In Palestine, 16-year-old girls are arrested, terrorized, and abused. Women are compelled to wrestle soldiers to free their screaming, pleading sons. Parents are forced into burying their children who have been killed by the Israeli military.
Yet, for as egregious as these acts are, we don’t hear Christians knocking on any doors to raise awareness or advocating for an end to the occupation, you know, the way Jesus would.
Before anyone accuses me of being hypocritical, understand that I come from a unique background. Being a Palestinian who was raised as a Christian, I see the utter distortions and manipulations that perpetuate Palestinian oppression. Christians, especially in the United States, are duped into supporting Israel because of cherry-picked biblical quotes.
“God says that he blesses those who bless Israel.”
“It’s in the Bible that this is their homeland.”
I hear it all the time.
So, what about all of the people who don’t believe in the Bible? Are they simply forced to endure and suffer persecution because of your theological perceptions? How would Christians feel if Muslims demanded them to accept the Quran? Many would be in an uproar. Just as we wouldn’t expect anyone to push their beliefs on us, we can’t push our beliefs on anyone else.
Palestinians can’t be expected to acquiesce to one of the world’s most brutally oppressive regimes, all because the Bible supposedly mandates Israel’s right to occupy, suppress, and dominate. None of these are true. Biblical prophecies are often misrepresented and taken out of context. But that’s the way our world works. Many Christians are quick to forget about the true teachings of Christ, yet they’re eager to support Israel. What lies at the root of this support is a deep-seated prejudice against Arabs. We’re misconstrued as bloodthirsty demons. Israel should evict us because we don’t understand tranquility, people believe.
If you’re a Christian, you can’t selectively pick verses to justify Israel’s inhumanity. And you certainly can’t turn away from oppressed peoples. Jesus wouldn’t have. Jesus stood up to a tyrannical Roman government, irrespective of the consequences. So why won’t many Christians take a stand for Palestinians?
Palestinian Christians are restricted from visiting churches in Jerusalem. Palestinian Christians can’t travel freely. Palestinian Christians are treated as strangers in their own homeland. But most Christians are unaware of their Palestinian Christian brethren.
Furthermore, support for Israel is in blatant contravention to biblical doctrine. Jesus never would have supported a regime that subjugates millions, conducts murderous assaults on the Gaza strip, and which openly discriminates against non-Jews. Palestinian Muslims and Christians are disenfranchised, hopeless, and at the mercy of a tyrannical occupier.
Christians, the next time you think that God stands with Israel, ask yourselves if God stands with murder. In 2014, during Israel’s last malicious act of genocide on Gaza, over 2100 Palestinians were killed. 1462 were civilians.
Christians, the next time you think that God stands with Israel, ask yourselves if God stands with the restriction of Christians from going to church. A lot of Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem have cited the Israeli occupation as the reason for their departure from their historical homeland.
Christians, the next time you think that God stands with Israel, ask yourselves if God condones the mistreatment of one’s neighbors. Jesus commanded people to love their neighbors. Is Israel loving its neighbors when it steals their land, builds illegal settlements, and boots them out?
My fellow Christians, you are not supporting God’s will. You are supporting contradictions. You are supporting ethnic cleansing. You are supporting the most heinous injustice against humanity. Palestinians aren’t the ancient biblical enemies they’re depicted as. Palestinians, both Muslims and Christians alike, are the colonized who advocate tirelessly for freedom and equality, and who stand firmly in the face of colonization. Those are Christian values at their core. In fact, those are human values all are innately entitled to.
Stop with the blind support. Open your eyes and see the stark injustice and occupation. If Jesus were here, he’d side with the Palestinians. And he wouldn’t just be condemning Israel. He’d be condemning all of you, too.
I hear you. They think Palestinians including Christian Palestinians have to die to fulfill a prophecy.
It is madness. I say this as someone whose Lebanese family came from Marjeyoun near where Jesus gave Peter his new name (etc.).
However the whole Church including the earliest went completely off the path when Constantine converted & painted crosses on the shields of his soldiers & made Christianity a state religion. That’s why when you go to Church they pray for the victory of the military. (Of whatever country the Church is aligned with).
Jesus is not in the Church.
I went to the Antiochian Orthodox Church near me – an hour outside of New York – and they were praying for the victory of Assad. This was after the second chemical attack against his own people – in addition to the years of bombing. The same archdiocese sent a delegation of priests to meet w/ Assad & they came back saying what a lovely “gentleman” he was. Here’s who else served coffee to visitors: Hitler.
I believe in the teachings of Christ. That’s why I no longer go to any church. Jesus did not go to church.
I think you will find it interesting to read about Christian Anarchists. They believe in following Christ’s teaching of nonviolence & hence separation from the state. No more praying for winners in wars etc.
As indigenous Christians of the ancient church we should remember Christ is in our heart. The Church is our soul. Not an organisation. That’s what the earliest Fathers & Mothers believed. xx
I grew up on the very lies Jamal mentioned. I was insulated from the truth. I am a Believer in the Gospel since age 15. It wasn’t until I was forty that God allowed me to see the evil monster that modern Zionism is. It is anti Jewish and anathema to Torah. It claims to represent all Jews both in the Holy Land and Diaspora. It is all lies. Today with the amount of instant coverage in cyberspace, Christians have to choose to be ignorant and choose to ignore much of the Holy Writ they claim to follow.
“Israel wright or wrong” violates both OT and NT teachings. We are never to condone wrong for any reason by anyone or any group.
I can see how many Christians, even those who call themselves evangelical, have strayed into dangerous spiritual territory.
The three most often quoted people of the protestant persuasion are Augustine, Luther and Calvin.
“I see no use for a women other than procreation”.
~Augustine
Luther gave Hitler the idea for Kristallnacht. Luther really hated Jews. Hitler really liked Luther.
Calvin wrote that if Servitus ventured to Geneva he would see to it that he would never leave there alive. Calvin made good on his bloody promise.
No excuses. God gives truth to those who seek it above all personal agendas.
Jamal,
My prayers are with you. God has children who know truth from lies in spite of all the Seminaries and their twisted teachings.
Jesus taught us to love our enemies.(Luke 6:26) I don’t see that commandment being observed by any of the previous commentators. Jesus never came to resolve political issues on Earth, but to proclaim the Kingdom which will include those of all nations, Jew and Arab included, who give their lives to Him.