"IN MEMOMORIUM we are sad to announce the death of respect for the BBC the once great broadcaster of truth. Sadly the BBC truth died on October 7 2023 when this previously trusted News provider decided that it would follow the lies of murderous terrorists and ignored the cold blooded murder of hundreds of Israeli civilian, men, women, children and infants, but instead chose to believe and support the lies of the terrorists."
These are words posted online by a member of a local Jewish congregation - I'm not saying who, and looking over their posts, I can see no condemnation of the policy of blockade of vital food and medicine to Gaza by Israel.
And yet I can have some sympathies.
Looking back at in Liberation 80 (our celebration in Jersey of the end of the German Occupation 1940-1945), and back to the war years, things were very different.
These are words posted online by a member of a local Jewish congregation - I'm not saying who, and looking over their posts, I can see no condemnation of the policy of blockade of vital food and medicine to Gaza by Israel.
On the contrary, in their posts or shared posts, Hamas gets all the blame for initiating the conflict. Any news reports which happen to condemn Israel's attacks and blockades on Gaza are biased, and underestimate the existential threat posed by Hamas which has declared it wants to wipe out Israel. Israel has to defend itself, and if Hamas hides among the civilian population, so much the worse for them. The BBC reporting and showing children starving, babies on the point of death, is criticised for providing propaganda for Hamas.
I disagree profoundly. The blocking of aid, the deaths that result, cannot just be laid at the door of Hamas. That is too trite. I think that those in Israel who are deaf to allowing help to get there are guilty of a lack of compassion for our common humanity. They block their eyes, they cover their ears, and children are dying horribly. Of course they have all kinds of excuses, but it is really inexcusable.
Looking back at in Liberation 80 (our celebration in Jersey of the end of the German Occupation 1940-1945), and back to the war years, things were very different.
In an interview with Don and Eileen, made some years ago in 2019, they both condemn any women who had anything to do with the German forces. For them, it was black and white: any liaison meant the women would be condemned as "Jerrybags". Now it is true that a number were, and flaunted their extra privileges and supplies, but some were genuine romances. Not all Germans were evil. But to Don and Eileen in war time, they were all "the enemy".
Why is this important? Because we are fortunate to have the passage of time. We look back in horror at some of the bombings of the civilian population of Germany in time of war, but at the time, only a few such as Bishop George Bell, stood up against the flow of public opinion and condemned it in public, probably ruling himself out of the running for Archbishop of Canterbury.
As far as the British people were concerned, they were fighting an enemy which bombed their cities, which hit their civilian population, and anything was right. The justification of “collateral damage” emerged which argued that attacking enemy factories was permissible even if it cost the lives and homes of civilians who were taking no active part in the arena of war.
Against this, Bell spoke out, not against strategic bombing, but against a policy of blanket bombing towns and cities in Germany. And yet he was a well-known opponent, from 1933 onwards, of Hitler and the Nazis.
Bell had tabled a question asking the Government for “a statement as to their policy regarding the bombing of towns in enemy countries, with special reference to the effect of such bombing on civilians as well as objects of non-military and non-Industrial significance in the area attacked”.
Bell concluded his speech in the Lords with these words: “The Allies stand for something greater than power. The chief name inscribed on our banner is ‘Law’. It is of supreme importance that we who, with our Allies, are the liberators of Europe should so use power that it is always under the control of law. It is because the bombing of enemy towns — this area bombing — raises this issue of power unlimited and exclusive that such immense importance is bound to attach to the policy and action of His Majesty’s Government.”
But Bell was speaking against the tide of public opinion. The conflict was too raw, the death toll too high, and the tide of public opinion was against him.
Later, once the war was over, it turned against "Bomber" Harris, and the Lancaster bomber crews got little recognition until the 21st century.
So I can understand my Jewish friend. The events of October 2023 are still so raw, so present, that it is hard for someone who has known family or friends caught up in it to think with any kind of historical perspective. And these are people who have lost family in the Holocaust, which always is a shadow over events.
I don't think they are right in what they are saying, but I can understand it - looking back at 1940-1945 - and looking at the lived experience of those who were there, and their testimony from that time.
Can there ever be peace in the Middle East, and a peaceful settlement between Israel and Gaza? The turmoil and history of the past century has been violent and bloody, and it seems unlikely.
And yet... there is always hope. The conflicts in Ireland went on for centuries, and then after partition and the founding of an independent Irish state, sectarian violence blew up again in Northern Ireland. Death, violence, civilians caught up in years of horror. I grew up with news stories breaking of brutal and savage violence and killings.
But there was a Good Friday agreement reached eventually, and it was a sign that peace is possible. It is difficult, it involves compromises which at present no one may be prepared to make, but that path is always within the realms of possibility. It is not just a matter of agreements on paper, hearts and minds must change as well.
Looking back at the war years in Jersey, Charles Mauleverer, the writer of the song "Faithful and Free" concluded by looking at how history can change perspectives:
"We would play around and explore the abandoned concrete German bunkers and fortifications. And my childhood dreams were often filled with nightmares of Nazis occupying the island. I now feel extremely lucky to have had the chance to study in Germany and to count a number of Germans among my very closest friends. But 75 years ago, saying such a thing, especially here in Jersey, would have been altogether a different matter."
Why is this important? Because we are fortunate to have the passage of time. We look back in horror at some of the bombings of the civilian population of Germany in time of war, but at the time, only a few such as Bishop George Bell, stood up against the flow of public opinion and condemned it in public, probably ruling himself out of the running for Archbishop of Canterbury.
As far as the British people were concerned, they were fighting an enemy which bombed their cities, which hit their civilian population, and anything was right. The justification of “collateral damage” emerged which argued that attacking enemy factories was permissible even if it cost the lives and homes of civilians who were taking no active part in the arena of war.
Against this, Bell spoke out, not against strategic bombing, but against a policy of blanket bombing towns and cities in Germany. And yet he was a well-known opponent, from 1933 onwards, of Hitler and the Nazis.
Bell had tabled a question asking the Government for “a statement as to their policy regarding the bombing of towns in enemy countries, with special reference to the effect of such bombing on civilians as well as objects of non-military and non-Industrial significance in the area attacked”.
Bell concluded his speech in the Lords with these words: “The Allies stand for something greater than power. The chief name inscribed on our banner is ‘Law’. It is of supreme importance that we who, with our Allies, are the liberators of Europe should so use power that it is always under the control of law. It is because the bombing of enemy towns — this area bombing — raises this issue of power unlimited and exclusive that such immense importance is bound to attach to the policy and action of His Majesty’s Government.”
But Bell was speaking against the tide of public opinion. The conflict was too raw, the death toll too high, and the tide of public opinion was against him.
Later, once the war was over, it turned against "Bomber" Harris, and the Lancaster bomber crews got little recognition until the 21st century.
So I can understand my Jewish friend. The events of October 2023 are still so raw, so present, that it is hard for someone who has known family or friends caught up in it to think with any kind of historical perspective. And these are people who have lost family in the Holocaust, which always is a shadow over events.
I don't think they are right in what they are saying, but I can understand it - looking back at 1940-1945 - and looking at the lived experience of those who were there, and their testimony from that time.
Can there ever be peace in the Middle East, and a peaceful settlement between Israel and Gaza? The turmoil and history of the past century has been violent and bloody, and it seems unlikely.
And yet... there is always hope. The conflicts in Ireland went on for centuries, and then after partition and the founding of an independent Irish state, sectarian violence blew up again in Northern Ireland. Death, violence, civilians caught up in years of horror. I grew up with news stories breaking of brutal and savage violence and killings.
But there was a Good Friday agreement reached eventually, and it was a sign that peace is possible. It is difficult, it involves compromises which at present no one may be prepared to make, but that path is always within the realms of possibility. It is not just a matter of agreements on paper, hearts and minds must change as well.
Looking back at the war years in Jersey, Charles Mauleverer, the writer of the song "Faithful and Free" concluded by looking at how history can change perspectives:
"We would play around and explore the abandoned concrete German bunkers and fortifications. And my childhood dreams were often filled with nightmares of Nazis occupying the island. I now feel extremely lucky to have had the chance to study in Germany and to count a number of Germans among my very closest friends. But 75 years ago, saying such a thing, especially here in Jersey, would have been altogether a different matter."
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