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The word “religion” in English comes from the Latin word “religare” which means to bind together. Indeed, we think of religion as a force to bring people together in a community of shared beliefs and values. Yet all too often, religion has been a divisive influence, pitting people against one another, causing intolerance and even violence.
Given that sad record, there is a widespread sense of relief that, even amid the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza throughout Ramadan that has taken thousands of lives – and the escalating tensions between Israel and Iran that began during Ramadan with Israel’s strike against the Iranian Consular building in Damascus, resulting in the Islamic Republic launching hundreds of drones and missiles at the Jewish State – the conflict has thankfully not morphed into an even more calamitous religious war between Muslims and Jews.
I was in Jerusalem on the eve of Ramadan, Israel was bracing herself for an explosion of violence during Ramadan and serious concerns about the worship at al-Aqsa mosque. Such a conflict could easily have been sparked by a violent confrontation during the just-concluded month of Ramadan between Muslims and Israeli security forces at al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.
Religion should be about bringing people together, not driving them apart
The fact that widespread violence did not erupt during Ramadan 2024, a time of maximum tension that this year was supercharged by the Gaza-Israel war, is a cause for hope that religious faith may henceforth play an enhanced role in ending the horrible warfare presently ravaging a land sacred to all the Children of Abraham.
That conditions remained largely peaceful during the just-concluded holy month of Ramadan in and around al-Aqsa this year, in vivid contrast to the pitched battles between Israeli police and Muslim worshipers, when an eruption of violence was met with tear gas and rubber bullets at and around al-Aqsa during 2021, 2022, and 2023. In previous years we saw horrific outbreaks of violence on the final Friday of Ramadan. This year, by way of contrast, we were uplifted on Friday, April 5 by the blessed sight of 120,000 Muslim worshipers praying peacefully at al-Aqsa.
THE AVOIDANCE of a conflict on al-Aqsa had everything to do with wise decisions by Israelis and Palestinians alike. In the weeks before the onset of Ramadan, with apprehension of an eruption of religious violence on the Haram al-Sharif running high, due partially to an inflammatory call by Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh for Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank to march to the mosque.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir put forward a proposal to prevent all Muslim prayer at al-Aqsa during the entire month of Ramadan. However, to the general surprise of political analysts, Ben-Gvir’s proposal was emphatically rejected by Israel’s war cabinet stating that “Israel’s policy has always been and will always remain to maintain the freedom of worship for all religions in Temple Mount/al-Aqsa mosque.”
Israel’s decidedly less confrontational approach this year to allowing access to al-Aqsa for Muslim worshipers during Ramadan brought plaudits from an unusual source, United Arab List leader MK Mansour Abbas, who urged the Arab community to “exercise their right to worship and observe the holiday in the coming month while abiding by the law and maintaining public order.”
Abbas’ statement gave voice to a clear determination among Palestinians and Israeli Arabs (Arab citizens of Israel) alike not to play into Hamas’ hands by allowing violence to erupt, risking the lives of worshipers and putting al-Aqsa and the other Islamic shrines on the Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount) at risk.
Working in their respective sectors, Palestinian and Israeli pragmatists outmaneuvered extremists on both sides, firmly rejecting any efforts to trigger a violent outbreak in the heart of Jerusalem that threatened appalling consequences to Palestinians and Israelis alike – not to mention Jews and Muslims throughout the world.
To glimpse a vision of what might be in the Holy Land when followers of the Abrahamic faiths eschew fear of each other and connect face to face, one needed to look no further than an interfaith iftar on April 4 in Jerusalem. The event, which brought together 80 Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Druze from across Israel, the West Bank [Judea and Samaria], and east Jerusalem for heartfelt conversations over a festive meal of maqluba, a Palestinian culinary specialty, was sponsored by the Interfaith Encounter Association (IEA), a 20-year-old organization that my own Foundation for Ethnic Understanding is proud to support. With 40 local chapters with about 10 members each across Israel, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, Israeli and Palestinian participants come together at least once a month to discuss religious issues and discover commonalities and differences between their reciprocal traditions.
Looking over a tableau of Muslim women in hijabs sitting alongside and speaking with warmth, passion, and directness to secular and religious Jews, Carolina Frimer, a Jewish IEA community manager commented, “We hear so much divisive speech, often wrapped in religious language. With this event, we are using religious language, food, and culture to say the opposite, to show that these things can bring people together instead of dividing them.”
Abier Abdalnabi, a Muslim woman from Jerusalem and office manager at the IEA, remarked, “I put myself in the shoes of the hostages, and then in those of the civilians in Gaza. This situation is very hard for both Arabs and Jews. This iftar is what we can do now to bring back hope… The main thing is not to lose our faith. If you don’t believe things can get better, you won’t go far.”
With the conclusion of Ramadan which requires self-introspection from Muslim observers and the onset of Passover – the Jewish peoples’ festival of hope, redemption and optimism – hope and faith truly spring eternal. Israelis and Palestinians desperately need both attributes today as they struggle to end the violence in Gaza and begin a long road toward regional peace and stability.
The writer, a rabbi, is president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding and a noted adviser to key Gulf states. He is the author of Sons of Abraham: A Candid Conversation About the Issues that Divide and Unite Muslims and Jews.
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