Thinking about Palestine-Israel
This will likely be a short blog post, because I am not the right person to speak to what is happening right now in the Holy Land. I am not the right person to curate which other voices you should seek as you learn about what is going on there.
And yet, I am the right person (since it is literally my job) to help this Harbor community theologically reflect on the events in our world.
I will leave most of the talking to Jewish (pro-Palestine) author Sim Kern, whose recent TikTok video went pretty viral. I won’t add much to their thoughts, but scroll down for why I think this is an important perspective. [Note: click the image to pop up the video in a separate tab.]
Jewish journalist and novelist Sim Kern responds to the discourse about the latest atrocities in Palestine-Israel.
The reason I think Sim’s video is helpful for our own reflecting (and crying and mourning and praying) is that it is concerned with humanization. In an ideal world, we would already be aware of the humanness of everyone affected by this violent conflict, and so our hearts would break for all those who suffer—both Israeli and Palestinian. We could then evaluate (in order to lobby, vote, etc.) which international policies make the most sense to possibly work toward peace in the region.
Whenever we hear rhetoric that seeks to erase people’s humanity—whether it be anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, or anti-Arab—we must return to concepts like the imago Dei and insist on the dignity, beauty, and worth of all people and peoples.
Indeed, our cultural milieus of the US and Canada create a poisonous backdrop for learning about this conflict, one that works against the imago Dei: a backdrop that says Israelis are white/right/good and Palestinians are brown/wrong/bad. As Palestinian Quaker activist and teacher Jean Zaru has written, “The discourse about violence is controlled by the powerful. When our students throw stones, it is violence. When the Israeli soldiers brandish their weapons, it is law and order. When young Palestinians commit acts of desperate violence against the occupation, it is called terrorism. When Israelis commit acts of desperate and indefensible violence, it is called security.”
One day we hear about Palestinian “terrorists” bombing Israeli civilians. The next we hear about Israeli “military” bombing Palestinian civilians. Looking past the manipulation in the labels, both news items should fill us with sorrow and lament and horror and rage and cries for justice. Beloved children of God should not be bombed.
The only other thought I will add, before ending with a prayer, is that if you watched Sim’s whole video you heard them recommend reading stuff from Palestinians. I was immersed in the writings of Palestinian theologians and historians in seminary, so let me know if you want some recommendations (and I have a few in PDF form I could share). For now I will just mention one great read for those who identify as Christians: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation by Naim Ateek.
As a closing prayer, here are the lightly edited final words of the Kairos document, produced in 2009 by a group of Palestinian Christians:
In the absence of all hope, we cry out our cry of hope. We believe in God, good and just. We believe that God’s goodness will finally triumph over the evil of hate and of death that still persist in our land. We will see here “a new land” and “a new human being,” capable of rising up in the spirit to love each one of their siblings.
