The tragedy of the Palestinian problem

 Just because I'm Japanese, does that mean I can get away with not knowing anything about Jews?

Is it okay to remain ignorant about the issue between Jews and Palestinians?

I don't think so. If we dismiss it as "the Palestinian issue has nothing to do with Japanese people," then when Japan is in trouble, the rest of the world will dismiss it as 

"we have nothing to do with Japan."

If you turn a blind eye to the misfortunes of others, they can also turn a blind eye to your  misfortunes.

The reason I started talking about Palestine last time is because I read the new edition of "Palestine" published in Japan. Although it's a new edition, it was published in 2002, so it's been more than 20 years. But it's interesting to see the perspective from 20 years ago. As you know, the situation has gotten worse, of course.

I think that Jews are certainly a special people in terms of religion. Since this is a religion blog, I would like to say that the Jews were the first to establish monotheism with a clear awareness. And the history of the Jews is a series of trials, so much so that it seems that they were given special trials because of their special grace. They were captured as slaves in Egypt as a nation,  Moses led the escape and just when they thought they had finally established a nation in Israel, they were taken into Babylonian captivity. And just when they thought they had finally returned, they were once again exiled from their homeland by the Roman Empire. They then wandered around the world, and as a minority in each place they were constantly discriminated against and persecuted, and in the end they were subjected to the Nazi holocaust. At last, thinking  they had no choice but to have their own country to protect themselves, they decided to rebuilt the state of Israel after almost 2,000 years. But that land could not have been uninhabited for 2,000 years. Palestinians had been living there for a long time. Most of them were Arab Muslims.

When ethnic groups as identities collide while expanding their power, it is inevitable that conflicts will occur on the border between them, but this time, not only is it not on the border, but the areas overlap greatly.

It's nothing short of a tragedy. It feels like the tragedy of humanity is condensed here.

I don't know what to do anymore.

Of course, it's easy to criticize Israel. Japan has its own country as an ethnic group. We are lucky to have our own country. It's not something we take for granted. There are ethnic groups and groups other than the Jews that don't have their own country. There are Kurds and people called gypsies, who speak Romani and seem to have their roots in India.

Judaism, Islam, and Christianity are all monotheistic religions, so I wish they could become one. And Buddhism and Hinduism can also become one under love and mercy.

And I feel that there is no way out of this tragedy unless we transcend our identities and become one.

The road seems long, but that's the only way.

Let love and mercy lead us.