Palestinians and Jews stand united

As for the 30 or so people who stood beneath the banner, it was decided that we would stay for the first part of the march, where Christian, Moslem, Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist prayers would be said, and the spirit of peace was upheld, thereby unifying the people who were there. We would then walk through the streets of Parramatta with the banner, singing songs and linking arms, and then we would leave.

We would not stay for the political speeches, because we all knew that such political specifics serve to divide people. They alienate and they threaten. And so the Jews and the Palestinians left as the speeches began, and went to Samira’s house instead, one of the Palestinian women, where that extraordinary Palestinian hospitality was offered.

One young Israeli woman, a traveller who had arrived in Sydney three days before, tearfully remarked, “how strange that I had to go half way across the world to know that peace is possible”.

There is a certain language of peace that allows the expression of any position and does not alienate or threaten: the right for all people to self determination, a safe homeland, the abhorrence of innocent lives being lost, or civilians living in fear and oppression. These things unite the best in us. The language of specifics, the presentation of one part of history, polarisation that either glorifies or vilifies, is not the language that brings about peace.

Back at Samira’s, we talked. We looked each other in the eye, listened to the contents of our hearts - what we have suffered, what we hope for. And we left feeling that anything is possible because right here, we have seen what peace looks like, one person at a time.