by Rt Hon Sir John Battle (Chair Leeds Diocesan J & P)
(former Minister of State at Foreign Office)
A ceasefire pause and the release of some Israeli captives and Palestinians prisoners is a welcome relief 15 months after a violent act of Hamas terror and an Israeli war of reprisal in Gaza. Too many have died and suffered as this war has been played out. While internationally political leaders express relief that inflamed tensions in the Middle East and subsequently worldwide have not escalated to a much wider war, a real peaceful project remains on the distant horizon.
The personal hostage and prisoner release exchange has a long way yet to go for future months. There is again a temporary ceasefire in military action. At last, more humanitarian aid trucks are allowed into the stressed communities of Gaza. But issues of where homeless Palestinians return to and who rebuilds and rules Gaza remain.
This present agreement is a pause; a stepping stone out of the violent conflict. The way forward in the direction of a settlement for both Israeli and Palestinian communities remains a utopian chimera. Some Israeli politicians still want the war to be continued. Hamas fighters out celebrating with raised guns seems far from a peaceful settlement.
Those not involved directly in some way in this fragile initiative and who have been reduced to passive TV bystanders and observers cannot now turn away in vaguely hopeful relief. There can be “no peace without justice” as Catholic social learning has long insisted.
“The problematic roots of an initially flawed structural settlement remain. The peace process cannot be left to current politicians and military leaders to carry through. Seeking justice and peace in the context of Israeli and Palestinian peoples requires we all take responsibility to respond whatever our own circumstances in prayer, thought and action in particular to the development of a longer term vision and practice of a reconciled future, working for a peace built on firm foundations of justice.
