Bahá'í Gardens of Haifa: growing seeds of peace in the Middle East
Like a lone flower in a smoldering junk heap, the new Bahá'í Gardens in Haifa, Israel [http://www.bahaiworldnews.org/terraces], mock the landscape of grim images rising in the news of the Holy Land. Ten years in the making and at the cost of just a few fighter planes ($250 million) these eighteen terraced gardens of eucalyptus and gnarled olive trees, flowers and ivy are both headquarters for the Bahá'í faith, and what the Mayor of Haifa, Amram Mitzna, proudly calls "The Eighth Wonder of the World." (1)
The gardens represent "the victory of love over violence."
Transforming a full kilometer of the barren face of ancient Mount Carmel, the Haifa Gardens are a monument to the expectation that spirituality is the ultimate salvation for this region.
A polyglot stream of visitors from all over the world, and of differing denominations, flows quietly through these tranquil estates, not only to view their wondrous beauty, not only to experience a rare moment of serenity, not only to take pictures -- but to pray for peace. As Albert Lincoln, secretary-general of the Bahá'í International Community expresses it, the gardens represent "the victory of love over violence."
Anticipating a new era of spiritually-based peace.
As they well know, this "victory of love" is hard-won. A
religious minority of five million with a history of persecution in the
Middle East, Bahá'ís have had many opportunities to put their faith
to the test. For example in Iran, where Bahá'í was founded, it is
still not recognized as a legitimate religion, and thousands have left the
country to escape the persecution that began in the 1980s, when about 200
Bahá'ís were executed.
Palestinians and Israelis are always going to be living
in each other's midst.
The Mount Carmel gardens symbolize in such a practical way the results of
adhering to the spiritual core common to the religious traditions of all
the parties involved in the conflict in the Middle East. The site is tended
by dozens of local workers from all cultures and religions as well as
Bahá'ívolunteers from around the world. That spiritual core isn't
just a theoretical monotheism, it is the manifestation of Deity as Love
itself, the harmonizing Principle that neutralizes the fear and hatred
fueling the warring factions.
Even the term "warring factions" is misleading, since, as Helena Cobban,
correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor, points out, there
can never be a military solution to the problems in this region. (See
link below.) Palestinians and Israelis will have to face the fact that
they are always going to be living in each other's midst and so must find
some common basis for coexistence and cooperation. No serious attempt has
been made to make that basis be the spirituality that primitively sparked
the religions of the factions, and which is so often buried under the human
orneriness of their adherents.
The steadfast love and grace that brought the Haifa gardens to fruition in
this anguished desert offers not only a symbol of unity, but a model for
its implementation. If the heart of spirituality is love, then it must be
more than just loving acts like those that established these gardens, but
the law of divine Love itself that brings people together to share the beauty
and harmony of existence. As Secretary-General Lincoln puts it: "It is about
the way the human spirit is expressed through concrete realization. In the
long run, these divisions . . . will give way to love."
(1) Official Haifa Web site: http://www.tour-haifa.co.il/BahaiShrine/mayorEng.html
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