For Rajmohan Gandhi, Caux has been a point of annual pilgrimage, first as the centre of the global moral re-armament movement and later as the headquarters of the Initiatives of Change, which he now heads. –File Photo

Everyone, it seems, has hated the Jews at some point in history. Christians and Muslims have nurtured the prejudice with religious dogma. Rightwing Hindus, a relatively recent phenomenon, have changed their opinion like a weathercock. They first endorsed Adolf Hitler and then Ariel Sharon.

A visit to Caux in Switzerland in the company of Rajmohan Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson, helped shed the scales from the eyes about this and other deep-rooted prejudices. Caux, a picturesque hill resort overlooking Lake Geneva, has been the venue of a landmark post-war rapprochement between the Germans and the French people. For Rajmohan Gandhi it has been a point of annual pilgrimage, first as the centre of the global moral re-armament movement and later as the headquarters of the Initiatives of Change, which he now heads.

Participants from South Asia at last month’s conference on human security in Caux included Pakistan’s former foreign secretary Humayun Khan, former high commissioner in India Aziz Ahmed Khan and Mani Shankar Aiyar, who flaunts more fond memories of his stint as India’s consul general in Karachi than of the various portfolios he has held as minister in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s cabinet.

Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan delivered the keynote address, which was roundly applauded by eminent Jewish representatives among others. Professional hate-mongers such as Jamaatud Dawa’s Hafiz Saeed would wryly smile at what they would gleefully show up as another example of a ‘sellout’ by Arabs and Muslims to a much tom-tomed Hindu-Jewish-Christian axis against Islam. They would benefit from a visit to Caux, listening to the growing voices of moderation and reconciliation rather than pontificating on jihad or crusade.

Caux is also an ideal venue for the incorrigibly parochial South Asians. They would have an opportunity to accept for a few days, if not for ever, that Kashmir is not the only key issue. They would get a firsthand account of the current state of play in Palestine, Sudan, Jaffna, climate change, the economic challenge and generally about the rising need for a global culture of dialogue and understanding.

Even before visiting Caux, I, like many of my generation, had several Jewish heroes, usually the non-practising variety like Harold Pinter and Noam Chomsky. A closer look offered an equally valid reason to like the more religious ones.

In fact, I strongly hold the view that an excellent candidate for the next Nobel Peace Prize is Mordechai Vanunu, the jailed Israeli whistleblower. Arab states in the Gulf as well as Iran should canvass for him. But for his bold initiative of sharing privileged secrets with a British newspaper we would never have a got clue about the depth of Israel’s nuclear ambitions. Not that this has made an iota of a difference to Israel’s indulgent western allies, but that is a separate issue.

I would also salute the Israeli soldiers who have taken on their government for its deliberate complicity in the recent massacre of Palestinians in Gaza. How many Vanunus can India and Pakistan boast of, I wonder. How many soldiers and serving officers have confronted their governments in these countries or elsewhere with stark truths about their government’s brutal methods or even the more unacceptable advocacy of nuclear weapons as a deterrent to war? Iran’s President Ahmadinajad should be made party to these discussions because he, more than anyone else, at this juncture needs to be persuaded to keep his nuclear ambitions in check.

Mr Ahmadinejad would do well to get invited to Caux and to listen to Prof Marc Gopin’s views on the states’ culpability in arming militant groups on both sides of the equation. He would gain amazingly fresh insights from the intervention by Jakob Finci, the president of the Jewish community in Bosnia, about the efforts of a small community of Bosnian Jews, Christians and Muslims to build a life together.

Marc Gopin, a rabbi, is the James H. Laue professor of religion, diplomacy and conflict resolution. Listen to what he says in his priceless book To Make The Earth Whole: The Art of Diplomacy in an Age of Religious Militancy. His belief that there is a marked tendency among the Abrahamic religions to cultivate intolerance has encouraged extremists from all sides to target him.

‘Explaining this principle of kindness and patience with enemies is where I have had the hardest time before audiences from every culture. And I have been attacked for it many times. I would say there are countless people in my community who will never forgive me for reaching out to Yasser Arafat. I can try to explain that Yasser Arafat is to Jews what every Israeli prime minister has been to Palestinians — a source of great suffering and the death of many innocents; yet they expect Arab conciliatory approaches to such prime ministers.’

Advocating that Arafat would have achieved far more for his people by accepting Gandhi’s peaceful methods than he did by flaunting a pistol, Prof Gopin says he is afraid there are fewer Israeli or Palestinian takers for that worldview today.

‘Logic has no place where wounds define personality,’ he wrote with anguish. ‘The need to demonise is so overwhelming in human nature, and the need to externalise evil in someone else is ubiquitous. I have been amazed at how much this is consistent across audiences of enemies within the family of Abraham. It seems to be the only way to cope with a world that is supposed to be ultimately just in the Abrahamic story — but plainly is not.’

A high point of the Caux discussions was the embrace between Israel’s Lior Carmieli and his Jordanian friend Kassim Dwairi, partners in a life-saving project to provide Palestinians the right to water. Away from Caux, another campaign — one of many may I add — is underway against Ahava, an Israeli cosmetics company.

‘Using resources from the ancient waters of the Dead Sea, Ahava manufactures beauty products in an illegal Israeli settlement in Occupied Palestine. Ahava means love in Hebrew. But there’s nothing loving about profiting from occupation. There’s nothing loving about stealing resources from our neighbours,’ declares a pamphlet, in a deeply Gandhian tone.

Religious stereotypes preached by hate-mongers are beginning to wane gradually. We have to open our eyes and savour the change.

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.
jawednaqvi@gmail.com