Leafing through the Whitehaven News the other day I came upon an irate letter from someone who thought the level of crime being reported didn’t represent her experience. Whether the writer was right or not could be the basis of an article all to itself, but it gave me pause for thought. Going back through the paper I was struck by the almost tribal attitude of people willing to hurt often complete strangers. The reason this violence took place was usually fuelled by booze but it could just as easily have been politics or religion. Most of us don’t respond violently, as in one reported court case, because someone ignored us after we shouted obscenities at them! But there is a common driving force to all sorts of conflict and it’s based on whether you are an outsider or an insider. The more insecure you are the more you need to make the distinction between "us" and "them"; this in no way justifies the mindless violence of a tribal drunk but it certainly explains it.
But all is not lost. From time to time Egremont Today has run articles from its contacts in Palestine exposing the difficulties of living in the Israeli occupied territories. Not so long ago we heard of a playground being built in the small town of Anata on the West Bank. Nothing special you might think but this was to be a memorial garden to a 10 year old little girl called Abir Aramin. Abir was hit by a rubber bullet in the head on her way home from school and died three days later. By one of those terrible ironies of fate her father Bassam Aramin is a founding member of Combatants for Peace (C4P). This organisation is made up Israeli and Palestinian soldiers or fighters who have renounced all violence and insist on working together for peace and reconciliation. The former fighters will work side by side to build the playground, helping Abir's friends and the world see that there are people who care for children and work together for justice and peace. When completed, the school grounds will include two play areas, a ball field, fruit and olive trees, a memorial fountain, and many beautiful places for the children to sit, play, and talk.
There aren’t many of us who could manage to say what Abir’s father said but his words should make us all wish to be insiders wherever our worlds are.
"I'm not going to lose my common sense, my direction, only because I've lost my heart, my child. I will do all I can to protect her friends, both Palestinian and Israeli. They are all our children."