Today marked the 78th anniversary since the United Nations’ decision to partition Palestine on November 29, 1947. The book “Conquest or Leaven” analyses this decision in chapter 3, beginning thus:
“On November 29, 1947, the United Nations (UN) passed resolution 181 that partitioned Palestine into two states, a Jewish one and a Palestinian Arab one, a vision that remains enshrined in international law and has been espoused by most of the international community since. The state of Israel became a member of the United Nations in May 1949, one year after having been established and just a few months after a ceasefire had been called and Israel’s borders internationally recognized. However, a sovereign state of Palestine still does not exist. Sixty-five years after the passing of resolution 181, on November 29, 2012, the UN accepted Palestine as a “non-member observer state” – a status it shares with the Holy See. The partition plan must be revisited in order to comprehend the present status of the Palestine/Israel conflict, at the centre of the ongoing instability in the Middle East. What was the proposed partition? What led to the partition decision? What were the consequences of this decision? Finally, is partition still a relevant solution to the Palestine/Israel conflict today?”
I spent the afternoon at a round table discussion of a new book by Salesian priest Vincent Bosco. His book is entitled “The Christological Foundations of the Doctrine of Sacred Icons according to John of Damascus”. Saint John of Damascus lived in the Monastery of Saint Sabbas (Mar Sabba) in Palestine in the eighth century, a fascinating figure of the Church of Jerusalem. The speakers at the roundtable all underlined that in the defence of icons, Saint John also presented the Holy Land and the Holy Places as icons. It was here that God became a visible human person, “the Word became flesh”.
This image of the Holy Land as an icon to be venerated rather than a piece of real estate to be fought over, inspires my own prayer on this Palestine Day. And furthermore, may each person living in the Holy Land see their brothers and sisters as sacred icons of the image of God.