaza and, in her words, she looked into their eyes and said they looked dead. When she saw this, she had the thought that she needed to work to make the lives of the children in Gaza better, or else (again, in her words), the children would have nothing better to do with their time than think of how they would kill Israelis.

So, she somehow connected with Palestinians on the other side of the fence. She started sending toys for the children. After a while, she began organizing dancing classes for children in Gaza, as well as online meetings. When it was allowed, she would drive Palestinians from Gaza to Israeli hospitals and back.

And this was her way of building peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

I want to pause and ask: Is this peacebuilding? What do you think?

Well, many in our group were quite frustrated with this woman, her story, and how she envisioned peacebuilding.

Our guide, a Palestinian Christian, brought our time (and the heated pushback) to a close. And this final part is the reason why I’m writing this post.

He stood in front of the group and thanked our speakers. He thanked them for their desire to build peace. He challenged us that there are many ways to work for peace, and Palestinians need them all.

But he didn’t stop there.

He looked at the speakers and said (my paraphrase): “We Palestinians don’t want to paint our cage to make it more beautiful. We don’t need or want a comfortable cage to live in. We want to live free from the cage.”

I wonder how much of peacebuilding is nothing more than painting the cages of oppression.

Today, Jesus gets the final word:

The spirit of the Lord is upon me

Because he has anointed me

To tell the poor the good news.

He has sent me to announce release to the prisoners

And sight to the blind,

To set the wounded vitims free,

To announce the year of God’s special favor.