JERUSALEM - Needless to say, the 'new intifada' in Israel/Palestine is having a major international impact. On the one hand, it is one of the longest-running and most mediatised conflicts of the post-war era; on the other hand, the coverage seems to be mostly one-sided. By this, Abicht means that the Israeli-American point of view receives much more attention than the Palestinian one, but also that the focus tends to be on external events and visible actions, while the underlying emotions and interests require much more attention.
Amidst the burning current events, this journalistic project aims to address one of the underexposed realities in the conflict: the lonely position of believers (Muslims, Jews and Christians) who experience their religious beliefs not as self-justification and a call for violence, but as a call for justice and respect for diversity. Given the constant stream of factual current affairs reports, this project does not need to address this. The reader can be assumed to know that an ‘Al Aqsa Intifada’ is raging, that Israel is imposing an unjust distribution of land and resources, that the Jewish state feels threatened by neighbouring countries.... Ludo Abicht wants to complement this information by getting - across the currently very high boundaries of religious communities - some relevant witnesses to tell how they feel about the current state of affairs. These should be people with more than average charisma (such as, for instance, Amos Oz or Hanah Ashrawi), people also who did not stand by and watch from the sidelines, but who have very strongly ventured into peace engagements.
In the midst of burning current events, this journalistic project aims to address one of the underexposed realities of the conflict: the lonely position of believers (Muslims, Jews and Christians) who experience their religious beliefs not as self-justification and a call to violence, but as a call for justice and respect for diversity. Given the constant stream of factual news reports, this project does not need to address this issue. The reader can be assumed to know that an 'Al-Aqsa Intifada' is raging, that Israel is imposing an unfair distribution of land and resources, that the Jewish state feels threatened by neighbouring countries ..... Ludo Abicht wants to complement this information by getting some relevant witnesses - across the currently very high barriers between religious communities - to tell how they feel about the current state of affairs. These should be people with above-average charisma (such as Amos Oz or Hanah Ashrawi), people who have not just stood by and watched, but who have taken a strong stand for peace.
For reasons of efficiency, Ludo Abicht travelled to Tel Aviv. This is not a question that lends itself to a fruitful answer by e-mail. It is, after all, about the inspiration behind action and public speaking. The relevance of this individual inspiration (and perhaps disillusionment) is to show that conflicts cannot be reduced to analyses and political power relations. By letting well-known names speak (perhaps in combination with ordinary people on the street), Abicht wants to encourage even the superficially interested reader to delve into this conflict. There is a large group of people in Flanders who are involved in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and not a few of them choose a clear side. With this project, he wants to encourage everyone to show a second reflex when approaching the news, by looking behind the ideology and behind the images for the (suppressed) authentic religiosity in this Holy Land.
PRINT/ONLINE (In Dutch)
- Kinderen van God, Wereldwijd Magazine, January/February 2001.
- Kinderen van God, MO.be, 01/01/2001.
