麻豆社

Good Morning,

I was recently in Jerusalem during a rocket attack. Projectiles were fired from Gaza in response to an earlier Israeli attack, which was itself a retaliation in the endless cycle of retaliation that afflicts the peoples of this land. Thankfully, the rockets were shot down.
I鈥檇 been strolling the streets, totally oblivious. The air seemed saturated with prayer and the city was living up to its name. In Arabic, Al Quds or 鈥楾he Holy鈥�. In Hebrew, Yerushalayim which means 鈥楾he Lord will provide peace.鈥�

A ceasefire agreed on Saturday was met with scepticism. In this land, a ceasefire is less a peace than a gap between the next round of violence, in the stuck record of one of the world鈥檚 most intractable and seemingly peace-resistant conflicts. If the bullet-scarred walls of Jerusalem could speak, they鈥檇 surely say: 鈥渨e鈥檝e seen this before: Ceasefires agreed, dreams of peace shattered. There鈥檚 nothing new under our sun.鈥�

Few places on earth generate such strong opinion and feeling - such noise. I had arrived with a bag full of preconceptions. But I was soon confounded. I couldn鈥檛 reduce it to a two-sided argument, three faiths, or a quartered city 鈥� it is an infinite polygon of grievance, rights and hopes. For this is the most contested real estate on earth. A place where one person鈥檚 temple is another person鈥檚 tomb. It鈥檚 where eternity touches materiality. God is given a geography, a house, a postcode. Only people can鈥檛 agree on who has the title deeds or in which house God lives.

For some, it is an ideal as much as a place. It is emblematic. When Church, Synagogue and Mosque pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they鈥檙e praying for the world, because the fate of the two are seen to be entwined. As though the hope for peace itself is to be found there: Yerushalayim: 鈥楪od will provide Peace.鈥�

Meanwhile, between the rockets, the people try and get on with living. Rents get paid. Love gets made. Whether in Tel Aviv or Ramallah, Moscow or Kiev, most people living with conflict want peace. But their hopes are too often dashed by those who see revenge as justice, violence as the only way to get what they want. Whose love of an ideal supersedes their love for people.

When Jesus stopped at the Mount of Olives before entering Jerusalem, he looked upon the city and wept. 鈥業f only you knew the things that made for peace鈥� he said. As I leave the city, the question hangs: 鈥榃hat are the things that make for peace?鈥� Clearly, not rockets or retaliation, or even intermittent ceasefires. Perhaps the answer lies in those Jerusalem streets where, every day, and often unseen, the extra mile is being walked, cheeks are being turned, and people work hard to diffuse conflict - as we have to when our enemy is sometimes our neighbour.

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