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from Cheddar & Burnham parishes, Somerset, England
1st June 2004
Speaking in Jerusalem recently, Fr. Michael Prior, a widely-respected Catholic Biblical scholar and teacher, said, "The Bible is a very dangerous book. Reading it may damage somebody else's health because it legitimises and mandates genocide". He was referring to the claim that God gave the land of Israel to the Jews for all time and that the other people of the land were to be conquered and dispossessed. It is a claim held by many Jews and a sizeable number of Christians.
A Muslim lately asked a priest colleague of mine about the significance of a passage in the Book of Revelation. He asked, "Do Christians support the Jews because they believe that some day Israel will rule the world from Jerusalem?".
The New Jerusalem is not the one on this earth in which is situated the Israeli Parliament. It is a heavenly one which will gradually be made known to us in this life if we are faithful. We read about it in the Book of Hebrews. It is the Kingdom of God coming amongst us, and everyone is called to citizenship.
It is the subject of the difference between Jerusalem in the Holy Land and the Kingdom of God and its challenges and just demands that I would like to speak about today.
On Good Friday Catholics throughout the world take a collection for the 'Holy Places'. That is for the upkeep of the places in the Holy Land associated with Our Lord and the early church. It helps to keep the Holy Land in our thoughts and prayers and, like people of my church, some of you will have been on pilgrimages to these places.
The problem with most pilgrimages is that you visit the sites and have all sorts of services and prayers but you never get to meet the 'living stones' of the land. By that I mean the Christian people, those who have been there since the time of Christ and have preserved the Faith through many difficulties. They are our brothers and sisters through baptism. To be interested in them is not to be anti-Israeli or pro-Arab. It is to be concerned with those with whom we have a very special bond - that of our unity in Jesus Christ.
It is often said that, today, we live in 'One World'. We have instantaneous contact through the media with every part of the world, and with places at one time considered distant or exotic that are no longer so. Almost everywhere can be visited, and events far from us effect us here. It is important that we have a global dimension to our faith. Most of us, from whatever church we come, recite a Creed on Sundays and profess our belief in the one holy catholic church, and that is what the word 'catholic' really means - worldwide, universal.
Back in 1999 I did a three months study sabbatical in Jerusalem at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute, and last year I spent some days visiting various peace groups in Israel-Palestine.
Immediately after Easter this year [2004] I attended a conference organised by Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem. Some 500 of us met together from 35 countries and from the widest spectrum of churches - Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Baptist and Black Pentecostal amongst them. The theme of the Conference was 'Challenging Christian Zionism - the politics and theology of the Israel-Palestinian conflict'. There were many speakers and the keynote address was by the Archbishop of Canterbury, delivered by his Secretary for Ecumenism.
The Conference looked at the way scripture has been used, and is being used, by some Christian groups, to justify the colonisation of the Holy Land, especially the West Bank, by Israel as a Jewish state, and also the marginalisation of the local and indigenous people of the land. These groups are becoming increasingly influential, especially in USA, where they are called the Christian Right. They are evangelical and make great use of the Book of Revelation, Romans 9-11 and part of the Book of Daniel. These passages speak of the last days and end times, and of a special role for the Jewish people in God's plan of salvation. But the thinking of the Christian Right also has echoes in mainstream churches, even in our own.
There are those who believe that, since Israel is a Jewish state and in some way receives God's blessing, everything that is done by the state of Israel must somehow be more right than wrong, and that we have a duty to support Israel. To criticise it is to be anti-Semitic.
The conference took place at the Notre Dame Centre in Jerusalem. This is the property of the Vatican and we were welcomed there by the Vatican representative. We had worship every day according to the rites of different churches. Some of the worship at the conference seemed very strange, as choirs and clergy sang in Arabic and there were many unfamiliar chants.
One day the conference moved to the town of Ramallah. 500 people in 8 buses got through army check points into the town where President Arafat is based. We met at a Quaker school where we had lectures and then entertainment by young Palestinian dancers. At the end of the day we drove to President Arafat's compound. It was a place of almost total destruction - just like a bomb site. Building and walls with gaping holes and crumbled walls, burnt out cars and the like - all the result of targeted destruction by the Israeli army.
Arafat lives in two rooms. An audience hall has been built rebuilt, however, and it was there that we met him. He is a small and elderly man but he spoke to us with energy and without notes for some time in English. There was then a response given by one of the Anglican bishops present, the retired presiding bishop of the American Episcopalian Church, Bishop Browning. Hanan Ashrawi then spoke to us. She is Anglican and often appears on TV. Her English is excellent. We then all met Arafat individually. This took some time as there were some 500 of us. Arafat had told us of the suffering of his people and we were to witness some of it over the next days.
We saw families whose houses had been destroyed by the Israeli army and also those who had been dispossessed of their land. We saw large crowds of people held up at check points as they tried to get to their places of work. They were left to stand in the sun, watched over by soldiers with guns trained on them. We saw Palestinian vehicles stopped in large numbers and made to wait in line for long periods, even up to a couple of hours.
We visited Muslim students at the University at Hebron and heard of their problems in getting to their studies and problems of faculty members getting to the campus to teach, of the closure of their university and of the Catholic University in Bethlehem for many months by the Israeli army. In one case the closure lasted almost 3 years.
In Bethlehem the Christian mayor told us of huge unemployment and economic suffering because of the lack of tourists and pilgrims, and that it was very difficult, if not impossible, for people to get to work or visit the holy places only six miles away in Jerusalem. Permits to travel were not being granted by the Israeli authorities.
A special feature of our conference was a visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. This is the third holiest place in Islam, after Mecca and Medina. We were warmly welcomed by the Muslim authorities, including the Grand Mufti. We were the first non-Muslims to be there since Ariel Sharon and a vast crowd of police had forced their way in there in the year 2000 - the event that sparked the present crisis.
During the Conference we also visited the Wall which is being built across the land, and which in some places is a fence. It is two metres higher than the Berlin Wall. It is supposed to give Israel security, but it cuts right through Palestinian land, separating Palestinian families, people from their work places and farmers from their land. At one place in Jerusalem Catholic nuns told us how the Wall separated the elderly people in their nursing home from their families and loved ones. The Wall is a symbol of suffering, shame and hatred and we should pray for its removal.
At the end of our time we visited the city of Nablus. This is the place where Jesus met the Woman of Samaria and asked for a drink. The well dug by Abraham is still there. The water is as deep and cool as ever. Over it is a new Orthodox church in which the current priest has done much painting of icons and other works of art.
The local churches gave us a wonderful reception and we were treated to some local sweet delicacies made by the city's bakers. However, the joy of our meeting was balanced by hearing of the people's suffering. The governor of the city had lost his son in the recent conflict. At the height of the trouble he went to see the Israeli army chief to discuss ways of lessening tension. Two hours after the meeting his governor's office was targeted and destroyed. He was obviously meant to be inside! The governor's face was etched with suffering. We asked him what would make him smile. He said that it was the pleasure he got from seeing young people smiling. They were the future and it was important to give them hope.
Before we left Israel we visited the prison where Mordecai Vanunu was being held. He was the Israeli nuclear scientist who told the world about Israel's nuclear weapons and was captured, imprisoned and held in solitary confinement for many years. We joined the Nobel Peace Prize women from Belfast, and speakers from Hiroshima, as well as from the British and Israeli parliaments. That was one interlude that helped us realise that the issues of war and peace are not just to do with the conflict between two people in one land, the Arabs and the Jews, the Palestinians and Israelis, but affect the safety and stability of the world as we know it.
Returning to Burnham and Cheddar in England, people asked, "Did you have a nice holiday,?". This was no holiday! The days were full, from 7am till 10pm, with lectures, meetings and visits to many people in situations of suffering. We saw something of the life of the people of Palestine whose daily realities are checkpoints, curfews, a separation wall, IDs, permits, restrictions on movement, house demolitions, land confiscation, illegal Jewish settlements, destruction of their trees and crops, closed towns, regular shelling, harassment and humiliation. We saw something of what the local Greek Catholic priest in Nablus has called the hopelessness. Indeed, for some, including children, there is a longing for death. That is the lot of the people of the West Bank.
This week the priest Fr. Yousef faxed me. Amongst other things he said:
The last three years were very hard for the Palestinian people. They suffered privation, no work, killing, destruction of homes and continuous closure of cities and villages, especially Nablus.
So many patients died on the road before they reached the hospital. The poor people cant buy medicines because the prices are high as a result of the continuous siege.
Many families didn't find suitable places to live after their homes were destroyed or damaged.
This Appeal is to everyone interested in human life. It is to help and support the poor, the miserable, the sick, the oppressed and heartbroken.
I do my best to spread love and help the needy. The families of my parish are suffering badly and the situation will lead them to despair.
I have heard children under 15 ask, 'Why do we live? Isn't death better? Are other children in the world better than us? What is the meaning of peace and love, for us and them?'.
This is the lot of Fr. Yousef's people and of most Palestinians on the West Bank. He asks for our prayers, but if we would want to do more then we can do so, as he has provided me with bank details. Monies have already been sent and they will be well used for all his needy people without distinction of religion.
I would like to conclude by telling you about a visit to Burnham by young Jews I met, who have started the All Nations Café near the Garden of Gethsemane. They run an Open House on the Mount of Olives where Jews, Muslims and Christians can meet, socialise and seek ways of reconciliation and peace together [this is at Ibrahim Abu el-Hawa's house]. They will be with us at the end of June and I would very much like to arrange a meeting to which you all could come to hear at first hand something of their achievements in this time of division and pain.
Finally, I hope that the time I have lately spent in the Holy Land has enabled me, and you - through what I've shared - to have a little more appreciation of what it means to be part of the global community and the worldwide church. Also, how we might consider being supportive of our brothers and sisters, whose sufferings and trials are more than any of us will ever experience. Please pray for our friends in the Holy Land. Also may we strive to bring about the day when all people can claim equal and full citizenship of the New Jerusalem, God's Kingdom coming on Earth, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Rev. Peter Slocombe
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