Remembrance day, Armistice and the pro-palestinian marches

By Elizabeth Peltola

Remembrance Sunday is just around the corner. At 11 am each year on the Sunday near 11th November, British and Commonwealth soldiers gather around the cenotaph to pay their respects to those who gave their lives defending others. Unveiled by King George V on 11th November 1920, it stands as a lonely reminder in the middle of Whitehall Road of the great sacrifice and courage for those who fought for this land.

The memorial service, started in the 1920’s, gathers members of the Royal family, veterans, political leaders, and many others to pay respect to fallen soldiers who gave their lives for the safety of others. It ends with veterans quietly marching past the memorial in respect of their fallen comrades.

War is not celebrated, but the sacrifice and service of many men and women are. As a family we remember our grandfather who served in Burma in the second world war. Unlike his friends, his life was spared when he was asked to take a message to another part of the battlefield. As he exited the trench from where they could hear the war-cries of Japanese fighters, a shell took out all his comrades in the spot he had just been standing. I do not know who those young men were, but over the next week we remember them.

Yet we wonder if the respectful ceremonies might find themselves surrounded by raging vocal warriors. A pro-Palestinian march planed for armistice day risks the destruction of the Cenotaph. Armistice day, or Veterans Day in America, is always held on the 11th of November. That too draws Royalty, political leaders, veterans and families together in remembrance and minutes of silent contemplation.

The British prime minister put out a statement on X about the danger to these services of peace, “To plan protests on Armistice Day is provocative and disrespectful. There is a clear and present risk that the cenotaph and other war memorials could be desecrated, something that would be an affront to the British public and the values we stand for.”

“The right to remember in peace and dignity, those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for those freedoms must be protected.”

Every Year the streets surrounding the Cenotaph, from Trafalgar square to Westminster abbey, settle into two minutes of silence. Quiet contemplation and prayer, thoughts of peace, war, the sacrifices, grief for loved ones lost and what it all means for us today filter through our minds. It is a poignant moment and one to be upheld with compassion.

Yet a raging bull may well be ready to mow through the proceedings.

As a family we take time to watch the service, but this year our hearts have some trepidation. A million-strong march for Palestine is in motion. It may well spill over and affect the rest of the country standing in remembrance. We shall have to wait and see.

It raises important questions for our time. Those questions usually bring the ugly out of the different sides of the debate. I have no wish to add to this conflicted noise, but alas even a comment on the topic may well do just that.

If we are given those two minutes of silence today, maybe it will be just enough to silence the raging bull willing to carelessly desecrate our memorials and hurt those around us. Maybe the convicting words of Jesus to ‘love our enemies’, and ‘pray for those who persecute us’ can find a way to calm. That high call of action does not excuse heinous crimes against another, but it reigns in the rage found within our hearts towards those we oppose.

We live in a world where a quarter of the world’s population belong to a religious life founded somewhere in, or near, Arabia. They do not sign up to the words and ways of Jesus. They follow another man, and that man’s name is Muhammad. His response to his enemies is very different to Jesus. Muhammad gives no call on his followers to forgive 70 times 7 (continually). He does not call Muslims to love for the enemy. His last sermon recorded in Qur’an 9 reveals a very different message to the last message of Jesus seen as He died on a cross. Muhammad’s words bear no reflection to the way Christ introduced himself at the beginning of His ministry. Pause for a moment to read through the statement Jesus put out, recorded in the Luke chapter 4:18-19.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

That surely is the solution to our search for peace.

Most of us simply cannot remedy the conflicts raging in other lands, or even our own towns. We can’t calm the riots, the wars, the attacks against civilian citadels, the collateral damage within war-zones. We can’t keep up with all the images and reports falling out of Israel and Palestine, Azerbaijan and Nigeria. The names of countries to add to these makes a very long list. I have chosen conflicts largely impacted by Islam. Many on the list include wars with Islamic fighters. That’s another line of thought that demands further questions. We’ll keep that for another day.

The battle zone we can remedy and address, is our own. What can I do this day to be at peace with the person next to me? What are my neighbours needs? How can I bring peace to their lives. This in no way muzzles the mouths of good commentators highlighting the conflicts of the world. Those with that responsibility must continue, but even they have neighbours, friend and foe, they must attend to. Together how can we be a conduit of peace?

Truth be told, it seems somewhat hopeless. Unless… that one voice with the ability to cut through our cacophony can be heard.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you,  love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Ah, that’s the the voice I wish to hear this day.

The words of Jesus to us, recorded in the book of Matthew 5:43-48, have the ability to transform the world we would live in this day. What if this became our country’s foundational mantra?

That’s worth a two minute contemplation, as we remember those lost in war-past, and those affecting us today.