Israel/Palestine - the rules are changing
November 9th, 2006Tuesday was the day when the changing complexion of the Israel/Palestine question was brought into stark relief. Jerusalem is the symbol of all these complications, and yet it is also a World City. For Christians everywhere, it is our spiritual capital. In this holy city, I was able to meet with a representative of the increasingly small Palestinian Christian community at a lunch in East Jerusalem with the Palestinian Academic Society. Christians once comprised a quarter of the population. Now, they are only 1.8%, due to emigration. The end of religious diversity amongst the Palestinians is having the effect of undermining what was in effect their secular, nationalist cause. It is now the case that the basis of the argument has shifted towards a clash of religions, as opposed to national aspirations. The election victory of Hamas is a clear indication of this trend.
All the Palestinians in the room with us were campaigners who represented the national aspirations of Palestine - people with whom business can be done. Jamal Juma is the campaign co-ordinator for the Stop The Wall Campaign. I was happy to meet him and to share my very deep concerns about the security fence, which I regard as a symbol of the divide, rather than a solution to the problem. Some of the people with us had been imprisoned in the past. They were all rightly angry about the curtailment of their freedom of movement. The trouble is that those who have killed in the name of religion have created the climate of fear and suspicion that has caused the Israelis to adopt a policy of segregation.
What of Israel and religion? Although there are some loud and extreme voices in Israel who would like nothing better than the creation of a religious Jewish state, the majority still retain their belief in broadly secular institutions of government with a diverse civil society containing a million Israeli Arabs, for example. It seems to me, however, that questions of Palestinian integrity and religious integrity are becoming more and more entwined, to the detriment of everyone concerned.
