Saturday, November 03, 2007

Steve Webb on Israel/Palestine

Steve Webb today has an important post reflecting on his recent visit to Israel Palestine. Steve rightly draws attention to the need for forgiveness and reconciliation. However, this doesn't take account of what it is like to be living under occupation. My metaphor for the situation is - if you are sitting on my head I may need you to get off my head before I can be reconciled to you. If in the course of sitting on my head you blacked my eye and broke my nose, I may need you to apologise to me for that. If in the course of me trying to get you off my head I kicked you somewhere where it hurt, I may also need to apologise.

My understanding of forgiveness is that it is somewhat dependent on the repentance of the other party.

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