Hope Equals Organizes for Change

March 9, 2010 – Several college students who are campus leaders of Hope Equals, a new peace program sponsored by Christian Reformed World Missions, gathered last weekend for a training session geared toward helping them turn their interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into action.

They listened to Kim Frank Kirk, a consultant on organizing for change, speak to them about the many, often mundane, steps required to turn caring for an issue into action that can actually bring about political transformation.

"You are trying to draw attention to an international situation with Hope Equals," said Kirk, a resident of Idaho. "If you work together, you can influence policy. We often think it is one brave person who brings about change, but there is a rich history of how by involving many people in a cause social change actually can happen."

Hope Equals is a campaign for peace geared to attract a younger generation of Christians interested in knowing more about and having an impact on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. A symbol and result of that conflict is a wall that Israel built to separate itself from the West Bank and Gaza, both home to millions of Palestinians.

Hope Equals comes out of focus groups CRWM held in which they asked younger people how they would like to be involved in mission work. The resounding answer: By impacting the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, one of the most troubled, war-torn places in the world. As it begins, Hope Equals is establishing core groups of young people on college campuses across North America.

Hope Equals has connected groups of young people at Calvin College, Calvin Theological Seminary, and Cornerstone College in the United States and Trinity Western in British Columbia, Canada. Other colleges, such as Hope College in Holland, Mich., have also shown interest.

Plans are to involve many other campuses and to hold additional leadership trainings such as the one Kirk gave last weekend at Calvin Theological Seminary.

"I think that the Hope Equals issue, reconciliation and peace between Israelis and Palestinians, is a really important issue," says Briana Bennett, a Hope College junior who attended the training. "Unfortunately, not a lot of people know a lot about this. I am really excited to be working with … the group and I hope to help spread the Hope Equals movement and learn a lot."

Kirk, the consultant, told the Hope Equals campus leaders to think how they can influence their campuses on the issue by holding events and involving interested students. "Think of people you know who might be interested in what you are doing and ask them to join," she said.

"Hope Equals is now on the brink of the next step of organizing to the point where we can do something effective," says Mariano Avila, coordinator of Hope Equals.

What that is, though, has to spring from the members of the Hope Equals groups that are forming on college and seminary campuses.

Kirk mentioned the civil rights and the anti-Vietnam War movements in the United States, the nonviolent overthrow of the British-controlled government in India led by Mahatma Gandhi, and the abolition of apartheid in South Africa as examples of changes that came about through careful organizing and executing actions that led to change.

"Organizing is painstaking work," said Kirk. "How do you gain power as an ordinary person? We have to overcome cynicism that we can’t change anything because feelings of powerlessness only breed apathy."

Micah Schuurman, a Hope Equals leader at Calvin Theological Seminary, says he is becoming part of the movement even though he realizes that they are limited in what they can really do.

"Many people approach the Arab/Israeli conflict with a series of false hopes. They live in a dream world based on a wish list rather than on reality. For example, the Palestinians often dream of a world where Israel does not exist. They fantasize about it, pushing Israel into the sea. The problem is that this dream is not based in reality. Israel will never disappear. It is there to stay," he says.

"Israelis and Christian Zionists also tend to live in a dream world," he says. "They fantasize about a world where the Palestinians don't exist and where the Dome of the Rock (a Muslim holy place) magically disappears so that the temple can be rebuilt."

For peace to work, Schuurman says, "it is important to build it upon common hopes, equal hopes. For example, both sides stand to benefit economically from a peace agreement … Similarly, peace would bring security to both Palestinians and Israelis. Israelis would be able to board the bus home from work without fearing a suicide bomber. Palestinians in Gaza would be able to go to sleep at night, not fearing death by rocket, tank or starvation."

The common ground is where the work needs to happen. Catherine Cooper, who works for the CRC's Office of Social Justice, said at the training that simply advocating for change doesn't often occur without some form of activism, seeking resolution on both sides, taking place.

Acknowledging that a few groups on scattered campuses aren't likely to solve the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, Kirk said they can come together under the umbrella of the CRWM-sponsored Hope Equals and institute such actions as letter-writing campaigns to legislators, hold events that draw attention to the issue, and find ways to show support for those in Palestine and Israel who are working for peace.

Trips to the Middle East to meet with young people and others working to bring peace to the region are part of the Hope Equals program.

As for actual, on-the-ground change in Israel/Palestine, that will likely have to come from the people who live in that part of the world, says Albert Hamstra, coordinator of special projects for CRWM. Real change has to take place locally and not from afar. "Their hope is in organizing themselves, to meet in community groups and work to make changes," he said.

—Chris Meehan, CRC Communications

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