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Israel, Palestine, and American Christians
Originally published in E-Leaven, January 2009, Issue 1

Friends of Leaven -- This first of the new year edition of Leaven concerns the present situation in Gaza and the urgent need for Christian response. We urge you to read and respond in some way. Following John Kane's letter is a list of a number of Catholic and other groups who have urged Christians and Jews to respond to the present Gaza crisis and provide concrete examples of possible action. And we also urge you to forward this Leaven to your list of friends and contacts, urging them to take some action about Gaza, and also suggesting that they sign-up for the electronic version of Leaven.

We begin with a letter that John Kane sent to the Denver Post which (so far) they have not printed. We know from others that other related letters critical of Israel have also not been published by local media. This is unfortunately typical of the "pro-Israeli" (really pro-militarist) position taken by most American media -- one of the reasons we must use the net to generate a response of concern.

Please note -- Kane's letter and the list of other groups are NOT anti-Israel; rather they argue that Israeli policy and practice (now in Gaza, and earlier throughout the occupation), policies and practices supported by the US and funded with our tax dollars, not only are unjust/immoral for Palestinians, but will not bring security to Israel.

Israel, Palestine, and American Christians
by John F. Kane (Editor of Leaven and Professor of Religious Studies at Regis University)

Where were all the Christians? That was the question that pained me as I stood in vigil with several hundred persons in the cold wind on the West steps of the Capitol this Tuesday evening.

Not surprisingly, the crowd gathered there to protest Israeli bombing in Gaza was mostly Muslim -- not just Palestinians and other Arabs, but also Muslims from black Africa and South Asia. They stood under a crescent new moon, as if (to my mind) Allah was blessing their cry of protest.

I was told there were a sprinkling of Jews in the crowd, including at least one counter-protester. And there was a larger sprinkling of Anglos. I recognized some Quakers and a few Catholics; I assume many of the others were probably Christians of some sort. Yet why, in this city of so many Christians who are still celebrating the star of Bethlehem and the Prince of Peace, were there so few willing to stand with Muslims and Jews to protest the way Israel has made Gaza a killing field?

There are, of course, Christians on the apocalyptic fringe whose absolute support of the Israeli Right probably leads them to celebrate the present killing as part of God's plan to cleanse Palestine for Jesus' second coming. And undoubtedly many other American Christians simply swallow the official Israeli line, supported by the Bush administration and much of the US media, that the present bombings are simply a necessary defense against Palestinian/Hamas terrorism.

Yet most American Christians accept the traditional Christian "just war" teaching -- that a war is moral only when its cause is just, and that even in a just cause some forms of killing make a war unjustified and immoral. And surely there are many Christians in this town who see through the veiled hypocrisy of Israeli propaganda. They know that the bombing of mosques, of university classrooms and dorms, and the "collateral killing" of innocent civilians -- they know in their hearts that such killing in Gaza is evil. They know it will not bring peace. They know it will not bring real security to Israel.

Surely there are many Christians in this town who know that it was not Hamas who broke the latest truce. That truce was broken months ago with the increasing blockade of Gaza -- restricting water and electricity and food and blockading medical supplies in what has become the largest ghetto prison on the globe. That truce was broken regularly over the years with endless violation of human rights throughout Gaza and the West Bank -- at checkpoints, in the impunity of growing settlements on stolen land, with unchecked crimes by settlers and by soldiers protecting them, with policies of collective imprisonment and punishment.

Yes, Hamas rockets targeting civilians is terrorism, but such terrorism is the inevitable response of the weak against the state terrorism of the powerful, a terrorism fully funded by our own country.

Surely there are more than a handful of Denver-area Christians who know all this. Yet where were they? Where are their voices during this season of peace? As a Catholic I especially ask where was Denver's Archbishop and his priests? Where is their leadership for protecting innocent life and working for peace now when it is so needed?

One of the most important achievements of our times has been a growing reconciliation between Christians and Jews here and around the world. Yet it would be worse than tragic if that reconciliation made us blind to the crimes perpetrated in the name of Judaism by the militarists and fundamentalists in Israel.

Many Catholic and Christian (and Jewish) groups have called for action to persuade Israel and the US Govt. (and especially President-Elect Obama) to work not only for a cease fire in the present situation in Gaza, but for a broader peace which will bring justice to the Palestinian people and real security to Israel. Here are some of those groups which you can access for critical information about the present violence and for suggestions about actions you might take.


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