Israeli-Arab conflict could use more religion

• Another West Bank rabbi has been engaging in extensive dialogue with Islamic leaders, including fundamentalists.

While both communities are split by secular-religious divides, Gopin explores how the religious myth of the Abrahamic family resonates within the cultures, and perpetuates both conflict and a yearning among many for reconciliation with the "lost brother." He shares a personal experience of walking through Jerusalem's Old City not long after Jewish extremists had upturned the carts of Arab vendors. He stopped briefly to look at some carved figures of Moses and Abraham on one vendor's cart. As the Palestinian merchant's eyes caught his, the man pointed upward and asked, "One Father?"

These two peoples share not only a powerful religious narrative but similarities of experience. Both have suffered a loss of homeland and security. Both have suffered injustice at the hands of Christians as well as each other – Jews over a longer period of time and to much greater degree in the Holocaust. Today, both feel their survival is threatened.

With such intense feelings of injury, alienation, and despair, only religion and cultural values can lead to recovery, hope, and trust, Gopin believes. Politics and economic compensation are ineffective substitutes.

The second half of Gopin's book is devoted to practical steps to "de-escalate the rage and fear" and to build new ties. Recognizing the limitations of dialogue at the grass roots – many people are not in a position to articulate their feelings or to say they are sorry – he proposes the use of ritual and symbolic acts. For example:

• Bilateral gestures of regret, honor, and rededication at every religious space violated in Israel and Palestine.

• Support to injured members of each community from the enemy community.

• Sharing the life situations and fears of ordinary people through the media, to help each side understand the other.

• Commemorative mourning ceremonies and markers at sites where Arabs have killed Jews and Jews have killed Arabs.

• Small-business loans to poor people on both sides.

• Apology and repentance by replanting uprooted trees and burned forests, and rebuilding destroyed homes.

• A joint Museum of the International Refugee, detailing the lives of Jews and Palestinians as exiles and the plight of refugees the world over.

• Use of the two cultures' traditional processes of reconciliation – sulh (Arab) and teshuva (Jewish).

Such steps require the backing of political leaders and third-party peace brokers, which so far has been lacking. But given the record of the top-level peace process, and the obsessive but futile focus on the failings of individual leaders, Gopin's prescriptions ring true as a legitimate, life-affirming, even hopeful complement to official negotiations. They may, in fact, be essential before negotiations can genuinely become fruitful.

• Jane Lampman writes about religion and ethics for the Monitor.

Page: 1 | 2