A Franciscan friar shares his response to the continuing tragedy in Gaza

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Franciscan Wisdom Series

A Franciscan friar shares his response to the continuing tragedy in Gaza

A missile struck an apartment building in Gaza where the Palestinian family of Nada Jwaifelat lived. Nada was trapped under the rubble for nine hours, her legs crushed and pinned down by slabs of concrete and iron.  The girl’s seven siblings and a grandmother were killed that day.  Nada’s physical and emotional pain was indescribable.  Had it not been for the heroic effort of the Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza and others, Nada would not have survived her harrowing ordeal.   Still, she was exceptionally lucky compared to more than 24,000 children who were killed in Gaza over the past 23 months.

Last August, I had a chance to meet Nada and Motaz in Washington DC.   Listening to their stories of the ordeal – a contemporary rendition of the Way of the Cross – made me think of Saint Francis embracing a leper and finding him to be Christ in disguise.

I hope that you will read this reflection as an invitation to touch Christ’s wounds in the Palestinian people; a renewed call to act towards them as a Good Samaritan, in charity and justice; to be faithful to our baptismal call to speak and act with prophetic courage.  Our brother Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv. has recently reminded us that preaching the Good News involves denouncing what is contrary to the Gospel.

What is happening in Gaza?

There is an overwhelming evidence that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.  A tiny piece of land,  (see how it compares in size to Washington DC or Manhattan), Gaza is a home to over 2.2 million Palestinian people, nearly half of them children.   Following more than five decades of the brutal Israeli military occupation and the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, the level of destruction in Gaza has reached unparalleled proportion in the post Second World War era.  Israeli bombing of Gaza is “equivalent to six Hiroshimas.”  78% of all the buildings are partially or fully destroyed.  Over 65,000 Palestinian people have been killed, 164,000 injured, and many thousands more buried in rubble. The Israeli government is blocking the humanitarian aid, water, and electricity to Gaza, using mass starvation, disease and ecoside as a weapon of war.  All in all, Gaza has become a killing field. 

Francesca Albanes, the United Nations Special Rapporteur, argues that “Israel is responsible for one of the cruelest genocides in modern history.”  Two leading Israeli human right organizations: B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel have recently described the Israeli actions in Gaza as amounting to genocide.  So was the conclusion of the world’s leading experts on genocide.

Following his recent pastoral visit to Gaza, our Franciscan brother and the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pizzaballa said, “Christ is not absent from Gaza.  He is there - crucified in the wounded, buried under the rubble, and yet present in every act of mercy, every candle in the darkness, every hand extended to the suffering.”

You may ask, why is there not as much public moral indignation at what is taking place in Gaza?  The Israeli Authorities have banned the entry of international journalists to Gaza since the war began. This is unprecedented in any other conflict in modern history. Furthermore, over the past 23 months, 248 journalists and media workers – mostly Palestinian - have been killed in Gaza. This is more than the number of journalists killed in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Ukraine combined. As the local journalists are being killed with impunity, the harrowing stories and images that depict the horrific genocide and the mass starvation of the Palestinian people in Gaza are simply not getting through to a broader public. 

As the Israeli government creates famine in Gaza, ramps up the violence in the West Bank, the United States nevertheless continues to provide the bulk of its military equipment, bombs, and other munitions that fuel Israeli aggression.  Our country also plays a key role in shielding Israel from any meaningful international action and allowing Israel to act with complete impunity.  In the process, such gross violations of basic humanity and the rule of law significantly erode the foundations of the international order and America’s reputation and leadership in the world.

Many Palestinian Christians have appealed to us, fellow Christians in the Western World, to hear their cry for justice, peace and solidarity.  They have challenged us to counter the so called “Christian Zionists” who foment anti-Palestinian racism and misuse our Christian faith to justify and even actively support stealing of the Palestinian land and killing of its people.   Just as St. Francis of Assisi challenged the violent crusaders and their ideology fueled by misguided religious motivations, we too, as Franciscans must not sit on the sidelines when the Christian Zionists in our country are complicit in turning Gaza Strip into a living hell.

The Palestinian Christians demand from us that we be true to what we profess as disciples of the one who described Himself as “the way, the truth, and the life.”  I’m grateful to our Provincial leadership for speaking prophetically alongside of Churches in the Middle East Peace, publicly and repeatedly calling for ceasefire, release of the hostages, demilitarization of the conflict, and protection of the Palestinians in the West Bank against the violence inflicted by the Israeli settlers and soldiers.  Our commitment to revitalization of our Franciscan life and mission in the U.S. implies a willingness on the part of the individual friars, our Province, churches, schools where we serve to speak prophetically against our country's complicity in the ongoing genocide and daily terror experience by the Palestinian people in Gaza and increasingly, too, in the West Bank.  Will we act out of fear of repression, censoring ourselves and become part of the conspiracy of silence and banality of evil?  Or will we act in solidarity and communion with the Christian Churches in the Holy Land, as faithful custodians of the Franciscan prophetic tradition, helping to reframe the conflict in Holy Land and building bridges across the contemporary ideological Damietta-like battlegrounds, much like a Greek Orthodox nun, Mother Agapia show us. 

In his video message my Jewish-American friend, Mark Braverman implores us as Franciscans not to be intimidated by those who indiscriminately accuse the charge of antisemitism to attack anyone who criticize the Israeli genocidal campaign.

What is ours to do?

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves” (Proverbs 31:8-9).  Raising our moral voice has a ripple effect.  It breaks the silence and encourages others to speak up and take action.  Contact your members of Congress and support the Block the Bomb Act.  Join Let Children Live global campaign. Expose and divest from the companies complicit in the ethnic cleansing in Palestine. Stand in solidarity with the Jewish people in working toward a release of all the hostages and ending the genocide.  Learn how you can help your parish incorporate a call to justice and peace in the Holy Land into Advent preparation.  Let us follow in the footsteps of Saint Francis as instruments of Christ's peace and ambassadors of his mercy in the wounded world.