Peace, Not Politics
Sheikh Taysir al-Tamimi at a meeting with representatives of the organizations for the inter-religious dialogue in the Our Lady of Jerusalem Centre in Jerusalem May 11, 2009. Tamimi fiercely denounced Israeli policy in Jerusalem in the presence of Pope Benedict on Monday and appealed to the pope to help end what he called the "crimes" of the Jewish state. Reuters Pictures
Pope Benedict XVI has made his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. His purpose, to encourage inter-faith trust and co-operation between the three religions for whom the geography and its ancient holy places represent the lode-star of their being. In Israel he spoke on his visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial of the world's need never to turn its back on the reality of the wholesale atrocity of genocide visited upon European Jewry.
He spoke of his anguished concern for the tragedy, somehow overlooking the need to denounce the political/ideological pathology responsible for it.
Awkward to say the least, given his unfortunate younger years.
The world is a strange place indeed, stranger still when a pope of German heritage and birth, deployed in fascist Germany in the Hitler Youth Corps as a creature of his time and place, journeys to a country whose existence was inevitable as a response to the world's indifference when six million Jews perished in a maelstrom of hatred unleashed in a fury of mass murder. From the charnel houses of Europe to the refuge of the Middle East.
Where that tiny nation once again faces an existential challenge.
The raging neuroses of a greater Islamic presence, incapable of stifling its resurgent loathing of Jews and the impossible insult to Islam in the presence of a religion, a people, a nation not joined with them in a common heritage, tradition and religion is simply too much to bear. So while Pope Benedict spoke of the common bonds of humanity and the imperatives of interfaith trust and goodwill, the need for reconciliation and the search for universal justice, many heeded him among the faithful, hoping for the seemingly impossible to occur.
The discomfiture on Pope Benedict's visage more than adequately matches that of the chief justice of the religious courts in the West bank and Gaza, Taysir al-Tamimi, who resolutely sought to gain advantage by raining on the pope's parade. After all, this bespoke an opportunity too good to pass by, since this visit is being broadcast worldwide. Speaking in Arabic, nicely excluding the pope and his entourage, Mr. al-Tamimi beseeched Christians and Muslims to work in tandem to foil the evil designs of Israel which had transformed Palestine "into a giant prison".
The chief justice charged Israel of apartheid in its construction of "a racist wall" to keep "Muslims and Christians from praying in their churches and mosques", and denounced the country's violent assaults through its military campaign in Gaza that "violated human rights in a way unprecedented in this era". Jerusalem, he declared fervently, was the "eternal capital" of the Palestinians. "I call on you in the name of the one God to condemn these crimes and pressure the Israeli government to stop its aggression against the Palestinian people."
No hint of a possibility that Israel through the construction of that restraining wall has saved the lives of hundreds of its citizens. No mention of the growing violence by Palestinians against Israelis, particularly the reality of a rapidly emerging climate of conflict and aggression from within Israel itself, from its Israeli-Palestinian citizens, increasingly engaged in fanatical Islamism. No references to Hamas's agenda of destroying Israel, nor for that matter the Fatah-PA's more discreet agenda to slowly but surely decrease the majority Jewish presence.
This simply was not Pope Benedict's finest hour. The Shepherd of God has suffered indignities not normally anticipated in his venerable post. That the Israeli prime minister merely greeted him at the airport, then whisked himself off to Egypt for a critical meeting was certainly not meet nor adequately respectful of his position as pontiff, the leader of over a billion Catholics world wide. The political leader of a mere six-million Israeli Jews in contrast authentically impolite and undiplomatic.
Perhaps the stage for this was set when the pope himself made a political statement, asking that as his trip was a personal pilgrimage, no Israeli flags be flown and the nation's anthem not be played upon his arrival, as reported on Voice of Israel. Of what other nation could such a request be made and honoured without question or residual rancour? Interesting that the Jordanian plane that flew the pope and his entourage to Israel diplomatically flew flags of Israel and the Vatican, and did not hesitate to play the anthems of both.
Labels: Israel, Middle East, Political Realities, Religion
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, May 12, 2009
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