The situation in the Gaza seems to go from bad to worse. The scenes on our televised news programmes night after night are distressing. This cannot be called a war in the conventional sense as it seems so one sided. Ordinary men and women from both Palestine and Israel are being let down by governments that refuse to listen to their calls for peace. Recently at a demonstration in Palestine against the Hamas government cries of “All of Hamas, out!” were heard. One participant said “The world thinks that Gaza is Hamas and Hamas is Gaza. "We didn't choose Hamas and now Hamas is determined to rule Gaza and tie our fate to its own. Hamas must retreat." Al- Natour, a columnist in the Washington Post earlier this year wrote "To support Hamas is to be for Palestinian death, not Palestinian freedom". To engage in such opposition is both courageous and dangerous and Amnesty International has documented what it calls “a disturbing pattern of threats, intimidation and harassment, including interrogations and beatings by Hamas against peaceful protesters”.
So too there have been increasing demonstrations calling for peace and the return of the hostages in Israel, which are obviously being ignored by their government. Recently an international coalition of over 80 orthodox rabbis urged Israel to confront the widespread starvation in Gaza and condemn extremist settler violence. In a statement entitled “A Call for Moral Clarity, Responsibility, and a Jewish Orthodox Response in the Face of the Gaza Humanitarian Crisis” the signatories emphasize their deep bond with Israel and acknowledge the atrocities committed by Hamas but insist that this does not absolve Israel of responsibility for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. “The heart of Torah is justice, not revenge” it states. “This moment demands a different voice—one grounded in our deepest Jewish values and informed by our traumatic history of persecution. We must affirm that Judaism’s vision of justice and compassion extends to all human beings….. Let us be resounding voices for justice, righteousness, and peace for all people—even and especially in the hardest of times.”
But how do we as Christians respond to the dreadful situation in the land that gave birth to Jesus? Christianity is a faith that upholds justice, and many of us have a particular concern for the poor and oppressed. We call out injustice when we see it. Regarding the situation in the Middle East this means showing support for Palestine and being overt in criticising the State of Israel and taking it for granted that others share this opinion. To even suggest there might be another way of looking at things is to provoke an angry response and dismissal as someone who supports injustice and stands with the oppressor. In my experience there is usually no willingness to engage in a conversation about it as it is so obvious that there will be no peace in Israel/Gaza without justice and we must call out the injustice because it is obvious where right lies. And so, we have statement after statement calling for peace, demonstration after demonstration in support of Palestine, event after event telling of the sufferings of the Palestinian people.
This, however, is not the way of interreligious dialogue. While it is true that there will be no peace without justice, so too there will be no justice without peace. What would it mean to make peacebuilding rather than justice the focus of our concern? Hans Kung gave us the formula for this many years ago “there will be no peace in the world without peace between the religions; there will be no peace between the religions without dialogue among the religions”. The way of peace is the way of dialogue. For those of us involved in interfaith an important element in our work is not to allow international conflicts to destroy good relations at home. The reality of the Israel/Palestine conflict has done just that and led to an increase in antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment so that some members of the Jewish community are afraid to admit openly that they are Jewish and feel unsafe in Scotland for the first time in their lives. A recent public gathering to remember and pray for the hostages taken by Hamas on October 7th 2023 had pro- Palestinian supporters calling the participants rats, lizards, reptiles and baby-killers, the kind of language that encourages hatred and is often a forerunner of violence.
The Jewish community in Scotland is not responsible for the decisions and actions of the Israeli government, just as the catholic community in Scotland was not responsible for the actions of the IRA in the past. Many of them will not agree with the government and I have not met anyone who would support Netanyahu. However, they do have a love of Israel and a belief in the State of Israel’s right to self -determination. For them Israel is the only place in the world where they feel truly safe. The chant heard on peace marches and at peace events “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free” comes from Hamas who style themselves as an Islamic Resistance Movement and have declared in their Covenant of 1988 that they want the obliteration of the Jewish State, the establishment of an Islamic one and that they reject all peace negotiations. They contend that the Jews were behind “the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there. With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests.... They were behind World War I, when they were able to destroy the Islamic Caliphate, making financial gains and controlling resources. They obtained the Balfour Declaration, formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains by trading in armaments, and paved the way for the establishment of their state. It was they who instigated the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council to enable them to rule the world through them. There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in it. Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem people. "May the cowards never sleep."
These kind of stories are not unknown in the West and over the centuries such scurrilous tales including blood libels that believed Jews used the blood of Christian children in the leaven bread of Passover led through the centuries to pogroms, forced conversions and expulsions. It was the centuries of Christian antisemitism that led to the growth of a Zionist movement that worked for the establishment of a Jewish State. So the cry “from the river to the sea…. “ heard during peace marches and demonstrations is heard and interpreted quite differently by the Jewish community than it will be by many demonstrating who know nothing of its origins and think they are only calling for peace.
I often hear the Balfour Declaration blamed for the situation in Palestine and it is true that to expect two nations to inhabit the same piece of land without any help on how this should be done was short-sighted if not down right wrong but the Balfour Declaration did not come from no-where and the situation might have been quite different if there had not been the dreadful history of Christian antisemitism.
This year we celebrate the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate which came into being after a Jewish historian, Jules Isaac, had met Pope John XXIII and pointed out the ways in which the Christian scriptures and scripture teaching had been interpreted in anti- Jewish ways. The document began a new relationship with the Jewish community. It rejected traditional anti- Jewish tropes and accepted our need for a new dialogue and understanding of Judaism. I hope that the situation in Gaza does not overshadow the work that still needs to be done in listening to our brothers and sisters in faith.
Let us then celebrate this anniversary by engaging in some kind of Christian – Jewish dialogue, learning to stand in another’s shoes, understanding how things might look from another perspective and in so doing know that we are indeed engaging in practical peace-making and making the world that bit a safer place for us all to live.
So too there have been increasing demonstrations calling for peace and the return of the hostages in Israel, which are obviously being ignored by their government. Recently an international coalition of over 80 orthodox rabbis urged Israel to confront the widespread starvation in Gaza and condemn extremist settler violence. In a statement entitled “A Call for Moral Clarity, Responsibility, and a Jewish Orthodox Response in the Face of the Gaza Humanitarian Crisis” the signatories emphasize their deep bond with Israel and acknowledge the atrocities committed by Hamas but insist that this does not absolve Israel of responsibility for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. “The heart of Torah is justice, not revenge” it states. “This moment demands a different voice—one grounded in our deepest Jewish values and informed by our traumatic history of persecution. We must affirm that Judaism’s vision of justice and compassion extends to all human beings….. Let us be resounding voices for justice, righteousness, and peace for all people—even and especially in the hardest of times.”
But how do we as Christians respond to the dreadful situation in the land that gave birth to Jesus? Christianity is a faith that upholds justice, and many of us have a particular concern for the poor and oppressed. We call out injustice when we see it. Regarding the situation in the Middle East this means showing support for Palestine and being overt in criticising the State of Israel and taking it for granted that others share this opinion. To even suggest there might be another way of looking at things is to provoke an angry response and dismissal as someone who supports injustice and stands with the oppressor. In my experience there is usually no willingness to engage in a conversation about it as it is so obvious that there will be no peace in Israel/Gaza without justice and we must call out the injustice because it is obvious where right lies. And so, we have statement after statement calling for peace, demonstration after demonstration in support of Palestine, event after event telling of the sufferings of the Palestinian people.
This, however, is not the way of interreligious dialogue. While it is true that there will be no peace without justice, so too there will be no justice without peace. What would it mean to make peacebuilding rather than justice the focus of our concern? Hans Kung gave us the formula for this many years ago “there will be no peace in the world without peace between the religions; there will be no peace between the religions without dialogue among the religions”. The way of peace is the way of dialogue. For those of us involved in interfaith an important element in our work is not to allow international conflicts to destroy good relations at home. The reality of the Israel/Palestine conflict has done just that and led to an increase in antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment so that some members of the Jewish community are afraid to admit openly that they are Jewish and feel unsafe in Scotland for the first time in their lives. A recent public gathering to remember and pray for the hostages taken by Hamas on October 7th 2023 had pro- Palestinian supporters calling the participants rats, lizards, reptiles and baby-killers, the kind of language that encourages hatred and is often a forerunner of violence.
The Jewish community in Scotland is not responsible for the decisions and actions of the Israeli government, just as the catholic community in Scotland was not responsible for the actions of the IRA in the past. Many of them will not agree with the government and I have not met anyone who would support Netanyahu. However, they do have a love of Israel and a belief in the State of Israel’s right to self -determination. For them Israel is the only place in the world where they feel truly safe. The chant heard on peace marches and at peace events “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free” comes from Hamas who style themselves as an Islamic Resistance Movement and have declared in their Covenant of 1988 that they want the obliteration of the Jewish State, the establishment of an Islamic one and that they reject all peace negotiations. They contend that the Jews were behind “the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there. With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests.... They were behind World War I, when they were able to destroy the Islamic Caliphate, making financial gains and controlling resources. They obtained the Balfour Declaration, formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains by trading in armaments, and paved the way for the establishment of their state. It was they who instigated the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council to enable them to rule the world through them. There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in it. Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem people. "May the cowards never sleep."
These kind of stories are not unknown in the West and over the centuries such scurrilous tales including blood libels that believed Jews used the blood of Christian children in the leaven bread of Passover led through the centuries to pogroms, forced conversions and expulsions. It was the centuries of Christian antisemitism that led to the growth of a Zionist movement that worked for the establishment of a Jewish State. So the cry “from the river to the sea…. “ heard during peace marches and demonstrations is heard and interpreted quite differently by the Jewish community than it will be by many demonstrating who know nothing of its origins and think they are only calling for peace.
I often hear the Balfour Declaration blamed for the situation in Palestine and it is true that to expect two nations to inhabit the same piece of land without any help on how this should be done was short-sighted if not down right wrong but the Balfour Declaration did not come from no-where and the situation might have been quite different if there had not been the dreadful history of Christian antisemitism.
This year we celebrate the 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate which came into being after a Jewish historian, Jules Isaac, had met Pope John XXIII and pointed out the ways in which the Christian scriptures and scripture teaching had been interpreted in anti- Jewish ways. The document began a new relationship with the Jewish community. It rejected traditional anti- Jewish tropes and accepted our need for a new dialogue and understanding of Judaism. I hope that the situation in Gaza does not overshadow the work that still needs to be done in listening to our brothers and sisters in faith.
Let us then celebrate this anniversary by engaging in some kind of Christian – Jewish dialogue, learning to stand in another’s shoes, understanding how things might look from another perspective and in so doing know that we are indeed engaging in practical peace-making and making the world that bit a safer place for us all to live.
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