25 March 2003

Sue and David attend a meeting in Glastonbury to hear Ibrahim Ahmad Abu El-Hawa.

He first recounted his family history which is rooted in the Mount of Olives and which extends back at least to the early days of Islam. He spoke of happy co-operation between peoples of all creeds and colours over many of those centuries. The keepers and key holders of the Christian churches were all Muslims and the duty and the privilege were passed from father to son. Mutual respect was the theme. He later spoke of what had happened to his people. For instance he had 8 children, 3 of whom had received their university education in the US. He dearly wanted to see and hold them but because they had been out of Israel/Palestine for longer than a year that was not allowed!
After discussion as to how a just peace could be negotiated David gave a short account of the Voyage of the Dove and the Dolphin. Only one of the 30 present had heard about it and that via the Radio 4 programme that was presented by Jenny Cuffe last Monday.