Peace in the Holy Land
Why
has the Israeli-Arab conflict not been solved decades ago? Because none of the
proposed cures matched the disease. The cures were purely
secular, but the
problem goes much deeper. It is rooted in identities thousands of years old.
©“Pictorial Library
of Bible Lands”, vol. 3, www.bibleplaces.com
The Holy Sites in Jerusalem between Temple Mount [Al-Haram ash-Sharif)
and Holy Sepulcher
Ever since
the Jewish Temple was destroyed by the Romans, at least orthodox Jews have
yearned for a New Temple in Jerusalem. But for 1900 years no opportunity opened
up. First the Romans barred Jews from entering their “Promised Land”, then
Muslims laid claim to the place.
No one could
have imagined that Jews would ever return to their Biblical homeland. But that
is precisely what began to take place in the 18th century. And in 1967 Jews even re-conquered their former Temple Mount, which
has, for more than 1300 years now, been the Muslims’ “al-Haram ash-Sharif”, the
Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa! The Israeli government protected the Muslim
sanctuaries but they now claimed ownership over that piece of land – a
highly symbolic act.
Disregarding
that symbolism, President Clinton urged the Israelis in Oslo, among many other things, to give up
their newly gained control of the Temple Mount as part of a
compromise for peace. The results were catastrophic: Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was murdered;
and when one of his successors, Ariel Sharon, went up onto the Mount, a new Intifada
broke out,
following which Israel
built a huge wall across the country. The world was stunned, but couldn’t
see the logic in the sequence of events.
Unfortunately,
our Western
world view comprises a huge blind spot. Our remedies don’t work, yet
our narrow, purely secular concepts make it almost impossible for us to
perceive in all their complexity the diverse layers of truth involved: how the
Middle East conflict is about far more than just land, how it is at least as
much about identities, about emotions and issues of religious superiority.
How, then, can peace be reached?
For a start,
we shall need to take things as they now stand. That means, first and foremost,
seeing the
eminent symbolic significance of the Temple Mount for both Jews and Muslims.
At
present, the necessary mutual respect is missing; this counters any wholesome
feeling people may have towards one another and runs profoundly counter to the
spirit of the Abrahamic religions. But just blaming ultra-orthodox radicals
will not help.
True peace arises from the power of empathy. In order to be able to
feel the full meaning of the site for the other, both sides will need to
undertake plenty of exercises in deep empathy – and in this they will need the
whole world to support them. The result will be unity in diversity. On that basis true and lasting
peace will be possible.
An
open letter from the high representatives of Islam to the Pope [“One Common
Word”] gives hope because the one common word is “love”.
That
said, once the
United States and the European Union put all their political weight
behind the undertaking of demanding inter-religious empathy from both
sides, the time-frame to accomplish it may be as small as the time-frame it
took to
establish French-German friendship after WW II.
Gottfried
Hutter, Chairman, gottfried.hutter@gmx.de.
More
information: www.Temple-Project.de
Tax-deductible donations to the non-profit
“Temple-Project Association”
[Account No. 1001241031, BLZ 70150000] IBAN: 93 7015 0000 1001 2410 31, SWIFT-BIC:
SSKMDEMM
Or by Paypal