Peace is fragile so we need to pray, says Irish priest in Israel

The long-awaited ceasefire in Gaza has boosted the hope of people directly impacted by the devastating conflict that has been raging in the region since October 2023, but while there is “a great sense of rejoicing”, history has shown that peace can be fragile and according to an Irish priest based in Israel, the only way to preserve it is through prayer.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic Fr Eamon Kelly LC, an Irish priest who provides pilgrimages at Magdala, beside the Sea of Galilee in Israel, said that the outbreak of war completely decimated the very multicultural hospitality industry, but more importantly, trust among communities too.

“There’s a great sense of rejoicing,” he said. “We were hearing military planes flying over us and we know about the destruction of so many peoples’ lives on both sides of the border and both the Israeli and Palestinian population – such incredible destruction.

“We’re very hopeful. We work with everybody – the whole pilgrimage industry and the whole health industry, they’re unthinkable in both Israel and Palestine, without the collaboration of Muslims, Jews, Christians, Druze … everybody.

“You have people in all aspects of the service industry who work together – they’ve been doing it for decades – and then this war becomes a nightmare for everybody. It takes away all of the source of income from their families but on top of that, it creates a cloud of suspicion between the different segments of the population.”

Although a welcome truce has been forged between Israel and Hamas, Fr Kelly said people in the region are acutely aware of how peace can be instantly shattered by malign forces and that the only appropriate response to this worry is prayer, and lots of it.

“When you see a ceasefire then it says ‘okay, well we’re not going to be shooting at each other anymore’,” he said. “We’re also very realistic. We know that in these types of situations, we have enough experience of this in Ireland, there may be infractions of the peace agreement and acts of violence by some hotheads and that’s uncontrollable. But how do we react to that? We need to pray a lot.

“No prayer is wasted and prayer is very powerful. I would ask that every Irish family with their little children at home with their grandparents to pray for peace because on the one hand we’re rejoicing but we also know that the hope is very fragile because there are so many people that can really assault the healthy development of the reconciliation.

“If we practise hospitality instead of hostility then we lift up the level of humanity,” he said.