Ibrahim Faltas
Children tremble in these moments; it is the fear of something they do not know that extinguishes their smiles, the smiles of all children who suffer and die in war-torn countries. They die and suffer in Gaza, in Tehran, in Kyiv, in Tel Aviv – writes Fr. Ibrahim Faltas, responsible for the schools of the Custody of the Holy Land, for Vatican News.
In Jerusalem, fear is palpable, almost tangible. Empty streets, inaccessible places of worship and closed shops in the Old City, wounded and destruction in many cities of the Holy Land – these are once again images of the suffering of this tormented land. These are visible scars and invisible wounds that reveal the pain and traumas of what has happened with the new, recurring beginning of an endless war. The silence of the deserted city is broken by the sound of sirens, causing fear in anticipation of missiles that will once again bring death and destruction.
Fear returned with full force – or perhaps it never disappeared – last Saturday morning. It was a Saturday, like that tragic one of October 7, 2023.
Together with the teachers and school staff, we managed to maintain the necessary calm to reassure the children waiting for their parents, who had just dropped them off at school. It was not easy for the teachers to hold back tears as they assured the children of their safety – children who, moments earlier, had jointly recited a simple prayer of St. Francis before entering their classrooms. I looked at the children, at the hidden trauma in their sad eyes; I felt the awareness and responsibility of the adults, their suffering, because the return of violence meant another distancing from the warm peace that the school provides. These thoughts and worries fill my mind and heart.
Near the Holy Places, we live a seeming normality, because we believe, we pray, and we hope, but the deafening noise of war constantly brings us back to a painful reality.
Children do not know violence, they do not know the inhuman reasons for violence, and they remain innocent victims of the absurdity of evil.
Children know and recognize only good. In these moments they tremble – it is evil that makes them tremble; it is the fear of something they do not know that extinguishes their smiles, the smiles of all children who suffer and die in war-torn countries. They die and suffer in Gaza, in Tehran, in Kyiv, in Tel Aviv. They are terrified, they are sad, they suffer from hunger and cold, they are afraid under wet tents, they are isolated in the darkness of shelters and bunkers, they are buried under the rubble of schools and homes, they do not play, they do not use pens or colored crayons.
This is the inhuman consequence of wars.
After October 7, 2023, there were numerous appeals and requests to the international community to become human again. Two Popes, civil and religious authorities, ordinary men and women, prominent personalities asked for this with great force. The answers have not come, and even if they have, they have not yet brought results or solutions in Gaza, in the Holy Land, and in other regions affected by war and violence for years.
Who should have answered the call for peace?
What humanity responds to wounded humanity?
These are questions without answers, if for years the fundamental rights of the innocent have been trampled, and the duties of the international community have been subordinated to the interests of the war economy and indifference towards the suffering. In Gaza, children deprived of the right to peace – instead of receiving aid and education – are forced to search through rubble for items they can sell in exchange for food and blankets.
What humanity supports and helps them as they dig in the dust and among the memories of other innocents? Who else remembers them?
What humanity does not allow those who sought salvation to be rescued, and who lost their lives in a sea that today washes ashore bodies and unfulfilled dreams of hope?
What humanity does not respect the terms and methods of implementing agreements that could bring relief and a breath of fresh air to those who await the end of unimaginable violence and suffering?
These are questions to which we have no answers – questions that are not answered by the humanity of those who, as Pope Leo says, bear the moral responsibility not to allow evil to become the absolute protagonist of our times.
My experience of living in the Holy Land allows me to continue to believe and hope in the hearts of people who love their neighbor without prejudice and without borders, who extend a friendly hand, offer an attentive ear, a soul-warming embrace. This is the humanity in which every person should recognize themselves; this is the humanity that the international community should represent.
Rights and duties, responsibility and respect are fundamental elements to remain human, to believe, to trust and hope in humanity, to silence the noise of war and allow the sound of peace to resonate.
