Imagine…*

Peace is quite simple. For some Christian and Muslim contemporaries, it simply falls from the sky. For others, the word itself requires a great deal of work and careful nurturing, as does practising it in life, filling it with positive memories. Within each of us, there lies a seed of peace. Many years ago, when I explored a country called Portugal with my sailboat, there was a man I was immediately drawn to and felt compelled to listen to. He had just said on television that all people are the same, yet they are all different…

How right he was. I was astonished. To put such a simple sentence into the world had something cosmopolitan about it, something peaceful about it. The man who said it, who lived by this principle and later became Secretary-General of the United Nations, was at that time the Prime Minister of Portugal. He spoke about the diversity of people and found it important and natural; indeed, he found diversity invigorating, refreshing.

I was so astonished by the simple way of thinking of the Portuguese that I stayed in this country for several months, familiarising myself with the local way of life. After all, they weren’t cannibals. They did slaughter pigs, and my neighbour at the time asked me to help him. That’s how I came into contact with Portuguese cultural customs, in the wilderness of nature in a place they called Monchique. I’ve long since become a vegetarian. And I haven’t drunk alcohol since I learned about the dark side of distilling medronho. Just look at the children conceived while drunk. Then you’ll see the dark side of a world where the sun shines mercilessly.

I imagine finding peace. And yes, I imagine the people of Israel and Palestine beginning to plant the seeds and then nurturing and protecting them. What the criminal Netanyahu has destroyed in Gaza in five years will still be written about in History books 500 years from now. And the story will begin with the words: Once upon a time, there was a music festival where, as the night drew to a close, several thousand Israelis were murdered. And so the leader of Israel, the Prime Minister Netanyahu, became a wanted criminal when he ordered the murder of tens of thousands of women and children in Gaza out of revenge.

How can we, as human beings, emerge unscathed from this history? In the Alentejo region, I met a community of people where Palestinians and Israelis first worked together on a trial basis, and then lived together in a community. That is why I will never tire of helping to continue the growth of the seeds they planted there.

Imagine…

… an Israeli family would agree to host a Palestinian family in their own home, in Haifa, in Jerusalem, in Tel Aviv, etc. and would receive a bonus from the EU every month. Because Gaza is destroyed. Nobody can live there in a way that is worth living in, in a desert of rubble and ruin, without sanitation and without any prospects for a sustainable life, without medical care, without educational institutions, and with many war-injured people.

I’m thinking of a European-style Marshall Plan. In the meantime, if the sponsorships between these Israeli and Palestinian families were to continue growing, the first houses in Gaza could be rebuilt, the desert could be reforested, and agriculture could be practised in Gaza again, at some point in the future. It’s about creating livelihoods for everyone, without distinction. Then the first Palestinian families could return…

I see Netanyahu and Trump (Happy Birthday Mister President) as obsolete representatives of a time when war was at the centre of thinking. We in Europe have learned our lesson. We had wars every few years, the French against the Germans, the Germans against the French and against Belgium, the Netherlands, etc. If we look closely at the last few centuries with a magnifying glass, we see that we are all the same and yet different. That’s good, and a variety of different colours is indeed colourful. Just as everything in nature is colourful.

It is up to us to sow peace and to let the small plant grow into a strong tree, into a forest that not only provides shade, but also fruit. By the way, the idea of ​​a peaceful life can be applied to every region of the world, from Ukraine to Iran to Sudan.

Take a look at Portugal. Visit the Alentejo and find the small town of Colos on the map. Then you will definitely find Tamera too. Have fun on your journey to peaceful coexistence.

Because peace is possible, dear neighbour.

*Song by John Lennon