About 50 gathered Monday at Lili‘uokalani Gardens in Hilo for an interfaith “Vigil for Israel” — a nation currently embroiled in war after being attacked from the Gaza Strip more than a week ago by the Islamic terrorist group Hamas.
Rabbi Rachel Short, the vigil organizer, called the event “an action of unity for our community.”
“The intention today is to bring us all together in the unity that we share, in the oneness and the love in the common thread that brings us all together,” Short said. “To come together and honor all of the innocent people in Israel and Palestine and the Middle East that are hurting, that are being raped and tortured and held hostage, have been massacred and murdered all over the world in hate and evil and violence and darkness that is never acceptable.
“… Infants, children, men, women, the elderly — no one has been spared.”
The video and still images coming daily from Israel and the Gaza Strip are disturbing, even shocking in their depravity — including Hamas’ use of children as human shields. For Short, the conflict is more personal than to most Hawaii residents.
“I have family in Israel who I lived with while I was over there, cousins who I heard from the first day,” Short said. “And then they went into hiding, and I didn’t hear from them again. And two of them have been called into the reserves since then and it’s — it touches us all. No matter where we are, we’re all connected. We are all one. And I don’t know if I will ever be able to unsee the imagery that I’ve seen. I don’t know if any of us will be able to unfeel that.”
The speakers, from Interfaith Communities in Action, all offered prayers for peace and unity. That included singer Elele Tiana, who chanted a prayer in Hawaiian and sang “Angel,” the anthemic Sarah McLachlan ballad with lyrics that express hope in a seemingly hopeless situation.
“In the Holy Scriptures it talks about how we need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem,” said Kahu Daniel Kawaha, pastor of Haili Church. “But with what we see happening in the world today, we need to pray for peace in the world.”
The Rev. Eric Anderson, pastor of Church of the Holy Cross, offered a prayer “for those who are desperately trying to flee the violence.”
“I do not know how to resolve the conflicts that have embroiled Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians, Egyptians, Syrians, Lebanese and the peoples of too many nations for me, at least, to count,” Anderson said. “There is one critical element to finding those solutions, however, and that is a commitment to peace. If there is anything clear in the history of this conflict, it is that it lacks a commitment to peace.
“Today, Israelis and their friends and relatives across the world fear the news of additional casualties. And as long as the fighting continues, they will hear the news they fear.
“Today, Gazans and their friends and relatives around the world, they fear the news of additional casualties. And as long as the violence continues, they will hear the news they fear.”
Jihey Roach, chaplain for Hawaii Care Choices, urged those present Monday “to walk in humility and stand in grace together as one large ‘ohana.”
“It is because we care our hearts were broken and wounded. We will never be the same,” she said. “Because we care, we will continue to pray for peace, we will mourn, we will be hurting, we will listen to each other.
“Because we care, we will pursue answers where perhaps there are none.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
