Israel-Palestine conflict: Where is Christ in this?

The developments of this week in the centuries-old Israel-Palestine conflict have created a lot of clashes of opinions. Christians have taken sides, mostly on the Israeli side. The media is divided but mostly on the side of Israel.

The reasons for the support for Israel are many. First sympathies. Historically, they had been a persecuted minority except in India and probably in the United States. Who can ignore the six million Jews who died in Hitler’s gas chambers? The sorrowful part of their history, along with the propaganda in favour of them, has created a lot of sympathy for them.

In addition to the popular sympathy for Israel, some Christians also find that what happens in Israel is the fulfilment of Biblical prophecies. These Christians think that all Palestinians are Muslims, though a significant number of them are Christians. Many Christian Holy places are in Palestinian territory (including Bethlehem, Jericho, Hebron, etc.).

Many Christians think that the Jewish nation is a friend of Christianity. But there is a lot of intolerance in Israel. Attacks on Christian churches are a regular event that fanatic Jews stage. There are restrictions on building churches and Christian institutions in Israel. Even a person who is Jew by birth but converted to another religion is not eligible for immigration to Israel. This includes Messianic Jews born outside Israel. They are denied citizenship, though they have Jewish blood running in their veins, but they are different by faith.

All these are facts of history.

Jews have a right to live in their land, and Palestinians also have the same right. Historically, they have lived in that land for centuries. The Jews are Palestinians who were in exile and Diaspora for centuries and returned in different waves over centuries. They, too, have the right to live in their ancestral land. They needed a home to come back to. The best home is certainly the land where their ancestors lived.

We should recognize that the present conflict is not religious but purely political. It is the result of the Arabs hating the Jewish nation called Israel, their denial of Israel’s right to exist, and Israel’s arrogant claim that the whole land belongs to them. The whole of it never belonged to them in history. For most of their history, foreigners ruled over them, and the rest of the time, they had to live with people who did not share their faith and were from different ethnic stocks.

But modern Israel has the power to stand up to any threat to their existence. They have military power and international rapport to add to their might. Hamas, the violent face of the Palestinians, inflict pain upon the majority of neutral Palestinians by inciting the Israeli Defense Force to retaliate. I recall one Friday evening six years ago witnessing a conflict between Palestinian young men and Israeli soldiers in Bethlehem. The young men were pelting stones at the Israeli watchtower, and Israeli soldiers were firing at the unarmed youth. It was an unequal exchange.

One of the characters in a book by Israeli writer Amos Oz said that non-Jews must be treated as “drawers of water and cutters wood” (Joshua 9:23). Many people (but not all) in Israel share this view—treating non-Jews with contempt. At the same time, decades of subjugation is the propellent that powered the rockets from Gaza towards Israel. The arrogance fueled by the spirit of revenge is the reason why Gaza is being razed to the ground by Israeli counterattacks. Those who died in Gaza or lost their homes have never seen a rocket!

As a student of the Bible, I do not see any support in the Hebrew Bible (that I share with my Jewish friends) and the New Testament to justify this conflict between Israel and Palestine. There is no biblical prophecy to support the present situation. All the biblical prophecies are fulfilled except those related to the return of Christ, the rapture, the resurrection of the saints and their eternity with Christ. We are in the end times right now, waiting for the end of the end times. That may happen at any time.

Christians in Palestine and in Israel may have the right to take sides in this conflict. Because it is a matter of their nationality and existence. But this does not apply to Christians in other places.

Since there are no historical or biblical reasons to support either Israel or Palestine, where should Christ-followers stand in this conflict? The Christians should seek God’s will in this matter. They should ask what side Christ would take in this conflict where both sides suffer the loss of life, property, and their life of dignity? I think the heart of Christ is weeping as he wept at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:35).

I am sure that the Christ whom I know does not support violence. He does not support either the hatred that Hamas fosters or the arrogance of the State of Israel. He mourns that his command to love each other has gone unheeded by the Palestinians and the Jews. If all Jews lived according to the Royal Law of Love (James 2:8), there would be no conflict. Jesus taught his disciples that violence is futile and destructive. His group of disciples included some former members of the Jewish terrorist movement called Zealots (Simon the Zealot). If Hamas heeded Jesus words, that “all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matthew 26:52), they would have reimagined the situation differently. Any Christian who thinks that it is right to justify violence for whatever reason is not a true follower of Christ.

The sculpture at the Oklahoma Bombing Memorial is eloquent! I stood before it, deeply contemplating the mind of my Lord!  In 1995, domestic terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols exploded the Federal building in Oklahoma City, where 168 people, including children, died. The explosion injured more than 600 people. At the far end of the memorial stands the sculpture titled “Jesus Wept.” It depicts Jesus with his face covered in his palm, turned away from the site. It tells it all, the one who embraced death on the Calvary cross to raze down the wall of enmity and hatred is weeping and calls us to weep over the violence that is in the DNA of the unredeemed humankind.

Sibling Rivalry

‘Hebron’ means ‘league’, ‘confederation’ or by extension ‘friendship.’ This is the place where Patriarch Abraham bought a small patch of land to bury his wife Sara. Later it turned out to be the place where all the patriarchs and matriarchs except Rachel had their resting place. Today there stands the Ibrahami Mosque (as the Muslims calls it) or the Cave of the Patriarchs as the Jews would like to call it. Sibling rivalry begins with names!

Abraham was a landless wanderer when his wife died in this area. Though God had promised him the land to his offspring he had none yet. Genesis 23 tells us the story of how patriarch Abraham came to own the place called Hebron. The Hittites who owned the land offered a burial space free but Abraham politely turned their offer down. He wanted the burial cave owned by Ephron the son of Zohar who also was so kind to offer the cave of Macpelah free of cost. However, Abraham had to persuade him with the help of the elders of the Hittites to sell it to him. Finally after turning down the generosity of the Hittites, Abraham the sojourner bought the burial caves along with the field and treess around for 400 shekels of silver. Thus it legally the grave yard of the patriarchs and matriachs. But which of their children have claim on this. The siblings could not agree.

Ibrahami Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs

The story of cordiality and friendship between two distinct group of people is remarkable. It also is a story of kindness shown to a stranger by the owners of the land. The story of Hebron doesn’t stop there. It is from around this area that the spies that Moses sent brought the produce of the land. It is the land that was occupied by the giants called Anakim whom Caleb challenged.

Hebron which begins its history in the Bible with friendship, cordiality and kindness had already turned in to a place of violent confrontations and conflicts in the Bible times itself. In modern times, it is symbolic of the tension between the two races who trace their history back to Father Abraham—Arabs and Jews. Sometimes in the fourth century AD, Helena, the mother of the first Christian emperor identified the caves under the structure that King Herod built as the caves where the patriarchs and matriarchs were buried. It became a ‘Holy Place’ for the Christians. Then to cut the long story shot during the days of the Islamic invaders a mosque was built on the site. Thus it became the place of worship for Muslims.

Among many violent incidents that might have hurt the memory of Father Abraham is known in history as the 1929 Hebron Massacre and the Ibrahami mosque massacre of 1994. On August 24, 1928, sixty seven Jews including 23 college students were massacred in Hebron by Arabs acting on false rumours that Jews were killing Arabs in Jerusalem. The land what is now called Israel and Palestine was under British mandate then. On the fateful day of February 25, 1994, Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish medical doctor who was also member of a Jewish extremist group called Kach movement opened fire on unarmed Muslims in prayer in this mosque. It was the holiday of Purim for the Jews and Ramdan for the Muslims. The attack killed 29 worshippers and 125 injured by the time Goldstein had emptied his revolver. He was beaten to death by the survivors!

Following this incident, the mosque was closed for years and when it was opened part of it was turned into a synagogue separated with a bullet proof wall from the mosque. In between these two major incidents were many violent actions from both sides until the streets of Hebron witnessed more violence in the second intifada or Oslo War.

The story of Gadi and Dina

During the second intifada the streets of Hebron saw violence on a major scale. The Jewish settlers in Hebron had to use Suhada Street that passed by the tombs of Patriarchs populated by Arabs who were in uprise. The Jews blame that hundreds of Jews were slaughtered by the Arabs in this street. Walking along the street I spotted a sign where they tell the story of Gadi and Dina a couple who were expecting their first child killed by an Arab suicide bomber when they were on their way to pray at the tomb of the Patriarchs.

The Israeli government’s response to the alleged violence was severe. They closed Suhada street. Suhada Street was in fact a row of shops which was the only means of living for the Arabs who lived behind or above their own shops. Tourists who came to Macpelah (Tomb of Patriarchs) shopped there. Israeli military not only closed the street for the Arabs but also closed the shops. They welded the doors; many Arab families have no ground level access to the street. They have to climb over their roofs to visit their neighbours or to send their children to school. The street has a deserted look. There are military check posts at the entrance. Only Jews and foreign tourists are allowed to walk along the streets. There are no children playing on the streets. At the entrance of the street from the Tombs of the Patriarchs Israeli soldier verified my passport however, he was so light-hearted young man who even allowed me to take a picture with him.

Deserted Suhada Street, Hebron

The city of Hebron comes under the Palestinian Authority. However, the Israeli Military controls the area. There is propoganda everywhere. Flex banners explaining the Jewish position and graffitti on Arab homes and closed doors to counter the Jewish propaganda.

There is suspicion everywhere. As we walked through Suhada Street with a guide who explained to us the human right violations in Hebron and how closing of Suhada Street a Jewish settler followed as recording us on his iPhone. It was a way of intimidating our guide: don’t say anything against us, you are on record.

Closed shops with sealed doors

Hebron around the Tombs of Patriarchs is now a ghost city. It seems it is only for the dead and not for the living. The friendship and cordiality that the patriarch Abraham received is gone and is given way to suspicion, hatred and violence. Who is to be blamed?