A Brotherhood – a People Linked Together

The last 3 years has seen me work towards trying to bridge divides between Muslim and Jewish communities both here in the UK and within Palestine and Israel. This task has moved me, made my heart grow heavy with the pain that I have seen, allowed me to see the beauty that is possible (as the sun shone on the Dome of the Rock and the light rays reflected off Jerusalem – Al Quds!) All three faiths of Islam, Christianity and Judaism together physically , yet cracks against this cohesion are always under the surface.

My heart has grown heavy since Muslims and Jews have so much in common, so much history intertwined; so much to gain from a natural alliance and so much to mobilise together on in the common interest of the protection of civil and human rights that are fundamental to faith (and also to those who choose to have no faith). When I see some of the poverty and hopelessness within areas like the West Bank, I can but only be thankful of the basic things that we take for granted in the UK. Clean water, freedom and security are regular buzzwords that we use but when you are trying to eek a living out of the harsh enviroment, day to day existence is the only aim.

I hope to continue to travel to Palestine and Israel in the future and to work on conflict resolution programmes especially ones that try to provide common points of dialogue and discourse. That is the basic action that I can take, to get out of my comfort zone and to do something that tries to give people the basic opportunity to talk to each other and to turn away from the gun. God knows, if ever we need to talk, it is now!

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