Christ in the Gaza rubble

Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac is a Palestinian Christian theologian who teaches at Bethlehem Bible College in the West Bank. He also serves as assistant pastor at an Evangelical Lutheran church in Bethlehem. He delivered a Christmas sermon in that church on December 23. It is 18 minutes in length and well worth watching on You Tube.  

Rev. Isaac delivered a blistering homily. He called out Israel for its bombing raids and land invasion that have killed 22,000 people in Gaza and injured 56,000 others, 70 per cent of them women and children. “If Jesus were to be born today, he would be born under the rubble,” Isaac said.

“Silence is complicity”

Isaac called out the United States, which continues to provide weapons, military, and diplomatic support for Israel’s war on Gaza. He called out other western nations offering diplomatic cover to Israel, and he criticized people in western countries, specifically Christians, who either support the invasion, or are too meek to raise their voices against it.

“Let it be clear,” Isaac said. “Silence is complicity, and empty calls for peace without a ceasefire and end to occupation, and the shallow words of empathy without direct action—are all under the banner of complicity.”

“This is our call, our plea, our prayer,” he said. “This genocide must stop now.”

Accusations of genocide

The accusation of genocide is a serious one, but Isaac is not alone in making it. On December 30, South Africa launched a case with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and asking the court to order Israel to halt its attacks.

South Africa’s submission to the international court argues that “acts and omissions by Israel … are genocidal in character” as they are committed with the intent “to destroy Palestinians in Gaza” as part of the broader Palestinian national, racial, and ethnic group.

The Israeli government responded angrily, saying that the case lacks a legal foundation and constitutes a “vile exploitation and cheapening” of the court.

Worse than World War II

The court’s investigations and subsequent rulings will take time, and they are not binding upon any state. But short of deciding what constitutes genocide, we can describe what is occurring in Gaza. A CBC story posted on December 30 quoted experts on mapping damage during wars. They employ the same satellite technology that is used to measure deforestation or the damage arising from natural disasters such as flooding.

Their findings regarding Israel’s bombing are stunning. They say that the intensity of bombing in Gaza is something that they have never seen before. One of the researchers, Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University, said:  “Somewhere around a third, maybe 40 per cent of all structures in Gaza, are showing some degree of damage . . . in north Gaza and Gaza City, we see much higher rates approaching two-thirds. “

Worse than Ukraine

Van Den Hoek, and his fellow researcher Corey Scher of the City University of New York, added that by December 5, the percentage of Gaza’s buildings that had been damaged or destroyed already had surpassed the Second World War destruction in Cologne and Dresden, and was approaching the level of Hamburg. The bombing damage throughout Gaza is greater than in any area of Ukraine during its current Russian war, with the possible exceptions of the destroyed cities of Mariupol and Bakhmut.

The Israeli Defence Forces claim that their bombing is precise and focused, and that they are not targeting civilians. Van Den Hoek responded to such claims by saying: “At some point, if everything becomes a target, then claims over precision are kind of meaningless. If everything is a target, what’s the point of precision?”

CBC’s Dwyer wrote: “In just two months, the bombing has killed one per cent of Gaza’s entire population. Allied bombing of Germany, by comparison, killed a smaller percentage of the German population over the course of the entire Second World War.”

Hamas brutality

Rev. Isaac, in his Christmas homily, did not mention the October 7 attack by Hamas upon Israeli civilians and some members of the military. I wish he had. Those attacks killed 1,200 people. Hamas also kidnapped around 240 people. As of December 24 , an estimated 130 remain in captivity, with at least 20 of them believed to be dead.

The New York Times has carried an article based on interviews with survivors, first responders, and video footage. The story that emerges is one of the gruesome rape, torture and murder of women captured during the October 7 raids. Accusations of genocide have also been lodged with the International Court of Justice against Hamas and they are being investigated.

Colonizers and victims

The question that remains is whether Israel is justified in responding to a militant group’s attacks by leaving Gaza in rubble and killing tens of thousands of its inhabitants. Israel has chosen October 7 as the starting point in debating this point. But if we go back to 1948, it was the emerging state of Israel which evicted tens of thousands of Palestinians from their fields and homes, and they continue to do so. Israel seized the West Bank after the Six Day War in 1967 and its military occupation continues 56 years later.

As Rev. Isaac said in his homily: “They turn the colonizer into the victim, and the colonized into the aggressor.” Western nations and churches say that Israel has the right to defend itself. Isaac asked: “How is the killing of 9,000 Palestinian children self-defence? How is the displacement of 1.9 million Palestinians self-defence?”

UN calls for ceasefire

Isaac called for an immediate ceasefire. The US vetoed a resolution at the UN Security Council calling for a ceasefire, but on December 12 the UN General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution with similar wording. There were 153 votes in favour, 10 against and 23 abstentions.

Canada had previously opposed a ceasefire, calling instead for a brief pause in the fighting to allow humanitarian assistance to enter Gaza, but it did vote in favour of the UN’s December 12 resolution.

Bloody tipping point

Israel has said defiantly that the UN vote will not change anything on the ground, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is promising several more months of war.  The situation may appear intractable, but this time a bloody tipping point may have been reached in which Israel’s decades long oppression of the Palestinians will have to give way to peace negotiations and a Palestinian state.