Jerusalem February 26, 2017
Dear friends,
Peace and all Good.
Last Sunday was remarkable. On Facebook, I received notification of three anniversaries: a former confrere, an Israeli, who Interfaith Encounter Association has founded and a Palestinian friend who is Muslim. The three monotheistic religions together next to the birthday of my eldest sister and the youngest son of friends of mine.
The next day I celebrated my birthday and I received many congratulations by internet, among others, from the Custos. Furthermore, my birthday was not celebrated. Here we celebrate the name day.
At the beginning of the evening there was the monthly meeting of the Interfaith. The topic this time was children in the three religions. I noticed a bit disappointing. Abortion and adoption were discussed among other aspects. In Islam’s adoption unknown, which does not surprise me. The origin of Islam lays in Arab culture, where children will always find a place within the extended family, if necessary.
I suggested to the abortion question how a woman who has undergone an abortion, after 25 years or more looks at it. That question was woven away with the remark that this is very personal. This stops thinking about it.
The day after I first visited Shorouq, who had a gift for me. Her situation remains invariably difficult in particular by the brother, who lives in the house. If he is there, I cannot come to visit, because then she have to suffer for it.
After this I visited the three sisters. Again, I got gifts: from the mother and from the two eldest sisters.
Thursday I visited the family of Hajj. They hadn’t heard anything from him for a week. But that does not puzzled me, because he was a week in San Francisco. On Thursday, it is the family day. The married daughters with their children come to visit. It is a hive of activity.
Wednesday Amnesty International published its annual report on the situation of human rights in each country. It is quite a tome, which also speaks about Netherlands. The report is available on the Internet: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2016/02/annual-report-201516/
The Dutch journal on TV has obviously struggling to get Syria and Iraq apart. I saw documented on the news last Sunday the battle for West Mosul. It was shown a picture with a map of Syria and the city of Aleppo.
I read a typical British phlegm. When a plane was circling above London to land to get rid of kerosene, the pilot was instructed not to fly over Buckingham Palace. This pilot replied: “Tell the Queen if she wants my airplane on her table, or my gasoline in her soup.”
By the remark from Trump about an incident in Sweden I looked at the Swedish newspaper Aftonblatet. There I found an article about the use of organs from Palestinians killed by Israel. I add the article to this letter with a photograph, which shows this clearly.
I add further: a photo shop with a picture of Trump and a hat with the text: make media again; an article about vandalism at a Jewish cemetery in the US, which will be restored by Muslims; an article on the fences, which must separate Israel from the Palestinians, but is full of holes, because the economy cannot run without Palestinians without a permit; an article on declining significance of the West in the world and an article on the origins of Islamic violence in France with roots in Algeria.
Greetings from Jerusalem, Louis
Louis Bohte 