I know a scientist from Egypt who has been working with me for more than four years now. I recently tried to work with her to investigate how sewage and trash can be used to trace the incubation and spread of infectious diseases throughout the world. While making preparations for the study, she came to me and said that we have to remove Israel from the study as she could not work on anything that included Israel. I told her not to worry: she does not have to work on anything from Israel. If she got anything from Israel, she should send it to me: I will work on it so that she does not have to. By offering this compromise, I told her, we will fulfill our scientific obligations to be objective and unbiased in our study while she would not have the uncomfortable situation of working on something she did not want to work on.
Her response was more shocking than her initial request: she did not want to only work on anything from Israel but she did not want to be involved at all in any work associated with Israel. She was indirectly asking us to avoid anything from Israel because of her. Her anger and frustration could be felt from afar, but I would not let her personal vendetta make a bigot or anti-Semite of me. I am certain she was standing with her Palestinian Muslims in avoiding anything from Israel. I wondered how she could do science and avoid a whole population of people who have contributed so much to science and whose footprints are found in all areas and aspects of science.
I wondered how Arabs and Hebrews, descendants of the same ancestor, Abraham, could become such bitter enemies. The Jews also have people they hate, including Israelites from the other tribes of Israel: Israel has 12 tribes of which two (Benjamin and Judah) are called Jews and the rest are called Israelites or Samaritans. The Jews and the Samaritans hated each other for centuries, long before Islam was even born. So great was the enmity that a Jew will not even accept water from a Samaritan nor will save a Samaritan from death should it become necessary. That is why the Samaritan woman was so shocked to hear Jesus ask her for water:
“THEN saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” (John 4:9).
Between Jerusalem and Jericho was a dangerous pathway that led through mountains and sharp valleys. The rugged and rocky nature of the place allowed criminals to hide there. Once, a Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. Unfortunately, criminals caught up with him, beat him to pulp, took away his clothes and belongings, and left him there to die. While he was lying there dying and soaked in blood, two prominent and religious Jews came to pass by: a priest and a levite. These two Jews knew that the right thing to do was to help the dying man, but they gave excuses that they were late for God’s work and left him dying.
A Samaritan was also passing through the same place and saw this dying man. He did not know if the man was a Jew or a Samaritan. Yet, he mercifully put the man on his donkey, drove him to an inn (hotel), nursed him, and left money for his care. This story, which was told in Jerusalem to a large gathering of Jews in the temple in Jerusalem, was in a response to a question posed by a lawyer (Luke 10:25-37). The lawyer had asked: “who is my neighbor”?
So prejudiced, bigoted, and exclusive were the Jews towards other religions and ethnicities that they would have nothing to do with them. Had the tables been turned and the dying man was a Samaritan, no Jew would have saved him. Yet, a Samaritan risked his life to save a Jew. So great was this hatred that when Jesus was heading to Jerusalem for the last time, a Samaritan village that he indended to pass through did not receive Him just because He was headed to Jerusalem. When this rejection was told Jesus and
“His disciples James and John saw it, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’ But he turned and rebuked them. (Luke 9:51-56)”
I wonder if James and John would have said the same thing if the village was a Jewish village. Many Jewish towns rejected Christ, but the disciples never asked for fire to come down on them from heaven. Nazareth tried stoning Jesus (Luke 4:14-30): Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Chorazin rejected Christ; but the disciples never called for their immediate destruction (Matthew 11:20-23).
The Levite and priest who failed to help the dying man were in the assembly while Jesus recounted this story. The lawyer who asked the question, rightfully acknowledged that the Samaritan was more righteous, but still would not even mention the name “Samaritan”. His question, “who is my neighbour?”, was then answered by that parable: anyone who needs your help is your neighbour, irrespective of tribe or religion. Every human being is a descendant of Adam and later, Noah. Therefore, all humans are of the same blood and ancestry (Acts 17:26).
Had this parable been thoroughly preached and adhered to, how many wars and genocides would have been prevented in the world! Look at the number of innocent people who have died from ethnic and religious wars globally since historical time! Besides World War II and the Holocaust, the inquisition and numerous crusades in Europe and the middle east, the tribal and ethnic wars in Africa and Asia, slavery and colonization, etc…with their inhumane atrocities, would have all been avoided.
“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 7:12).
