By JOSEPH OPIGO

A pleasant winter’s eve brought us out to the lawns of the university campus. As I lamented the unavailability of transport for me to attend the Christmas carol service at St Andrews church Colchester a voice from the crowd of students responded, “I will take you there”.

He was a Palestinian who not only took me there but also participated in singing all the hymns that were called. At the end of the service as we came out of the church I inquired ‘I didn’t know you were a Christian ‘. He replied, he was a Muslim from Bethlehem where irrespective of ethnicity or religion they all take Jesus Christ as a highly revered hero of their land and together celebrate his birth as a holy event. He went on to inform me that the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat yearly went to Bethlehem to celebrate the Nativity —the holy birth of Christ.

Overwhelmed with a mixture of joy and pain I asked “ Why are we fighting then ?”

“Politics” , was his brief answer. 

Ever since I have agonized over the politics of hate that has pervaded every land in the world resulting in wars amongst brethren. From Asia to Africa and Europe or in America all conflicts derive from the politics of hate. Where ethnicity, regionalism or religion has been used as a political tool to win elections, the polity gets infested with concealed bitterness ready to explode in anger at any moment . The Palestine – Israeli conflict that has persisted for decades is a product of the politics of hate where the brethren no more recognize themselves as children of the same Abrahamic roots — the Hebrew race. 

The Roman colonizers named that land of the Hebrew Palestine while religion divided them into different faiths — Christian, Muslim and the Old Testament traditional Jewish Faith which the Zionists identify with the State of Israel . The politics of hate has taken advantage of these divisions and polarized them into two extremities that make discussion for peace almost impossible as their external supporters do nothing but stoke the fires of hate, and the Hebrew children continue to kill themselves. What a pity!

If only for a moment they can reason along the politics of love then they will be guided by the light in the words of Jesus Christ whose birth we yearly celebrate.

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

Abraham whose children we all claim to be either by faith or by circumcision was a man of great meekness. He meekly submitted to God’s command and meekly submitted to his wife’s jealousy or nagging. 

Meekly he let his nephew Lot to choose first the land before them. Meekness did not mean weakness for he bravely rescued Lot and his family from their abductors. Meekness promotes peace and therefore produces the peacemaker the child of God blessed to inherit the earth.

The politics of hate is a recruitment platform for satan’s army of warmonger generals whose bloodlust can only lead mankind to total extermination. Vengeance may be sweet but if it makes victims of the innocent then their blood will also call for vengeance and the cycle of hate continues. 

This is the time for Solomonic wisdom to promote the Politics of Love in the land of the Hebrew, if not, the more victims and orphans the war produces, the more fighters are recruited for the politics of hate to continue the bitter war in generations to come.

The children who lost their lives, and some writhing in pain of injury or maimed, while others are orphans or grieving for friends and family….. DO THEY KNOW IT IS CHRISTMAS ?

Shalom

Joseph Opigo, a former lecturer Rivers State University, and Niger Delta University,  writes from Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.