My Story by Stephen Dickinson
I was born and brought up in Yorkshire and I now live in Lancaster with my wife and three children. Although I am a practising Christian, I believe that we have much to learn from our brothers and sisters of other faiths such as Judaism and Islam in our search for meaning, purpose and guidance in our lives. My occupation is electronic engineering - I work for my own business designing electronic circuits and associated software for various companies and universities.
Although I have long been aware of conflict between Israel and Palestine, my knowledge was rudimentary before the events of October 2023 and I had regrettably failed to appreciate the enormous depth of injustices heaped upon the Palestinians which are driving the hostilities. I was, however, aware of some tremendous efforts by a few good hearted people, from both sides and outside, some working to build bridges between the two peoples and others working to bring Israeli transgressions to account.
It seems certain that October 7th 2023 will be remembered for whatever reason as a notable date in history for some time to come. It is clear that Israel would like this to be remembered as the day which justified counter measures in the name of self defence. However there are many things in this narrative which despite my shallow historic knowledge at the time, simply did not ring true in my own mind. The thing that really swung my opinion against the Israeli's actions was when it became apparent to me that Israel was unleashing a systematic frenzied reign of terror and destruction on Gaza, mostly destroying the lives, livelihoods and communities of innocent men, women and children. Surely no one can argue that these actions are self defence - if it was wrong for Hamas to kill 1,200 Israelis (an action which I believe was indeed totally wrong), then surely it was also wrong for Israelis to kill over 40,000 innocent Palestinians by September 2024. (In July 2024, the renowned British Medical Journal Lancet published a letter which estimates that the total number of deaths in Gaza due to all factors attributable to the conflict was around 186,000 by June 19th).
Over the last year, I have now learned a little more about the recent history of Palestine, and it is apparent that since the formation of the state of Israel in 1948, the situation for the Palestinians has got steadily worse. Gaza had become little more than a prison camp, with severe restrictions of the movement of people and goods. Palestine had become an apartheid land with, for example, new roads built for the exclusive use of the illegal (under international law that is) Israeli settlers. Israeli settlers continue to illegally take land and buildings off Palestinians living in the West Bank, all with the support of the Israeli military. In addition, many innocent Palestinians (including children) have been locked up in Israeli prisons and many have been baldly tortured.
Sadly, it seems to me that things have now gone a complete circle. In the late 19th and early 20th century many Jewish refugees moved to Palestine following persecution in Russia and Germany, and now some Jewish descendants (as well as other more recent Jewish immigrants) are actually inflicting similar persecution and genocide on the native inhabitants of Palestine.
I hope and look forward to a day when when Palestinians of all faiths and none will be able to live as equals in peace and harmony together in Palestine.