Christians (like myself) keep getting asked “why do you not condemn Israel’s action in Palestine, you only condemn Muslims acts of violence, that’s hypocritical!”
We’re used to hearing Muslims ask why when a Muslim gets killed then Christianity is not criticised, or in this case, I’m being asked why I’m not raising my voice against the Israeli action in Gaza.
I explain in the post that Gaza is not as simple as Muslims would like it to be. But they expect everyone to have the same opinion as them, else there is something wrong with that person.
I hate political discussion, it always make people heated up and run around in circles. That’s why I avoid it and stick to theology. When we have a Muslim extremist attack, it’s an opportunity to examine Islamic theology, that’s why I raise it up.
Well let me lay out some reasons mainly for my personal silence over the Gaza issue. First of all my heart goes out to all the innocents that suffer, caught up in mindless conflict.
But the bottom line of what I will try to say here is that we are not going to get everyone to agree with everyone else on the issue, because it is far too complicated both from a religious and political point of view.
It’s not fair to expect others to automatically see things from our perspective and then get frustrated when they do not. Humans can barely do this at the best of times anyway.
These are the bare points that must be taken into consideration, in my view:
1. The issue of Palestinians having lived there and having been displaced after the Balfour declaration.
2. The issue of Israelites’ ancestral homeland
3. The issue of Israelites not having a different home and their historical persecution globally, as they have never been a military power since the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome.
4. The issue of the Jewish religious mandate in Jerusalem. A religious person would take this into account. Arguably you can find that mandate even in the Quran in chapter 5.
5. The issue of the poor humanitarian conditions in Gaza and the West Bank.
6. The issue of indoctrinated hatred and religious extremism from childhood in these territories.
7. The issue of the impracticability of an Israeli pull out or of a two-state solution. If Israel pull out we’ll have a military Hamas state which then becomes an existential threat to Israel.
How exactly do we find a straight line through all of these? The worst anyone can do is to villify someone who doesn’t agree with a simplistic view of “Israel must leave” a though its like dealing with a noisy customer at the restaurant.