Month: October 2023

The Middle East in general and Palestine in particular have a strange history. To understand the current political situation requires a general familiarity with the history and the major players.

Before that, however, it is of utmost importance to note that several players in the international community, most notably Russia, are engaging in intentional misinformation and disinformation campaigns. Social Media and less than reputable “news” outlets spread this propaganda for their own purposes and muddy the waters of current understanding.

Historically, Palestine has referred to a geographic region in the Fertile Crescent, a very desirable piece of real estate. This is a most important fact to understand if we are to properly contextualize history. Palestine comes from the Greek word Philistia and dates back to the 12^th century BCE. Calling the region “Palestine” came into common usage after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1918. It includes Gaza and the West Bank, but there is no international consensus to the boundaries of the region. Much of this land is occupied by Israel.

The people who have ruled this region and inhabited it through the centuries include Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Fatimids, Seljuk Turks, Crusaders, Egyptians and Mamelukes. The notion that this is and always has been Israelite land is blatantly false. There were inhabitants when the Israelites arrived and there are still inhabitants today. Israel was but one political entity vying for control of the region. As Israel was conquered by the Babylonians and other political entities, the Gaza strip and the West Bank were included.

At the end of World War 1, the League of Nations issued a British mandate that gave Britain administrative control over Palestine. It included a Jewish homeland in Palestine which was begun in 1923.

In 1947 the United Nations proposed a two state solution including both Jewish and Palestinian states in the Gaza strip and the West Bank.  Surprisingly, Jewish leaders accepted the plan, but Arab Palestinians vehemently opposed it primarily because of boundary disputes with assigned territories. In 1948 Britain withdrew from the partition plan and Israel declared itself an independent state. There was at least an implied consent to a Palestinian state. Within months war erupted and quickly became an Israeli vs. Arab conflict.

At this point the history becomes far more complex with other Middle Eastern countries vying for control of parts of the Fertile Crescent. There have been very few years where violence has not erupted between Israel and Palestine as well as other countries.

The October attack by Hamas on Israel was horrific. The retaliatory violence of Israel is equally horrific. The war being fought in the Middle East violates every rule of war in modern times. The United States has declared its unwavering support for Israel and given minimal lip service to the need for humanitarian aid in Gaza and the West Bank. There is notable bias in American reporting that reflects the US’s unconditional support for Israel. This is troubling given that more than 135 United Nations member countries recognize Palestine as an independent state.

 This geopolitical conflict is as old as history. As long as both sides are hell bent on destruction of one another, there is little hope for a resolution to the conflict. There is, however, an unseen player in this war that further complicates the current conflict. The religious right feeds the unconditional support the US has for Israel. The existence of Israel and its victory in restoring all of the “Promised Land” are pillars of a little known and less understood theological history.  It is known as Christian Zionism (This is different from Christian Nationalism which I will tackle in the near future).

Christian Zionism has a long history of pushing unconditional support for Israel. It is part of their belief that Scripture requires Israel to exist, a holy war to be fought, a new temple be constructed, and either the conversion or destruction of the Jews. Then the rapture will come, Christ the King will return, followed by a thousand year rule, the culmination of human history and the establishment of God’s eternal Kingdom. This perspective has been written about ad nauseum since the establishment of the state of Israel.

It seems to me that the support of the religious right and a relationship with Israel is a little disingenuous. Israel and Christian Zionists are strange bedfellows. After all, if the options are convert or die the agenda of support for Israel is a bit hollow. The Christian Zionists are appropriating this war for their own theological ends and making it the prelude to the rapture. Their voices, however, foment the religious right and their unconditional support of Israel, which translates to legislators who listen to their constituency, which influences American public policy.  

Christian Zionists are making this a Holy War. And there is nothing about this war that is holy. The indiscriminate murder of civilians on both sides, the denial of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians and the very real threat of Palestinian genocide embody the very nature of geopolitical evil.

It’s not just the right wing religious preachers who are spewing this garbage. Last week Lindsay Graham declared, “We’re in a religious war here and I am with Israel. Do whatever the hell you have to do to defend yourself. Level the place.” Marco Rubio called the Palestinians “savages” and said “they have to be eradicated.” The Gospel Coalition’s Peter Leithard likens Hamas to the biblical Amalekites and compares the Palestinian people to their hostages. In the end section of his Tweet he writes, “Yahweh vows to fight until the memory of Amalek is blotted out from under heaven.”

This is frightening genocidal, apocalyptic and ridiculous rhetoric. The willingness of the religious right to use this horrific geopolitical war to further their apocalyptic visions of the end of the world is egregious at best. In my view, what is more egregious is the silence of other Christian voices challenging this nonsense and speaking a word of theological reason and faith in the midst of a devastating reality.

_SOURCES

_{www.religiondispatches.org}

_{www.historychannel.org}

_{www.Britannica.com}

_{www.religiousnewsservice.org}

The Rev. Dr. John Thomas

Former General Minister and President, UCCMember of UCC Palestine Israel Network

The situation is complex. But complexity is no excuse for silence. The situation is frequently framed as ancient, intractable religious rivalries and hatreds. But the conflict of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries is primarily a political one based on political decisions made by political actors for political purposes. More often than not, religion has been the rationale used to justify political acts. And the situation invites despair. Yet our long-standing Palestinian partners, Christian and Muslim, as well as man Jewish Israelis and American Jews with whom we as a church are in relationship, consistently call us to hope as the durable foundation for courage in the struggle for justice and peace. So, what shall we say?

First, we must reject the current violence and refuse to grant it any legitimacy. The assault on civilian lives in Israel by Hamas, and now the indiscriminate violence launched by Israel and applauded by many in the international community including the United States against the residents of Gaza, along with the denial of access to water, electricity and critical medical supplies, cannot be condoned. Understood, yes. Justified, no. Our lament and prayers for the bereaved, the besieged, and the captive are a meaningful expression of our Christian faith that calls us to compassion for and solidarity with the vulnerable. But they must be coupled with clear calls for a cessation of violence and the safe return of hostages even if those calls seem drowned out by cries for revenge or the adoption of violent strategies aimed at future political advantage whether embraced by Hamas, Israel, or foreign powers including the United States.

Second, our prayers must name both Israeli and Palestinian victims equally. And we must resist the temptation to assign gradations of suffering based on which “side” has endured higher numbers of deaths or injured. Grief is not experienced in the aggregate, but by individual loved ones–partners, children, grandchildren, parents. A common humanity invites equal and shared compassion and respect regardless of the flag under which someone lives. Collective demonization dishonors the God who is creator of all. Further, while we understandably grieve, pray for the dead, injured, and vulnerable civilians, soldiers also require our prayers. They, too, have loved ones. They, too, have hopes and dreams and fears. The lives of all combatants will be changed, and in many cases shadowed by the events of this and coming weeks.

Third, we must seek to understand. The current violence is horrible. But it was entirely predictable. We must understand that the creation of the state of Israel was never negotiated with the Arab population that had lived in Palestine for centuries. Rather it was imposed on them by a series of decisions going back to the end of World War 1 made primarily by European colonial powers and ultimate supported by the United States and the United Nations. A brief war of resistance ended in victory for the Israeli army, the destruction of over five hundred Palestinian villages, and the creation of a Palestinian refugee population of 750,000 that today lives in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza and numbers 5.6 million people. Palestinians refer to these events as “the Nakba,” the Catastrophe.

We must understand that twenty years later, following the Six Day War in 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and took control of Gaza, all territory that had been promised to Palestinians as the basis for a sovereign state. Over the ensuing fifty plus years of occupation Israel has imposed on Palestinians humiliating and disruptive restrictions on travel, employment, home building, and religious observance. During this period a Separation Barrier was erected dividing Palestinians from Israelis, appropriating more Palestinian land, and separating many Palestinians from their families, their work, and the agricultural fields. Over 125 Israeli settlements—illegal under international law—have been established in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and over 100 unauthorized settlements have been established as well. Large portions of the West Bank are off limits to Palestinians, and a separate road system for settlement residents further divides Palestinians from one another. Security checkpoints throughout the West Bank, and a pass system, disrupt travel for many and make it impossible for others. In 2005 Israel imposed a land and sea blockage that severely restricts access to jobs and the traditional fishing industry. Unemployment in Gaza approaches 50%. The economy is largely dependent on foreign aid administered by the UN. Today Gazans live in deplorable and demoralizing conditions often described as a “large, outdoor prison.”

Finally, we must understand the impact of contemporary events on the Palestinian community. They have watched settlements grow throughout the West Bank and in Jerusalem with no accountability demanded by the international community. They have watched as their children are arrested, detained, and tried in Israeli military courts. They have watched the United States continue to contribute billions of dollars to Israel without exacting any pledges that might lead toward ending the Occupation or the establishment of a Palestinian state. They have watched military incursions into their cities that have led to the deaths of countless Palestinians. They have watched Democratic and Republican administrations endorse Israeli policies, move the US embassy to Jerusalem, and midwife the so-called Abrahamic Accords with Arab nations without exacting any binding commitment to the Palestinians. And they have now watched a far-right Israeli cabinet installed that includes members calling for annexation of the entire West Bank and changes to the judicial system that threaten to undermine the last moderating influences on settlement expansion.

Palestinians are admonished to be non-violent in the struggle for justice. Yet non-violent resistance by Palestinians and their international supporters in the form of protests, truth forums, human rights reports, or economic pressure through the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement have been suppressed, named anti-Semitic, or declared illegal in Israel and even in the United States. Peaceful civil societal groups in Israel calling for more just treatment of Palestinians are sanctioned. Even non-violent pro-Palestinian gatherings in response to the current violence are vilified and declared illegitimate. Armed resistance throughout the years has been met with overwhelming Israeli military force and devastating human and economic consequences for Gaza. Patience is encouraged, but results merely in acquiescence to an unacceptable status quo. Negotiations have been premised on impossible  prerequisite demands. In the face of dispossession and expulsion, the failure to achieve a sovereign state with the prospect of an enduring second class citizenship with an Israeli controlled establishment, the sense of permanence in the refugee status of so many of their fellow Palestinians, the daily humiliations of the Occupation, the lack of personal economic opportunity, and the inability to worship at holy sites, we must understand why some Palestinians see violence as the only viable option even if it means inevitable and overwhelming retaliation, destruction and death.

To identify the conditions that allow us to predict a violent future is not to condone or justify that violence. It is to warn us that failure to change those conditions sentences both Israelis and Palestinians to a grim future. Historical context and contemporary challenges provide us with critical understanding surrounding the decision by some Palestinians to resort to the violence we have seen this month. But that understanding also serves as a warning. Absent meaningful movement toward an end of the Occupation and negotiations that lead to a just peace marked by adherence to acceptable standards of human rights and the rules of international law, violence affecting the lives of both Palestinians and Israelis will be a predictable mark of the future. Kairos Palestine, a Christian ecumenical movement for nonviolent action and a United Church of Christ global partner, offers this prophetic interpretation of the violence we are watching today. Speaking to their Israeli neighbors, the writers remind us,

“This war came to say that weapons do not protect, and the strong who underestimate the weak will not protect themselves nor will they find security. Safe hearts are safe strongholds. Palestinian hearts, if their full freedom, dignity and state are returned to them, are your only protection.”