St Mary’s University hosted a day conference entitled Weeping in Ramah Crisis in the Holy Land, on Friday 21 November.
This conference was linked to the University’s master’s programme in Catholic Social Teaching and reflected the long-standing engagement of St Mary’s with the region, including the contributions of Fr Michael Prior and Prof Nur Masalha. Originally the conference had been due to be addressed by Prof Conor Gearty, who sadly passed away on 11 September. Mass in the University chapel during the conference was offered for him.
After a welcome from St Mary’s Vice Chancellor Professor Anthony McClaran, the opening address was given by Archbishop John Wilson, Archbishop of Southwark. Archbishop John Wilson reflected on his links with Cardinal Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and his regular contact with the Catholic parish of the Holy Land in Gaza. He reflected on the title for the day conference, ‘Weeping in Ramah’, a quotation from Jeremiah (31:15):
‘A voice was heard in Ramah - Wailing and loud lamentation. Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be consoled because they are no more. That ancient cry of Rachel, the mother, who will not be comforted, reverberates through the centuries. It's the cry of every parent who has lost a child to violence. Of every family forced from its home. Of every community torn apart by fear and hatred. It's the cry that rises again today from the land where our Saviour was born, crucified rose from the dead. First and foremost, the Holy Land belongs to God. It is a sacred soil of divine revelation, a geography and landscape of salvation. This land is scarred by inhumanity and bloodshed. And faced with such devastation, silence can never be an option. We must affirm again and again that war destroys lives, that war destroys homes, that war tramples dreams and steals hope’.
The second keynote was delivered by the Scripture scholar, Fr John Deehan, who looked in detail at how Old Testament passages are used to explain contemporary policies in Israel, particularly from Deuteronomy and Zechariah. Fr Deehan argue that these nuanced passages place a lot of emphasis on the obligation to support the stranger, the alien.
After Mass there was a panel discussion, involving Brendan Metcalfe, CEO of Friends of the Holy Land, international lawyer Dr Harry Hagopian and Joseph Hazboun, regional director of the Pontifical Mission in Jerusalem. One theme which emerged from this discussion was the need for Christians to resume pilgrimages to the Holy Land.
Prof Ian Linden, Visiting Professor at St Mary’s and former, Director of the Catholic Institute of International Relations, followed in his address where he discussed the contemporary debates around antisemitism in this country, and efforts to counteract it and other forms of racism. He looked in detail at legal cases which are being pursued internationally in relation to recent events in Gaza and the West Bank.
The final speaker, Sir Vincent Fean, former Consul General in Jerusalem and Ambassador to Libya discussed the history of the Holy Land since the Balfour Declaration in 1917. He explained in detail how much the large number of people employed by the Palestinian Authority have suffered big losses to their income. He referred to what the Anglican Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, had said recently about sanctions on settlement related enterprises, a ban on trade relating to illegal settlements in the West Bank, territorial clauses in trade agreements and church investment strategies.
A recording and transcript of the conference is available from Fr Ashley Beck, ashley.beck@stmarys.ac.uk