The origins of the conflict in the Middle East will be explored in an event being staged by Tavistock Peace Action Group next week.

Local academic David Oddie will deliver his talk ‘It didn’t start on 7th October’ at the United Reformed Church in Tavistock at 7.30pm on Tuesday, September 1.

Entry is free and all are very welcome to attend.

David was a fervent backer of the State of Israel. Born in 1945, he grew up aware of the suffering of Jewish people throughout Europe during World War Two.

An estimated six million Jewish people were brutally murdered by the Nazis, in what came to be known as the Holocaust.

As an adolescent David was uplifted by the kibbutzim movement in Israel, which explored new ways of cultivating the land and living as a community. He was also inspired by the Old Testament prophets with their passion for social justice, the voices of Jeremiah and Amos echoing down the ages.

As an adult he visited Dachau, the concentration camp memorial site with the words ‘never Again’ emblazoned across the entrance. Surely there had to be a home for the Jews. these remarkable people who had given so much to European civilisation?

Palestine seemed the obvious choice, the very crucible of the Judeo-Christian tradition and according to a later Israelite myth, ‘a land without a people for a people without a land.’ Unfortunately, land that is in any way inhabitable has a habit of being inhabited.

This land was inhabited by people who had been living there for a very long time, the Palestinians. With a flourishing agriculture, towns and cities and with hundreds of villages living traditional ways of life for generations, there was a presence that was very well=established. The stage was set for the tragedy which saw the Palestinian people pay for European failures and mistakes.

The ensuing conflict in 1948 resulted in hundreds of thousands of Palestinians being expelled violently from their homes and villages and becoming refugees.

Over 500 villages were destroyed and there are several well-documented instances of massacre of men, women and children, the most well-known example being at the village of Deir Yessin. To the Palestinians these events came to be known as the Nakba, or Catastrophe.

David ‘s background was in education and theatre and he had begun working in partnership with Al Harah Theatre in Bethlehem. In 2003 he was invited to visit the West Bank and see for himself what was happening there. So he went.

Join David on his journey as he seeks to understand the conflict that has been the cause so much suffering and pain, as he wrestles with the reality of a bleak present and asks if the creative arts can make any contribution to a brighter, more peaceful future.