Posted: June 6, 2024   •   Posted in: Action, Peace, Reflections

The Dilemmas of a Pacifist in Times of War

Declaring as a pacifist

When I was 20 or 21 I told my father I was a pacifist which didn’t go down well as he had been in charge of a tank in the Second World War.

This was still in the time when young men had to do their National Service and having made the decision that I was a pacifist, I was called to a medical prior to going into the army. Looking back I know I should have refused to go, but as I knew I would fail due to my childhood health problems growing up, I went. Not a pleasant experience and I did fail.

Taking sides?

During the apartheid era in South Africa I read every newspaper article and kept cuttings in a scrapbook. The forced removals horrified me and I could understand all the protests that erupted. I rooted for the Africans to be free.

In 1967 there was a war between Israel and the wider Arab nations. It was not long after the horrors of the holocaust and I wanted Israel to survive. I was against war and yet here I was supporting one side.

At the time of the Hungarian revolution my wife and I were on our way back from Birmingham and had stopped to eat our picnic lunch when we heard that the Soviet tanks were rolling in. We were so sad; we so wanted those people to be free.

Now, again, we are faced with an Israel-Palestinian war. This time I very much want the Palestinians to be free to live their own lives without an occupying force. I believe the October 7th attack was awful and wrong. But believe that if you keep people caged in an open air prison there will come a time when this situation explodes. But I cannot condone Israel for its overreaction and their ruthless invasion and slaughter of civilians. I am horrified that our government is selling arms to Israel. At the same time we are supplying food and water to the Palestinians. Where is the sense in this?

I think within me and within all of us here is a deep compassion for those around us in whatever situation they find themselves in. Compassion is something we can experience for all sides in a conflict, regardless of our feeling towards the parties concerned.

Interpreting our Peace Testimony

So being a pacifist has many dilemmas. In the past Quakers have found this is so. Many Quakers in the 1st WW joined the ambulance service but others thought this was supporting the war effort. Quakers have been imprisoned because they refused to compromise and do anything they believed would support war.

Peace is what we seek and that only comes through negotiations. We have a Peace Testimony. So we are faced by many challenges but still believe that love and peace between all of us is our aim.

There are many questions that come to me.

• Is world peace a realistic possibility? If not why do we continue to promote it?
• How can we bring about peace in our own lives?
• Are there the seeds of conflict within you? I know there are in me from the times I have lost my temper with others.
• Is it important that we Quakers continue to promote peace though our Peace Testimony?

I am sure there are other questions that you have but what are the answers to our understandable dilemmas?

Mike (Beccles Quaker Meeting)