Bendcowsky: my Israel increasingly ‘isolated and violent’; society offers the ‘possibility of peace’
On the eve of Passover, the Rossing Centre expert speaks with concern of a country that today seems to have lost faith in coexistence. “For us Jews, this is a Passover dominated by a sense of exhaustion.” The war fronts, from Gaza to Iran, fuel hatred and divisions. Blockades, discrimination against Muslims and even Christians. The work of those who nevertheless try to listen to the other’s reasons, keeping hope alive, is fundamental.
Milan (AsiaNews) - “Israeli society is polarised and, as time goes by, is becoming increasingly extreme.” Hana Bendcowsky does not mince her words. Active for years within the Israeli Jewish community in promoting interfaith dialogue, she is the programme director at the Jerusalem Centre for Jewish-Christian Relations and a leading figure at the Rossing Centre for education and dialogue.
People, she explains to AsiaNews, have “completely lost faith in the world, in the international community, in the Palestinians. And even in the very possibility of peace”. A country that “is more isolated and has become more violent in many different ways”, not only due to the war fronts and attacks by extremist settlers in the West Bank, but also “because of indifference and the lack of firm condemnation”.
A climate of which yesterday’s approval of the law on the death penalty for Palestinian terrorism alone is merely the latest example. Against this backdrop, Jerusalem is preparing to observe, in ways and forms disrupted as during the Covid-19 era, the Jewish Passover (Pesach) from tomorrow evening and the days of Christian Easter.
When addressing the issue of violence, there are some who “carry it out in a practical and systematic way” and others “in silence”, but “it remains, albeit in a different form. I am thinking of those Israelis,” explains Bendcowsky, “who do everything they can to remain ignorant of what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank, or to justify the events, so as not to have to face the real underlying problems.
“This has been the reality of the last two years,” she warns, “and it is certainly not the society in which I grew up.” The researcher at the Rossing Centre, an interfaith organisation based in Jerusalem dedicated to promoting an inclusive society for all religious, ethnic and national groups, describes a “climate of tension” in which it is “almost impossible to have an honest dialogue or to listen with awareness”. “And to acknowledge and share in the pain of others,” she adds bitterly.
Festivals of blood and division
Violence, hatred and divisions fuelled by the numerous war fronts opened by the Israeli government – from Gaza to Lebanon, from Iran to the West Bank – stand in stark contrast to the sacredness of the Holy Land and the particular period currently being experienced by the three main monotheistic religions: first Ramadan and Lent for Muslims and Christians, the festival of Eid al-Fitr marking the end of the sacred month of Islamic fasting and prayer, then the Jewish Passover, which this year falls from 1 to 9 April, and finally Christian Easter, on 5 April for Western Christians and 12 April for the Eastern Churches. “The atmosphere within each of these religious groups is very different,” comments the activist.
“For us Jews,” he explains, “it is yet another festival to be observed under unusual circumstances. Passover is celebrated within homes, amongst families, which are the heart and centre of the occasion, but we still do not know how many of us will be able to gather.
It is not like Yom Kippur or the New Year, which involve visits to the synagogue, so the focus is on the home, with the uncertainty of whether we will be able to do so in large groups or in small gatherings,” especially for those who do not have shelters or safe places. “In general, there is a widespread feeling of exhaustion; people,” he explains, “seem to have lost the strength to do anything. Children have been at home since early March; they cannot go to school or have fun; keeping them at home and looking after them, whilst having to work at the same time, is exhausting.”
Muslims, he continues, are prevented from “praying in mosques”, which are “the heart and centre of their faith. They cannot go to Al-Aqsa, and the police maintain a very strict and violent approach towards people gathering to pray near the walls of the Old City” in Jerusalem. “Palestinian Muslims,” the activist emphasises, “were unable to enter for the entire period [of Ramadan] because they did not have permission, whilst I [as a Jew] was able to do so without any particular restrictions.” “There is,” says Bendcowsky, “clear discrimination, a forced selection: when it was Jews gathering in small groups or clusters” even in these final weeks of war “the police did nothing, but if it was Muslims doing so, the officers intervened immediately and violently.”
Restrictions and closures will also characterise the Christian festivities, as the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who has found himself at the centre of the Palm Sunday crisis alongside Franciscan Custos Francesco Ielpo. The crisis began with the blocking of entry to the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem for the celebration of Mass and concluded yesterday with an agreement guaranteeing the Patriarchate access to the place of worship, which, however, remains closed to the faithful.
A closed Holy Sepulchre, the scholar notes, as “was the case in the past until the 19th century and as happened in 2020” due to the global health emergency, with no pilgrims “crowding the streets and squares”. Commenting on the events of Sunday 29 March, Hana Bendcowsky wonders whether this “anguish and confusion” amongst the faithful worldwide was necessary, due to an evident “lack of foresight” that has caused so much harm “to Christians across the globe”. “As an Israeli,” she states, “I apologise for this unnecessary distress. Let us remain committed, as citizens, to supporting the protection of holy sites for all religions and to guaranteeing freedom of worship, of conscience and access to sacred places for everyone—Jews, Christians and Muslims alike.”
A path towards dialogue
Continuing her reflection, the expert broadens the discussion “to the last two years, during which the police have shown an attitude of increasing restriction and rigidity towards Christians, even if, rather than out of malice, it seems they are doing so out of laziness”.
“For some time now,” she continues, “officers have been trying to restrict access to places of worship, causing concern among Christian communities and various churches.” And the police feel more justified in doing so because “Christians, unlike Jews and Muslims, do not shout, do not protest and do not incite violence.”
In this phase of profound crisis, there is no shortage of difficulties regarding interfaith dialogue, even between Jews and Christians, especially in Israel where relations and balances differ from the rest of the world. “It is a unique situation of tension,” he warns, partly because it must “necessarily be based on honesty”. “People,” he explains, “are living in a state of war” that has long seemed permanent, and “when you are at war, you adopt an overprotective attitude and tend not to listen. Nevertheless, I believe there are still people, in Israel as in Palestine, who are open and willing to listen, who cannot and will not give up, keeping hope alive”.
Activist organisations such as the Rossing Centre play a fundamental role in this regard; indeed, in recent weeks it has organised two significant events: on 25 March, a webinar entitled “Social Resilience Under Attack”, and on 30 March, a briefing dedicated to “Religious Freedom and Christian Communities in Israel and East Jerusalem: 2025 update”. There are also other leading organisations such as Standing Together, Parents’ Circle and Faithful Left (Smol Ha’emuni).
The latter, in particular, is significant because it is made up of religious figures, including ultra-Orthodox and traditional Israeli Jews, who, drawing on their faith, oppose those who use religion for their own ends. “The group has promoted initiatives to safeguard and protect the population in the West Bank,” he emphasises, “and has done so from a Jewish religious perspective.”
Dialogue and coexistence “cannot be attributed solely to the government, the political class and the leadership,” he adds, “because the current leadership and the policies promoted find a certain degree of support among the people.” For this reason, “a massive change from within society is necessary; it will certainly not be elections or a new [political] alignment that will improve the situation.”
“Anti-Christian” sentiment
Confirming these critical issues is also the latest report by the Rossing Centre on religious freedom and Christian communities, “prepared before the war”, which shows that by 2025 the situation “has deteriorated slightly” compared to the previous period, with an increase in incidents. “We surveyed,” says Hana Bendcowsky, “Israeli Jews regarding their attitude towards Christians and Christianity in general, comparing the results with those of a similar survey dating back to 2008.”
The first point to highlight, as in the past, is that the younger the respondents, the more ‘negative’ their attitude towards Christians.
On the other hand, there has been an “improvement” in attitudes towards Arab Christians and, above all, “we have noted that young people who in 2008 held a ‘radical and negative’ view now express ‘more moderate opinions’.
” Furthermore, whilst a small percentage of people feel uncomfortable in the presence of a cross and consider it acceptable to spit at priests and religious figures, there is a majority who view such behaviour as “negative” and deserving of “severe punishment”.
Finally, the activist calls for greater involvement from those working to “promote peace” and to uphold a vision of life that is not merely “war and violence” in a world that seems stuck “in a sort of limbo”.
“Let us not lose hope,” he urges, “for the Holy Land and its people; let us continue to care for it by also supporting our work of dialogue and coexistence, so that the world may know that there is a way to build peace here too. We need,” he concludes, “positive messages, not just news of war and violence.”
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07/05/2024 11:37
