The terrible situation in Israel and Palestine at the moment is hard to listen to … it is gut wrenching. However, in listening to interviews of people from both communities, what struck me was that I have heard from both sides the almost visceral pain that people are feeling about the way they, and their loved ones and community have been, and are, treated.
The Israeli community across the world is reeling not only from the violence done to the community in Israel itself last week, but maybe even more so from the celebrations within some of the Palestinian supporting communities across the world, in response to the atrocities committed against ordinary people in Israel. This has unfortunately re-galvanised the antisemitic sentiments which have existed over centuries; reaching a terrible peak in the genocide which took place against the Jewish people (and others) during the second world war.
Such terrible actions and experiences cause pain to both the recipients and, through shame, to the perpetrators as well as those around who stood by unable, or maybe even at first unwilling, to intervene. This is the kind of pain that does not dissipate easily or necessarily heal naturally, even over centuries because it is constantly revisited.
In parallel with this, Palestinians, whose families, and friends are now alos spread across the world, have been oppressed, marginalised, and suffered violence and killing for decades now. Many remaining in Gaza live in a day-to-day existence of poverty and deprivation which none of us would welcome. They are understandably desperate and, as we have seen so many times throughout history, the long-term consequence of desperation and pain without hope almost inevitably brings anger, rage even. This should not be strange to us if we reflect how many of us get immediately angry when someone cuts us up on the road for a split second!
The people, who are made just the same as us, from both communities are pleading to be heard, actually pleading on our radios, yet the conversation we seem to be having is about our own internal conflict – the question we are struggling with is “Which side should we be on?” I would venture to suggest that maybe, just maybe, the answer is, we should not be taking sides.
I am certainly not condoning violence but most of our language seems to be of ‘terrorists’ and ‘rights to protect’ and ‘not escalating violence’ but what we are not speaking, and therefore no-one is hearing, is the language of love.
Maybe we need to take responsibility for the history through which many of our nations have caused there to be ‘sides’ – for good intentions maybe, but we did not take time to listen and consider everyone concerned. It seems we tried to make amends, to give healing, to one, by hurting another, and that never works. I believe we need to admit it and then be big enough to stop the process. We got it wrong, and we have been complicit for too long. We need to stop trying to defend ourselves from our own guilt and shame, and instead bring healing and try to help sort it out.
There are no easy solutions from where we are, so we need to move to a different place. Human beings need to be heard, sat with, held lovingly, especially when they are in pain. There are no easy solutions that don’t start with that simple action.
I have no short-term solutions, but I feel desperate myself sometimes – hoping that we as a human race could perhaps evolve to the point where we re-define our values so that we can survive the challenging times that inevitably seem to be ahead, if not already upon us.
Too many of our current values – the undercurrents of our thinking – lead us to short term solutions which could, and often do, lead to violence and destruction. I feel sure that that is not the pathway by which we will survive as a human race.
Share D’All
16/10/2023
Tales of the Universe 