Not Done Yet...
- Rev Muriel Pearson
- 23 hours ago
- 5 min read
This is my last Stepping Out of the Boat blog post. I am back in Scotland having said a bitter-sweet goodbye to colleagues and friends in Tiberias, Jerusalem and beyond. It is a momentous week for other much bigger reasons too. On 7th October the two-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on festival goers and kibbutzim was marked. For families of hostages, alive and dead it is a painful anniversary. For Palestinians, the loss of life in Gaza and the increased pressure on Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and in Israel continues.
Today, 9th October,[1] we woke to the news that talks in Sharm El-Sheikh have made progress and a ceasefire and exchange of hostages and prisoners has been agreed. Any progress has to be welcomed, but it is hard not to be cynical about it. Overnight, bombing in Gaza City has continued. The Gaza Health Ministry reports the death toll has reached 67,200, with 169,890 injured, amid the ongoing conflict. Many children are now showing effects of malnutrition and starvation and immediate aid and medical relief is needed, and will be too late for some. More than 80% of buildings and 95% of farmland have been destroyed.
In a critical period over the next 72 hours, if the plan is ratified by the Israeli government, hostages living and dead are due to be released and more than 2000 Palestinian prisoners. There is some doubt as to whether Hamas and their allies will be able to return the remains of all the deceased, and trust between the two sides is very low. Israel has broken the cease fire before.
[1] At a time of fast changing news I have decided to keep this snapshot frozen in time. Today, 13/10/25 it seems hostage exchange is about to begin and Trump is to speak in the Knesset.
Other news reminds me that the humiliation and destruction of Palestinian lives and homes is not restricted to Gaza. In Um al Kheir, settlers are laying foundations for a new road on designated Palestinian land. The olive harvest is approaching and there are real fears that settler aggression will make it even more difficult to graze flocks and harvest crops, making a precarious lifestyle untenable. Layan Nasir, today, the same day the agreement was reached in Sharm El-Sheikh, was taken from a court appearance to an eight month prison sentence. Her ‘crime’ has never been explained. There is some speculation that she will be added to the number of Palestinian prisoners due to be released as part of the peace deal. As the Gaza Flotilla activists have testified, any time spent in Israeli detention is horrific.
What does it all mean? Many may be desperate to ‘get back to normal’, but for Israelis and Palestinians ‘normal’ is not progress towards peace. The Trump Peace Plan is notably evasive about the role of Palestinians in any future governance of the Gaza strip. Even if Hamas are excluded, any peace plan that does not take seriously the Palestinians’ right to self determination is no peace plan. There are Israeli voices making this clear, but not enough. Most Israelis are content to have Palestinians living behind the Security Barrier with no prospects, and attempt to distance themselves from settler violence and expanding illegal settlements. But the truth is that without a change of government policy (by no means guaranteed by a change of government) the 77 year old injustice will continue.
If the ceasefire holds, the temptation for a weary world will be to quietly shift away from sanctions and accountability for war crimes and towards normalisation again. Recognition of the rights of Palestinians must not be seen as a reward for Hamas’ actions on October 7th, but rather as a long overdue correction to longterm injustice. Given the undermining of international law and the functions of the UN, and the positions taken by the US and the UK and others which seem to hold no accountability for the State of Israel, it is hard to be optimistic about this.
The conflict is still characterised as a war, as if there is an equivalence between a well-armed nuclear power and the Palestinian people, ill-served by the Palestinian authority and living in an apartheid system, whether in Israel or the West Bank and Gaza. And yet, it seems that Palestinian voices have been heard in the world and in the church in new ways. One of the courageous and prophetic Palestinians who have consistently challenged the church and denounced Christian Zionism is Rev Dr Munther Isaac. In an X post today he wrote, ‘Rain falls this morning on Ramallah- the first in a long while-. And today, a ceasefire is announced in Gaza. May both be signs from heaven – that life will return to the land, that the cries will turn to songs, and that justice will finally prevail.’
Alison Phipps, an academic from the University of Glasgow, who throughout the war on Gaza has been in touch with students and colleagues inside Gaza, and spoken boldly and written passionately, sums up her hopes and fears in a new poem today:
Mean Peace
Mean peace
Not another mean peace.
May this be
A peace that is not
more pieces of betrayal
A peace that can sustain life
A just peace that lasts
and makes new
A peace that heals
A peace that heals
A peace that heals
If you ask me how I feel you may well get a non-committal answer. How do I feel? Glad to be home and sorry to be leaving. Proud of friends and colleagues and anxious for their future. Pleased to hear news of a ceasefire but doubtful it will hold. Hopeful that there is space for talks but disappointed that Palestinians are still not equal dialogue partners. I remember the American civil rights mantra, adopted by the Poverty Truth Communities here: ‘Nothing about us without us, is for us.’
I finish with a Jewish prayer taken from the booklet of prayers produced for the Week of Prayer for World Peace 12-19th October 2025[1]
WAR is – in whatever its shape or form – is the ultimate in wickedness, madness, sin, injustice, ugliness…
PEACE then – without definition – must be the ultimate in Love, kindness, truth, compassion, justice…
WE PRAY that we may daily choose PEACE and share it in our lives, families, places of work, friends, group activities, streets, communities, the world… We pray for an end to the violence and bloodshed, and ask you to bring a new dawn of peace across the Middle East. May there be no more hatred, rancour, strife or conquest. Let there be only love and a great peace among us.
Amen. May it be so.
