Dear friends in Spirit. I thought I would share with you a letter I sent to a very good, very spiritual man, whom I greatly admire.
Dear John,
I hope you are well. I attended the retreat you conducted last week. I had to leave early because of health issue which is now being resolved, but I heard your Wednesday evening introduction. We have actually met, though I wouldn’t expect you to remember. I attended another retreat you gave at Ghost Ranch a few years ago. I offered to serve the participants as a Spiritual Director and you graciously accepted. It was an honor for me to do it.
Back to your introduction. You mentioned peoples who have experienced Diaspora. You mentioned, rightly, Jews, Ukrainians, and others. You also spoke eloquently about your brother Rabbi, whom I have also met and know to be a very good man. In fact, if you look at your talk, a good deal of it involved the history of Israel in ancient, and modern times and the Jewish experience in general. I fully understand why, you explained that.
I have to say, though, I was disappointed not to hear mentioned another people who have been driven into their own Diaspora since 1948: Palestinians… by Israelis. Do you have any real understanding of what is actually happening over there? Most people here do not.
This is not criticism. I’m simply asking if you are aware of the oppression the Palestinian people live under, and have lived under for over 70 years? I have been there 16 times in the last 20 years and have witnessed it for myself. We are not being told the truth, so most people here have no idea what is actually happening there. It’s often described as “complicated”. As if it can’t be explained. But it is actually very simple: Israel wants the land Palestinians live on and they are forcibly and gradually taking it with their settlements in the West Bank. They forcibly dispossess Palestinians of their land, houses, possessions; then act “surprised” when there is a reaction by some. It’s all an act. They know exactly what they are doing.
Anyway, perhaps you know all this. If you don’t though, I think a man of your stature in the world of Spirituality should look into it. We are, after all, with our support and enablement of Israel’s policies, part of the oppressive structure.
Thank you for listening.
Peter J Nagle
Soulwork.faith
Fort Meyers, FL
505-423-5378