Happy Christmas (War is over) -Arab-Israeli peace dreamed of by John Lennon

“Happy Christmas” is a song released by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1971. Some of the lyrics are as follows, expressing their hope for peace:

So this is Xmas

And what have you done?

Another year over

And a new one just begun

And so this is Christmas (War is over)

For weak and for strong (If you want it)

For rich and the poor ones (War is over)

The road is so long (Now)

Little is known that John Lennon was also interested in Palestinian peace. John Lennon provided financial support to Israeli peace activist Abie Nathan (1927-2008), who launched the pirate radio station “Voice of Peace”, to purchase the “Ship of Peace”. Natan, an Israeli peace activist, even went on a hunger strike, strongly opposed that Israeli settlement on the west bank of the Jordan River would undermine the coexistence of Israel and Palestine.

Abie Nathan, born in a Jewish family in Abadan, Iran, was a pilot of the Israeli Air Force, but fought with the Israeli army as a brave soldier in the 1948 First Middle East War. After that, he worked for El Al Airlines in Israel. He smuggled into Port Said, Egypt on February 28, 1966 with his biplane “Shalom (Peace) No. 1” and was arrested there. He asked for a visit to give Egyptian President Nasser a letter appealing for peace between Egypt and Israel, but he was deported to Israel and arrested there again.

Nathan went on a hunger strike in 1978 in protest of the construction of a settlement in an Israeli occupied territory, and subsequently met with PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) leaders such as Arafat and was arrested and convicted by Israeli authorities. There was also one. Support for Nathan must have seemed necessary for John Lennon to achieve his ideal world peace. Natan was the first Israeli to explicitly oppose Israeli settlement construction, and in that sense John Lennon’s support was groundbreaking.

The artist’s message to peace has a great influence on many people in the world, including young people. In that sense, it can be said that the “heritage” of world legend John Lennon to peace has important significance.