"One early morning in late spring 2014, I found
myself sitting on the steps of the Armenian Guest House in the Old City of
Jerusalem looking up the Via Dolorosa at a group of Japanese Christians
struggling down the road under the weight of a massive cross. Turning my head
to look down towards El Wad ha Gai street, I could see ultra-orthodox men
rushing in the direction of the Kotel to pray, and Muslim shopkeepers opening
up for the day. Just another day in Jerusalem, at a point of spiritual,
geographical and religious intersection.
I was meeting my daughter (then living in
Jordan) to go to a peace dialogue conference for Israeli Jews, Palestinians and
a few internationals just outside Bethlehem. It was a further step on a
personal journey to try and understand the unknown and unfamiliar, which had
started in earnest five years earlier with my first visit to the Palestinian
territories, and had since led to numerous visits to the area, including an
extraordinary trip in 2013 visiting both sides as part of a mixed group of
Leeds Jews and Muslims.
Engagement in local interfaith and dialogue work
these last few years has not just been important for me personally, but also
professionally. Since 2010, I have made a continuing series of work on the
subject of conflict and the everyday, questioning my own prejudices and
assumptions and beliefs. I have become convinced of the need to talk and listen
and understand those we do not know in order to find peace. And inter-faith and
inter-community dialogue is as important here in Leeds as anywhere else.
When I was invited to participate in The
Stations of the Cross at St Edmund’s,
I accepted with enthusiasm, thinking back to those times I’d walked the Via Dolorosa, albeit not from
a Christian perspective. But being allocated the first station - the
condemnation of Jesus - presented a particular challenge for a Jewish artist.
After all, this stage of the narrative lies at the root of the history of
Christian anti-semitism, and exploring the gospels’
accounts in the light of what was to follow was
slightly disconcerting. As a lawyer, I was sensitive to inconsistencies and
contradictions and found myself searching for an historical account of this
charismatic first century Jewish leader.
Two thousand years on, a palpable rise in
anti-semitism of a slightly different nature is disturbing Jewish communities
across Europe. And not just the Jewish community; there is a disconcerting and
worrying suspicion of Muslims everywhere based on unfounded assumptions and
prejudices, and appalling persecution of entire groups of Christians in the
Middle East. Saddest of all for me at the present time, is the unfounded
demonisation of an entire people by the Israeli government, alongside the
growing demonisation of all Israelis by a large part of the Arab world. I think
being honest about our own prejudices is a vital first step in overcoming the
general intolerance many people face on a daily basis."
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