Like everyone else, I have watched and listened to the news from Israel and Gaza with horror and depression.
It has been particularly difficult for me since this is the first time for 36 years that I have not been able to comment on a world event, or preach about it in sermons. I realise now how important that was to me in giving shape to my feelings of outrage, fear and impotence and link it with my faith.
In 2017 I went to the Land of the Holy One, as the Archbishop and others rightly prefer to describe Israel and Palestine. (How could anyone refer to this land as holy any more?). Though a short visit it was, I think very well planned. Our Palestinian Christian guide showed us the Old City of Jerusalem, complete with Christian sites and the Western (wailing) wall sacred to Jews. We were taken to Bethlehem (Under the Palestinian Authority) through the vast wall erected by Israel in 2002 to restrict terrorists but also dramatically restrict everyday Palestinian life, and saw a section of a Palestinian refugee camp with the emblem of the key everywhere. The keys refer to the homes from when Palestinians were driven in 1948 when thousands were displaced following the establishment of the State of Israel. This is called Nakba (catastrophe), and it really does feel like a catastrophe when you visit. It was, even then, quite impossible to visit Gaza, though we heard about the good work of the Anglican hospital there, recently destroyed in the attacks.
We were also taken to the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum which details the events called by Jews the Shoah, an attempt at genocide by Hitler. Over the exit arch are words from Ezekiel 36:24-25. ‘I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the lands and bring you back to your own land.’ Who, having gone through this museum, can fail to appreciate the power of these words originally written for Jews returning to Israel after exile in the 6th C BC- as applying to Jews settling in the State of Israel after the Holocaust, even if they think the establishment of the State was a mistake?
Two catastrophes therefore, lie behind the current events. The attacks by Hamas fighters in Southern Israel seem to have been designed to create outrage and draw out comparisons with Nazi pogroms because they were directed towards Jewish civilians, not Israeli soldiers. Hamas’ aim is the destruction of Israel and Jews in general. Hamas is an Islamist group that grew out of the Egyptian Muslim brotherhood. It says Oct 7th was a response to the Israeli occupation of the Al Aksar Mosque, positioned on the Temple Mount as the third holiest Muslim site after Mecca and Madina, commemorating Muhammad’s Night Flight / Ascension into heaven.
Yet the bombing by Israel of Gaza also feels indiscriminate, whatever Netanyahu says. Elimination of Hamas will not come without the elimination of many Gazans.
Both are about existential threats, and both are about religion, even if many of the Jews murdered at the all-night Rave were secular. When people’s existence is threatened, they do not react rationally.
How do people of faith reconcile all this? When I was on holiday in France I met up with my sister and brother at my sister’s place in the South. On a very warm and convivial evening my brother started to have a go at religion as the cause of all fighting and wars in the world. My sister’s partner quickly came to the rescue, pointing out the many wars had nothing to do with religion (ie the 2nd World War) and the subject was changed.
The question has bothered me since,however, and this conflict seems to highlight all that’s wrong with the ‘People of the Book’ (as Judaism, Christianity and Islam are referred to) Religion is sadly front and centre in this war. . Had the discussion continued, I would have referred to ‘good religion’ and ‘bad religion’ but there doesn’t seem to be much of the former on show. One bright exception was Sharon Lifschitz’s offer of a handshake to her Hamas captor. Pray God that more of this sort will emerge. I do worry about the pernicious effects of bad religion in world conflicts. I have listened to so many ‘Thoughts for the Day’ on this subject. This one by Sam Wells seems to highlight an important difference between anger and rage. Sadly both sides seem to be enjoying their rage at present. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0gkt0lb
Hugh's Views 