The Sins of The Fathers

In 2008 and 2010 at the ages of 78 and 80, Dervla Murphy an intrepid Irish travel writer, visited what had been called Palestine under the British Mandate but is now called Israel, The West Bank and Gaza. She talked with ordinary members of both communities, staying in their homes or basic hotels/hostels, and recorded what she saw and heard in journals. Five years later her experiences were published in Between River and Sea. I've just finished reading it. (Review here).

Anyone who has gone beyond superficial news reports or heaven help us social media,  in trying to get some knowledge and understanding of the history and complexities of this region will likely have thrown up their hands up in despair - perhaps echoing Shakespeare: " A plague on both their houses".

From the time of Abraham who probably lived about 2000BCE to the present day this area of land has been fought over by empires, tribes and religions leaving death, destruction and hatred in their wake. The sins of the fathers have been visited on their children with a vengeance and seemingly with no end in sight.

Dervela Murphy says:

One has to rage against the cruel absurdity of it all, the calculated dehumanising of people, categorising them into oppressed and oppressors, depriving ordinary Palestinians and Israelis of the right to relate to one another as individuals.

Yet the ordinary, peace-seeking individuals in both nations find themselves overwhelmed by the zeal of their more extreme compatriots—those who are determined either to retaliate for past injustices, endlessly escalating cycles of vengeance, or to fulfill what they believe are divine missions on earth.

For example:

The Land of Israel is the centre of the world; Jerusalem is the centre of the Land; the Holy Temple is the centre of Jerusalem; the Holy of Holies is the centre of the Holy Temple; the Holy Ark is the centre of the Holy of Holies and the Foundation Stone from which the world was established is before the Holy Ark.

Midrash Tanhuma, Kedoshim 10

The sanctuary of the earth is Syria; the sanctuary of Syria is Palestine; the sanctuary of Palestine is Jerusalem; the sanctuary of Jerusalem is the Mount; the sanctuary of the Mount is the place of worship; the sanctuary of the place of worship is the Dome of the Rock.

Thaur ibn Yazid, Fadail

Add this mix all the different factions in each community, each with its own agenda, tangled together in an endless struggle for supremacy and then add in those with fingers or fists in the pie - countries supplying money and arms, international bodies trying to broker peace, refugee support agencies, and so on. Here are three word cloud that give a small idea of the comlexities.

Israeli Groups & Factions

Palestinian Groups and Factions

Fingers in the pie