| Dialogue Program 2002 | |
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22
June, 2002, PASSIA Participant(s):
Quaker Middle East Working Party Religious dialogue among Muslims, Christians and Jews is an important part of PASSIA's work. In order to understand Jerusalem today one must realize that the Palestinians are living a catastrophe and the Israelis are living a nightmare. The Palestinians lost 78% of their land in 1948 and the 22% that is the West Bank and the Gaza Strip was occupied by Israel in 1967. It is now essentially divided into 8 "prison" cantons with Israeli settlers surrounding each canton. Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza can't get into Jerusalem and it is not even in their consciousness any longer. The Israelis are living a nightmare because their Zionist dream of a safe haven for Jews in the state of Israel has failed. There are 2 million secular, European Jews, 2 million religious Jews, 1 million Russians who are not necessarily Jews at all and 1 million Arab Israelis. These groups do not melt to form one society. They have no vision of the future and a crisis of leadership. Israel/Palestine is an apartheid system where might is right, hatred and resentment abound and there is no scenario seen on either side for a better future and no 3rd party to provide that vision. Jerusalem is important to Muslims because it is part of the Muslim faith that God ordered the prophet Mohammed to come here and God ascended him to heaven. The city is fascinating because of its significance, beauty and history. Muslims and Christians have lived together here peacefully, respecting the other's faith, accept when people from the outside like the crusaders in the past and the Israelis today have caused problems for both of them. After the attack on the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem maybe the Christians of the world need to have an Intifada. The israelis use their power but it is devoid of logic. For example what does it mean for the Israeli government to claim the land over and under all the holy sites? Sharon is obsessed by power, hatred and racism. In the past we have had discussions with Israeli rabbis, some of whom have government positions now. The rabbis explained to us that there are 3 schools of thought in Israel about the site of the Al Aqsa mosque which Jews believe is the site of their first and second temples. The first group believes that the 3rd temple will come down from heaven and Jews should not enter the area until then. The second group believes that Jews and Muslims could share the site with the approval of the Muslims. ( Muslims will not approve this sharing because they do not trust the Israelis. They were to share the site of Abraham's tomb in Hebron and now it is only a synagogue for Jews.) The third group believes that they should take the site by force, destroy the mosque and build their 3rd temple there. The Buraq Wall (Western Wall) at the Al Aqsa mosque is a part of the mosque. It was taken over by the Israelis in 1967 and now Muslims have no access to it. The only way Jerusalem can be shared successfully is if it is an open city for both peoples and not exclusively for anyone. Since Faisal Al-Husseini, the Palestinian leader of Jerusalem died on May 31, 2001 there has been no leadership in the city. The dialogue between Christians and Muslims is respectful and productive because both are suffering under the Israeli occupation and they come as equals. The dialogue with Jewish rabbis was difficult because they did not see themselves as equal to the Palestinians and it ended because it became clear that their motivation for attending the dialogue was to gain a political advantage, that is agreement on sharing the holy site of the mosque, and that they were not interested in understanding the problems of the other people or their faith. The issue of suicide bombings and the shaheed was discussed. The concept of shaheed or martyrdom has not entered the political dictionary of this Intifada partly because of September 11 and the war in Afghanistan. In order to understand it one must look through the eyes of the Palestinian culture and experience and not with western biases. The shaheed phenomenon is more of an expression of nationalist hopes than of religious convictions. Why does a 17 year old girl who is engaged, is at the top of her class and has no connection to any political party explode herself in Jerusalem? The answer is in the culture of resistance, facing war, hatred and humiliation all her life. She feels disgraced, unclean, as though she has been raped. She can't live with the shame any longer and decides to do something that she believes will eventually make life better for her people. She does not see the Israelis as people but only as an oppressive army. She sees sacrificing her life as the only thing she can do to defend her family, her friends and her faith.
The
Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs - PASSIA
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