Reflections on Day 174 of Genocide

Hello Friends and Family,

On Thursdays I am fasting and using the money from lunch and the time gained to reflect and write to you, donate to UNRWA (still defunded by the US) and pray with Sabeel’s wave of prayer. Below is this week’s reflection:

Last week, I gave some reflections on the theology of election through the writing of Mitri Raheb, a Palestinian Liberation Theologian. Raheb argues that election must be understood in terms of its election reception history. In other words a concept of election is incomplete without understanding how it has been utilized in modern history has served as the justification for nationalism, settler colonialism, and American (and Israeli) exceptionalism. (110-114)

Mitri argues that election must not be a theological premise for a political claim, but rather a sign of hope for the “marginalized” and “support for creative resilience” in the face of colonial rule.

This holy week, I enter into the mystery of the crucifiction and resurrection with Salvadorian Liberation theologian Ignacio Ellacuria in his essay “The Crucified People” (attached) from Mysterium Liberationis, a collection of Latin American liberation theology.

I consider Ellacuria and Raheb parts of my theological quilt. The strings of commitment to creative resilience against colonialism and neocolonialism hold together the patches of election (as understood from the Palestinian christian perspective) and salvation (understood from the Salvadorian catholic perspective) in this corner of my theology.

Ellacuria was a Jesuit professor of theology and philosophy and later rector of University of Central America (UCA) and mediated peace negotiations between the FMLN and Salvadoran government. For his work he was targeted by the American-backed dictatorship for his criticism of their government. In 1989, Ellacuria and others were Martyred by the Salvadorian military. Before his murder, he was an editor of Mysterium Liberationis: Fundamental Concepts of Liberation Theology (published in Spanish in 1990 and English in 1993), and author of the essay “The Crucified People.”

Both Raheb and Ellacuria are committed to sociopolitical (in Rahab’s langage) and historical (in Ellacurias) analysis of the world and theology. Ellacuria emphasizes that Jesus’ “death took place for historic reasons.” Therefore, “we cannot simply settle the matter of ‘died for our sins’ by means of the expiatory victim, thereby leaving the direction of history untouched.” Ellacuria is critiquing the emergent conservative evangelical factions in El Salvador who make their faith only a matter of personal belief. Rather, Ellacuria is committed to a vision of “The Reign” that is cruciform in its commitment to the historical and material liberation of the poor.

Ellacuria reads the crucifixion and resurrection as not solely a one time event, but as a theological theme. He takes into account a “crucified people, whose crucifixion is the product of actions in history.” They, like Jesus, are the subjects of the empire, the poor and the oppressed. Their suffering is the direct result of their exploitation and oppression by the capitalists and imperialists. They are “the victim of the sin of the world, and [they are] also the bearer of the world’s salvation… Salvation does not come through the mere fact of crucifixion and death; only a people that lives because it has risen from death inflicted on it can save the world.” In other words, salvation looks in history like the uprising of the oppressed masses working to establish the reign of God which is characterized by justice.

Ellacuria’s soteriology (theology of salvation) helps me think about and enter into the mystery of the crucifixion and resurrection this week. I am filled with grief and rage as Israel continues to wage its genocidal campaign bombing hospitals and refugee camps, and families in the face of a (watered down by the United States) UN Security Council ceasefire resolution. While the UN human right council released findings that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” Israel is committing genocide, Israel bombs UNRWA warehouses and blocks aid deliveries.

While northern Gaza faces an imposed famine as a weapon of war and lays siege to the few remaining operational hospitals and the United States passes a spending bill defunding the main relief agency in Palestine (URWA). Every year, San Francisco gives $13,215,788 to Israel in the form of Federal Taxes. With that money we would not have had to give any pink slips to teachers this year.

As students at Stanford face arrest, targeted assault, and repression for speaking out for Palestine. the Atlatntic posts a zionist article written by the son of the white house press secretary and edited by a former IDF soldier accusing pro-palestinian, anti-gennocide protesters at Stanford (like me) of “enabling rancor”.

At this point I have seen multiple videos (not linked due to graphic content but easily searchable on al jazeera) of Israelis hunting down unarmed Gazans including those waving white cloths, then burying them in unmarked graves. The Israelis are bombing Rafah, a city where millions of refugees are taking shelter, murdering c hildren in their homes.

Mussa Dhaheer lost his parents in an Israeli airstrike on Rafah:

“I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to say. I can’t make sense of what happened. My parents, my father, with his displaced friends who came from Gaza near the industrial area and were staying with him, they were all together when suddenly they were all gone like dust. They fled from one death and came to another. … If the Security Council issues another resolution, they will hit more. For God’s sake, do not pass more resolutions. That’s enough. Every time they pass a resolution, they hit us more. We’re all dying, my parents last night. We will be tomorrow. Others will follow. We’re all on the way to death.” (DemocracyNow! 3/28/24)

The people of Palestine, and particularly the people of Gaza are being crucified on the cross of imperialism and zionism, capitalism, and orientalism.

Fasting and donating is one way in which I am individually trying to participate in solidarity with the crucified people and contribute to a historical resurrection. As noted in previous weeks, I am also learning how to teach and organize against Zionism.

In the first email of this chain, I included a photo of a protester carrying a sign that read “a victory for Palestine is a victory for Indigenous people everywhere.” If the zionist settler project can be stopped, and it must be stopped, it can lay a blueprint for landback campaigns around the world. I was deeply encouraged at the Interfaith Ceasefire Pilgrimage last week to learn that the First Congregational Church of Oakland has a relationship with the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust. (You can listen to Corina Could’s speech from the event here.) In small ways, the crucified people are rising from death and saving the world.

Yet, I am also trying to listen to theologian Marika Rose when she argues that not everything has a redemptive arc, and Christians in particular need to embrace a theology of failure. Her arguments echo Mitri’s caution around election and christian supremacy, highlighted in blood by the Israeli genocidal campaign whose theological underpinnings are christian and as a project of the Christian right. It is in this spirit of failure that I enter into maundy thursday and good friday.

With Sabeel:

“Eternal God, no words can express the suffering of the people in Gaza. Many of us are in despair. As our hearts, minds, and spirits are consumed with the suffering in Gaza, we remember the promise that “Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst” (Revelation 7:16). Lord, help us to continue fighting the good fight, bearing witness to your love and our native land.”