What Sitting At A Common Table Might Mean for For Peace in Ukraine

The hope for peace between Russia and Ukraine might rest in negotiators sitting at a table, sharing a meal and reflecting on their common humanity.

I flew this past week from Rome to Lisbon. I arrived at the airport early, and spent time observing the people around me. In one corner of the waiting room, a group of Jewish men donned blue and white prayer shawls and stood bowing above their open prayer books. Not far away, two Moslem women wearing head coverings watched.

The waiting room resounded with a polyglot of languages — from Swahili to Portuguese, Italian to Urdu.

An airport is a great equalizer. We were all human beings trying to get from Point A to Point B, putting our trust in strangers — our pilots, airplane mechanics and air traffic controllers — to get us there. We trust too in our fellow passengers to simply let us be.

Watching this scene, I thought of the war raging only miles away in Ukraine. Couldn’t Russians and Ukrainians — two peoples who have at times shared both territory and history — see themselves simply as human beings and find a peaceful way to resolve the fighting?

In a scene from the film “Oslo,” a Palestinian leader and Israeli professor shake hands as a Norwegian diplomat looks on following negotiations to end the 1992 intifada terrorizing both sides. (Photo courtesy of HBO).

The film and Tony-winning play “Oslo” tells the story of a back channel effort in 1992 organized by Norwegian diplomats to convince Palestinian leaders and Israeli academics to meet face to face to find a way out of the bloody intifada then claiming thousands of lives.

In agreeing to the talks, longtime Palestinian Finance Minister Ahmed Qurie reveals to a Norwegian diplomat, “I have never met an Israeli face to face.”

“If we do not sit across from our enemies, and hear them, and see them as human beings, what will become of us?” Norwegian foreign minister Mona Juul at one point asks.

The film doesn’t sugarcoat the difficulties of trying to end conflict peaceably. There was often rancor, anger and heated disagreements inside the Israeli- Palestinan negotiation room. Something else, however, began building when negotiators left the room for their common dinner meal. That something was trust.

A good-natured Norwegian cook prepared sumptuous main courses and Scandinvian desserts. There was an ample after-dinner flow of Johnny Walker scotch. In post-dinner conversations, the negotiators shared stories of their families, their personal histories. It was then that progress began to emerge.

Thousands of Russians have risked being taken into custody for protesting their country’s invasion of Ukraine. (Photo courtesy of People.com).

The negotiations resulted in viable peace proposals. Sadly, those efforts stalled after a violent extremist assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who had supported the peace plan. “We say to you today, in a loud and clear voice: enough of blood and tears, enough,” Rabin had told the Palestinian people.

It would seem evil won that battle. As people of faith, we know better. We know we can defeat evil in the end — if we stay at the table.

As the war between Russia and Ukraine moves into a third week, Russians from St. Petersburg to Siberia are asking for peace. This, despite their government’s efforts to silence them. Let us pray this week that courageous, peace-loving Russians will influence their leaders’ actions.

Let us pray also for a permanent cease fire, so that Russians and Ukrainian negotiators can sit across a table and see each other as human beings. Perhaps a neutral country or non-governmental organization can seek to be the go-between as Norway did.

In another powerful scene in “Oslo,” a young Israeli solider points a gun at a Palestinian his same age who is poised to throw a stone at him. The soldier and Palestinian youth lock eyes. They apparently see the image of each other. They lower their weapons as the same time.

If we can’t see ourselves in one another, if we don’t view ourselves as fellow travelers and lean into trust — as we do when we climb on board an airplane — then, to quote diplomat Mona Juul, what will become of us?

A woman holds the Ukrainian flag. Demonstrations seeking an end to the Russian invasion of Ukraine have broken out across the world. (Photo courtesy of Buzzfeed).