by Ray Friesen

Marvin Wiens proudly flies a Palestinian flag on his combine as he harvests durum wheat on his and his neighbours’ farms.

For Wiens, flying the Palestinian flag is one small way of helping bring to reality the biblical dream of the time when swords will be turned into plowshares and tanks into combines.

Asked why, he replies, “I fly this flag in recognition of a people who have lost their freedom and lost their farming livelihood, two things I cherish very much and have the privilege to continue to enjoy in Canada.”

Like many Canadians, Wiens says his views of the creation of the State of Israel were shaped by the media. But last year he began reading the stories sent home by Rachelle Friesen, a young adult from his home congregation, Emmaus Mennonite Church in Wymark, who was working with Wi’am: The Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center. Her stories told about the Palestinian experience of living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank.

Marvin Wiens' combine at work.  Photo by Ray Friesen.

Then, Alex Awad, a Palestinian Baptist pastor and professor at Bethlehem Bible College, spoke at Mennonite Central Committee Saskatchewan meetings last November, offering his perspective on the current Israeli/Palestine situation.

Wiens has also supplemented this with his reading of Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour, Archbishop of Galilee in the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. Wiens took particular note of the story of Chacour’s father, who originally welcomed the forming of the State of Israel as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. But then, Chacour’s father lost his land and its well-kept olive orchard when the Israeli army tricked him into leaving. To support his family, Chacour Sr. ended up working for the man who was given the orchard, tending his own trees for someone else while being paid a hired hand’s wages.

As a farmer and landowner himself, Wiens has a sense of what that must have been like. “That story is just absolutely heart-rending.” he says. “And still, after all the people experienced, Elias Chacour has become a peace advocate!” Wiens feels strongly that Mennonites have to tell the Palestinian story so that people hear both sides of what has happened, and is happening, in Israel/Palestine. For Wiens, flying the Palestinian flag is one small way of helping bring to reality the biblical dream of the time when swords will be turned into plowshares and tanks into combines.

By Ray Friesen, Wymark, Saskatchewan.

Published originally in Canadian Mennonite, October 13, 2008. www.canadianmennonite.org  Used by permission.