Thoughts on Land on Indigenous People's Day
Friends of Sabeel North America stands in solidarity with the indigenous people who were victims of ethnic cleansing in North America, as we commemorate this week what is now correctly named Indigenous People’s Day. In light of Indigenous People's Day, all Christians must repent the use of biblical terminology to justify this conquest of their land through the Doctrine of Discovery, as if the land was empty when the European settler colonialists “discovered“ it. This pseudo theology draws a lot on Old Testament texts that urged the ancient Hebrews to “enter and conquer the land” that God had given to them and their progeny. We note how modern Zionism also tried to justify its enterprise by referring to similar biblical texts and pretending that Palestine was “a land without people for a people without a land.” Christian Zionists also proclaim that Palestine was divinely given to the Jewish people to conquer and rule in His name and as part of His eternal Plan.
As Christians, we note that Christ did much to move His people away from a theology that sanctified the land, to a teaching of the Kingdom of God. He told the Samaritan woman at the well that a time has come, which is now, when believers are urged to see that God is not to be worshiped in Jerusalem, or in Samaria, but rather that God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. In this teaching alone, he totally undermined the calls for an earthly kingdom based on Divine sanction.
One scholar noted that while the Old Testament referred to the land (HaAretz) hundreds of times, the New Testament did not use that term one single time. The one time Jesus could have used that term, he instead used a different term when he said that “the meek shall inherit the earth (HaOlam) and not just the land (HaAretz). Jesus was in effect saying that the entire world, not just the Land of Canaan was God’s world, and he cared for all of it.
As a Palestinian, I am truly moved by the land acknowledgement that modern Canadians now make. Every meeting I attended or spoke at started with an acknowledgement that they are on land belonging originally to specific indigenous tribes. I am truly moved by these land acknowledgements. Much of the Palestinian outrage at the injustices of the Nakba can be ameliorated by an open recognition that almost every Israeli city and town is actually built over stolen Palestinian land.
I am also moved by the indigenous belief that the land actually belongs to no one, and that it should be enjoyed and shared by all with reverence and respect, rather than conquered, controlled, and “possessed.” This reminds me of Father Elias Chacour’s book, “We Belong to the Land.” Rather than claim that the land belongs to us as Palestinians (or Israeli Jews) he was asserting that he and his people belong to this land and have every right to live in it. Justice and reconciliation can be greatly advanced if we begin by asseting that Jerusalem, and indeed all of Palestine, belongs to God, its true sovereign, and that it should be shared by all His children. Concepts of domination, conquest, and exclusive control by one party only lead to continued fighting and strife.
God Bless,
Jonathan Kuttab
Executive Director