Press Release
In the Shadow of War:
Peacemakers' Visit to Edinburgh Raises Hopes for Peace
on behalf of
The Edinburgh International Centre for World Spiritualities, EICWS,
and, The Edinburgh Institute for Advanced Learning, EIAL.
The packed audience that attended the two Israeli peacemakers' talk at the Friends Meeting House in Edinburgh on March 20 heard of a number of surprising initiatives for peace in that troubled land, including a Hamas Muslim sheikh who is working with a rabbi from the West Bank Settlements.
The visit of Eliyahu McLean, a Jew of Scottish-American ancestry, and Ibrahim Abu El-Hawa was sponsored by the Edinburgh International Centre for World Spiritualities, EICWS, and the Edinburgh Institute for Advanced Learning.
McLean said that his work was based on a twenty-year process of reconciliation with his Jewish heritage during which time he worked with both orthodox and liberal representatives of the tradition in Israel, many of whom he has introduced to Muslim sheikhs and imams. He has travelled extensively representing interfaith efforts in Israel and abroad at conferences sponsored by UNESCO and other groups. He reported that the spiritual basis of the work of his “peacemaker community” in Israel was “not-knowing—that is, giving up any fixed idea of how reality should be”, “bearing witness”, and “loving action, or, healing ourselves and others ”.
“One of the problems in the Middle East,” he said, “is that everybody knows how things should be, to the extent that no one is willing to listen to anyone else and their truth. Rabbi David Harman has called Israel ‘a tyranny of certitudes', but that could apply to the whole world.”
McLean met Abu El-Hawa during the start of the latest uprising, the intifada , two years ago. El-Hawa is an orthodox Muslim in his 60's whose family has lived on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem for more than 1400 years. He has been active in peacemaking between Jews, Christians, and Muslims for most of his life.
“I was looking for someone to work with,” he said, “to represent the cause of peace in our country, and I met Eliyahu. Since that time we are brothers—or father and son. We are all seeds of Adam and Eve, and we are all first cousins, the seeds of Abraham. God chose us to be in this land, and we have to be here. We don't have a choice: we have to live together. ”
Neither McLean nor El-Hawa glossed over the pain each side has suffered or the difficulties they face. Each has lost friends or relatives due to either terrorist bombings in Israel or Israeli army action in the West Bank and Gaza strip. Yet both believed that actual reconciliation and healing was possible.
As an example of this McLean mentioned the example of a key leader and sheikh in the militant Islamic Hamas movement who has been working behind the scenes with a rabbi from the heavily armed West Bank settlements. They believe that through ancient processes like hudna (ceasefire) and sulha (reconciliation), which have been respected in both communities for generations, a common ground for peace can be found. Such a process, says McLean, would be similar to the “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” in South Africa that followed Nelson Mandela's election as president. He showed a video of such reconciliation gatherings between Muslims and Jews that have been held over the past two years in Israel. The largest conference to date is scheduled for the end of June 2003.
“People ask me,” said McLean, “'Are you right wing or left wing?' I reply, ‘It takes two wings to fly.' We have got to find underlying unity between people on all different sides. Many Palestinians and Israelis I have talked to have a deep sense of mourning, because there was seemingly such hope two years ago. This beautiful, sacred land has become in the eyes of the world ard il hurub , or in Hebrew eretz ha-milchamot , the land of war.”
“People who have never been here,” said El-Hawa, “think there is a wall between the Arabs and the Jews, and that we are both dangerous people. To the world we have a special word: ‘Leave us alone!' We are both really good people, if the world will leave us alone and stop selling us weapons. The same guns are in both hands, Palestinian and Jew. ”
“To carry the word of truth,” he said, “you have to live with people, not just pick it up from TV, radio, and newspapers. When you know the way of life of the people you are talking about, you will talk from your heart not from your mouth. People need to visit and live with people, eat their food, and drink their water, and smell the same air. Then you will bless the ground, Mother Earth, and the pain of the other, with love.”
In their one-day visit to Edinburgh, approximately 160 people heard the two speak. Their tour so far has taken in England, Scotland, and will proceed to Ireland before they return to Israel.
The two sponsoring organizations plan a future conference on Middle Eastern Spirituality and Peace, in Edinburgh, Scotland, to include representatives from both the Middle East and the U.K.
For more information on either the peacemakers' visit to Edinburgh, or on the planned conference on Middle Eastern Spirituality and Peace, please communicate with the contacts below.
Contacts
Neill Walker, The Edinburgh International Centre for World Spiritualities, EICWS, 4 William Black Place, South Queensferry, Edinburgh, EH30 9PZ. Scotland. Ph: +44 (0) 131 331 4469, email: njwalk820@hotmail.com
Dr Neil Douglas-Klotz, The Edinburgh Institute for Advanced Learning, EIAL, 7 East Champanyie, Edinburgh, EH9 3EL, Scotland, UK. Ph: +44 (0)131 466 1506, email: ndk@eial.org