“… Standing on the corner of here and there” and Recalling the Tragedy of 7 October 2023


The site of the music festival where 1,200 Israelis

were murdered on 7 October 2023.

Boyega Odumbanjo

1996 – 2023

Professor Joe Goldblatt

Today is a day of mourning for the entire world as we mark the one year tragic milestone of the surprise attack and subsequent murder of 1200 people joyously attending a music festival in Israel. As I recall awaking to hear this shocking news, I remember the same feelings I suffered following the death of 3000 US citizens on 11 September 2001. That feeling is an unrelenting deep and unforgiving hollowness of the soul.

The British poet Gboyega Odubanjo died as a young person of only 27 whilst attending a music festival in August 2023 in Northhamptonshire.  In his poem The Lyric Adam he reminds us “ … because now emerging from the thames—after adam—comes every beast of the field and every bird of the air and every man on the block to see what adam would call them.” I wonder what future generations will call us?

As we fail to emerge from the fires of hell demonstrated daily with international conflicts I cannot understand how one year later the hostages are still held captive and are we are confronted with the tragic reality that 42,000 Palestinians have been killed. Many of these people starting with the attack in Israel at the music festival were our young, our future, indeed our hopes for a better world.

In 1938 at the start of World War II the countries of Europe met in Evian, France to discuss the future of the Jewish people. One question was tabled. “Who will take the Jews?” The silence was deafening. Although even then the countries of Europe knew that Hitler’s plan was to cast out or worse murder all the Jewish people in Germany and other lands they said and they did nothing.

However, two countries later offered refuge. The Dominican Republic and Shanghai, China both offered sanctuary to the soon to be stateless people. One man, whose name is inscribed in the Hall of the Righteous, which is the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Israel, was a diplomat in Vienna, Austria and he began issuing entrance visas for their Jewish population. Feng – Shan Ho, a Chinese diplomat, ultimately rescued and saved 18,000 Jews by allowing them immediate entry into Shanghai.

Today the State of Israel is still the only country in the world that offers immediate entry for the Jewish people. It is our sanctuary. Although many countries provide arms and other financial support, the State of Israel exists because it is still the sanctuary for the Jewish people who are still today under threat.

The only female Prime Minister of Israel, Golda Meir, said at the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur war “Stop the killing.” That was her hope and dream. After many months of defending Israel’s citizens she also said “We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.”

Therefore, on this both international day of mourning, I think of the children of Israel and her Arab neighbours and hope with all my heart that those who miraculously survive the brutality and intolerance of others come to recognise that the old biblical commandment “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” only results in leaving future generations both blind and toothless.

Let us instead lay down our weapons and come together in a just peace that will protect Israel and her Arab neighbours so that future generations may look back and say “They were not silent. They did this for us.”

And as we now stand upon the corner of “here and there” let us choose there for our future direction toward peace.

The title of this article is from the poem The Garden by the poet Gboyega Odubanjo.

Professor Joe Goldblatt is Emeritus Professor of Planned Events at Queen Margaret University and his views are his own. He has travelled to the Middle East to consult with both Israelis and Arabs regarding events. For more information about his views visit www.joegoldblatt.scot

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