I broke down in tears a few nights ago watching the news. It is not easy watching the pictures coming out of Israel and Gaza. We have been watching similar pictures out of Ukraine during the last year and before that out of Yemen. And before that…
All those conflicts invoke a low-lying depression but there is something more acute and personal in the current horror.
The stories most of us heard from the Bible give us some knowledge of the geography of where the killings and the kidnappings and the bombs are taking place. And the language of destruction and annihilation coming from both sides is resonant of the wars and conflicts that fill many of the Old Testament pages.
Read more:
- Jake O'Kane: When the fanatics stop fighting, the talking must start for peace between Israel and Palestine
- Gavin Esler: Ireland, Israel and building a future better than the past
- Why republicans and loyalists support different sides in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict
Entrenched mindsets in Ireland and Gaza
I find the certainty and the partisanship of the spokespersons from both sides disturbing. And that certainty and one-sidedness is loudly manifested in the public protests in cities throughout the world.
It reminds me of aspects of our own troubles. Not so much the violence itself, which is different in scale, but the entrenched mindsets about the justification and the necessity of violence.
For 30 years we in Ireland argued with each other about the use of violence, about what was effective and ineffective in bringing about change. There were sermons and books about the evil of violence and an even greater number of articles and pamphlets about the lack of alternatives.
We argued about who was a terrorist and who had moral right on their side. We argued about who should talk to whom and were very definite about who would not talk to whom. There are echoes of those arguments in Israel and Palestine.
There is no hiding place from humankind's irrationality and its propensity for violence and war. In searching for some balm from the depression and the helplessness, I searched for anything that went beyond the surface and partisanship.
Memory threw up Ban the Bomb, the Catonsville Nine who burned the draft papers against the Vietnam war, and Pax Christi, the only one still active.
Pax Christi is a Catholic pacifistic organisation originally set up to encourage peace between Germany and France. It didn’t have a noticeable presence here during our troubles, and the reasons for that might make an interesting academic thesis. It still has a very small profile in Ireland. But it is stronger in England.
Calls for a ceasefire
With Quakers and disparate peace organisations, they have written to the British Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly. The letter points out that long-term concerns about land, peace and security in the Middle East have not been prioritised by the international community and asks the British Government not to apportion blame and not to support polarised arguments. The letter includes a call for a ceasefire. More than 700 people have signed the letter.
Read more:
- Patricia Mac Bride: Gaza horrors show truth is indeed the first casualty of war
- Chris Donnelly: Peace can never be built on oppression and injustice
But perhaps more significantly, Pax Christi and the others who have sent the letter have been lobbying to have an event in Telford, England, cancelled and they protested outside that event yesterday.
The Specialist Defence and Security Convention is an arms fair. It is one of the sales events by the companies who make the bombs and the missiles that rain down on Gaza and Israel. Britain and America are among the leading producers and distributors of armaments in the world.
It is an industry that is worth billions, possibly trillions. The SDSC, for short, is part of the destructive global arms trade which drives conflict and oppression around the world. Among the companies that were in attendance were BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, Leonardo and Elbit Systems. The first three are British; Elbit Systems is Israeli.
The Pax Christi and the Quaker protest, in terms of political influence, is boys against men. But it is informed and noble and moral and worthy of the support of those of us who are waking up to the blasphemy that is happening in the Holy Land.
