The front and back covers of this magazine are from the art work of Jawad Botmeh, a young Palestinian who works from prison. He is currently studying for an MA through the Centre of Peace, Reconciliation and Forgiveness at Coventry University. Jawad was introduced to me through Jean Wadge, who has worked with Christian Aid, the British Refugee Council, USPG and Quaker Peace and Service, with whom she spent five years working in the Middle East. She has made a close study of the case of Jawad Botmeh and Samar Alami and is sure they are innocent of the charges against them

Jawad’s own account of his pilgrimage from within prison, on page two, is a stark reminder of the sadness and loneliness human beings may experience. Jawad’s story is one of being physically in a prison, but many people who are not in a prison are cut off from others, unable to communicate, perhaps ignored, lonely and despairing.

We have, with the Amos Trust, published a leaflet for Holy Week and Good Friday 2004 which focuses on the Christians of Israel and Palestine. It is an expression of loneliness and near despair and a call for solidarity and justice. The bishop of Jerusalem’s words are included in the leaflet:

“The daily experience of our people …is the experience of Our Lord carrying his cross and unable to carry on with it, and we need someone like Simon of Cyrene to come and give us a hand.”

There are two important anniversaries on Good Friday this year. One is the death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Flossenburg concentration camp in 1945, following his challenge to the Nazis in the Second World War and his support for Jewish dignity, rights and freedom. The other is the 56^th anniversary of the Deir Yassin massacre when men, women and children were killed and their village taken.

We have just marked the 2004 Holocaust Memorial Day, a day when we reflect on the horrors of the Holocaust and also on the many people, individuals, communities and countries, who have been as equally ignored, lonely and despairing as the Jewish people were under the Nazis.

One of the reasons for the establishment of the Holocaust Day was so that we may all learn the lessons of the tragedy and work to prevent such an evil ever happening again anywhere. But this year we remembered the genocide in Rwanda, which took place only ten years ago. Rwanda was ignored by the rest of the world until it was too late.

The Bishop of Jerusalem’s appeal is that the people who are suffering in the Middle East, Jews, Muslims and Christians, may not be forgotten. All the people of all the faiths are loved by God. He writes, “Do not view the cross from afar.”

The Chief Rabbi, in speaking about the wall which is being built between Israel and Palestine, has also challenged people to struggle to be together and to understand each other. He says that the wall must not become a barrier and that we must go over and under it, to listen and learn, and to work for a just and peaceful future for all.

Simon of Cyrene is still needed today