Peter Arnett, former CNN television reporter, told the following story: *“I was in Israel, in a small town on the West Bank, when there was an explosion. Bodies were blown through the air. Everywhere I looked there were signs of death and destruction. The screams of the wounded seemed to be coming from every direction.

Shortly after the explosion, a man came running up to me holding a bloodied little girl in his arms. He pleaded with me, “Mister, I can’t get her to a hospital. The Israeli troops have sealed off the area. No one can get in or out. But you are the press. You can get through. Please, Mister! Help me get her to a hospital. Please! If you don’t help me, she is going to die!”

I put the man and the girl in my car, got through the sealed area, and rushed to the hospital in Jerusalem. The whole time we were traveling through the city streets, the man was pleading from the backseat, “Can you go faster, Mister? Can you go faster? I’m losing her. I’m losing her.”

When we finally got to the hospital, the girl was rushed to the operating room. Then the man and I sat in silence in the waiting area. We were too exhausted to talk.

After a short while the doctor came out of the operating room and said, “I’m sorry. She died.”

The man collapsed in tears. I put my arms around his shoulders to comfort him. Not knowing what to say, I said, “I can’t imagine what you must be going through. I’ve never lost a child.”

The man, with a puzzled look on his face, said, “Oh, Mister, that Palestinian girl was not my daughter. I’m an Israeli settler. That Palestinian was not my child. But, Mister, there comes a time when each of us must realize that every child, regardless of that child’s background, is a daughter or son. There must come a time when we realize that we are all family.”

Today, Gaza is in ruins and the West Bank shattered.    There seems no recognition of a common humanity.  Children, little children, die from starvation, disease, and bombs.    Hearts have hardened, the death toll rises and the only peace plan Israel’s leadership is interested in, includes removing the entire Palestinian population from the land.  I continue to pray that God breaks through the barriers of hate and violence,  and for a Just Peace to come to all of Israel and Palestine.  May we come to understand our common humanity and  recognize we are all family.

“Those who exploit the powerless anger their maker,
    while those who are kind to the poor honor God.” Proverbs 14:31 

*A story related in publication in the early 2000’s.