The Telos Channel

According to new restrictions set in place by the Israeli authorities, any foreign passport holder in the West Bank, including American citizens, will have to declare to the Israeli police if they’ve developed a romantic relationship with a Palestinian within 30 days. 

At least until the government revised the proposed restriction just two weeks ago, after human rights organizations and international media challenged the government to offer a justification for the invasive rule. 

This week, we invited Jessica Montell, Executive Director of HaMoked, an organization enforcing the standards and values of international humanitarian and human rights law in the Occupied Territories, to discuss these restrictions and the recent revisions. We discussed what you need to know about the entry requirements, whether these restrictions communicate a reality already in place in Israel/Palestine, and how tightening “security” today will actually hinder the possibility of security in the long-term. 

We call this principle “Mutual Flourishing,” and it recognizes that the only path to a sustainable future involves working to help your neighbor flourish too. Learn more in this episode how you can support Mutual Flourishing in Israel/Palestine in response to these restrictions.
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Learn more about HaMoked’s work and their reporting on the requirements

After heavy rains in Jackson, Mississippi pushed the city’s water treatment plant past its breaking point, hundreds of thousands of residents were left without running water for days. 

This water crisis isn’t Jackson’s first however—it’s part of a much larger history of neglect, disinvestment, and race. What’s ahead for Mississippi’s capital city, and what can we do to support it? We invited Bishop Ronnie Crudup, Telos board member and core member of the Jackson, MS community, to help us understand the broader context of the crisis and the hope he has for his hometown.

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Learn more about New Horizon Church International, Bishop Crudup’s Church 

This week, we welcome Yvonne Holden as the newest member of the Telos Team! She is joining us as the Director of U.S. Programming and we are so excited for you to meet her.

After getting to know Yvonne, the team dives into a conversation on a recent controversy sparked after New Orleans attorney Wynton Yates posted a TikTok that went viral about an Airbnb listing advertised as an “1830s slave cabin.”  Yates argued “The history of slavery in this country is constantly denied, and now it’s being mocked by being turned into a luxurious vacation spot.”

Learn more about the Whitney Plantation Museum

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President Biden wrapped up his tour in the Middle East, and our team is still trying to make sense of the visit. There was lots of talk about democracy, freedom, and security in equal measure (eerily reminiscent of our call for "freedom, security, and dignity in equal measure"), but no mention of the underlying realities of occupation, or of the US’ profound influence to push for peace. It was Orwellian in the extreme. 

This week, Todd, Greg, Jack, and Sarah discuss the visit, and why this kind of status quo diplomacy actually doesn't serve anyone in the region.

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What is the US’ role in the Middle East? In May, Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu-Akleh was killed while reporting in Jenin in the West Bank. The US finally released a statement last week both “urging accountability” for her death and saying that it cannot be determined who killed her—but if it was the Israeli military, which independent news agencies and the UN have concluded, it would surely be an accident. How can so much be held in one statement? 

We discuss the statement, how it expands or contracts space for peace, and the US government’s broader strategy in the region as President Biden visits with Middle Eastern leaders in Israel, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia this week. 

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Resources mentioned: 

• On The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, US State Department Press Statement
• UN OHCHR Statement 

Happy Juneteenth! Today marks the second year that Juneteenth, a day celebrating the effective end of slavery in the United States, will be commemorated as a federal holiday. And it's a day to celebrate!

To mark the occasion, we brought on our friend and expert Yvonne Holden, Director of Visitor Experience and Operations at the Whitney Plantation outside of New Orleans, Louisiana, which is one of the only plantation museums in the country to focus on the lives of the enslaved.

Yvonne helps us understand the history behind the holiday, and the larger story of what the day stands for—both on the very day in 1865 when the enslaved community in Galveston, TX first learned of their freedom, and today, when the history and legacy of institutionalized slavery aren't always told. Yvonne also invites us into the ways we can celebrate Juneteenth today, both through education and the opportunity to practice joy in the midst of our implication.

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Resources mentioned: 

• Learn more about The Whitney Plantation
• Learn more about Telos' trip to the US South
• On Juneteenth, Annette Gordon-Reed

At the age of 13, Ishmael Beah was recruited to fight in a bloody civil war in Sierra Leone as a child soldier, forever reshaping the story of his life. 

Against all odds, he survived and came to the US as a refugee. But not everyone in the US was ready for his story, or for the realities of the world he came from. So he began to write, sharing his story in his memoir, A Long Way Gone, detailing the horrors, triumphs, and hopes of his life as a survivor. 

Today, Ishmael continues to write award winning books, works with the UN as a Goodwill Ambassador, and enlightens us with his incredible insight into the human condition, an insight he says could've only been fashioned by the fires of war.

In this episode, we hear some of Ishmael's remarkable story, reminding us that people are almost never who we think they might be at first glance. He challenges us to listen for the story behind the story we perceive on the surface. As Ishmael says, listening to understand is the start of peacemaking.

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Subscribe to the Telos Newsletter for more news analysis and peacemaking resources: http://eepurl.com/cG1LGH

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Resources from this episode:

• A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah

Palestinian American Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot and killed on May 11th while reporting on Israeli raids in the Palestinian West Bank city of Jenin. Eyewitnesses and video and audio evidence point toward the shots coming from Israeli forces, a claim that Israeli authorities at least initially disputed. And over the weekend, multiple communities in the US were terrorized by mass shootings including in Buffalo, NY, and Laguna Woods, CA.

We discuss how peacemakers should respond to these incidents, the importance of listening to understand and amplifying the voices that we see being marginalized, and more. 

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How can you humanize the “other” if you never walk alongside them? 

David Bailey grew up in relationship with those on the margins of society. But it wasn’t until he moved into an under-resourced community that he began to more fully understand the ways that race, geographic segregation, and poverty intersect to create realities that are difficult to escape. It was through this proximity that he began to build authentic relationships with his neighbors, transforming how he advocates for healing and justice in his city and across the country.

Today, David is a public theologian, the founder and Chief Visionary Office of Arrabon, and a culture-maker focused on building reconciling communities. He shares with us why his faith compels him to always love his ‘enemy,’ and offers practical help for how to humanize those we naturally want to see as irredeemable. David’s work embodies one of the foundational principles of peacemaking: relationships across lines of difference fuel transformation. 

Read and share the Principles and Practices of Peacemaking

Subscribe to the Telos Newsletter for more news analysis and peacemaking resources: http://eepurl.com/cG1LGH

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If you’re enjoying the podcast, become a monthly donor to Telos!

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Resources from this episode:

• Learn more about Arrabon

Follow Arrabon on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

This week on The Check-in, we tried something new: a live episode!

A few weeks ago, we gathered the Hosts from our Telos Table program, which builds the peacemaking movement locally in cities across North America, for a weekend of training and connection. We discussed the ways communication can divide, but also the ways it can be used to counteract violence and build pathways to peace.

We then had a very special evening hearing from international peacemaker and founding director of the Neighbor-Love Movement, Andrew DeCort (PhD). Andrew blew us away with his vision for what it looks like to “love the other.” He discussed the ways in which “when we love the enemy, we become the enemy,” and how grief and lament are essential to the work of peacemaking.

Despite the technical challenges, we think this conversation is one you do not want to miss.

Read and share the Principles and Practices of Peacemaking

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Resources:

• Learn more about the Neighbor-Love Movement
• Christopher Bollas, “Being A Character”
• Elisabeth Külber Ross, “On Grief and Grieving”
• Learn more about the Telos Table Host program