For nearly 30 years, Community Peacemaker Teams (formerly Christian Peacemaker Teams) has been active in Hebron, a Palestinian city in the West Bank.

In a speech at the 1984 Mennonite World Conference Assembly, theologian Ron Sider called for the creation of “a new nonviolent peacekeeping force.” Sider challenged the church saying, “Unless we are ready to die developing new nonviolent attempts to reduce conflict, we should confess that we never really meant that the cross was an alternative to the sword.”

In response to Sider’s proposal, the Church of the Brethren, Mennonite Church and General Conference collaborated on a new peacemaking initiative, originally named Christian Peacemakers Team, in 1986. Friends United Meeting joined as a sponsor in 1996.

In 1995, the Palestinian mayor of Hebron invited CPT to come to the city to work as non-violent, international observers. CPT describes its work as having four main components: accompanying, advocacy, observing and reporting, and solidarity. CPT’s insistence on a solidarity that reflects the unequal power dynamic between the Palestinians in Hebron and the Israeli settlers and soldiers has set it apart from other international organizations in the city, which focus on being impartial observers.

The MC USA Archives contains many stories of CPT’s work for a just peace in Hebron. These stories include CPT’s resistance to an illegal fence put around Professor Mosallam Ali Shreateh’s wheat field, volunteers accompanying students and teachers on their way to school after they were harassed by settlers, and CPT’s work to prevent the demolition of Palestinian homes.

A new donation to the MC USA Archives by a CPT alumnus tells the story of an October 1997 delegation that was part of CPT’s “Rebuilders Against Bulldozers” campaign. In a diary, photos, emails and other materials, the collection showcases the actions of the eight-person team working for peace.

The delegation took a two-week trip to Palestine. The second half of the trip was spent in Hebron with a long-term CPT team to learn about home demolitions by the Israeli government and to participate in direct action in order to prevent them.

On October 14, 1997, CPT was called to a home demolition in the village of Beit Omar, just outside Hebron. CPT arrived halfway through the demolition, and Israeli soldiers prevented the team from approaching the house.

In previous demolitions, CPT members climbed onto houses and refused to move to prevent the destruction of the home, which led to their arrests. In this case, prevented by soldiers, delegates took pictures and documented the event so they could bring evidence of the demolitions home to politicians and the public. In addition to bearing witness to the home demolition, delegates met with families whose homes were destroyed to listen, learn about and document the destruction.

To learn more about the Archives CPT collection, visit the online catalog at mennoniteusa.org/peacemaker-85-11. To learn more about CPT’s ongoing work in Palestine, visit cpt.org.

This article was first published in  MC USA Archives News, Vol. 2, Issue 3.  

Citation: Christian Peacemaker Teams Records. X-56. Mennonite Church USA Archives. Elkhart, Ind.