With the dreadful explosion of the Malaysian Airplane MH017 in the skies, the view is that the fighting in Donetsk has become an international conflict. It is now evident that there have been victims from 12 countries and this is felt personally by so many relatives and extended to the national psyche, especially in a small country like the Netherlands where so many people knew those who perished. With the loss of the AIDs experts, we could say that people from all around the world in rich and poor countries could have been affected too.
Meanwhile in the Middle East the IS (Islamic State) organization is intent to reach Rome.
Islamic State fighters order monks to leave a fourth-century monastery after issuing an ultimatum to Christians to leave, convert, die or pay protection money, local residents say.
The incident was the latest move by the Islamic State, which in June declared a "caliphate" straddling large swathes of northern Iraq and Syria, to threaten a Christian presence in the region spanning close to two millennia.
Not long before in Nineveh and again now, hundreds of families fled Mosul, a once-cosmopolitan city which is the Iraq's second largest and lies around 15 kilometres northwest of Mar Behnam.
Families who were forced on the road and leaders of Iraq's Chaldean and other churches said Mosul was now emptied of Christians for the first time in history.
As yet, this indiscriminate genocide and ethnic cleansing has not elicited the kind of attention drawn by the dramatic death of the 298 people on board the MH017 and is nowhere near becoming the international conflict that Ukraine has now achieved.
Move a little further and you walk into the Israel – Palestine rockets, drones and bombs with people scuttling from one end to the other like a disturbed ant-hill, not quite knowing where to go and not wanting to abandon their place of abode. On the other side, in Israel, more time being spent underground in shelters, than above ground leading a normal life.
In the middle of all this there is a place called Mount Carmel. It is the place where the prophet Elijah proposes a direct test of the powers of Baal and Yahweh.
It is also here where the first Carmelites who were Christian hermits living on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land during the late 12th and early to mid 13th centuries built a chapel in the midst of their hermitages which they dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, whom they conceived of in chivalric terms as the "Lady of the place."
The early hermits on Mount Carmel quickly became known as "The Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel" because their little chapel was dedicated to her.
Here in Malta we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in no less than 7 parishes. Having just been held in Valletta on the 16th July we now move to Fgura and then Balluta and Zurrieq with Santa Venera coming up in October.
The chivalrous Knights of the Order of Jerusalem defended Christianity, charged with the care and defence of the Holy Land and many lie buried beneath the marble floors of St. John’s co-Cathedral in our capital city.
One of the last fond memories of my father that I have, was seeing him down in Balluta on the Feast day, chatting and joking with friends whilst the crowd gathered around.
Are we really far away from the reality taking place around us? Do we really need bodies to fall from the sky to remind us of how connected we all are and how we cannot remain indifferent to any conflict?
Is it all too hard to understand? Sometimes we are given an insight into the reality of conflicting peoples. The successful Television Drama series, Homeland, is actually based on the original Israeli drama called Prisoners of War (currently being shown on Sky Arts 1). This story deals with the return of Israeli Prisoners from the West Bank after 17 years of captivity. It also alludes to the tunnels, which Israel is eliminating in this phase of the land invasion of Gaza and the extent to which the country will go to provide an intelligence network for its security.
Recently too, the 2008 Israeli Drama, Lemon Tree, was screened on TV. It is a marvelous true story. A story of communication or lack of it across political and religious divides. There is a palpable sense of how this tale would have ended with simple dialogue. Most homeowners would love to have a Lemon grove overlooking their property but the one in “Lemon Tree” is in the West Bank and is owned by Salma Zidane, a widow. On the other side of the border in Israel, the new defense minister Israel Tavon has moved in with his wife Mira. Fearing potential terrorists hiding themselves in the trees, he orders them removed. To Salma, who barely makes any money off the lemons, it is a point of pride since the trees have been in her family for the past fifty years and she hires a young lawyer, Ziad to bring the case to court. They lost the first round but appeal to the Supreme Court, being considered to be quite insane to do so. The film captures life in the West Bank and Israel on a personal level. It is a film that calls for peace, showing a different way to fight a battle than violence in a land full of missed opportunities for communication. The film ends with the Minister looking out a steel wall now hiding the lemon grove and Salma, devastated, as she wanders amongst the chopped trees, devoid of branches, leaves and fruit.
We have these days a sense that we are living a history defining moment. We may be overwhelmed, afraid, silent and blind and then the sky drops down on us and suddenly we know that we can no longer ignore the tragedies of war, jihad, terrorism and perpetual conflict. A defenceless widow or a dismembered body can speak louder than a rocket launcher.
Neither can we turn our attention to one conflict at the cost of another. The war in Syria still rages. Innocent people are still trapped in ghost towns. Desperate people flee when they can and try to seek refuge in a camp but they know that their chances there of surviving are getting slimmer each day. So then they risk all and try to reach the shores of safety in Europe.
Next time we walk down to the pjazza to celebrate the feast of our parish, let us remember that where we hear fireworks, others hear firing of guns and rockets and we are all affected in one way or another.
And somewhere a Lemon Tree is destroyed.
Rachel Borg is an independent columnist based in the tourism industry