In the last round of violence between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza, many Bible believing Christians saw things in a simplistic sense. In their eyes, it is simply a conflict between children of the light and those in the darkness.
For many believers, it is easy to hate Hamas (The Islamic Resistance Movement) and its people in Gaza. The people of Gaza are Arabs who are not always seen in the highest regard. They are also Muslim Fundamentalists who oppress women and Christians and detest Jews.
Most of the men have beards and the women wear veils. They are poor and they live in filthy highly populated areas. Their government did nothing to catch the kidnappers and killers of Rami Ayyad, the Bible Society worker and manager of the only Christian bookstore in Gaza who was killed five years ago. These things make it easy for them to hate Hamas and the Palestinians.
On the other hand, it is easy to love Israel. It is the only Jewish state in the world. It was established to offer shelter to the Jewish people who were persecuted for decades and terminated by the German Nazi monster. They have a handsome Prime minister who speaks fluent American English. He speaks occasionally about Judeo-Christian values and quotes the Old Testament. It is a small, young country that excels in high tech.
However, this is a too simplistic approach to the conflict and does not fit the facts nor is it suitable to our Biblical mandate.
A large number of Christians are too quick to decide .They don’t want to be confused by facts. They don’t want to do research of the real situation on the ground. Therefore they just claim that evil is a built-in component in Islam and therefore you can never co-exist with any form of it. Dealing with this Theological claim goes beyond the scope of this article.
However, let’s not forget that for years Christians and Jews lived in the Middle East in relative peace in the midst of an Islamic rule for more than 1400 years. It was actually the “Christian” Europe that caused the greatest atrocities against the Jewish people.
Faithful Christians are not exempt from trying to get the full objective picture. Knowing the facts is the first essential step before moving to a position to judge the parties involved. Christians are equally not exempt from the Biblical mandate to be fair peacemakers and seek justice. Even when these two conditions are met, Christians need to be cautious before taking sides.
For some, taking sides is for granted and they are unaware of the tragic consequences their zeal to support Israel has on the Christians inhabiting the holy land. It prolongs the conflict, increases the killing, adds to the uncompromising positions and it also creates a stumbling block in our testimony as Arab Christians in this country.
Big Picture
Trying to judge the last round of conflict between Israel and Palestine by only looking at the last few years or by simply asking “who started striking missiles/rockets first?” is misleading.
The Palestinian-Jewish conflict has been going on for more than a hundred years. There are no good guys and bad guys in this complicated story. Both people are a fallen people--just like the rest of humanity. Keeping track of the history and the faults and atrocities caused by each side is impossible.The fact is, however, that the Palestinians have lost most of their homeland to a people who came from all around the world because of persecution against them in “Christian” Europe. The Palestinians contributed though through a dogmatic and stiff leadership to this condition.
The Jewish people established their country on 78% of the land (with a Palestinian minority that I belong to). Palestinians live in the remaining 22% under closure or occupation in dreadful conditions with more and more Jewish settlements.
In this stage of the conflict, the Israelis are in the victorious wave. As such, they have convinced themselves that there is no need for a partner for peace. They have just gone on with their lives and are not interested in reaching a settlement with the Palestinians that will give both sides dignity and a fair chance for freedom and national expression. They have failed to make any progress even with the moderate and flexible leaders of the Palestinian Authority like Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad.
Christians interested in the conflict should also know for example that since the first rocket strike from Gaza on Israel in April 2001, 4717 Palestinians were killed in the fighting compared to 59 Israelis in the same period.
In light of such desperate conditions, what would you expect from Palestinians in general?
Biblical Mandate
It is a sad fact that many faithful Christians not only fail to understand the big picture but also do not look into the conflict from a real Biblical perspective. A lot of Christians around the world take the simple track of seeing the conflict as an Old Testament conflict between the “Chosen People” and some form of pagan Gentile people illegally inhabiting the land.
Some faithful Christians still see the Jewish people as a people with a special status. This privilege is derived from their heritage and Biblical promises (that have either been fulfilled or are spiritual in nature) and also derived from the plan God has prepared for their return to Him in the last days.
Regardless of the view that a Christian believer holds concerning the basis for any special status for Jews, other Biblical commandments can’t be overlooked, especially one of the two greatest commandments Jesus gave, “to love one another”.
By taking this position, Christian believers are just clinging to the Old Testament passages and the end days’ theology and are neglecting the core of the Gospel concerning love, forgiveness and peace. They are saying that although the commandment to “love my neighbor” applies to my life, it strangely does not apply to the modern state of Israel.
Why would Israel be exempt from any moral standards required by Jesus? Is it an ex-Territorial entity that God’s standards don’t apply on?
A challenge extended
*Botrus Mansour is an Arab Palestinian Evangelical and Israeli Citizen . He is a lawyer and the General Director of Nazareth Baptist School.
RSS
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs says, that 1.233 Israelis were killed since september 2000 and far most of them after April 2001. You write 59 Israelis!
Yes, as believers we need to seek the "full picture" and the truth.
Blessings.
1) AS A LAWYER you know how to distinguish between good and bad sources, true and false information. Official lists of killed Israelis from the Israeli Foreign Ministry (supported by lists from human rights organizations) are more trustworthy than articles in newspapers. Therefore you should know that your statement in the article, that since April 2001 »4717 Palestinians were killed in the fighting compared to 59 Israelis in the same period« is not true. Either you misunderstood the articles you read, or they were untrue misinformation (you do not provide the references, so I cannot check them).
2) AS A CHRISTIAN BELIEVER you know the importance of truth. In fact, you yourself in the article wrote about the importance of facts and research. You warned about Christians who are »too quick to decide. They don’t want to be confused by facts. They don’t want to do research of the real situation on the ground«. I agree with you. But then you yourself circulate false information about the number of killed Israelis. You ask me and other believers to look for the facts and do the research – yes, I will try to do that! But please, do it yourself, too! Now people all over the world believe the false numbers that you wrote in your article. For the sake of your own reliability you need to retract the false information. As Christian believers it is our responsibility to tell the truth – and if we make a mistake: to retract it.
The facts i brought are from haaretz and the economist and not from one of the conflicting parties, namingly the ministry for foreign affairs:
http://www.israeli-occupation.org/2012-11-25/gideon-levy-gaza-accounting/
Read carefully before questioning my credibility
a) The link to The Economist doesn’t say anything about 4.717 killed Palestinians and 59 killed Israelis in the same period.
b) It is difficult to understand the numbers given by Gideon Levy in Ha’aretz. I think that he may be writing on Israelis killed by rockets and mortars from Gaza, or on Israelis killed by attacks from Gaza. He is certainly not writing about all Israelis killed in the fighting between Palestinians and Israelis. I wonder if you misunderstood him?
c) You dismiss the numbers of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Do you really in your hearth believe, that all the names and details of their deaths are free fantasy? Pure invention to misinform? Botrus, you know that this is not the case! They were living human beings that were killed.
d) If you do not believe the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then see B’Tselem. According to B’Tselem 754 Israeli civilians and 343 Israeli security personal were killed from 29.9.2000 to 30.9.2012. That is 1097 Israelis killed. (http://old.btselem.org/statistics/english/Casualties.asp) (As you know, B’Tselem is very far from being pro-Israeli!)
e) Botrus, if you don’t believe B’Tselem, then believe your own memory. If you think back at the terrible years during the second intifada, I am sure, that you will remember some of the terror attacks in Israel: The Dolphinarium bombing in Tel Aviv June 1, 2001 (21 young people killed), the bombing of the Sbarro Pizzeria in Jerusalem August 9, 2001 (15 killed), the bombings at Ben Yehuda and Rav Kook street in Jerusalem December 1, 2001 (11 killed), the bomb on bus 16 in Haifa December 2, 2001 (15 killed), the bus bomb near Immanuel December 12, 2001 (11 killed), the bombing in the orthodox Beit Yisrael Quarter in Jerusalem March 2, 2002 (11 killed), the Ofra checkpoint attack March 3, 2002 (10 killed), the pesach-bombing of the Park Hotel in Netanya March 27, 2002 (29 killed).
These 8 terror attacks alone left 123 Israelis killed. More than twice as many as your figure of 59 for the years 2001-2012. And there were – as you will remember – hundreds of attacks. Your own memory will witness against the number of 59.
Blessings.
http://www.haaretz.co.il/news/education/1.1871759
The list in Haaretz depends on data from the Israeli Intellengence (Shabak) as BaTs-Selem too.
I would suggest you have a look at the other objective information in the Economists article about Area and GDP in both areas.This tells the whole story.
Instead you wrote: »Christians interested in the conflict should also know for example that since the first rocket strike from Gaza on Israel in April 2001, 4717 Palestinians were killed in the fighting compared to 59 Israelis in the same period«. Many people who read your words will understand it as if you mention all people killed. Nobody will understand that you singled out a very small part of the Israelis killed in the fighting. This is kind of misinformation.
Moreover, it doesn’t make sense to compare people killed in a special way without mentioning people killed in other ways. Then an Israeli could write an article with this statistics: Israelis killed by Palestinian suicide bombers: many hundreds. Palestinians killed by Israeli suicide bombers: 0.
If that was all he wrote about the casualties of the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis it would not give a fair, full and true picture. Neither did the numbers of people killed in your article give a fair and full picture.
You wrote your article to argue for a balanced view, for looking at facts and researching the full picture. I agree with you. But I am sorry to conclude, that the numbers of people killed in the conflict that you present in your article are not consistent with your own wish for a balanced and full picture. That was a big disappointment for me!
But still, thank you for our small debate. I wish the Lord’s blessings on you and your ministry.
However you never clarified your position about the claims in the article.