On a beautiful summer day at a public park in Eugene, Oregon, my wife and I were invited to a fundraiser for an organization that delivers medical aid to Gaza. The Christian organizers of the event asked a Muslim Palestinian restaurant owner to cook a big pot of mujadara (a simple rice and lentils dish) for the event. Over $7,000 was raised. Christians, Muslims, and Jews participated not only in eating and donating but in friendly discussion of the events that were taking place in Gaza. Shortly after October 7, 2023, I spoke at a Universalist Unitarian Church where thousands of dollars were raised to support medical services in Gaza.

 

A Christian couple who has visited the Holy Land many times displays and sells Palestinian artifacts, including olive wood carvings, embroideries, and their own beautiful pottery creations and donates the proceeds to assist the needy in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. Another couple bought and planted tulip bulbs with plans to sell tulips this spring to generate funds for devastated Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. These are a few examples of church-related events that have taken place all over the US and Canada to show solidarity with the people in Gaza and the West Bank. Since October 2023 Christians from many denominations have also engaged in advocacy activities calling for a ceasefire and an end to the genocide. 

 

While it is encouraging to observe this outpouring of compassion towards Palestinians, the sad reality is that only a miniscule percentage of the Christians in North America have shown concern for Palestinians in their giving or in their direct action. Since October 7, 2023, 50,000 Palestinians have been slaughtered by Netanyahu’s forces. Over 150,000 have been wounded, and all 2.2 million residents have been traumatized every day over the course of an entire year and three months. All this suffering is seemingly making no dent on the hearts of a substantial portion of the people who call themselves Christians.

The message that I often receive from my siblings in Christ when I ask them to focus on the situation in Gaza is that Palestinians deserve their suffering. Had Palestinians not elected Hamas to lead them, they argue, this would not have happened to them. Or had Palestinians not attacked Israel in October 2023, this suffering would not have occurred. Or had Hamas’ fighters not hidden behind civilians, the civilians would not have been harmed. All of these are justifications used to blame the victims and ease our consciences while supporting the perpetrators. Christians use these excuses to rationalize our refusal to be good Samaritans and show empathy to the victims of the genocide. The Palestinian children who have been targeted and assassinated by the Israelis did not vote for Hamas. Most of them had not yet been born when Hamas came to power in 2006. The thousands of toddlers and infants that Israeli troops have massacred had nothing to do with the attacks of October 2023. If it is true that Hamas’ fighters hid among civilians, the innocent women, children, journalists, doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers, shopkeepers, schoolteachers, and civil servants had no knowledge of it, no way to stop it, and thus no possibility of escaping from Israel’s carpet bombing. Blaming the victims is like saying that the man who fell among the thieves in the story of the Good Samaritan deserved what he got because he walked by himself or chose the wrong time of day to travel or was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Jesus did not fault the victim; rather, he admonished his contemporaries to have compassion. This is a lesson that Christians have not yet mastered.

 

As a child, I grew up in Jerusalem and faithfully attended every church service, Sunday School class, and weekday meeting. I learned from my mentors that God’s love is universal. I was taught that the most popular verse in the Bible, John 3:16, includes me and my people. It took me a long time to realize that most Christians do not mean what they say when they teach and preach God’s love for all people. But I have no doubt that Christ did indeed mean all people--including Palestinians. Since October 7, 2023, this tragic disparity between what Christians teach, and practice has become more obvious.

How many more innocent children in Gaza must be killed before the church acts with compassion? How many more hospitals, schools, churches, colleges, universities, bakeries, and homes in Gaza must be destroyed before our Christian compassion kicks in? How long will we continue to let our racism against Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims prevent us from heeding the command of Jesus to love our enemies? When will we stop trusting end-time theologies that prevent us from seeing the Gazan people as humans loved by God and deserving our compassion?

 

History will judge the church in its response to the genocide in Gaza with the same measure that it judged the church during the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Holocaust for standing side-by-side in support of the oppressor (or at least for looking the other way) instead of standing in solidarity with the oppressed.  

 

The parable of the Good Samaritan was told to move the religious leaders in Jesus’ time from a legalistic and racist mentality devoid of compassion to a moral and compassionate attitude that produced empathy for the tormented. And the command of Jesus to his contemporaries and to us is “Go and do likewise!” Doing likewise regarding the people of Gaza means taking a hard look at the conditions of the victims. We must have the courage to look at the details of what has been happening in Gaza during the last fifteen months. Look at the destruction of lives. Look at the homes and infrastructure that have turned into rubble. Be brave. Keep looking and see the facts on the ground. Then examine the numbers and try to see that every Gazan who has been killed was a human created in the image of God. For a moment imagine yourself lying under the rubble with the children of Gaza. Accompany a starving Gazan child to the place where she stands in line and hopes to get a meager food ration for the day. Walk the corridors of the ruined hospitals of Gaza. Fill your eyes with the suffering of the bereaving women of Gaza. After you see the reality in Gaza and your heart is filled with compassion, draw nearer and ask yourself, “What can I do beyond shedding tears?” Let the Spirit of God inspire you to serve in practical ways to help meet the needs of the masses in Gaza.

 

The people of Gaza deserve Christian compassion. Are you the person who is called to “Go and do likewise”?