A little injustice:
We won’t solve the Hebron problems by denying Jewish roots
by Jane Clements
Suddenly there’s a lot of talking going on. PA President Mahmoud Abbas recently gained crucial backing from the Arab League – who were all talking in Cairo – for his own talks with Israel. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, for his part, signalled that the time is right to start talking again. Hilary Clinton and George Mitchell are both preparing to gear up negotiations and, at the time of writing, Vice President Joe Biden is due to deliver the official notification to Israel from the PA that indirect talks are ready to begin.
It is good news that, while talking has obviously not solved many major problems, Churchill’s old maxim still holds firm. Moreover, it is not in Israel’s interest to maintain the status quo, since it is built on shaky foundations which will and must shift. Talking – and, more importantly, listening – is always a priority. However, as we all know, there are helpful words and destructive words.
While the Jerusalem Municipality work in and around East Jerusalem remains a hot topic, there is both obfuscation and clarification of the Hebron and Rachel’s Tomb problems which arose recently. This latter issue is of particular concern to people of faith and several prominent leaders have recently spoken about it. Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem accused Israel in a statement of “devoting all of its efforts to steal Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, Hebron, and Palestinian cities to change their Arab and Islamic character to prove the country is Jewish".
There is a lot of injustice in Israeli/Palestinian relations and it would be easy to overlook another, apparently smaller injustice. However, I want to argue that there is a more sinister shadow here which people of faith should not ignore. Palestinians have every right to be sceptical about Israeli claims to allow passage to holy sites, since whatever intentions there may be (and this is not always clear to Palestinians), issues of ‘security’ usually have a habit of intervening. But what the Grand Mufti has done amounts to a deligitimisation of Jewish historical and religious heritage. This is dangerous because it is a slippery slope.
In a response, delivered in a characteristically gentle and polite manner, the Chief Rabbi of Haifa, Rabbi Shear-Yashuv Cohen, has written to all colleagues in The Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land. In this he points out “respectfully” that, while Abraham’s tomb is a shared heritage, Jacob, Isaac, Rebecca and Leah are fundamental to Jewish identity; Jacob was renamed ‘Israel’ by God and his wife Rachel was buried where she gave birth. Chief Rabbi Cohen writes: “We are their children and they are our admired parents.”
Of course, the Matriarchs and Patriarchs are familiar in Christian tradition, and are revered prophets for Muslims. None of this is to be denied. The Chief Rabbi points out that holy places for Muslims, and for Christians, must be respected. However, he continues, “unless we learn to share and respect the deep religious feelings of both Islamic and Judaic traditions, as well as the religious feelings of the Christian tradition – we won't be able to bring peace to the Holy Land sanctified by the three Abrahamic religions.”
I have heard Christians and Muslims argue that so much is unfair in Jewish Israeli dealings with Palestinians, that a little injustice in the other direction is acceptable – or, at the very least, not worth getting worked up about. I have also read websites written by (mostly non-Israeli) Jewish bloggers which paint a terrible and distorted picture of bloodthirsty Palestinian Hebronites in bygone years. But something is either unfair or it isn’t. There is a line to be trodden between crying out for justice for one group and selecting words which are deliberately intended to crush all hope in the other, or worse.
As people of faith, I strongly believe that we should never allow the recognition of one person’s rights to be at the expense of the other. Recognition of who we all are, where we have come from and how we deal justly with each other, are non negotiable. Furthermore, the need for Jewish Israeli security stems from continued experiences of deligitimisation, denial and even obliteration. Whatever we may think about the nature of prophecy and who promised what to whom and why, it is blatantly clear that the history of the Jewish people (however defined) is found in stories located all over the Holy Land. And issues of peoplehood and identity for Jews are bound up in these places and nowhere else. To deny or ignore this won’t solve the present problems; they need to be taken into account. If there is something in us which prefers to be angry and would rather not acknowledge the need and sorrows of another, then we need to question seriously our ultimate hopes and goals.
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