Peace, here and there

We can deplore it, but it is a fact: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been imported to France. Of course, contrary to what some feared, we have not witnessed intercommunity clashes in recent months. But several other indicators do indeed confirm an increase in tensions. The increase in anti-Semitic acts, first of all, by almost 200% in one year. That of a form of social violence, then. How many political parties, families, associations are today, in France, fractured by this conflict?

Interreligious dialogue is no exception. Since October 7, 2023, the date of the terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas, then the Israeli response in Gaza, ties between Jews and Muslims have been put to the test in our country. Dialogue bodies have ceased to meet, friendships have broken down.

There is undoubtedly a bit of voluntarism in this assertion: we are nevertheless allowed today to believe that, since the conflict was imported into France, it is also in our country that the conflict is being played out, in part. building peace. In synagogues and mosques, but also in Christian churches, where the word “peace” is repeated every day during celebrations. Here and there, men and women continue to meet and can be, against all odds, the leaven of a peace so ardently desired. Here and there.