those who still believe in dialogue

The conference was entitled “War is not inevitable: imagining peace”. Among the speakers present this September 23 in Paris, the Franciscan Ibrahim Faltas particularly made the room vibrate. Vicar of the Custody of the Holy Land in Jerusalem, he testified to what has been happening for a year in this region so full of history and pain. Even a religious as accustomed as him to spreading the good word struggled to contain his indignation in front of the audience of the International Meetings for Peace, organized by the Community of Sant’Egidio: “In Gaza, people are being pushed to flee into places which become mortal. I will never forget their gaze. They are witnesses of infinite evil and implore an awakening of consciences. Since the attacks of October 7, 2023, 11,300 minors have been killed and 20,000 others have been orphaned according to the Hamas Ministry of Health. “This war has destroyed every human principle,” the Franciscan said in horror. “The injured children have been taken out of the rubble. They are resurrected.”

The October 7 massacre perpetrated by Hamas cost the lives of 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostages – 97 are still in the hands of the terrorist movement, including 33 given for dead by the Israeli army. Since then, reality dictates that darkness has fallen on the Holy Land. Around 40,000 Palestinians were killed during the war launched by Israel against the Gaza Strip the day after the Hamas attack. “It’s an unprecedented massacre,” alarms Denis Charbit, Franco-Israeli political scientist*.

For comparison, the war of independence from 1948 to 1949 killed more than 12,000 Palestinians and more than 6,000 Israelis. The horror of October 7 was such that it traumatized Israelis for a long time and triggered a spiral of vengeful hatred, analyzes Denis Charbit: “Israel has always more or less respected principles in its battles, such as avoiding hitting civilians. , but leaders see the current war as an existential conflict. Many say to themselves: “I prefer to protect my own people than to appear charitable.” I suffer from it. The desire to destroy Hamas is so powerful that it pushes me to no longer follow the rules.”

The friend of my enemy…

The fight to the death against Hamas now extends to Hezbollah, in solidarity with Hamas. Since September 23, Israel has dropped its bombs on Lebanon to reach the Shiite movement based in the Land of the Cedar, risking extending the conflict to the entire region. Here again, the list of deaths is growing: more than seven hundred victims during the last week of September, according to the Lebanese government.

In such a context, it is difficult to imagine a peaceful path. And yet, you have to imagine one. “Peace will be an act of will and creativity,” believes Ibrahim Faltas. For Denis Charbit, it will only be accomplished in stages. The most important being the departure from power of the warmongers Hamas, Hezbollah and the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. “They must leave the stage of history,” decides the politician.

The other step, undoubtedly the most formidable, will consist of extinguishing the embers of violence in the souls of the inhabitants. In the eyes of Ibrahim Faltas, the best way to achieve this remains education. Responsible for safeguarding the holy places of Christianity in the Holy Land, its custodianship also manages around twenty schools, in Israel and the Palestinian territories. She welcomes children from the three monotheistic religions to teach them to grow together. Others also continue, to their extent, to fight to preserve the thread, which has become so tenuous, of dialogue. Israeli or Palestinian citizens, they are fewer and fewer in number, forced into reserve by the climate of hatred and fear. Despite this, they still believe in it. Their word is all the more precious.

*He has just published Israel, the Impossible Normal State, Ed. Calmann-Lévy, 300 p. ; €19.90