I didn’t plan to write this. It’s probably ill thought out and a snap response. I tend not to write about politics, or war - because I know it’s not a strong point of mine…. None the less here we go….
Picture the scene: You walk into a shop. You pick up some items. You leave without paying. You’ve committed a crime. Theft. The shop keeper calls the authorities who do all within their power to find you and ensure you’re charged as due. It’s clear to see that you have done wrong. In this case, you are able to right that wrong.
You can pay the shop back, return the goods, be fined appropriately etc. There are some things in life however which cannot be repaid.
There are some things in this world that you should not steal. When three young men were “stolen” from the side of the road in Israel, on the 12th of June, the world barely blinked an eyelid. If you didn’t “go looking” for the news, you might never have known. Why were they taken? Some might say “because they were Jewish”….
Some might say “for being Israeli” but neither of those reasons were the fault of their own. None of them consciously chose to be born Jewish, or Israeli. THEY DIDN’T EVEN CHOSE TO BE BORN. What matters is that they were born. They were alive. They were brothers, Sons, Grandsons, Friends, Boyfriends… distant relations. Taken simply because they were breathing. Simply for being alive.
We all enter this world in the same way. Whether you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, atheist, whichever religion you choose to be…. there’s only one way to get here. What do you do while you are here, is the choice you make. You decide how to live your life. You can’t choose how other people live theirs. If you take people away, against their free will, the obvious and only way to repay is to return those people.
If you take life away, there is no way to repay for what you have done.
There is no appropriate punishment that can be served.
Tonight, three beds lie empty. Three beds which belong to those three boys. Merely children who were taken from their families. Taken from the world, and whose lives were taken away. Three families are torn apart by the loss of their three sons. Brothers and sisters, grandsons never to come home. A void has been created that will never be filled. But why did they die? Simply for being born.