Homeless in homeland

"'Homeless in homeland', dont you think this headline is smart and unique?" boasted my colleague Venky at the magazine desk long ago. Fl often carried stories of the conflict in West Asia and we desk-hands had to edit, find suitable pictures from Agencies, give captions and headings. The headings often tried our creativity, sometimes I missed it and sometimes I excelled.

But this heading about the plight of Palestinians stayed in the back of my mind, and has come to the fore now as the Israel-Palestine conflict reaches another crescendo. 

Back home, the polarisation is intense this time because a Keralite expat was killed in one bombing. Christians, especially the fundamentalist creeds among them, side with the Jewish state since Jesus was a Jew too -- as if the so-called Chosen Land of the Jews is our chosen land too! A symbolic adoption of the land Jesus lived and preached as our own is fine but how can we condone atrocities committed by his community? Jesus himself was a victim of that roguish state of mind. Mira here has no love lost for them as she considers them the killers of Jesus.

Soon after Trump declared he accepted Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the Sunday School examination had a question on that. Mira got a zero because she wrote Tel Aviv and the sir wrote she should give the new capital. I wished I could get back to him on that. It merely underlined what the church and its teachers want Israel's capital to be.

The utter ridiculousness of hoping that our dead will sit in the lap of Abraham, Issac and Yakob becomes increasingly clear to me. Harping on Old Testament history, statutes and rites, which were meant for the Jews or were instructions from their jealous and strict god to them, is presposterous. Shouldnt we rather hope to sit in the lap of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, our own gods in India? 

I hope, in vain, that the Palestinians get justice and at least half their original land returns to them. While they fight the militarily strong Israel with stone and mediocre weapons, it brings to mind the battle of David and the Philistines. Only the roles are reversed. Justice should be delivered to Palestinians, and Jehovah should make his people see reason. 

As a friend told me today, peace is more important than a piece of land.