Reflections on Day 167 of Genocide

This week, I finished reading Decolonizing Palestine, The Land, The People, The Bible by Mitri Raheb. Raheb is a Palestinian Luteran Pastor and Theologian based in Bethlehem in the Occupied West Bank. The book aims to challenge christians who naively use “language and theological ideas that support current israeli settler colonialism, causing great harm to the people of Palestine.” (IX)

The book is a challenging and enlightening read, not only to evangelical audiences but also mainstream liberal “christian zionist” ideology as exemplified by theologians like Walter Bruggemann.

In order to understand the current phase of genocide, we have to understand roots of the Iraeli Settler project. One key root is imperial land theology which justified settler colonialism here in the United States as well as in Palestine. (here is a quick video on why we should talk about “settler colonialism” instead of “westward expansion” to describe the United States).

Settler Colonial land theology served as the justification of the seizure of the majority of Palestinian lands in 1948. And today, 80% of Palestinians in Gaza are the direct descendants of those expelled in The _Nakba _(catastrophe).

Raheb deconstructs these zionist theologies and puts forward a decolonial Palestinian theology with the hermeneutical keys of land and people. Attached are my notes on his arguments in chapter four disturbing colonial theologies of election through the hermeneutical key of the people.

As a child and youth at Redeemer, I was taught the entire bible through the church school curriculum which included an emphasis on election or being part of a chosen people and belonging to God. Raheb challenges me, and my work in youth ministry, to ensure that we do not teach election as “history of salvation” (127) or “continuous act of selection” (124) which has served as a pretext for religious supremacy and land theft. Instead we must also analyze the sociopolitical and cultural manifestations of election theology both in the biblical times and present day (127). In this way, election becomes a statement of faith and a sign of hope for colonized peoples. (for more see chapter 4 notes attached or read the book)

As my stomach sits empty, I am reminded of the people in Gaza who are being starved by the genocidal Israeli government who is being aided and abetted by the United States. According to the latest IPC report; “virtually all households now skip meals every day in Gaza” and “In [nearly ⅔ of the households of] the northern governorates, people went entire days and nights without eating at least 10 times in the last 30 days.” (United Nations) Furthemore, as stated in the attached prayer, when people do go to get food they are shot and killed daily by the Israeli military. When they take shelter in hospitals the Israeli military lays seige with American weapons.

This cannot continue. In the struggle against apartheid in South Africa (another settler state cloaked in christian theology) it took international solidarity via boycotts and sanctions to force change. I am grateful for the courageous students at Stanford who are trying to get a motion passed in our student government to divest from genocide. I am also grateful to the people of Haward who have divested 1.6 million from their city funds from companies complicit in Israel’s settler state. On Saturday, I am planning to join the Interfaith Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage for leg 3. The other day someone asked me “do you think these protests actually matter?” This morning the Secretary of State of the US called for an immediate and sustained ceasefire, a position unthinkable a couple months ago. This is only made possible by the missions who have taken the streets, filled their politicians email and phone inboxes, and shut things down to force our government to act. If we are to be the hands and feet of Jesus, we must continue to act until the refugees are allowed to return and the border walls, theology, police and barriers of the apartheid regime fall.

If you would like to join me you can join in prayer with this liturgy: https://sabeel.org/category/wave-of-prayers/ and donate to UNRWA here: https://www.unrwausa.org/donate.