Written by the Irish School of Ecumenics. CRC supports the organisation through its Core Funding Scheme.
Interchurch fora from across Northern Ireland are part of the Irish School of Ecumenics community engagement programme in the region. As well as developing programmes of interchurch activities in their local area, the Fora meet twice a year in a CONNECT Conference.
This year in February and March a course was organised on zoom: Digging Deep Into History: A Critical Understanding of Palestine-Israel. The community education course attracted numbers beyond fora members. Ninety-six people registered for a seven-week programme. This provided a wide range of people with an equally wide range of thought and perspective. No parallels were being drawn between Northern Ireland and Palestine-Israel but digging deep into the history of a conflict and origins is necessary for understanding any conflict situation and finding a just and peaceful way forward.
The course began with trying to understand the war in Gaza and a century of wars in this region. Digging into 4,000 years of the history of people in this conflicted region was reaching back into context and diverse peoples’ origins in shared space. Crucial to understanding what is going on in Palestine-Israel is grasping the impact of Christian Zionism, with its roots in Ireland, and Political Zionism. Both are at the heart of a seemingly intractable problem. The course then grappled with the role of successive empires and the imperial legacies in this region. The Middle East has never been empire free, from 3,000 BCE to the Ottoman, British, French and American empires of more recent times. Participants from the beginning have had a grasp of the need for a just, peaceful and sustainable future for both Palestinians and Israelis.
Core to each of the seven sessions have been group, plenary and interactive discussions. The dialogue and discussion have been diverse, open, honest, critical and respectful. The dynamic has been an exercise in itself of community relations building. The numbers of participants suggests that there is a deep concern for Palestine-Israel from people who have been through conflict and suffering and the need for just, peaceful and sustainable futures for all. The seven sessions were anchored on zoom by Eileen Gallagher, the director of the Interchurch Fora programme. Maureen Hetherington provided the slides, giving visual expression to people and events. The course has been delivered by Dr Johnston McMaster.
Participants in their diversity have made the course a remarkable experience of dialogue, discourse, learning, understanding and empowerment to be just peacebuilders.
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