We met in a space within Westminster Abbey, and agreed that both religious communities must fight for safety and empathy.
Even from a place of profound pain, the women I met had the capacity to reach out and feel the hurt of others.
Hope is hard to come by at the moment, but mine was gently lifted by the women I spoke to, wept with and prayed alongside. Coming away from the gathering, I dared to wish for things to get better, and found resolve in the ripples of goodwill that came from the female solidarity I experienced.
In this inflamed political climate, with violence tearing across the world, surely we must make all efforts to embody and fight for the opposite: safety and understanding. If we burn every bridge, the ugliness will never end; but if we build bridges in the hope of a better future, humanity might just stand a chance.
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And the bleak news from the Middle East has claimed a further casualty: the already volatile state of relations between Muslim and Jewish communities in the UK and across the globe.
Julie, alongside Dr Lindsay Simmonds, a Jewish academic who researches women of faith and peacebuilding, felt the need to create a third space outside religious institutions and political organisations.
These forums were avoided because they tend to raise more barriers to communication and lead to “more danger” according to Julie, particularly as many people fear that officially speaking out or showing sympathy for the other side will draw backlash from their own communities.
Ayesha said these threats are based on a perception that sympathy for “the other side” is a betrayal, and they disregard the fact that she has campaigned for the freedom and rights of Palestinians for decades.
But she pointed out that “so much gets lost in our binary narratives” and mentioned to me how a close Jewish friend told her she had asked her synagogue to pray for the people of Gaza and has called for a ceasefire.
In this inflamed political climate, with violence tearing across the world, surely we must make all efforts to embody and fight for the opposite: safety and understanding.
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