I met Father Ibrahim Faltas in 2000, during my first trip to Palestine; it was the Easter period and the political situation was improving after the Oslo agreements and the preparation of the Camp David agreements with Bill Clinton, and the signing of a treaty between Yasser Arafat and Ehud Barack was considered certain.
Since then the world has changed and also in my subsequent travels, following Father Ibrahim’s dearest and most intimate friend, Stefano Cimicchi, former Mayor of Orvieto, I saw the birth and development of the wall which strategically surrounds large areas of the WEST BANK, the suffocating military control after the attacks in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and the second Intifada, the evolution of a tragic story or rather of a historically unsolvable tragedy.
We also talk with other friends about the situation in Iran after the death of Ebrahim Raisi, and about the current stalemate after the foiled attack and the bland Israeli reaction: there are ongoing reports, they are talking to each other, they tell me.
It is reiterated that the creation of Hamas as an anti-Al Fatah and then against Abu Mazen, the President of the Palestinian Authority, was the work of the Israeli services, in parallel with what happened in Afghanistan with Al Qaeda and the CIA; on October 7th of death and terror, someone points out the coincidence with Vladimir Putin’s birthday.
I manage to insert a question into the conversation between professionals over there:
“But is the TWO PEOPLE TWO STATES option really realistic, after Gaza and the settlements of the messianic settlers? Is it really practicable after decades of deaths, of hatred, of suspended revenge, of mutual radicalization?”
Father Ibrahim looks at me sternly and tells me assertively:
“Certainly! The wall, as the Israelis built it, they can destroy it! Land swaps can be made to free up settlements; if there is the political will of a state for each people, the solutions can be found”
It is then underlined that the political positions of Netanyahu and Hamas support each other and that both were financed by Qatar; that even the fall of Bibì may not represent the start of solutions, given the fundamentalist majority in the Israeli Knesset: 64 seats to 56.
I ask a question about the massacres that led to 35/40,000 victims and about Hamas:
“How many Hamas terrorists are there and how many have been killed, to be subtracted from the casualty count?”
“There are an estimated 45,000 operational guerrillas, to which must be added those of the Islamic Jihad, around 15,000; 8/10,000 were killed by the Israeli army; but Netanyahu doesn’t want to understand,” says Father Hibrahim dryly, “that the attack and the massacres cause many more to enlist!”
“The situation in Gaza is the fault point of international conflicts and I believe as a layman that only an international solution can bring peace; but Father, is there really no hope for this land?”
“Abu Mazen says that it will be resolved over time, when there will be a generational change of the Jews and those of European origin, who have retained colonialist characteristics, will become a minority in the determination of Israeli politics”
After all, Israel is a liberal democracy, and the rise of Netanyahu, freely contested even in times of war, occurred with the vote, but will time be a gentleman for these two peoples?
Father Ibrahim’s smile is disarming and as usual instills courage and hope!
