Stand with Gaza, stand with Palestine

Neutrality now is complicity

Israel’s war against Gaza’s civilians is in full swing as I write this. Also in full swing are many church services. In those servic—

But do you condemn Hamas?

Oh. Of course, the new capcha if you want to log in to any conversation about Israel.

Sure. I condemn Hamas for taking civilian hostages and killing non-combatants. Of course I do. But—

Great. We must all condemn—

Sorry, not finished. I also condemn Israel for killing civilians. I condemn Israel for trapping those civilians in an open-air prison and bombing indiscriminately. I condemn the Apartheid policies of Israel and its Occupation of Palestinian territories. I condemn the way it puts Palestinian children in jails with adults.

Wait—

I condemn Israel’s security forces shooting journalists. I condemn the over 30 Palestinian children Israel’s security forces killed in 2023 before the Hamas attacks. I condemn Israeli Settlers, already breaking international law by settling on occupied Palestinian land, who have been attacking Palestinian civilians in the West Bank (for decades, but more intensely now). I condemn—

Not like this—

I condemn the cynicism of the Israeli Government telling people to leave Gaza just before the first IDF assault, knowing full-well that they cannot because Israel blocks one exit route and then bombing the only other exit.

Okay, well we get the point. Let’s—

No, no, you did ask. I condemn bombing hospitals and residential buildings. I condemn collective punishment, of cutting off water, electricity and food to a population Israel had already starved of these things. I condemn genocidal language calling Palestinians ‘human animals’, coming not just from radicalised Israeli Settlers, but from Israel’s Government officials.

Okay but this is a war against terrorists…

I condemn conflating Palestinians with terrorists. I condemn making Palestinians who have recently had their families murdered pass conversational purity tests of condemning terrorist groups they do not have any affiliation with, just because of their race. I condemn this like I condemn anyone who sees fit to make Jewish people around the world answer for the crimes of a government in the Middle East, because this is Anti-Semitism and Anti-Semitism is a cancer on the Earth. As is all racism.

Fine, you’ve made your point…

Not fully. I condemn Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak, the governments of the USA and UK, and all the other western governments, for encouraging Israel’s retaliation against an entire population they hold captive, for the actions of a few. I condemn my own government for failing to call for restraint when they know full well that civilians are being killed and an entire ethnic group is now being told to leave their land or be murdered. I condemn media outlets and officials who, were the victims not Palestinian, would be calling Israel’s actions an outrage to decency.

You seem so angry…

I am. I’m angry with people around me and on my feeds who enthusiastically called Russia ‘evil’ and its leader a ‘madman’ for invading Ukraine (an unacceptable act, to clear), but cannot bring themselves to do the same for brown people, for Palestinians.

I am angry that so many people seem to think that history begins when Israelis get hurt or killed, ignoring decades of oppression and killing of Palestinians. And I am angry that people who never bothered to say a word against that oppression and those killings now see fit to pipe up and develop a conscience about violence.

Alright. Where was I? Church services. Yes.

In those church services, there are going to be prayers for the state of the world. I don’t envy those tasked with leading those prayers today. And I am not asking everyone to suddenly develop a background of having taken the Occupation seriously enough to understand what the Palestinians have suffered for decades. But can we not?

Can we please not pray for the Israeli victims alone? Could we just this once not make our prayer equivocal when the situation is not? Could we not pray for Israel and its military, just this once? (and yes, I have heard this prayer in multiple churches)

Could we pray for peace and not pretend each side is as guilty as the other? Could we perhaps, just today, pray for justice, for human rights, for the weak to be protected and the strong to show restraint? For the strong to repent?

Could we repent? Can we repent of our failure to remember the Palestinian Church, as oppressed as Muslim and atheist Palestinians by the Occupation and military rule under Israeli control? Can we repent of our Islamophobia? Can we repent of the apathy that makes us so ignorant we feel sympathy for the fourth largest military in the world as it kills thousands of civilians in the name of punishing a terrorist group? Can we repent also of rage that justifies killing and of scapegoating entire races and religions?

Can we repent? Can we pray for justice as well as peace?

Okay, sure, but do you condemn—