By Abe Huyser-Honig

Staff Writer

Close to a hundred people gathered on the Commons Lawn at 7 pm Tuesday night to participate in a vigil for peace in Israel sponsored by Calvin's Social Justice Committee. The group included about twenty-five members of Grand Rapids' own Palestinian community, who were there thanks to Prof. Bert de Vries' connections with the Arab-American Organization of West Michigan.

De Vries opened the ceremony by explaining a little about the current situation in Palestine and making some remarks. ``I was going to prepare a litany today,'' he said, ``but every time I was interrupted by the idea that people are d ying.'' He noted that while this specific vigil focused on commemorating those who died in the recent suicide bombings and in the subsequent fighting, April 9 is also commemorated by Jews as Holocaust day and by Palestinians as the anniversary of a 1948 massacre of Palestinians in the village of Deir Yasin by Jewish terrorists.

``In some ways what we're doing is premature,'' said Prof. de Vries, stressing the fact that the killing continued even as the vigil took place. He said his prayer was that the United States would stand up for nonviolence.

The vigil continued with Prof. Simona Goi offering an opening prayer and then leading a responsive prayer, which was printed out and distributed to the participants.

Next, SJC members Rachael Stevenson and Chris O'Brien alternated sentences reading two short stories that represented both the Jewish and Palestinian significances of April 9. Stevenson read ``The Globe,'' a story about a Jewish family trying unsuccessfully to escape Germany during World War II taken from Calvin English Prof. Gary Schmidt's book ``Mara's Stories.'' O'Brien's story, from the book Palestine's Children, by Ghassan Kanafani, recounted the poignant tale of a boy in a Palestinian refugee camp who gets a can of soup from an aid worker and shares it with his family.

The central event of the vigil took place next. As Prof. de Vries read off the names of 44 Jews and 44 Palestinians who died in the most recent wave of violence, (which started with a rash of suicide bombings on March 27, the first day of Passover), the participants formed a line, taking a candle and a card with the name and age of one of the victims written on it.

``I'd like you to take a name and recognize your brotherhood or sisterhood with that person,'' instructed Stevenson. ``We are all human, and we have to care about others, whether they are near or far. Recognize that this person had a family, and hopes, probably for peace.''

Participants were also urged to pray for a group of 240 Palestinians who were being held captive in a church in Bethlehem. ``People have been suffering for ten days--they are starving, and have no water or electricity,'' explained Rasem Kufash, one of the Palestinians in attendance.

When all the names had been passed out and the candles lit, the group formed a circle. A strong breeze blew many of the candles back out, an unintended but perhaps fitting metaphor for the fragility of life. After a minute of silence to commemorate the dead and the dying, Prof. Goi read St. Francis of Assisi's well-known prayer ``make me a channel of your peace.''

This marked the end of the events SJC had planned, but several of the Palestinians jumped in to add one of the most meaningful and hopeful moments of the night. Kufash, a Muslim, urged everyone at the gathering to tell their friends, family, and government about what was going on in Israel, and then recited the Fatiha, an Islamic prayer taken from the first chapter of the Koran. Then a Christian man led the Lord's Prayer, first in Arabic and then in English. ``I was really pleased to see that happen,'' de Vries commented later, referring to the cooperation between the religious groups.

Afterwards, many people thanked Stevenson and de Vries for leading the vigil. One woman explained to Stevenson how she would love to visit her Palestinian husband's home country, but can't because of the violence.

The vigil was covered by several members of the local news media, including a reporter from the GR Press. It was the top story for the eleven o'clock news Tuesday night on both Wood-TV 8 and WZZM 13.

For those interested in finding out more about the situation in Palestine, Stevenson said that Lenore Vander Zee, a Calvin alumnus who had been working in Ramallah and recently escaped, will be coming to speak with SJC soon. Keep your eyes open for more information.