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"Every wall we build to defend ourselves and keep out what may destroy us is also a wall that keeps us in and that will change us in ways we did not choose or want."Every human solution to fears and threats generates a new set of fears and threats."Williams said whether it was Israel's controversial security barrier in the West Bank, Britain's planned renewal of its Trident missile nuclear deterrent system or tactics to protect oneself against harm, defences were destructive."Defences do something terrible to us as well as to our real and imagined enemies," he said.
For Israel, that meant the continuing legacy Jewish people's troubled history as persecuted "largely unwelcome guests among other nations"
"Both deserve the best. And the best we can give them in such circumstances is at least the assurance of friendship.
"The tragedies of the Holy Land are not the problems of exotic barbarians far away. They are signs of the underlying tragedies that cripple all human life, individual and collective," he said.
His comments were backed by the Muslim Council of Britain umbrella group