It is not common for Evangelicals in Israel to address the political realities on their pulpits. Nevertheless, since October 7th, the intensity on speaking about Gaza in the name of God and the Bible demands a moment of contemplation and prayer so that we may take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor 10: 5). I have recently read many productions written by Palestinian Christians. My reading list included Christ in the Rubble by Rev. Munther Isaac, Theology After Gaza co-edited by Rev. Mitri Raheb, and Being Christian After the Desolation of Gaza co-edited by Dr. Ross Wagner and it includes  contributions from Dr. Yousef Al-Khouri, Dr. Anton Deik, Lisa Loden, Dr. Lamma Mansour, and Dr. Daniel Bannoura.[1] I then read The Cross and the Olive Tree edited by John Munayer and Samuel Munayer, with contributions from Marah Sarji, Dr. Yousef Al-Khouri, Dr. Lamma Mansour, and Shadia Qubti.[2] I also studied the book by Dr. Salim Munayer,  Reconciling Justice.[3] Furthermore, more recently, the second Kairos document was issued, A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide.[4] At the same time, we continue to encounter the Christian Zionist perspective. For example, Dr. Judith Rood wrote the book: Beauty for Ashes: Understanding the Israel-Hamas War.[5] She is a believer in Christ from a Jewish background.

The ethical and spiritual stances have varied, which obliges us to confront the contemporary contextual and ecclesial challenges in the light of Christ and by adhering to the Evangelical faith that the New Testament writers clung to. Consequently, this essay will describe the reality, then it will present some biblical principles. I stress that my description of the reality does not seek to be comprehensive but rather to present the challenges from the perspective of a servant who has sought to spread Christian faith and love in all circumstances. Furthermore, the principles of faith that I put forward are derived from the Word of God and are necessary for our contemplation in this difficult time. This is why I used the title: The Christian Faith in the Context of Gaza. I do not want to live out my faith in isolation from my political reality, nor do I want to face my political reality in isolation from my Christian faith.

My country has encountered multiple conflicts and wars in every decade for the last century. Kalidi writes about the history of settler-colonial conquest and resistance in Palestine. He divides his book into six declarations of war: 1917-1939, 1947-1948, 1967, 1982, 1995, and 2000-2014. From the Balfour declaration in 1917 to President Trump in 2017 Palestine has been targeted by superpowers who ignored Palestinians “talking for them or over their heads, or pretending that they did not exist.”[6]

I am personally connected to these wars. The war in 1948 changed the destiny of my country. The State of Israel prevented more than 70% of the population of the 1948 lands from returning to their homes after the war. These Palestinians, including my father’s family, became refugees. Others, including my parents-in-law, were internally displaced and were prevented from going back to their homes. These are painful memories in the lives of my family. Their pain is my pain.

Such oppression became a fertile space for nurturing hatred, revenge, and further wars. In 1967, I was born in another war and I encountered further pain and trauma even as a child. In 1967 Israel occupied Gaza. Israel continued to face wars or wage wars with many opponents including but not limited to Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and Palestinians. I was born in the 1967 war; I was six years old on Yom Kippur war in 1973. I was 15 years old on the 1982 war with Lebanon; I was 18 years old when Israel faced Hezbollah in Lebanon in 1985. This is the same year that I graduated from high school and joined Bethlehem University. Then I encountered the First Intifada in 1987 and was arrested for going to a chemistry class. My university was closed for almost 3 years. I lost the right to study and suffered from unemployment. But things can still be worse.

During the First Intifada, my parents, and siblings had to leave the country because my younger brother’s best friend was shot by an Israeli soldier. My mother was concerned about the anger of my young brother. The family left to Australia but was never whole again; we were scattered. I see my parents once every few years. My parents and siblings were deprived from coming back to Palestine because Israel canceled their Jerusalem residency, in spite the fact that this is the country in which they were born and lived all their lives. Furthermore, due to political oppressive measures, I graduated after investing seven years of my life instead of four years to earn a Bachelor degree. Then in 1993, I encountered the Oslo agreements with great enthusiasm that kept declining due to the realities on the ground: more checkpoints, more confiscation of land, and more violence. By God’s grace I travelled to the USA to pursue further studies. I earned another two degrees in 1995-1999: Master in Theological Studies and Master of Divinity. In 2000, I was back teaching at Bethlehem Bible College. In the same year, I encountered the Second Intifada. It was a militant Palestinian response to the Israeli oppression. In 2001, I was praying with my wife everyday when I go to work and giving her a long hug because I was not sure if I will survive and return home. The same year, my wife and I went to the USA so that I can pursue a PhD at Trinity International University in Illinois. Gladly the Second Intifada finished during our time in the USA. My wife returned ahead of me then I came back at the beginning of 2007; I was 40 years old with three young children. But the oppression of the State of Israel continues. Now there is a huge wall separating the West Bank from Israel. There are hundreds of checkpoints and the land continues to be confiscated.

Two years before my return, in 2005, Israel “disengaged” from Gaza but retained military, economic, and administrative control.[7] Israel completed an evacuation of many settlements in the Gaza Strip but retained strict restrictions on movement and access. Hamas won the elections in 2006. In 2007 Hamas fought against Fateh and formed an exclusive control over Gaza. On October 7, 2007 Rami Ayyad, a Christian worker at the Bible Society, was killed by radical Muslims. I was shocked along with others who knew the servants of the Bible Society and many of the family members and fellow servants of Rami. Rami left his wife Pauline and his unborn child. Pauline became one of my students at Bethlehem Bible College. In 2012 during the Blockade, Rev. John Angle and myself worked on establishing the Gaza center for theological studies. We recruited BA and MA students to pursue theological degrees. For the next few years, I had the privilege of being involved in teaching the followers of Christ in Gaza. They embodied trusting God in the valley of the shadow of death.

The restrictions over Gaza turned into a blockade; Gaza experienced a strict land, air, and sea blockade. The blockade continued for 16 years. It started in 2007 and was present on October 6, 2023. During the period of the blockage Gaza had serious electricity shortage that caused blackouts for 10-12 hours per day. Many of my students were unable to continue the class session because of the lack of electricity. Sometimes they had access to an electrical generator which made it possible for us to have an uninterrupted class. For many long years, Gaza suffered from water and food shortage, medicine shortage, and sewage contamination. Gaza suffered a humanitarian crisis. These conditions facilitated further wars. Gaza experienced four wars before 2023. The wars were in 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2021. Each war shook our hearts as we watched young children killed and the destruction of many innocent people. During these wars, I wrote an open letter to my Messianic brothers and sisters.[8] This letter was followed by several essays published on comeandsee.[9] I also participated in writing the first Kairos document in 2009 and then the King of Peace and His Young Followers in 2012.[10] These conditions were the background for the horrible crimes that happened on October 7, 2023. Hamas chose the path of an eye for an eye. They killed and kidnapped innocent Israeli civilians. Their acts cannot be justified. My heart was broken for my fellow Israeli citizens. I thought that that this is the worst evil that I can see until Israel’s response to Hamas atrocities started. The government of Israel was determined to revenge and has killed dozens of thousands of innocent people. Israel destroyed all the infra structure of Gaza. Such mass murder shocked the world and initiated a new stage of the Zionist project in which genocide and ethnic cleansing are visible on all screens.

No doubt, wars polarized our societies, dehumanized our nations, and spread hate in the name of political justice. The ethical standards of nations were compromised; human rights were violated; war crimes became common. Palestine had been suffering from the Zionist project. Yet we are called to be light and salt in midst of wars. As followers of Christ, what is our responsibility during such conditions and wars?

First, we need to affirm the biblical mandate to preserve human lives. We are not only commanded to avoid killing but we are also expected to protect human lives. The midwives feared God more than Pharaoh and protected the lives of the innocent children (Exodus 1: 15-21). Moses’ mother and sister sought to preserve the life of Moses (Exodus 2). Jonathan warned David to preserve his life from Saul, the royal dictator (1 Samuel 19-20). Obadiah hides one hundred prophets from Jezebel’s and Ehab (1 Kings 18: 3-4). He saves their lives breaking the laws of the king and Queen providing them with water and food. Jesus challenged the Pharisees claiming that rescuing the life of a person is more important than keeping the Sabbath (Mark 3: 1-6). Ignoring a dying human being on the side of the road is not an option for the followers of Christ, even if the injured person is a Samaritan or an enemy (Luke 10: 25-37). The church sought to rescue the life of Paul by lowering him in a basket (Acts 9: 23-25). All crimes against life are sins against God and human beings. We must protect the lives of both Jews and Palestinians fighting against the culture of death and replacing it with the culture of life. We can embody this principle by celebrating the life of every human being. Every Palestinian or Jewish child is a gift from God.

Second, we must affirm the centrality of love during wars. Love is the greatest commandment in scriptures. We cannot be followers of Christ without love. Love must include loving God, neighbor, and the enemy. It is difficult to talk about love during a season of war. There is so much hate in the media, in our streets, and even in our worship centers. To hate your neighbor and to act selfishly is embedded in political ideologies. It is becoming part of influential religious ideologies. We struggle with hate every day when we encounter checkpoints, violence, discriminatory laws, religious extremism, powerful empires, and systemic oppression. Yet we are called to love. Love is such a mysterious word in the context of hate. What does it mean? How can we pursue a politics of love and a civilization of love?

I will speak about three areas of love: covenantal, Christological, and missional love.[11] Covenantal love is the only celebrated kind of love in the Old Testament. The Bible says, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deut. 6: 4-5). Loving God empowers us to love all people. Thus, covenantal love is important in a country that is marked with diverse denominations, religions, and communities that seek to destroy each other. Covenantal love leads us to Christological love. Christ is the telos of the law (Rom 10: 4).[12] You cannot love God and hate Christ. Christ embodies Covenantal love. The love of Christ for his enemies is one of the most striking revelations in the New Testament. Christological love prompts us to pursue the love and salvation of our crucifiers. It even perceives the cross as the medium of their salvation and liberation from sin. Through our unity with the sufferings of Christ, that is orthopathos, our crucifiers encounter Christ, his love, and his Kingdom. This transforms our embodiment of the Christological love into a missional Kairos or missional liberating love. Palestinian Christians are called to not only love all Palestinians but also all Jews. Such love liberates our country from hate. Any Christian who does not approach our region with such love will be part of the problem not part of the solution.

Third, love is not an excuse to abandon justice. It is an opportunity to pursue justice with the right heart. But what kind of justice are we pursuing? We need an adjective that can describe God’s understanding of justice. I propose Christological Justice. Christ embodies justice in the mission of God to redeem humanity. Christ is the justice of God. Moreover, we might label such justice missional justice. This justice is an embodiment of both God’s love for humanity and for truth. When Christ wanted to summarize all the justice of the Old Testament, he summarized it with love. Love is the other side of the coin of divine justice. Love is the womb that produces justice. The cross is the best embodiment not only of love but also of justice. God addresses sin in love. Through the suffering of Christ love paved the way for the dawn of justice. This leads me to unpack orthopathos in the famous example that Christ provided. If someone strikes you on the right cheek turn the other cheek. Between the first strike and the possibility of the second strike. The person who is under attack can choose to revenge or to accept oppression by apathy or to choose the way of the cross. In such a way a person asks himself or herself: am I willing to suffer for the sake of bringing the Kingdom of God to this situation? By accepting the cross our identities are transformed from a victim to a missionary, a messenger for the Kingdom of Christ. Palestinians can transform their suffering into kingdom energy that produces God’s love by God’s grace. This can be done through humanizing our struggle and our enemy. By giving the other cheek, we not only declare our humanity we also give a second chance to the oppressor by allowing them to rediscover their own humanity. Demonizing people is common in wars but we need to continually rehumanize people who are created in the image of God. We must do this in our media, theology, preaching, and all our discourses.

Fourth, affirming our commitment to biblical love and justice is the only way for us to become Christian peacemakers. In our calling as peacemaker we must confront and resist evil in love. We also must resist evil in all its forms whether it is personal, political, or ecclesiastical. Evil can be individualistic but it also can be systemic. It can be in our culture and even in our theology. Evil can appear in lies and propaganda, in stereotyping and demonizing nations. Evil can justify revenge and promote hate. Several Israeli politicians are saying: we will never forget or forgive. Such statements lead to a life imprisoned in hate and fear.

Fifth, practical steps are needed in our pursuit of peacemaking. No doubt, we need to address the huge humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank. But we also need to deconstruct many theologies that lack mercy and promote eschatological wars. Our theological systems must be tested with biblical ethics. Any theology that lacks love is not compatible with God’s vision which became visible in Jesus Christ. Theology without love or mercy or equity is a dangerous ideology. Furthermore, we need to seek long term solutions in which Palestinians and Jews are equally appreciated and loved. The global church is responsible before God to promote Christ in every circle in which God located us. Many churches advocated Israel instead of Christ. Some promoted war instead of peace. Some overlooked the needs of the Palestinian church and supported a Jewish State instead. Perhaps, the time is ripe to experience a paradigm shift in which we seek to honor Christ, empower his church, and advocate justice for Palestinians as well a life of dignity and equity for both Palestinians and Jews. Palestinian citizens of Israel are a great asset in advocating this reality. They are bilingual speaking Hebrew and Arabic. They are bicultural. Their churches and institutions are a great asset for peacemaking. The global church should invest in promoting God’s work in the Holy Land. This land has a unique calling in illustrating the words of Christ; its stones are crying out pointing humanity to God. May the Lord establish the needed partnerships for advocating the Kingdom of Christ, a kingdom of love, peace, justice, and equality.