Word reached me on
Saturday October 7th of an attack
on
Israel by Hamas fighters from Gaza, a time
when I was checking over the Prayers
of the People that I was to lead in church the
next morning, Sunday the 8th.
Seeking peace has been
tied into the faith traditions. In my
tradition I
like to name specific wars of concern and
allow time for congregants to add
their own places and people of concern for
prayer. More than this, the church
has members with particular concerns about the
rights of Palestinians in
Palestine/Israel so that despite the lack of
details at the time, the new hostilities
needed specific reference. We prayed “for
a
speedy just end to the violent new war in
Israel/Palestine.” Some
of these church members saw the outburst in
the context of decades of suppression of
Palestinians - feelings that were
later echoed by the Secretary General of the
UN. In Canada, news media
put out
stories of Hamas fighters from Gaza taking
down some parts of the fences around
Gaza and then attacking and killing some
thousand Israeli civilians, including
many at a music festival, and then taking some
200 Israeli citizen hostages
back into Gaza. Media repeated what US
President Biden had said – basically
that the US stands with Israel and that a
country has a right to defend itself
if attacked. This became the viewpoint. Israel immediately
cut off
supplies into Gaza that normally flow from
Egypt and cut off water and
electricity supplies. It took a time before
Israel called up all those in its
army, but its air force began bombing Gaza
almost immediately. Israel told
Palestinians to go to the South of Gaza.
Stories emerged from Gaza about family
homes destroyed, Palestinian
civilians killed and hospital supplies
lacking.
The war introduced the daily TV news
throughout the rest of the month of
October. And the bombing became more intense
and the devastation visibly more
extreme in pictures shown as the month went
on. Jews and sympathizers
in Canada
were concerned about the hostages and those
killed. Stories about these and
missing family members and friends continued.
The attack in Israel clearly had
a profound impact on the Jewish community as
members recalled their connections
with and the memories of the Holocaust and
Nazi Germany. Palestinians and
sympathizers in
Canada protested as the Israeli response
recalled the situation of Palestinians
in what was supposed to be a two-nation
territory in which Israel allows more
and more Israeli settlers to occupy
Palestinian areas. Palestinians and their
Canadian sympathizers did not appear to make
the distinction between what the
early viewpoint that called Hamas terrorists
and Palestinian civilians. Jewish
Canadians protested and Palestinian Canadians
and supporters protested. Antisemitism
rose as did Islamophobia. The Canadian
government spoke against both. And there
was some more particular suppression of
protest gatherings with slogans
criticizing one side or the other. The Canadian
government largely fell
in behind the Biden viewpoint. But as in every
war the UN was very concerned
about getting humanitarian aid to the civilian
population. Some aid has been
allowed in from the one check point from
Egypt, but the amount getting in has
been very much less than UN agencies believe
is needed. The mix is hard to
unravel. It is
a war between Hamas dedicated to removing
Israel and an Israel that is now
dedicated to removing Hamas. Israel’s concern
about humanitarian aid of
supplies of fuel oils for hospitals is
somewhat understandable. But the
devastation in Gaza shown on daily TV news is
overwhelming and a civilian
population is not supposed to be bombed away. The UN Secretary
General attracted
some attention by expressing his frustration
to the UN Security Council on
October 24th after some 2 weeks of
incredible bombing of Gaza: “The Palestinian people have been
subjected to 56 years of
suffocating occupation,” Guterres said,
according to the Israeli outlet Haaretz
to the 15-member U.N. Security Council Tuesday
after the Hamas-led Ministry of
Health in Gaza reported more than 700
Palestinians were killed in 24 hours of
Israeli airstrikes, the highest daily death
toll since the bombardment began.” “But the grievances of the
Palestinian people cannot
justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And
those appalling attacks cannot
justify the collective punishment of the
Palestinian people.” Israel has refused
any cease fire.
October 16th Canada asked for a
humanitarian corridor into Gaza and
struggled to negotiate ways for Canadian
citizens in Gaza to leave. Even US
President Biden called for small pauses to
allow humanitarian aid in. Finally,
on November 7th the Israeli Prime
Minister acknowledged: “There’ll be
no cease-fire, general
cease-fire, in Gaza without the release of our
hostages, “ “As far as
tactical little pauses —
an hour here, an hour there — we’ve had them
before, … I suppose we’ll check
the circumstances in order to enable goods,
humanitarian goods to come in; or
our hostages, individual hostages to leave.” After the appalling
Israeli destruction of the Al Ahli Arab
hospital on
October 17, churches and church
agencies began
calling for action – stop the killing and
negotiate a solution to the
underlying problem. On October 30th
the
Canadian ecumenical agency KAIROS issued a
call to the Prime Minister: “… We
write at this time
with an urgent appeal to you to do everything
in your power to support an
immediate ceasefire and a negotiated solution
to the spiraling conflict.” Asking the Prime Minister
to go further than the humanitarian corridor
KAIROS
asked: “… we
also urge you to
pursue all diplomatic channels to ensure the
protection of civilians and the
restoration of humanitarian aid to Gaza and to
guarantee that this humanitarian
corridor is open and secure.” “…Now
is the time for
Canada to work with renewed effort toward
peace with justice that upholds the
rights of both Palestinians and Israelis to
life and freedom from violence and
discrimination; and an end to the occupation.” KAIROS calls for the
release of the Israeli hostages and that
international law and human rights be followed
by both parties to the conflict.
Initially Biden had warned that Israel’s
military might inadvertently harm
civilians by its legitimate military response.
Given a devastated Gaza with
large numbers of dead Palestinian civilians
and colossal damage to everything
that supports Palestinian civilian life,
allowing further military activity of
this kind is incomprehensible. The justification for the
war - essentially “Israel can defend itself if
attacked” just doesn’t work on November 9th.
It is time to protest allowing
“accidental” killings of any more Palestinian
civilians, destruction of their
homes and reducing their neighbourhoods into
heaps of rubble. It is disquieting that
Hamas receives little criticism. Israel says
Hamas hides among or underneath Palestinian
civilian structures. However, much
of the Hamas leadership is thought to be in
Qatar. Moreover, given the small
area of Gaza, Hamas is inevitably close to
Palestinian civilians. Israel has
bombed Hamas seemingly ignoring the
Palestinian civilian sites. Israel says return of the
hostages by Hamas is its pre-condition for a
cease fire. In this sense Hamas has set up and
is allowing the destruction of
Gaza, the deaths of Palestinians and the loss
of their homes and communities. A solution for the
Palestinians requires concern for them not
only by
Israel but also by Hamas. Hamas and its backers must
be urged to show concern for the
Palestinians’ lives and communities and to
seek a just and safe future for
Palestinians and their neighbours. Our
requests, petitions and prayers should call
on Hamas as well as Israel to demonstrate
concern for the safety of
Palestinians, for their homes and for their
future. The outcome and ending of
this war should not be only about Israel and
Hamas, but about a just and safe
future for Palestinians. And somewhere, the UN
concept of two states to meet
the wishes of two peoples must be seen as at
least a place to begin. The Canadian Council of
Churches has a program Project Ploughshares
that
works so support peace and apply constraints
on war. On October 30th
Project Ploughshares issued a Statement that
comes closer to calling on Hamas
and Israel to end their killing of
Palestinians and Israelis: “We
are appalled by, and
categorically condemn, the horrific attacks by
Hamas against Israel on October
7, 2023. …” “We
are appalled by, and
categorically condemn, the devastation
inflicted upon Gaza in response to the
October 7 attacks….” Ploughshares adds that
self-defense does not absolve Israel from its
obligations under international humanitarian
law, the rules of war, and it
stands with the Secretary General’s position.
Importantly, Ploughshares adds: “We
support the right of
Palestinians to live in peace. The ongoing
illegal occupation by Israel, along
with the steady expansion of illegal
settlements in Palestinian territories,
effectively constitutes apartheid and must
come to an end. The occupation presents
an insurmountable obstacle to peace and
exacerbates wider regional instability.” Beyond this, it should be
noted that Israel has converted Gaza into a
kind of prison for 16 years. Ploughshares calls on all
parties (this includes Israel, Hamas, Iran and
the US): “to
prioritize the safety and well-being of
civilians, who are bearing the brunt of the
violence. To this end, we urge
immediate humanitarian access to provide aid
to those in need.” This gives things that
should enable church advocacy and prayers.
Perhaps the simplest requests right now are:
Hamas, give back the hostages;
Israel, stop the bombing. The Ploughshares statement
ends recognizing that the pursuit of lasting
peace and the enjoyment of human rights must
be the goal and that instead of
perpetuating cycles of violence, church people
should work for a fair and just
resolution that goes beyond safeguards for
Palestinian civilians but addresses
the underlying causes of this violence in all
their complexity. That. may seem impossible,
but that is a reason to keep praying “show us
the way.”