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The 2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War: What 

Jewish Trauma and Genocide in Gaza Taught 

Me about Collective Liberation 
 

Mae Elise Cannon 
 

 
 

Drawing on personal experiences, theological reflections, and history, Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon re-

imagines peacemaking, resolution to conflict and violence, and collective liberation. Following both 

the author’s time spent in the Holy Land, and the events of October 7 and what followed, the author 

argues for a Christian response that gives witness to the suffering in Gaza and for all who suffer.
1

 

Cannon explores the idea that to seek justice and pursue peace it is essential to abhor evil and cling to 

what is good (Romans 12:9). Arguing that the Christian’s call is one of collective liberation, Cannon 

considers new ways to respond to violence and affirms the Christian commitment to God's promise 

of peace.   

  

The Gaza that I Knew and Loved  
The first time I rode down the rolling urban streets 

of Gaza City, I felt both overwhelmed and surprised at 

the view of the minaret silhouetted in the distance 

overlooking the Mediterranean as the sun set in light 

pink and yellow hues on the horizon. If I hadn’t known 

that I had just arrived in an enclave already blockaded 

for well over a decade, which had been virtually 

destroyed in the war of the summer of 2014, I could 

almost imagine I was on the Riviera of the Italian 

seaside town. While taking in the view, I also had to un-

imagine what I knew to be true, that tens of thousands 

of gallons of raw sewage were being dumped into the 

water every minute (Cannon and Hill 2017). At the 

same time, I had to work hard to ignore the constant 

buzz like a loud gargantuan electronic fly hovering in 

the distance, sometimes very close and at other times 

higher up in the clouds—Israeli military drones 

constantly present. The incessant buzz makes one feel 

like they are going slightly crazy, for while electricity 

never stays on consistently, the constant knowledge of 

being enclosed, watched, and under surveillance 

remains always present.  

I never felt unsafe with the people of Gaza. In fact, 

the hospitality I experienced there rivaled the warm 

welcome and warmth of rural communities in Egypt 

and other parts of the Middle East. It is impossible to 

                                                        
1

 Editor’s note: It is very difficult to publish updated information on current events in a timely manner. Please note that 

this piece was written in 2024 and last updated in early 2025. Important events have occurred since the time of writing.  

enter a household without having coffee, juice, and 

sweets offered in abundance, even in homes with little 

material wealth. In homes where people have nothing, 

Muslim and Christian alike, Palestinians in Gaza still 

give from what little they do possess.  

When I visited in 2018, I attended a giving circle 

with a development agency in Khan Yunis. Every week, 

the women would meet and save only a few shekels (the 

equivalent of US$0.50). Their savings eventually 

contributed to micro-loans so they could start their own 

businesses, and another bucket was kept for 

benevolence if one of the women’s family members got 

sick or needed money for medicine or food. The 

women had skills in sewing, cooking, or other domestic 

skills that could be used to help support their families. 

These women were devout Muslims, dressed in black 

niqabs from head to toe, with only their eyes showing. I 

dressed conservatively, at least for an American, but did 

not cover my hair and was not wearing a hijab. My hair 

is dirty blond and long, so there was no mistaking that I 

was from the West and not Muslim. While my hosts 

were used to working with internationals and primarily 

men, these women were not. And yet, I interacted with 

the community and experienced a complete welcome, 

despite my abhorrent Arabic and the limitations in our 

direct communication. One of the most sumptuous 

weekly treats for the women includes a piece of 



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chocolate that the development agency gives them—a 

special delicacy for women living in abject poverty. The 

women absolutely insisted that I take their chocolate, 

not the extras the agency had brought—for they each 

wanted me to give me something that was theirs to give 

and to be sure that when I left, I was not leaving empty-

handed. Such is the hospitality of the Palestinians. Gaza 

is no exception.  

I typically visit Gaza once a year as part of my work 

with Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP). The last 

time I entered Gaza was in May 2022. Permits were in 

progress, and I was scheduled to return in October 

2023. Then Hamas committed the atrocities of 

October 7, 2023.  

Now, after the horrors of October 7 and Israel’s 

war to destroy Hamas, with its ghastly effects on the 

civilian population of Gaza, where to begin in the 

middle of stories of such trauma and horror? That’s 

often the question when discussing the 

Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Does one begin in 1948? Or 

does one begin with the biblical story of the children of 

Abraham—Isaac and Ishmael? I speak at churches 

across the United States and to Christian and religious 

communities worldwide. One of the fundamental 

things we discuss includes debunking the question of 

when the current conflict—war, genocide, ethnic 

cleansing, occupation, traumas, and divisions between 

Israelis and Palestinians—really began. It was not 

thousands of years ago. Nor was it when tragedy struck 

on October 7, 2023.  

 

A Call for Collective Liberation  
This brief memoir includes some of the stories, 

encounters, thinking, theologies, history, and 

geopolitics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It 

describes a small glimpse of my life in leadership as the 

executive director of CMEP over the past year. This 

account includes a summary of more than 380 days (still 

ongoing) amid what the world has come to know as the 

Israel-Hamas War (or now the Israel-Hamas-

Hezbollah War). Some identify the horrors in Gaza as 

genocide. Others recognize it only as Jewish trauma, 

seeing it as nothing short of resounding anti-Semitism 

toward Jewish people and the state of Israel that has 

echoes of the Holocaust. I, and the organization I lead, 

advocate for an end to violence by all parties—including 

terrorist organizations, militants, and state actors—the 

demilitarization of conflict, the end of the bombing of 

civilians and all people, the end of the holding of 

hostages of any kind, the release of people held in 

prison without the due process of law of civil 

protections, upholding human rights and international 

law, the recognition of the humanity and dignity of all 

people, while addressing the more than decades-long 

historic core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  

As a pastor and Christian leader, my call and 

leadership go even further, calling Christians in the 

United States and around the world to look within our 

hearts and root out the hatred that is within us, seeking 

to redefine not only who is our enemy, but also who is 

our neighbor. In the specific case of this conflict, being 

American and leading a US-based non-profit 

peacebuilding organization based in Washington, DC 

at the same time when the Biden Administration in 

recent months has sent billions of dollars of weaponry 

and arms that have been used to kill tens of thousands 

of people, my organization and I have an obligation to 

ask the question of what our culpability is and what our 

responsibility as American citizens is in contributing to 

this war and all the death it has caused.  

Collective liberation in this context means the idea 

many attribute to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 

the context of the black struggle for liberation in the 

United States, an idea often heard from civil rights hero 

Fannie Lou Hamer; “Nobody’s Free Until Everybody’s 

Free,” she said as she told the National Women’s 

Political Caucus in Washington, DC in 1971 that black 

and white women had to work together for the freedom 

of all (as cited in Parker Brooks and Houck 2011, 136). 

As the American Jewish World Service reminds us, the 

famous quote, “Until we are all free, we are none of us 

free,” was penned in 1883 by American Jewish poet 

Emma Lazarus in 1883 at a time when global Jewish 

anti-Semitism increased so rapidly, that in some ways a 

Jewish nationalist movement may have felt like the only 

hope for safety and preservation for a worldwide Jewish 

community that had yet to see the horrors of the 

Holocaust (Bank and Abelow 2021). Collective 

liberation in the context of the Israeli/Palestinian 

conflict demands that justice not be only sought for 

some but for all. One cannot have liberation for 

Palestinians without security for Jewish people—in 

Israel and everywhere. One cannot have security for 

Jewish people without freedom, self-determination, and 

liberation for Palestinians. Democratic people in the 

United States will never be “free” while investing in wars 

in foreign lands and impinging upon the liberties of 

others. Our future together, in the Middle East and the 

world, is inextricably linked.  

 

A Short History of the Israeli/Palestinian 

Conflict  
For those who think God curses the descendants 

of Ishmael (Muslims), please consider Genesis 21 when 

Hagar cries out to God in the wilderness. God does not 

reject her. Quite the opposite. God reveals Himself to 

Hagar in the very first theophany (revelation of his 

presence) in the Hebrew Scriptures (Royo 2019, 8). 

Bible and Middle Eastern studies scholar at 

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Tony 

Maalouf, wrote an excellent book about this very 



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question called Arabs in the Shadow of Israel: The 

Unfolding of God’s Prophetic Plan for Ishmael’s Line 

(2003), and if you don’t want to read an entire book, I 

would point you to the chapter “The Holy Land and 

the Larger Family of Abraham” in the book I edited 

titled A Land Full of God: Christian Perspectives on the 

Holy Land (Cannon 2017). 

The Israeli/Palestinian conflict is a contemporary 

geopolitical conflict that began in the late 19th century 

as the Ottoman Empire was declining and primarily 

motivated by the Jewish Zionist movement, as Jewish 

immigration to the historic territory of Palestine 

increased. Conflicts between the immigrant Jewish 

population, the local Arab population, and the British 

Administration after World War I through 1947 

ultimately escalated into unresolved disputes over land, 

borders, Jerusalem, security concerns, the Right of 

Return, prisoners, and settlements, which continue to 

be unresolved in large part until today.  

 

Terminology and the Israel—Hamas War 

Today  
There are as many battles about what terminology 

to use regarding the situation happening on the ground 

now and historically in Israel and the occupied 

Palestinian territories (oPt) as there are about when it 

began in history. I will seek to use the relatively 

“neutral” terminology of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, 

while noting that the 2023-2024 hostilities between 

Israel and Hamas, which, as of late October 2024 has 

already killed 42 thousand people, is referred to by 

many as genocide.
2

 Numerous individuals and groups 

in the activist space, like Jewish Voices for Peace and 

Palestinian Christians, consider using any term other 

than “genocide” offensive (Jewish Voice for Peace 

2024). Others believe the state of Israel is the only 

democracy in the Middle East, surrounded by militant 

groups and states like Hamas and Hezbollah who are 

determined to accomplish its destruction, and that thus 

the 2023-2024 hostilities are a legitimate and necessary 

self-defense for survival (Deloy 2021). However, on 

January 26, 2024, the International Criminal Court of 

Justice (ICJ) ruled that “at least some of the rights 

claimed by South Africa and for which it is seeking 

protection are plausible’, including ‘the right of the 

                                                        
2

 I am choosing to use the term “conflict” not to minimize the atrocities of current realities in Gaza, but to 

acknowledge that there have been multiple phases of historical engagement and hostilities and war between multiple 

parties residing on the current geographic land of the modern nation-state of Israel and the occupied Palestinian 

territories (oPt), including but not limited to: Indigenous Jewish and Arab populations; members of the Palestinian 

resistance movements; Palestinians who later became citizens of the state of Israel; Palestinians living in the occupied 

Palestinian territories of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza; Jewish citizens of Israel living on the Israeli side of 

the green line; Israeli setters; Palestinian refugees from 1948, 1967, and other periods; diaspora communities; and 

others.  

Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of 

genocide and related prohibited acts’” (2024).  

Increasingly, the world’s opinion seems to be that 

Israel’s actions against Hamas have had a far too 

extreme and disproportionate response to the civilian 

population in the Gaza Strip. On May 24, the ICJ ruled 

by thirteen votes to two that: “The State of Israel shall, 

in conformity with its obligations under the Convention 

on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of 

Genocide, and in view of the worsening conditions of 

life faced by civilians in the Rafah Governorate: 

Immediately halt its military offensive, and any other 

action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on 

the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that 

could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in 

part” (International Criminal Court 2024).  

CMEP came to an apparent decision early on in 

October 2023; all of our more than 30 member 

communions and denominations may not agree on the 

specific terminology, but they do unanimously agree on 

the “prevention of genocide” as it relates to the 

atrocities in Gaza post-October 2023. In other words, 

regardless of what you call the situation in Gaza—ethnic 

cleansing, genocide, atrocities, mass slaughter, there are 

many descriptive terms—the most important thing is 

that the hundreds and thousands of deaths of men, 

women, and children happening in Gaza must be 

brought to an immediate end. Some people argue these 

deaths are justified because the population supports the 

militant group Hamas. Still, honestly, such thinking 

ignores that the vast majority of the population are 

children and youth, who are not guilty of the crimes of 

Hamas. 

The top priority has been calling and advocating 

for a comprehensive and immediate ceasefire, which 

means an end to all violence, including that by Hamas 

and the Israeli military, and a return to the negotiating 

table. CMEP’s other asks have included the demand for 

immediate and adequate humanitarian assistance into 

Gaza, the release of hostages being held by Hamas or 

other militant groups, the release of Palestinian 

prisoners who are being held in Israeli jails without due 

process, and that the core causes of the conflict be 

addressed, including but not limited to addressing 

human rights issues as a result of the decades-long 

occupation of the Palestinian people such as the 

expanding settlement expansion, forced displacement, 



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settler violence, and numerous other human rights 

concerns.  

The past twelve-plus months have been the most 

difficult season of my professional life. My credentials 

include a doctorate of philosophy (on the history of the 

Israeli/Palestinian conflict nonetheless) and a doctorate 

of ministry (focusing on the spiritually transformative 

process of learning to love your enemy), three master's 

degrees, more than fifteen years in international 

development experience, and more than twenty years 

in Christian ministry, yet they seem woefully inadequate 

for the demands of this moment.  

I feel woefully inadequate daily, even though I’ve 

received numerous awards and acknowledgments in 

past months for my peacebuilding efforts, including 

Sojourners identification as one of the nine Christian 

women shaping the church (Schnaser 2024), One of the 

Top 50 Women of 2024 in the State of Maryland (“The 

Top Fifty…” 2024), the Armenian Apostolic Church’s 

“Friend of the Year Award” (Diocese of the Armenian 

Church… 2024), and North Park Theological 

Seminary’s “Alumni of the Year Award.” All of that, 

and I’ve never felt like more of a failure—every day, 

more and more people continue to die. 

In many ways, we are further away from peace in 

the Middle East than ever before.  

 

October 7, 2023: Hamas Attacks on 

Southern Israel  
So, where do we begin? I will start on October 7, 

2023. Not because that’s where the Israeli/Palestinian 

conflict began, by any means, but because I think that 

is when many Christians around the world, especially 

Americans, perhaps for the first time, first really began 

paying attention.  

On that day, October 7, 2023 (Martinez 2023), 

Israelis experienced, and Jews around the world 

witnessed, the most traumatic event since the 

Holocaust.  

During the early morning of October 7, 2023, at 

6:35 a.m., Israeli sirens began to warn residents of 

incoming rockets. Shortly after, the Israeli Defense 

Forces (IDF) confirmed that Hamas fighters had 

entered southern Israel. It quickly became clear that the 

scale of these attacks by Hamas and other militant 

groups would leave many Israeli citizens devastated for 

decades and generations to come. At 7:40 a.m., on a 

Sabbath morning, the IDF confirmed Hamas fighters 

had crossed into Southern Israel, and the military 

warned residents in the South to stay in their homes. By 

11:35 a.m., Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of 

Israel made his first statement to citizens, announcing 

that Israel was at war. As fighting continued throughout 

the day, Israel estimated that about 1,200 people were 

killed in Hamas’s October 7 attack, including more 

than 300 soldiers (Bisset 2024). Israel also estimated 

that more than 250 people were taken into Hamas 

territory as hostages, including Israeli citizens and 

internationals. By October 9, 2023, Israel had declared 

that “no food, no electricity, and no fuel” would be 

allowed into the Gaza Strip and that the enclave would 

be under a complete siege. No trucks. Nothing. 

Humanitarian assistance and any supplies needed for 

life were to be completely cut off. By the Fall of 2024, 

debates around the world existed about whether or not 

Israel was using the withholding of food and 

humanitarian assistance as a weapon of war. In the first 

weeks after the attacks, the government’s policy under 

Prime Minister Netanyahu was absolutely nothing in or 

out of the enclave until all of the hostages would be 

returned home. 

   

The Nova Music Festival  
One of the most devastating massacres occurred 

on October 7 at the Nova Music Festival, where many 

Israelis had gathered in the desert, which took place just 

5 km from the Gaza border. The location was close 

enough for people in Gaza to hear the music 

themselves. In the early morning hours, as rockets were 

being fired into Israel, many people at the festival paid 

little attention to the sound. It was not uncommon to 

hear rocket fire from this territory, so attendees were 

unaware that they, too, would soon be under attack. 

Hamas fighters quickly cut off routes from the North 

and South to trap the crowd; concertgoers who 

attempted to escape in cars were shot at. Militants 

targeted shelters where people hid and continued to 

chase those who tried to flee into the desert. According 

to Israeli authorities, the death count at Nova was over 

350 (Mackintosh et al. 2023).  

 

Israel’s Response to the October 7 Attacks  
After October 7, the majority of the Israeli 

population ardently supported not only the war against 

Hamas in Gaza but also the complete destruction and 

annihilation of the Gaza Strip, believing the war to be a 

“just war” that was thrust upon them and not their 

choice (Teibel 2023). Many Israelis not only supported 

the war, but they did not express reservations about the 

shutting off of all humanitarian aid, food, and water if it 

meant bringing home the hostages sooner. Revenge and 

despair, in addition to trauma, left little room for 

Israelis committed to making peace with Palestinians. 

In fact, during the first weeks and months after the war, 

attempts to protest the war and call for a comprehensive 

ceasefire were almost unilaterally shut down by the 

police and Israeli government (Sharon 2023). The 

Israeli government, the most right in the country’s 

history, further emboldened extremists and settlers 

within Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories 

with statements like:  

 



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“We will avenge this black day,” Netanyahu said 

almost immediately after the attacks, promising 

to take wider action against Gaza and “turn it into 

a ruin” (Times of Israel Staff 2023).  

 

“There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, 

everything is closed… we are fighting human 

animals, and we are acting accordingly,” said 

Yoav Gallant, Israel Defense Minister on 

October 9, 2023 (Fabian 2023). 

 

“Now there is only one goal: Nakba (expulsion 

of the Palestinians). A Nakba in Gaza that will 

dwarf the Nakba of 1948,” said Ariel Kallner, 

member of Parliament, October 13, 2023 

(Kauss 2023).  

 

“We are dropping hundreds of tons of bombs 

on Gaza, the focus is on destruction, not 

accuracy,” added Daniel Hagart, IDF Rear 

Admiral and Head of Israeli Defense Forces 

(IDF) Spokesperson’s Unit, on October 10, 

2023 (McKernan and Kierszenbaum 2023).
3

  

 

In the United States, after September 11, 2001, a 

common question became, “Where were you on 

September 11?” Many have said October 7, 2023, has 

become Israel’s September 11 in that it is a tragedy that 

will continue to define the future of the nation. In 

addition, the United States warned the Israeli 

government not to respond to the Hamas attacks the 

way that the United States did by entering into a long, 

drawn-out war that “cannot be won.” From the 

beginning, Israel declared their primary goal of 

“Operation Swords of Iron”—the complete and utter 

destruction of Hamas. Military leaders and the war 

cabinet declared the destruction of all infrastructure in 

Gaza a secondary goal of their engagement, but the 

destruction of Hamas has always been the primary goal 

over the past eight months (Nakhoul et al. 2023).  

Still, analysts since the beginning, in addition to 

Arab leaders like the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan’s 

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs 

Ayman Safadi, have said, “Hamas is an idea, and ideas 

do not die.” By June 2024, even the IDF spokesperson, 

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, seemed to come around 

to the belief that Hamas exists as an ideology and 

cannot be eradicated, saying, “This business of 

destroying Hamas, making Hamas disappear–it’s 

simply throwing sand in the eyes of the public… Hamas 

is an idea, Hamas is a [political] party. It’s rooted in the 

hearts of the people—anyone who thinks we can 

                                                        
3

 Note: The Guardian published this quote on October 10, 2023, and it was corrected December 5, 2023 to say, 

“while balancing accuracy with the scope of damage, right now we are focused on what causes maximum damage” 

(McKernan and Kierszenbaum 2023).  

eliminate Hamas is wrong” (Times of Israel Staff 2024). 

The adage often used in the Middle East is the idea that 

if you “cut off the head of the snake” or the leaders of 

the movement are killed, then more leaders will just rise 

up, having the opposite effect of what is desired. The 

movement will actually multiply and grow rather than 

be destroyed or diminished in its support or capacity. 

Regardless of whether or not the destruction of Hamas 

might have been achievable by May 2024, Netanyahu 

still did not wavere from his commitment that their 

destruction remained his primary goal. By early June, 

the Prime Minister still insisted the destruction of 

Hamas was a critical part of the ceasefire deal, telling 

the parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense 

Committee that in efforts to bring back hostages, “we 

have maintained the goals of the war, the first of them 

the destruction of Hamas” (Associated Press 2024).  

By late June 2024, tens of thousands of Israelis had 

participated in protests throughout Israel against 

Netanyahu and his coalition (Peleg et al. 2024). For the 

duration of hostilities, many Israelis have been ardently 

critical of the government’s lack of focus on bringing the 

hostages home, one of the main critiques levied against 

the Netanyahu coalition during the now nine months of 

Israel’s war against Hamas (Rascoe 2024). 

 

Where Were You on October 7, 2023?  
I was up late that Friday night. It was a Friday night 

for me in the Pacific Northwest of the United States 

when I started to hear the news that something was 

happening on the Gaza border. Saturday morning had 

already begun in Jerusalem. October 7, 2023. The 

world would never be the same again. For me and so 

many in Israel, Gaza, for so many around the world. 

We started to chat on our WhatsApp group with the 

few staff on our team based in Jerusalem and 

Bethlehem. Were they safe? What was happening? No 

one knew. X (formerly Twitter) was one of the only 

places I could get news.  

At first, it seemed like this was another “escalation 

between Israel and Hamas.” I had seen this before. I 

wasn’t directly involved in late 2008-2009. But by 2012, 

I was actively engaged, traveling back and forth to and 

from Israel and the oPt several times a year. In 

November 2012, I was leading a delegation in Israel and 

the oPt during the IDF’s “Operation Pillar of Defense” 

and Hamas’ “Operation Stones of Shale” from 

November 14-21. I had been leading the trip in 

Bethlehem when hostilities began. After evacuating the 

West Bank, the team slept on mattresses in Jerusalem, 

air sirens went off regularly, and the Tel Aviv Airport 



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remained closed during those days of war until the team 

could eventually be flown out safely.  

A couple of years later, I worked diligently during 

the ~50 days of the 2014 war, Operation Protective 

Edge as Israel called it, which had such devastating 

effects, including the deaths of more than 500 children 

(UNWRA 2024). At that time I was working for World 

Vision, and the number of children killed during the 

2014 war represented an appalling number of lives lost 

in a humanmade conflict. Jake Tapper interviewed me 

on CNN to talk about the devastation and how children 

had been “disproportionately affected” and always 

faced the worst consequences of war. I’ve worked 

through numerous other escalations and wars in the 

Middle East since 2010, but nothing prepared me for 

the aftermath of October 7 (Tapper 2024). By May 

2024, the number of children killed in Gaza rose to 

more than 15,000—more than 20x the number that 

horrified us ten years ago. Children continue to pay the 

highest price (IMEMC News 2024). 

That night, October 7, 2023, the fastest news came 

on X (formerly Twitter), and I lay there in bed in the 

early hours of the morning, waiting for news and the 

subsequent “tweets” to come through. Watching short 

clips, we learned that Hamas militants had taken over 

towns in Israel, not knowing yet what that meant. It was 

weeks and months before any comprehension of 

specifics became clear of what had transpired. In May 

2024, I spent some time with survivors of the Hamas 

attacks. I visited some of the kibbutzim and the location 

of the October 7 massacres, including the Nova Music 

Festival site. I watched the almost hour-long 

compilation video of the attacks that was screened 

privately by the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., 

upon invitation to religious leaders. How can I call 

Israelis and Palestinians to make peace and 

reconciliation after such violence if I myself was not 

willing to witness such atrocities? I felt the very integrity 

of my ministry and efforts toward peace demanded that 

I not close my eyes but rather sit through every 

harrowing second.  

I cannot imagine what the young people, the 

families, the parents, let alone the children, 

experienced as kibbutzim, the city of Sderot, and other 

Israeli towns became overrun by Hamas and other 

militants on that day (CBS News 2023). I have lost 

hours of sleep and have cried countless tears on behalf 

of the horror and terror imposed by those attacks. My 

heart is broken for the daily experiences of those held 

hostage from October 7 until the temporary agreement 

lasting from November 24 to December 1 that resulted 

in the release of 105 hostages, and also for the 250-plus 

days suffered for the very few hostages who may remain 

alive today. We have called daily for their release and 

will continue to advocate for their safe return home to 

their families.   

News reported Israel was under attack. Sirens went 

off in Jerusalem. I asked different staff members if they 

had access to bomb shelters (if they were in Jerusalem). 

For staff persons located in the West Bank, we 

discussed evacuation plans and how they might be able 

to leave if things escalated further and departure 

became necessary. I stayed up through the night, 

preparing for a season of heightened and intense 

advocacy during war.  However horrible I thought 

things might be, we never would have imagined how 

bad things would become over the next year-plus. 

Unfathomable. 

The next day, October 7, in the United States, the 

CMEP board met. We put out our first statement, 

condemning all violence, especially that against 

civilians, calling for prayer, and calling on global leaders 

to address core causes of the conflict, including decades 

of military occupation of East Jerusalem, the West 

Bank, and Gaza and the more than 16 years long 

blockade of Gaza. The statement made explicit 

condemnations of the attack on Israel and called on 

Hamas to “stop all acts of aggression, the targeting of 

Israeli civilians, and the taking of civilian hostages” 

(CMEP 2024). 

CMEP supports nonviolent engagement in 

peacebuilding and focuses on de-escalating violence 

and demilitarization. Professionals, far more 

experienced than I, suggest there is little debate in 

international law about the “right to resist” in terms of 

subjugated people living under military occupation and 

whether or not violence against the occupying power, 

not civilians, might be permissible. The October 7 

attacks violated international law in that the majority of 

hostages were not combatants, and the majority of sites 

attacked were not military targets (Scheffer 2023). 

Attackers brutally killed women, children, and the 

elderly. As months progressed, more details about what 

happened that day were revealed. Still, many 

investigations are pending, including those conducted 

by Israel, the United States, the United Nations, and 

other international actors.  

 

A Crisis Unlike Any in Modern Times  
For those within Israel, the penetration of Hamas 

militants was a violation of the agreement between the 

citizens and the State. The military had promised its 

civilians to keep them safe and protect them. On 

Monday, May 27, 2024, I visited what is known as 

Hostage Square in Tel Aviv and heard one of the 

volunteers there tell about how it took the military eight 

hours before reaching the victims of the Nova Site 

Massacre (Leatherby et al. 2023). This is unheard of in 

a state that has one of the most sophisticated “Red 

Alert” systems to warn its civilians of rocket attacks or 

other vulnerabilities. It ended up that the majority of the 

military that should have been defending the Gaza 



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enclave had been redeployed to other parts of Israel, 

such as central Israel or the West Bank. Thus, when 

hundreds of Israelis pled for the military to come and 

rescue them, there was no one on their way for several 

hours.  

For us in the United States, within hours and 

indeed the first few days, it became clear that this attack 

and war between Israel and Hamas was different than 

those in the past. No one would have thought it was 

possible that Hamas could have, virtually without 

resistance, launched such a massive attack in so many 

geographic locations so successfully. The Israeli 

military did not regain control of the police station in 

Sderot, a city near the Gaza border that was penetrated 

by Hamas fighters, until the following morning 

(Margulies 2023). Over 350 members of the Stderot 

community were killed, and dozens were taken hostage 

(Bachner and Fabian 2023). It took 48 hours until Israel 

had wholly regained control of its territory and declared 

a “full siege” of Gaza (Both and Hill 2023).  

 

Gaza Before October 2023 
The political situation and life's challenges before 

October 7 must be included as an essential backdrop in 

understanding this story. In 2006, Hamas was 

democratically elected, but Israel and the United States 

would not allow them to assume political power (Deeb 

2023). Thus, they took power by force, having violent 

hostilities with Fatah members in Gaza, where 683 were 

killed in 2006, which resulted in Hamas becoming both 

the political authority and the military controlling body 

(B’Tselem 2006). Israel imposed a blockade by sea and 

by land beginning in June 2007 (UNICEF 2022). 

Before October 2023, Gaza had been considered 

“de-developing” by international humanitarian actors. 

The enclave was already in a severe humanitarian crisis 

where more than 90-95 percent of the water was not 

potable (Tower 2024). Electricity supplied by Egypt and 

Israel often shut off or was unavailable because the 

main power plant was destroyed during the 2014 war 

and was never allowed to be repaired; thus, there was 

also an electricity crisis (Human Rights Watch 2014). 

In addition, food insecurity existed in Gaza long before 

October 7, and severe restrictions on the number of 

trucks and humanitarian aid allowed in caused health 

challenges even before the beginning of this devastating 

crisis (Lipkind 2024). It was documented in 2012 that 

Israel had calculated the number of calories needed per 

resident of Gaza to “maintain the basic fabric of life,” 

and that was what determined the number of trucks 

allowed per day (Reuters Staff 2012). According to 

humanitarian actors, the average amount of trucks 

carrying humanitarian aid, food, and assistance before 

October 7, 2023, averaged 500 trucks per day, primarily 

through the Karem Shalom or Erez crossings (United 

Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian 

Affairs n.d.).  

 

Christians Disappearing in Gaza  
Before the Hamas attacks and Israel's subsequent 

war on Gaza, there were between 800-1000 Christians 

in Gaza. This population has been gradually shrinking 

for several reasons over the past decades. The primary 

reason was almost always the “situation,” meaning the 

decades-long occupation of the Palestinian people and, 

most recently, the more than sixteen years blockade of 

the Gaza strip. A second reason for the decrease in the 

Christian population is because, in general, Muslims 

have more children than Christians. Thus, there is a 

natural demographic shift in the population. The third 

reason for the diminishing number of Christians 

includes emigration. Palestinian Christians receive 

international visas more readily than Arab Muslims and 

thus are able to leave more quickly than their Muslim 

neighbors. Many Christians in the occupied territories 

have left since October 2023. In May 2024, I heard of 

more than two dozen Christian families between 

Ramallah and Bethlehem who had already left and 

more who were considering leaving because of how 

desperate the political situation was on the ground.  

In Gaza, there are two primary churches: the Holy 

Family Latin (Catholic Church) and St. Porphyrius 

Orthodox Church. Both churches very quickly became 

shelters for hundreds of refugees after the forced 

displacement where Prime Minister Netanyahu 

ordered the population to leave North Gaza, and more 

than 1.7 million people were living in internal 

displacement at the end of the year in the Gaza Strip 

(Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre 2024). 

After October 7, my team started to monitor the 

news and reports coming from Gaza, our Palestinian 

Christian partners and community, and our 

connections in Israel and the oPt. I started to create 

daily video summaries compiled from things I was 

reading, including Israeli and Arab news sources, 

readouts from the State Department and White House, 

reports from local NGOs, stories from peacebuilders, 

and especially first-hand accounts of people we know 

from all sides who are right in the middle of the 

situation. It was important for people to hear about the 

ways communities in Israel and Palestine were being 

affected. It was important for people in the United 

States to hear first-hand accounts from people in Gaza.  

Often, I have texted daily with contacts in Gaza. 

On October 19, 2023, I received a WhatsApp message 

that said, “Air strike targets the Orthodox Church in 

Gaza. Casualties and injuries inside.” My contact is a 

dear friend who leads a large development agency 

responsible for distributing aid to hundreds of 

thousands of Palestinians. He continued, “We have 

one staff member inside. He reported helping save 



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people from one part of the small compound. The 

number of injuries and casualties still unknown.”  

Then, over the next few hours, the texts 

increasingly came in, stating “there are at least six 

martyrs” at the Orthodox Church. I think it’s important 

to note that “martyrs” can also be translated as 

“witnesses.” This word in Arabic means someone who 

died for a cause. It is an honoring term for those who 

have given their lives for something. Just as we in the 

Christian tradition would say that someone’s life was a 

“witness to Christ,” devout Muslims would use the term 

martyrs. In Jewish tradition, the idea might be that when 

someone passes, it is common to say, “May their 

memory be a blessing.” It is unfortunate that in the 

West, the term “martyr” has different associations with 

the word. After final reports, the death count at St. 

Porphyrus church included 16 Palestinians, four of 

whom were children (Graham-Harrison 2023).  

Many had died under the rubble. One of the things 

I was sent during those days was the coordinates of all 

the Christian churches and locations in Gaza. They had 

also been sent to the Israeli military at the beginning of 

the operations in early October. It was reported that the 

church was not a target, rather a militant’s home had 

been targeted next to the church, and the church’s 

annex was collateral damage. One of my closest friends 

in Bethlehem had two aunts who resided at that church, 

taking refuge. One of them was killed in the blast—not 

immediately, but she had suffered severe injuries and 

died from internal bleeding. The other aunt sustained 

severe injuries and had to have repair surgery on her 

hip without anesthetic. These are just two of the 

examples of the statistics one reads about related to the 

humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with now more than 42 

thousand killed and 100 thousand injured. There is fear 

that the longer the war goes on, the Christian 

community in Gaza might be eradicated entirely. In 

May 2024, in a meeting with the Foreign Minister of the 

Palestinian Authority, Her Excellency Varsen 

Aghabekian announced that three percent of the 

Christian population in Gaza had been killed as a result 

of the war (Umar 2024).  

 

What is a Christian Response to the Crisis in 

Israel and Palestine?  
Above, I mentioned some of CMEP’s priorities. 

Another one of our priorities is the sustainability of the 

Christian community in the Middle East, and especially 

the Holy Land—Israel, the oPt, Egypt, Jordan, the very 

lands where Christianity first began. In large part, the 

Palestinian Christian community, based primarily, but 

not only in Bethlehem and in other Christian cities like 

Nazareth (in Israel) and small Christian villages 

throughout the West Bank, feels ignored and neglected 

by the Western Church. This was true long before the 

October War. And all the more after that, when leading 

Christian periodicals such as Christianity Today 

published articles like Russel Moore’s editorial calling 

people to “Stand with Israel” if they wanted to stand on 

the side of God (2023). I wrote a response published by 

Religious News Service (RNS) entitled “God calls us to 

stand with people and not states” (Cannon 2023).
 

These 

are just some of the battles that the Christian 

community in Israel and Palestine have been caught in 

the middle of because of the political crisis. Palestinian 

Christians are often not considered “Christian enough,” 

as the majority come from traditional Orthodox 

communities. In addition, if Arab Christians show any 

allegiances to their own people’s national aspiration for 

self-determination, they are viewed as essentially 

illegitimate by international conservative Christians, 

particularly evangelicals, many of whom have a 

theological allegiance to Israel and the Jewish people.  

 

My Damascus Road Experience—An 

Introduction to the Nakba  
I first went to Israel in April 2009 on a spiritual 

pilgrimage. I had dreamt of traveling to the historic land 

of the Jewish people and seeing the holy places where 

Jesus had lived, breathed, and done ministry. On that 

trip, I had a sort of “Damascus Road” experience. I had 

come to “Israel” to learn about the history of the Bible 

and to be more connected to the Jewish people. I had 

grown up in a secular Zionist home (my family were not 

practicing Christians). I had read books like Chaim 

Potok’s The Chosen (1987) and Leon Uris’ Exodus 

(1958) as a backdrop to my expectations.  

When I crossed the Allenby Bridge over the 

Jordan River into the West Bank, the border guard 

asked me: “Are you going to the West Bank?” I wasn’t 

sure what to say. “No,” I said hesitantly. Little did I 

know that I was standing in the West Bank. My first 

book, Social Justice Handbook: Small Steps for a 

Better World (2009), was about what the Bible says 

about global justice issues and was just about to be 

published. Throughout those few days, I felt the Holy 

Spirit provoking my heart. I saw signs that said “Free 

Palestine,” and, honestly, I thought Palestine was just a 

map in the back of my Bible.  

Then we had a visit and lecture by Bishara Awad, 

the founder and then-President of Bethlehem Bible 

College, who told his family story as a Palestinian 

Christian. His father was killed by a sniper in 1948, and 

his entire family became refugees. If you ever visit our 

offices at CMEP in Washington, DC, above my desk 

there is a picture of me at that moment. You can still 

see the tears in my eyes—I wept for most of that talk. As 

tears streamed down my face, my heart broke as I 

learned the story of what Palestinians call the Nakba 

(The Great Catastrophe) of 1948, where more than 

three-quarters of a million Palestinians were forced out 



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of their homes or fled and became permanently 

displaced refugees.  

I say this was a “Damascus Road” experience 

because I felt like the Apostle Paul, who, when traveling 

on the road to Damascus, had scales “[fall] from his 

eyes” (Acts 9:18). If we want to have a Christian 

response to the crisis in Israel/Palestine, or anywhere in 

the world, we must pray and ask God to open our eyes 

to the history and current realities of oppression and 

injustice.  

 

Give Witness to Suffering and Oppression  
I believe one of the global church's unique roles is 

to witness suffering and oppression. Again, here I am 

referring specifically to Israel and the occupied 

Palestinian territories, but this principle applies to 

anywhere in the world. This has been one of the 

primary ways I have felt called by God to engage with 

Jews, Christians, Muslims, and Israelis and Palestinians 

in the Middle East and the United States over the past 

eight months.  

The African American theologian Howard 

Thurman wrote about spiritual liberation and said, “It 

is a strange freedom…to go nameless up and down the 

streets of other minds…” (as cited in Fluker and 

Tumber 1998, viii). Palestinian Christians, and 

Palestinians in general, have not felt “seen” for most of 

their modern history. By listening to their stories and, 

when appropriate, elevating their voices, we “give 

witness” and provide evidence that they are not ignored. 

Listening and seeing someone offers the opportunity to 

come alongside them in solidarity and validate that they 

are seen and not ignored. Thurman said that as a black 

man in the United States in the 1930s, being “unseen” 

was one of the most significant forms of oppression, 

and thus, liberation could be experienced when 

someone “saw him” and called him by his name. What 

might it look like for us to do that today, not only for 

Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters, but for Israeli 

siblings as well?  

In South Africa, the Zulu word for saying hello in 

isiZulu, one of the most popular languages spoken in 

South Africa, is “Sawubona” (singular), which, when 

literally translated, means, “I see you.”
4

 If nothing else, 

Christians around the world have the opportunity to say 

to those who are suffering, “We see you.” And to 

acknowledge that we see the suffering, pain, and loss of 

Palestinians and Israelis alike. Since October 7, Israelis 

and Palestinians, because of each person’s collective 

trauma, have less and less capacity to have empathy for 

one another. I believe entering into the pain and 

suffering of multiple experiences is one of the roles 

Christians can play at this critical moment.  

                                                        
4

 When greeting more than one person, the plural “Sanibonani” is used.   

I have sought to give witness to the suffering of 

Palestinians in Gaza by daily being in touch and telling 

the stories we hear from mothers and those who are 

suffering the consequences of daily bombings, 

inadequate water, and dwindling food supplies. 

Mothers in Gaza have taken to writing their children’s 

ID numbers on their limbs so that they might be able 

to be identified if they are killed in a bombing and their 

bodies are found underneath the rubble (Humaid and 

Ibrahim 2023). We must let parents in Gaza know that 

we hear their cries and see their suffering.  

I also have sought to spend time with Jewish friends 

who know or have lost loved ones on October 7. There 

is no equivalency in pain and suffering. One horror 

does not negate another horror. I have felt it is essential 

for the integrity of Christian witness to listen to the 

stories of survivors of October 7 and to also give witness 

to their experiences. But seeing and witnessing suffering 

and oppression should just be the beginning of our 

journey.  

 

Break Our Hearts, Increase Our Capacity to 

Love  
Bob Pierce, World Vision’s founder, used to often 

pray, “Break my heart for the things that break the heart 

of God” (World Vision n.d.). As we hear stories from 

those who have often lost dozens of family members in 

Gaza, and as the death toll increases day after day, it is 

hard to fully understand what is actually happening. 

Sometimes, statistics can just become numbers, and our 

hearts are hardened.  

Often, these days, I do not know where to begin. I 

feel immobilized by grief. At the time of this writing, I 

feel immobilized by the fact that the bombing and war 

on Gaza has been going on for more than 380 days. It 

seems day by day, we continue to hear about bombs 

dropping and children dying. Global efforts that 

mobilize the world have not yet made a significant 

difference. For every mother who has just lost their 

child, we have failed. The church has failed. These are 

the moments when we should most pray, “Break our 

hearts for the things that break the heart of God.”  

I quickly became overwhelmed as I continued 

praying that prayer throughout October (more than a 

year ago). My heart just is not big enough. There is too 

much brokenness, and the horrors are too horrific. My 

heart cannot contain the horrors we hear each and 

every day. A pregnant woman dies, and her child is 

delivered into the world after her death, only to become 

an orphan surrounded by rubble, bombing, and 

violence, with no end in sight (Sanchez 2024).  

What kind of world do we live in such that we allow 

this to go on for one more day, let alone another week, 



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let alone another month, let alone an entire year, more? 

What kind of world do we live in that sweet and 

beautiful little Hind, the six-year-old Palestinian girl 

who was abandoned in her family’s car in North Gaza, 

surrounded by her dead relatives for hours, must plead 

with rescue workers to come and save her (Democracy 

Now! 2024). How does the entire world not rush in and 

demand that she, as a child of God, be protected, and 

saved? How does the world hear the stories about the 

hostage attacks and not unilaterally demand their 

release and return home to their families safely? 

I have often felt my heart is not big enough to carry 

the brokenness I have witnessed. Thus, I have also 

begun to pray, “God expand the capacity of my heart.” 

If we pray those two things, “break our hearts for the 

things that break God’s heart” and “expand the capacity 

of our hearts,” I believe God will hear and honor our 

prayers. Otherwise, the devastation that has happened 

over the past decades, the death and violence of 

October 7, the destruction and massive killings in Gaza, 

honestly, it is too much for any human to bear. It is just 

too much.  

These realities are too much to hear about, let 

alone live through. So, we must ask God to break our 

hearts for the things that break God’s heart and expand 

our hearts so that we can carry more pain. But I’ll be 

honest: God has been expanding my heart for both 

Palestinian and Israeli people alike. I’m not falsely 

equivocating. We must address systemic injustice and 

differentials of power. I am not ignoring the gross and 

distorted power differentials between Israelis and 

Palestinians who have been living under military 

occupation for decades. I am also not ignoring that the 

most critical thing at this moment is that the mass 

killings in Gaza must be brought to an immediate end, 

and hostages must be returned home.  

The prayer asking God to expand our hearts 

returns us to the heart of the Gospel message that all we 

do would be compelled by love. We are told in 

Matthew 22:36-40 that the greatest commandment is to 

love the Lord your God and to love your neighbor as 

yourself. Jesus also issues the profound challenge that 

we must also “love our enemies” in Matthew 5:44. As 

we seek peace, an end to all violence, justice, and 

liberation for Palestinians and all people, might the core 

motivation be that of love as modeled and commanded 

by Jesus in the Scriptures.  

 

 

                                                        
5

 There is clear evidence that incidents of rape and sexual violence occurred during the attacks on October 7, 2023. 

The UN Commission of Inquiry investigation “documented cases indicative of sexual violence perpetrated against 

women and men in and around the Nova festival site, as well as the Nahal Oz military outpost and several kibbutzim, 

including Kfar Aza, Re’im and Nir Oz,” and “found indications that members of the military wing of Hamas and other 

Palestinian armed groups committed gender-based violence (GBV) in several locations in southern Israel on 7 

October” (United Nations Human Rights Council 2024).  

Abhor what is Evil, Cling to What is Good 
What does it mean to pursue peace and seek 

justice in the Middle East during these moments? 

Romans 12 has been a guiding passage for me the past 

several months. I began reflecting on the chapter 

throughout Lent. Sometimes, when the days seem 

particularly long or I’m not quite sure what direction to 

take, Romans 12:9 provides moral clarity and direction: 

“Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.” Those 

simple words have been so helpful over the past weeks 

and months.  

Having just finished up weeks in the Middle East 

and more than a month of travel domestically and 

internationally, I know that there are thousands of 

opinions about what pursuing justice looks like. And 

there is so much anger, much of which I understand—I 

have never been angrier. And there is so much pain. 

And all of that intensity of rage, pain, and trauma comes 

out and is often directed at those who are in the line of 

fire. Peacemakers tend to be caught in the middle and 

sometimes pay the highest price. Innocents tend to be 

in the line of fire.  

In some ways, “Abhor what is evil…” can be the 

clearest of commandments. Killing is evil. Murder is 

evil. The October 7 attacks were evil. Decades of 

occupation and military control over an entire people 

group are evil. Rape and the violation of a woman’s 

body is evil.
5

 When things are evil, it can feel easy to 

hate them—to abhor them. But then we must remember 

Jesus’ commandment during His sermon on the 

mount, “In your anger do not sin.” Personally, I would 

much rather stay angry. It would be a lot easier! Rather 

than allow my anger to be transformed into something 

constructive—an emotion, energy, or motivation that 

can be used for good. Such transformation requires 

arduous work and a lot of grace from others and God. 

I believe one of the unique roles the church and 

Christian agencies can play is to provide constructive 

processes for the legitimate anger that is experienced in 

response to evil to be transformed into energy and 

power invested toward positive solutions.  

Sometimes, the instruction to “cling to what is 

good” can be particularly hard during such difficult 

times. When people are dying every day, I feel guilty if 

I experience any joy (or self-care, for that matter). 

These verses permitted me to “cling to joy” when I 

witness it or experience it in the community. One of the 

most beautiful things I’ve seen is videos from Gaza 



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where people come together and share meals—even if 

the meal is just a salty soup of brackish water and grass 

with limited sustenance. Or watch the videos of 

Palestinians in Gaza dancing the traditional Palestinian 

dance, the Dabka—clinging to joy and not allowing their 

spirits to be broken. These scenes are inspiring to 

witness.   

During my visit to hostage square, I met with 

members of different kibbutzim. I learned that almost 

all of the members (sometimes current and past) of the 

different communities will often come together to share 

Shabbat meals at the square. The sense of community 

and support was a beautiful thing to witness. I left their 

sharing thinking, “cling to what is good”—the 

community that comes alongside one another to lift one 

another in the most challenging times reflects the 

goodness of God.  

 

Seek Justice, Pursue Peace  
Most of my work at CMEP takes place within the 

context of pursuing human rights and equality for all 

people within the Middle East. What does it mean to 

seek justice and pursue peace? How do we pursue 

collective liberation amid such death and violence? As 

it relates to Israel and the occupied Palestinian 

territories, Palestinians often say, “No peace without 

justice.” Meaning there shouldn’t be a peace agreement 

when the status quo and the military occupation 

continue and when daily there are human rights abuses 

and ongoing violations of the basic dignities of the 

Palestinian people. I fundamentally believe the military 

occupation of the Palestinian people must be brought 

to an end. The situation in the oPt not only causes daily 

humiliations and continual dehumanization of 

Palestinian people, but I also believe the occupation is 

one of the most significant security threats to Jews living 

in Israel. The 2012 documentary The Gatekeepers 

features former leaders of Israel’s security 

establishment who made the same argument (The 

Gatekeepers 2013).  

For justice to be accomplished, it will not be 

absolute but rather proximate justice. Dr. Syd Hielema 

of Redeemer University Colleges says, “Proximate 

justice recognizes that perfection is not an option, and 

seeking the kingdom of God is not just an option but 

our deepest calling” (Hielema 2013, 13). This means 

that perfect and absolute justice cannot be obtained but 

can also be cruel and punishing to those on the other 

side. Every oppressed group, unless through the pursuit 

of some type of process of collective liberation, remains 

at risk of also becoming abusive and guilty of the very 

same crimes they once accused their oppressors of 

having perpetrated.  

Proximate justice provides a pathway toward 

collective liberation. Practical theologian Peter Heltzel 

of Union Theological Seminary argued that Reinhold 

Niebuhr, American philosopher and public 

intellectual, believes that “pragmatic realism argues for 

the implementation of proximate forms of justice” 

(Heltzel 2009). For example, it is an unrealistic 

expectation to expect that more than five million 

Palestinian refugees around the world will ever fully 

receive the right to return and be awarded back the 

lands confiscated from their families in 1948. But, I 

hope, through negotiated settlements among political 

leaders, religious actors, and civil society, there might 

be a solution that would allow for the injustices of 

history to at least be acknowledged, if not compensated, 

and somehow proximate justice might be achieved. 

Today, Palestinians in Gaza would benefit from steps 

toward proximate justice of being allowed to live daily 

without being bombed while continuing in the quest for 

an end to decades of military occupation. In contrast, 

the right to return seems a far and distant cry from the 

immediate and most acute injustices of the current 

moment.   

Justice does demand that systems that abuse power 

differentials and control must be dismantled, such as 

the military control by the Israeli army in the West 

Bank. Occupation manifests differently in East 

Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. Specifically in the 

West Bank, Palestinian residents do not have the 

fundamental rights afforded to them by the protections 

of civil law. Many international human rights groups, 

including Amnesty International, identify what is 

happening in the West Bank as apartheid because of 

the two different legal systems that apply to residents 

living there. Israeli citizens living in West Bank 

settlements receive protections afforded by Israeli civil 

law, whereas Palestinians live under military control 

(Amnesty International n.d.). For example, an Israeli 

child who throws a stone has civil rights and goes to an 

Israeli civil court with rights for a lawyer, their parents 

to be present, and many other protections. A 

Palestinian child who throws a stone on that same 

geographical territory receives no civil rights or 

protections and instead will be arrested and prosecuted 

by the Israeli military courts according to military law 

(Baumgarten-Sharon 2011). 

The immediate goal of peace must include ending 

all violence and that all combatant parties agree to a 

comprehensive and lasting ceasefire. This applies to 

Hamas and the Israeli military in Gaza and also to 

Hezbollah and the Israeli army on the southern border 

of Lebanon and the northern border of Israel. There 

are many different types of peace, including negotiated 

settlements and political peace. But many Israelis and 

Palestinians have increasingly come to realize that peace 

must move beyond just a lack of violence and a 

negotiated agreement.  

Historically, the mechanism by which the State of 

Israel provides “peace” for its people has been by 



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military deterrence (Steinberg 2011). After Gaza lived 

under a military blockade for more than 16 years, the 

atrocities of October 7 happened, and the Israeli 

military failed to protect the Israeli public. Most Israelis 

see this as a failure of the state to live up to its promise 

(Steinberg 2023). If peace and security cannot be 

accomplished by military might, violence, physical 

domination, and military control, what other options 

exist?  

 

Collective Liberation  
After spending the day at a kibbutz along the Gaza 

border in May 2024, the woman who hosted us began 

to say goodbye. In her closing comments, she shared 

very vulnerably how she has little affection or “like” for 

the Palestinian people of Gaza. As she spoke, we were 

standing next to rows of homes where the youth of the 

kibbutz had lived. Each of the small apartments had 

been almost completely destroyed or bombed out by 

grenades or bullet holes. Many of the residents had 

been killed or taken hostage. She did not speak of 

hatred. She said, almost struggling for words, “I do not 

like them very much, but I know what we have tried has 

not worked. And what they have tried has not worked. 

If we ever want to have peace, they will have to have 

peace. I know our futures are completely tied to one 

another.” 

Mother Teresa said something similar: “If we have 

no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong 

to one another” (Catholic Online n.d.). The Palestinian 

struggle for liberation and an end to occupation is not 

only a struggle for their own self-determination. Instead, 

as Nelson Mandela said, “We know too well that our 

freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the 

Palestinians” (as cited in Davis 2016, 53). Collective 

liberation. The Palestinian situation is not just an issue 

for those who care about Palestinians and the Middle 

East. What is happening in Palestine is an issue that 

affects the future of the world—and the very soul of the 

church is at stake. Is the church going to bury its head 

and ignore what is happening in Gaza? Or will the 

church “choose sides” and make the situation more 

binary than it already is by causing more division and 

strife? Or is the church going to “see” and witness the 

stories of all the people in the land while calling and 

pursuing justice, freedom, self-determination, human 

rights, and equality for all people?  

Pursuing peace will be the most demanding work 

ever done by individuals and communities. It requires 

searching deep within us to see what needs to be rooted 

out and transformed more into the image of God. What 

hatred or prejudices reside deep within our hearts that 

must be transformed? Such integrity and personal 

honesty take work. And I promise you, if you enter the 

work of pursuing peace, there will be critiques and 

opposition from all sides.  

Please do not misunderstand; I am not talking 

about compromising on advocating for human rights 

and justice. I am discussing a multi-narrative approach 

that rejects the overly simplistic oppressor and 

oppression narrative as a universally true paradigm. 

From the perspective of international law, the 

metanarrative at this moment requires that the State of 

Israel face its legal obligations and bring an end to the 

illegal occupation of the Palestinian people that has 

existed since 1967. Israel not only has legal obligations 

according to international law, but inequalities and the 

privileges afforded to Jewish citizens of the state of 

Israel over Palestinians of all statuses, including citizens 

of Israel, Jerusalemites, and others in the occupied 

Palestinian territories, must be addressed. Similarly, 

militant groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, and others 

must be held accountable for the atrocities they have 

committed.  

Collective liberation means no one will be free 

until we are all free. We have much to learn from 

Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid movement. 

One of the powerful opportunities provided by the 

Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa 

was the concept and idea that the oppressed are not 

liberated until the oppressor is also free. This is an 

example of collective liberation. The Commission was 

founded with the goal of telling the truth about past 

human rights violations, often in the public sphere, as a 

way to promote understanding. As the commission’s 

final report states,  

 

The road to reconciliation…implies wide-

ranging structural and institutional 

transformation and the healing of broken 

human relationships. It demands guarantees 

that the past will not be repeated. It requires 

restitution and the restoration of our 

humanity—as individuals, as communities, and 

as a nation… The Commission’s…purpose in 

attempting to uncover the past had nothing to 

do with vengeance; it had to do, instead, with 

helping victims to become more visible and 

more valuable citizens through the public 

recognition and official acknowledgment of 

their experiences... By bringing the darker side 

of the past to the fore, those responsible for 

human rights violations could also be held 

accountable for their actions. In the process, 

they were given the opportunity to acknowledge 

their responsibility to contribute to the creation 

of a new South African society (Truth and 

Reconciliation Commission of South Africa 

1998, 110).  

 

Our collective liberation is inextricably linked to the 

freedom of one another.  



Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 6(3), Spring 2025  

Cannon, The 2023-2024 Israel-Hamas War…                                                                                                                         144 

Hard and Sacrificial Work 
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in 

view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a 

living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is 

your true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1, 

New International Version [NIV]). 

 

This is the most challenging work I’ve ever done. 

And I am not talking about the “external work,” 

working 380+ days in a row, the hours coordinating and 

collaborating, or the long hours, the extensive travel to 

more cities than I can count around the world, or the 

being away from home for 7-8+ weeks at a time. All of 

that is true. And it's nothing compared to what so many 

others have lost and sacrificed. All of those things are 

hard, but that’s not the tough part. The most 

challenging part is being willing to see and witness the 

complex and multifaceted realities of pain, suffering, 

and trauma—to see clearly and give witness while not 

compromising on advocating for justice, human rights, 

and equality for all people in Israel and the occupied 

Palestinian territories. The hardest part is seeing the 

ugliness within that also needs to change and be 

transformed.  

Palestinians have suffered under the oppression of 

occupation, unseen, for far too long. The erasure of 

Palestinian history and culture from the 1948 Nakba to 

today’s ethnic cleansing in Gaza includes decades of 

untold, ignored, buried, and intentionally delegitimized 

stories. Why is it so hard for people to see the 

Palestinian people and to hear their history? For 

Palestinians, the displacement of the 1948 Nakba, 

which included the death of about 15 thousand people, 

has continued through today in Gaza with the 

displacement of more than 1.7 million people, the 

majority of the population, and a death toll many times 

the magnitude of that in 1948. 

In addition to that traumatic history, often 

Palestinian leadership has engaged in mechanisms of 

liberation that included violent resistance against 

civilians. Consider the suicide bombings during the 

second intifada, the hijackings of airplanes during the 

1970s and 1980s, and the assassinations of the Israeli 

Olympic team at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Ignoring 

this history does no one any favors. This history must 

also be acknowledged and addressed. 

At CMEP, we have been calling daily for an end to 

the military campaigns on Gaza because of the moral 

argument that so many civilians are being killed, 

including, as of May 2024, more than 15,000 children 

(IMEMC News 2024). But if the moral argument can’t 

be won, a pragmatic argument must be made. Today, 

in late October 2024, every day that the bombing of 

Gaza continues, the State of Israel becomes increasingly 

isolated from countries around the world opposing its 

war against Hamas, which caused utter destruction and 

devastation in Gaza. The result of Israel’s military 

campaign has been nothing less than a slaughter of 

civilian populations in various parts of Gaza. 

Antisemitism has been on the rise, and legitimate 

threats to Jewish people around the world have 

increased manifold since October 7 (AntiDefamation 

League 2024). In our advocacy for Palestinian human 

rights and justice, there must also be a stalwart 

commitment to stand up against antisemitism and any 

forms of hatred or bigotry.  

The church should lead the way in sacrificial 

ministry, standing in the gap to advocate on behalf of 

Palestinians seeking justice, liberation, and self-

determination and Israelis seeking security and peace.  

 

The Lord Promises to Be Faithful  
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand 

firm. Let nothing move you. Always give 

yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because 

you know that your labor in the Lord is not in 

vain (1 Corinthians 15:58, NIV). 

 

While we diligently work to end war, violence, and 

killing, we know that the world is not ours to save. We 

must do all that we can. We must work diligently and 

sacrificially. We must seek to root out everything within 

us that contains prejudices, hatred, or strife. We will 

remain steadfast and “give ourselves fully,” as the verses 

in 1 Corinthians discuss. Might God expand our hearts 

and the capacity of our hearts to both grieve and love 

and give witness to the stories we encounter and 

observe. For me, I hope my advocacy and solidarity and 

witnessing of the Palestinian cause is strengthened by 

the ability to be able to also give witness when Israelis 

and others experience grief or pain and trauma. That is 

my prayer. And the hope Christians profess is this, that 

he who promised is faithful. 2 Thessalonians 3 tells us, 

“But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and 

protect you from the evil one” (3:3). We will maintain 

our confidence in God and hold onto hope, even amid 

war, death, and destruction (3:4). All the time asking 

that God might direct our hearts increasingly into God’s 

love and Christ’s perseverance” (3:5). May we pursue 

collective liberation together so that one day all might 

be free.  

 

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The Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon is executive director 

of Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP). Cannon 

has two doctorates, in American History (PhD, UC 

Davis) and spiritual formation (DMin, Northern 

Theological Seminary). She is an ordained pastor and 

author of several books, and the editor of A Land Full 

of God: Christian Perspectives on the Holy Land. Her 

work has been highlighted in The New York Times, 

The Washington Post, CNN, Chicago Tribune, 

Christianity Today, and other international media 

outlets. 

 

Author email: info@maecannon.com  
 

 
 

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mailto:info@maecannon.com