Br Patton: 'surreal' calm before Iran’s attack, while Christians struggle to survive
Speaking to AsiaNews, the Custos of the Holy Land describes a surreal feeling, with something “looming" from Iran. Israel’s nationalist-religious leaders are fuelling the conflict, while Israeli civil society is unable to find a political response. Defending Christian-owned land and property is essential for the future.
Milan (AsiaNews) – A situation of "surreal calm" combined with a perception that time is “standing still,” while "something is looming” but no one can say when, how or where, is how the Custos of the Holy Land, Br Francesco Patton, describes the situation of a region where the winds of war are blowing more and more menacingly. In an interview with AsiaNews, he draws a picture that is reminiscent of the Gulf War when the threat of Iraq’s chemical weapons hung over the Holy Land.
Ten months after the start of Israel's war in Gaza, in response to the Hamas attack, the climate is increasingly polarised in Israel, with its civil society unable to find a political response to the religious and nationalist right, whose notion of a “Judaic” state justifies the use of hunger (according to Minister Smotrich) as a weapon of war against the Palestinians.
In this context, the Christian community is struggling for survival, starting with fundamental issues like protecting its land and property that in the West, explains the Custos, might be seen as economic issues. “In the Middle East, in the Holy Land, those who do not have property, whether land or houses, do not survive. What in Europe are seen as economic skirmishes are actually battles for survival.”
The Custos’s interview with AsiaNews follows.
What is the current situation in the Holy Land, which is increasingly a theatre of war and violence?
At present, I am in one of the territories of the Holy Land, in Rhodes, waiting a few days to return to Jerusalem despite the cancellation of many flights. From what the vicar and confreres tell me, the situation is one of surreal calm. Everyone is waiting with fear on the one hand, and hope on the other, for the storm to pass quickly and do little damage, even if people remain locked in their homes and there is a perception of time standing still, of something looming, but we don't know when, we don't know how or where.
This is different from Iran’s attack last April?
Yes, there is a feeling that it is something different but no one knows how. For example, it is not known whether the attack will be more or less intense, which is different from 13 April. From what I am told by the older friars who have been in the Holy Land since the 1990s, we have to go back to the times of the Gulf War to understand the current situation when Iraq threatened chemical attacks. [Back then,] The confreres had to gather in the cafeteria, seal the windows, have masks at hand, a situation even more absurd than today's.
The war in Gaza has now entered its tenth month. Are the chances of peace, or truce, increasingly distant?
I would say yes! Citing the views of more authoritative people like [US President Joe] Biden, I don't see any desire for a truce, or peace, or real hostage rescue. In the past 10 months I have not seen anyone doing anything about the military action and the impression is that neither side wants a truce. At this point in time, those who govern [Israel] don’t want it.
In light of this, yesterday's statement by Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich justifying the use of hunger for two million Palestinians in Gaza as a weapon of war is food for thought . . .
The statement shows the political vision of Israel’s religious and nationalist extreme right. On top of this, you have the impasse linked to the next US elections, which could have some surprises if either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris win because I don't think either would let things continue as they have.
Does Israel’s current extremist right-wing government mirror Israeli society or not?
From my point of view, Israeli society is split in two. Right-wing governments have ruled by a couple of [parliamentary] votes, and have never held huge majorities. In recent years there has been a shift to the right, but it is not simply the political right, but rather a political-religious right in which parties that mix of nationalism with messianism, religious fundamentalism, have seen their weight increase. This trend has been encouraged since 2018 with the approval of a Basic Law of the State, according to which Israel is not only Jewish, but also Judaic, not simply ethnic, but ethno-religious. This has favoured the entry into the government of people like [Itamar] Ben-Gvir and [Bezalel] Smotrich with a further acceleration of colonisation, with the provocations of the religious right to change the status of Jerusalem’s holy esplanade, and a progressive weakening of the Palestinian Authority and the increase, in reaction, of the weight of Hamas. Polarisation on both sides.
Radicalisation has led to more attacks in the West Bank, a growth in settlements and violence against Christians . . .
The latter have grown in recent years, in conjunction with the rise of religious and nationalist fundamentalism in Jewish society. It must be said, however, that a reaction to all this has also occurred in Israeli society, because for two years, protesters have rallied every Saturday first against attempts to subordinate the Supreme Court and the judiciary to the executive, and then for the release of the hostages. Israeli civil society, which is 50 per cent secular, is not passive or dormant, but it is unable to achieve the kind of political strength needed for change.
How worrying is the northern front, with "total war" extended to Lebanon as well?
This is something that has been a source of concern from the outset. Since 7 October it has been said that if it is not settled quickly, the risk of a wider conflict will increase and the first place for this is precisely the northern front. However, in Lebanon most people do not want war, they are not on Hezbollah's positions, and I suppose that Shias do not want it either. Only one side is pressing for conflict or provocation.
In a Middle East in flames, what value do Pope Francis’s words on dialogue and peace have? On Sunday at the Angelus he spoke about it again using strong and clear words.
Of course, the pope's words are very clear but unfortunately unheeded and, at times, even mocked as if he were a pious character forced to say those things. In fact, it is the exact opposite, it is knowing what the war leads to that determines these statements. In recent years, the more we have moved away from the Second World War, the more we have forgotten what global conflicts mean; we have seen the memory of horror vanish, even among leaders who think war can be a solution.
When I was a child I read, among others, two books: the Diary of Anne Frank about the Holocaust, the Shoah, and The Day of the Bomb, the story of the nuclear holocaust (whose 79th anniversary falls today), which led to the use of nuclear energy. Man is an animal with a short memory.
How is the Christian community coping? Not only in Gaza, but throughout the Holy Land with unresolved problems, not the least that of Church property and the age-old question of taxes with the Municipality of Jerusalem.
This is a fundamental point. In the Middle East, in the Holy Land, those who do not have property, whether land or houses, do not survive. What in Europe are seen as economic skirmishes are actually battles for survival. A Christian community or Churches without property means that they are unable to protect their members or community.
This is the difference between the Middle East and Europe. In Europe, the less property the Church possesses, the freer it is; in the Middle East, it is different, it is the opposite, because without property Christians have to emigrate to find a place to live. This is not understood in the West, which applies its categories to the rest of the world even though it now represents less than 10 per cent of the population.
The Christian community is suffering a lot in all the territories. In Gaza everyone is waiting for the war to end to see who is left alive. In the West Bank, in Bethlehem, they have not worked for 10 months because the economy is based on pilgrimages. Schools are also in a critical state, from Jericho to Bethlehem and Jerusalem, as families are no longer able to pay amid general impoverishment that leads them to be humiliated. Hence, the strong temptation to emigrate, even among the Christians of Galilee who are the wealthiest, to Cyprus or Greece.
What are the elements of "Christian hope" in a gloomy picture?
For Christianity, as long as 12 people are left, there is always the possibility of starting over. But hope has a value only if we give it a theological dimension, which derives from trusting in Christ who died and rose again. It takes great faith to stay in situations that have the appearance of Good Friday to believe that the Sunday of the resurrection will come.
A final appeal . . .
May the world, may Europe not forget the Middle East, both in spiritual terms, remembering it in prayer, and in concrete terms, so that everything can be done, starting with the involvement of governments and states, to put an end to the war. We need a political and diplomatic solution and that the business world should then contribute to reconstruction tomorrow, to start again.
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02/11/2021 16:14
