Steve Chase will give a Zoom presentation on Discernment and Action on Israel/Palestine: A Quaker Perspective on the Apartheid-Free Community Movement.
Quakers have long played an important role in nonviolent peace and justice movements around the world, but what does peace and justice mean in the fraught historical context of Israel/Palestine? Steve Chase, a member of Friends Meeting of Washington, will speak about his discernment journey from only caring about the humanity and rights of Jewish Israelis to caring about human rights and equality for both Palestinians and Jewish Israelis. The presentation will focus on nurturing a sustainable peace by ending US and corporate complicity with the Israeli system of apartheid that tragically seeks to secure Jewish rights and safety by the dispossession and domination of Palestinians and Palestine, a strategy that can never secure a sustainable peace. As Quakers, we are called to witness to the fact that a different future is possible and work toward a vision of genuine peace, justice, and equality for all in Israel/Palestine and around the world.
Steve Chase is a member of Baltimore Yearly Meeting’s Palestinian and Israeli Peace and Justice working Group and the Outreach Coordinator of the Apartheid-Free Quaker Affinity Group. He is the author of the 2017 Pendle Hill pamphlet Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions? A Quaker Zionist Rethinks Palestinian Rights and he is currently working on a book entitled Seeking a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine: A Discernment Guide for Quakers (and Other People of Faith).