First Hand Stories About Middle East Peacemakers

Approximately 75 people, including a large student presence, gathered in the McHenry County College Conference Center on a recent Wednesday night.. The student organized event featured MCC instructor Todd Culp in a presentation entitled "Friends Whose Names I'll Never Know." The talk focused on Culp's personal stories about Middle East peacemakers from his recently published book by the same name.


Culp opened the night with a short story from his book in which a student asked him why he only visits the "ugly" places. His response resonated throughout the night. Culp has been traveling to the Middle East, specifically Gaza and the West Bank, for the last 17 years. Culp started his work in the Middle East interviewing the combatants and studying terrorism. The reason for his frequent trips to Gaza and the West Bank are attributed to the great beauty he witnessed in the acts of courage and selflessness within the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. He found in these human acts of kindness a greater majesty than in the scenic beauty of a mountain.


The audience sat in rapt silence as they listened to his many stories of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists. Culp spoke of weekly nonviolent protests where Israelis, Palestinians, and internationals lock arms and sing songs of solidarity which never make the US news. These happen every Friday night but what is reported in the US press are suicide bombers, although there has been no suicide bombings in the last two years. Personal photographs were shown of these demonstrations including soldiers firing tear gas and rubber bullets into crowds of unarmed civilians. One photo in particular showed a water cannon using blue died water which would stain the skin making it easy to find the protesters later.


Enthusiastic history and international relations students asked questions long after the program was scheduled to end ranging in topic from the chance of a two state solution to Culp's feelings on human nature.


Todd Culp is available as a speaker for organizations or classrooms. For more information about MCC's history department programs, contact Todd Culp at (815) 479-7724 or email him at tculp@mchenry.edu.


The event was sponsored by the MCC Student Peace Action Network. SPAN's mission is to "promote peace on a local and national level through education and action." Monday, November 15th SPAN will show the film "The People Speak" at 7:00pm in the Conference Center. For more information about this event and others contact SPAN at mccspan@gmail.com.