I continue to write about the unknown future without making any discernment to our dear readers about what will happen in the days and months to come. I am not aware of what comes next, yet with the absence of peace, justice, love, truth, and conscience, I cannot claim that hope, which every person of good desires is forcedly present.
The truce, its conditions, regulations, and deadlines highlight all our political, field news, and analyses. The Palestinian people in Gaza heaves a sigh of relief for four days, counted by hours and minutes, then this is followed by the Israeli threat that after the truce there will be a war, which will be more fiercely and blatant, as well as more likely to take innocent lives. It is as if that government has not sufficed itself with at least 15,000 martyred people, most of whom were women, elderly, and children. They are not mere numbers, but every one of them is created by the same God, has one’s own name, surname, clan, family, brothers, sisters, as well as private memories, and history, while some of them know nothing about the fate of one’s family and loved ones. Prior to the truce and in its aftermath, the people say, “There is no hope but in the Almighty God.”
The doors of the Vatican open by the peaceful Swiss Guard to receive a popular Palestinian delegation, some of whom are from Gaza who lived under the bombardment for 46 days. After meeting with the delegation, Pope Francis reiterated his call to stop the fighting, the war, and the aggression. However, this time he referred to what is really going on as, “It is not war, but rather terrorism.”
The delegation holds meetings there in line with the efforts exerted by the Palestinian embassy in the Vatican, the High Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine, the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem, the Catholic Center for Studies and Media, and the Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, represented by its minister Ayman Safadi who was following the affairs personally with Mr. Fayez Khoury, and Jordan’s Ambassador in Rome Qais Abu Dayyeh, who arranged for the embassy cars to transport the Palestinian delegation to and from Rome Airport.
These are joint propitious efforts that not every reader may know, but the Palestinian delegation to the Vatican-- namely Muslims and Christians together with most of them young men and women who reflect the image of a single people, but dispersed in all parts of the Earth as some of them came from Ramallah, Nazareth, Abu Dhabi, Gaza, and European countries-- formed a coherent delegation that felt from His Holiness the Pope and the Vatican concern and denunciation of the human, material, and moral losses caused by the aggression. Yet, they ultimately realize that the Vatican has no armies and that it is not party to the conflict, but it states a frank and direct view and expresses its constant closeness to the oppressed. It also calls on the international community to push for a final settlement to the Palestinian issue, namely the two-state solution that His Majesty King Abdullah II also calls for at a time when he leads diplomatic moves as well as humanitarian and medical aid that have become dazzling the entire world.
The delegation returns from the Holy See with Jordanian travel facilities, and all persons return to their residences, while the worry continues, and eyes with tears are glued to television and mobile screens. Furthermore, O brothers, we and you will come in touch in the aftermath of the truce, as there are weak hopes for its extension or making it permanent... Hope for a speedy solution of the aggression taking place nowadays is still absent, while reaching a radical solution to the root-cause of the problem is still absent, namely the occupation. Nevertheless, prayer will remain persistent and we only have to reiterate with the people of Gaza, “There is hope only in the Almighty God.”
