Good Friday morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between. Must have more coffee.
“Jerusalem is everyone’s.”
The truth on a small poster Hersh had in his bedroom. It has a homemade feeling to it. That was his belief but it didn’t matter to those who kidnapped and executed him. The more I learn about Hersh Goldberg-Polin the more he reminds me of my younger self. I am sure I am not the only one. Walk with me a little.
Above the Jerusalem poster there’s a globe and a print of Che Guevara. Just like in my old bedroom that doesn’t exist anymore… Demanding the impossible seems to be an ideal we both shared. I think of Hersh a lot, he was a great kid and I feel like we could have been friends. The tragedy of his death is overwhelming. Looking at that impossible idea, briefly made possible by enlightened rulers like Baldwin IV and Saladin, made me think of it as the essential question in the Holyland.
I have long advocated for Jerusalem as a free city, peacefully shared by all faiths and administered by their representatives from a true cosmopolitan secular perspective, with respect for all and no tolerance for extremism. Religions became the bane of our existence but they don’t have to be that way. When I make the case for secularism I always mention its respect for individual faith in all its forms except for the radical ones.
Nothing gives me more pleasure than to advocate for Israel and proclaim my Zionism while wearing my Che t-shirt. It really throws my friends out of balance and now that I have seen Hersh’s bedroom I feel even more amused by that notion we seem to have shared. Hersh was a truly good kid, an amazing kid whose life was cut short by those who refuse to share Jerusalem, as he wished to. I try to focus on his life rather than his death.
I understand why Rachel and Jon authorized the release of the video Hamas made of Hersh before they executed him. People need to look at it. We must not look away from the horror we are fighting against. We HAVE to look at it. That’s the reality we face: the radical intolerance for the other, regardless of what the other believes in. Hersh was killed by members of the people he spoke for and wished to live with; the worst among them. Just like most young people at the Nova festival.
Don’t believe for a minute there aren’t Palestinian Arabs who feel that way. We see them in the shattered streets of Gaza demonstrating for the end of Hamas rule; for the end of hate. Without our help they don’t stand a chance. They will be captured, executed and dragged through the streets leaving a cautionary trail of blood for those who think like them. That’s what these monsters do. They murder hope whenever hope shows up. Just like they did to Hersh.
The families of the murdered hostages are calling for Justice not revenge. They are calling for the end of Hamas and for peace because they know we can’t have one without the other. They are calling for new elections for the same reason the bravest of Palestinian Arabs are calling for Hamas to leave them alone. They all see clearly what the obstacles for peace are. So should we. Israel will find a way, they are a democracy. Gaza can’t do the same. They need help.
Our eyes are on the Arab world and how they react to this crisis and we shake our heads at the missed opportunity once again gone to waste, drowned in their common hatred for Israel. Denied by their fanatic belief Jerusalem belongs to them alone. During the years I studied the Arab Israeli conflict that one inescapable fact came to me again and again. Jerusalem. The Holy City praised in songs of faith and prayer as the one place on Earth we all belong.
Because if there is one city in this world that gathers all our hopes and dreams and promises of life eternal in whatever form we perceive it that city is Jerusalem. We belong to it and it belongs to no one. It’s the true realization of an ideal we share but are unwilling to conceive. Why must those who understand this be slaughtered on the altar of intolerance? Perhaps because like no others they hold the promise of a different tomorrow. Like Hersh did.
We watch as the best of us are taken away from life while so many monsters cling to it and dodge bullets and we wonder where God is in all this. Yet in each life consumed by hate there is a new promise to be fulfilled if we choose to see it. We must see it. And if we do, perhaps one day we will be able to live in peace with others and with ourselves. Perhaps then the impossible will come true and Jerusalem will be everyone’s at last.
Have a good weekend. 🕊️
