Green Olive Tours Blog • Palestine • Israel: 2019 writing competition

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- Nofel Nawras, UK -

These lands that appear to be called by this name and that are in truth, the one land, Mother Earth. There will be no peace, in Israel, Palestine or anywhere else. There is no peace within the family, within the community, within nations. Peace begins with me, the individual and can never be found in the organisations of the world, no matter how well-intentioned.

This perception will not be palatable to the liberal intelligentsia. This perception will be seen to be negative, doom-laden and hopeless. The perception of a mind that has given up, a coward. A mind that has no love, compassion. A mind that has no inkling of the glory of the human spirit when it faces adversity. Perhaps this may be the case. Perhaps I am insane. After all, to live without hope is a form of insanity, isn’t it?

I wonder if the conquered people down the ages, since the dawn of the tribes and their raping and pillaging had hope? Where are they now? They are all long dead. So far away that we can look at them without any compassion, without any regret. What about the dead of a thousand years ago? Did they not wake every morning with hope in their subconscious? The hope that they would live through the day. How about the first World War? Many will have relatives who fought and died in that calamity, yet it was still quite a long time ago. Come closer yet, the Second World War with countless millions dead. Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Africa, South America... Closer yet... Kosovo, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Palestine... Closer, how’s your relationship with your wife, husband? How’s the family? How are the brothers and sisters doing? All well? Communicating the truth of their lives on Facebook and Twitter?

Is the truth of civilisation since its inception not proof of Mankind’s insatiable desire to stamp his will upon the blessed Earth? Do we really think that anyone, anything, will stop the slaughter and the coming catastrophes that are waiting for the spark to ignite the end of this dreadful civilisation?

The tribes are the problem. This tribe against that tribe. My belief against yours. My God is the real God. And who created all of this? I, Man. I who walked out of paradise and thought I could do better. Not doing too well, am I?

So how am I going to bring peace to such a place? Do I really think that peace will come from some plan, some brainchild of a member of any tribe? There are so many tribes. They proliferate exponentially. Now we have the concerned liberal tribes who see the insanity and fear for their children’s future. The younger, trendy (Probably the children of the older liberal tribes.) tribes who are IT savvy and think they will be different from their mothers and fathers. How many of them have even heard of the phrase: ‘The sins of the fathers.’?

My opinion against yours. The polarity of existence since day one. You know best. You can solve this problem. Oh yeah?

It’s too late for mass solutions. Too late for the concerned, well-meaning middle-classes. Too late for the solutions that are partial. The bucket that is Planet Earth is leaking in a thousand places and no amount of good intention brought home by the fear of my own demise will stem the flow. Partial solutions reflect their origins. They come from a partial perception of the problem. The problem is not ‘out there’. It is in me. Me, who is writing these words and me who is reading them. Only when I see that I am to blame for all the ills upon this planet and begin to change the only thing I truly can, myself, is there any possibility that there will be peace ‘out there’. If there is no peace in me, how can anything I come up with have any peace in it? Is that too logical, too outlandish for the professors and the writers and the concerned people of the Earth?

Also, it’s too hard. ‘Change myself? I’m okay, it’s all the other nutcases.’ The other nutcases are just people. They love their children just like we all do. That’s the problem. The tribes. They love selfishly, personally. My country, my family, my land, my God. As if God belongs to anyone. How stupid and ignorant we are, and we talk of peace. That’s all we’ve ever done.