Peacemaker will discuss conflict

April 15, 2006 By Gordon Dritschilo Herald Staff

Howard Taylor's business is to go into harm's way.

Taylor, a 68-year-old from Wentworth, N.H., will give a talk at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Nella Grimm Fox Room of the Rutland Free Library on his time in the West Bank as a member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams.

"It's a group of mostly Quakers, Mennonites and Church of the Brethren — pacifists and nonviolent sorts of people," Taylor said of the organization. "They have offices in places around the world where there's major conflict. Essentially, you put yourselves between the conflict. In Hebron, we put ourselves between Palestinians and the authorities, the Israeli Defense Force and police."

Taylor said he spent two weeks in the West Bank last summer as part of a Christian Peace Team delegation.

"You document what's going on," he said. "We took pictures and asked questions. We wear hats that say 'CPT' on them. We don't take sides. We just focus towards changing the situation."

What typically happens, Taylor said, is that in 15 to 20 minutes, the conflict is over.

"What I feel is because of that 15 to 20 minutes, a family is going to have a better day than it would have otherwise," he said.

However, it did not always work.

"Sometimes the violent activities will continue," he said. "This is what usually happens when settlers are involved. In Palestine, the IDF is not allowed to do anything to settlers — it can only be done by police and they're not as readily available as the military."

Taylor said that most of the problems in the area stem from the actions of the Jewish settlers in the occupied territories.

"They try to provoke a certain reaction," he said. "They're trying to force the Palestinians out."

Israeli soldiers also try to provoke the Palestinians, Taylor said.

"They're younger, they're bored, they don't want to be there," he said. "The commanders will plan exercises that are destructive to people and property. They'll put on war paint, tear down markets. There doesn't seem to be any reason to it other than to give people something to do."

Taylor said he has not seen such provocation on the part of the Palestinians.

"There has been some, that's clear, but there doesn't seem to be very much," he said. "It's pretty one-sided."

In Hebron, Taylor said 2,000 defense force soldiers protect 400 to 500 settlers. However, Taylor said that when talking to the soldiers, they say they spend most of their time protecting Palestinians from the settlers.

"It's a mess, a real mess," he said.

A mess with no obvious solution, he said.

Taylor said a union between Israel and Palestine doesn't seem possible, but settlers have taken so much of Palestine that what is left for the Palestinians would not make a viable country. A two-state solution would not be possible unless Israel is willing to move back to something resembling the 1967 borders.

He said the recent elections putting Hamas into power in Palestine and the coalition led by the Kadima party in Israel just is causing each side to solidify their positions.

"We get an erroneous picture about Hamas," he said. "They do a lot of social service activities there and are well-liked because of that. All we hear about here is the terrorist activities of the past. Hamas isn't any more hard-line politically than the Palestinian Authority was. They're just less corrupt."

Taylor said Israel, though, is using the election as an excuse to justify unilateral actions and the United States is backing the Israeli government.

"We say we're for democratically elected nations," he said. "We're really not. If the election elects someone we don't like, we don't support them at all."

Taylor's talk at the library is sponsored by Central Vermont Peace and Justice. He also will deliver a sermon at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Rutland at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

Contact Gordon Dritschilo at gordon.dritschilo@rutlandherald.com.