Gaza: now is the time to make our ‘STOP IT!’ heard 

Three months on - whether it’s the Wailing Wall… or Separation Wall – no-one in Israel/Palestine will feel any safety until we all say ‘STOP!’ loudly enough, writes David Nelson 

When I put a reflection together for The Baptist Times in December, I worked really hard on the balance of things. I quoted from personal experience of trips to Israel/Palestine earlier in the year, and about people I met on both sides of that divide.

I still maintain that it is my duty to see ‘the other’, to give value and respect to ‘the other’, to see God in ‘the other’.

But on Gaza, I’m also finding it impossible not to cry ‘STOP IT!’ Aren’t you? Weeks of seeing the most awful things on social media lead me to only one conclusion which is that we must all call now for this madness to ‘STOP!’ Even if you haven’t got those social media links, we are all aware of the dreadful events that have been happening.

In October/November, I fell in with the line that calling for a ceasefire, without some proper conditions and safeguards in place, was quite likely impractical. During December I could understand the calls within our own Government for a ‘sustainable’ ceasefire. But equally, it’s also been clear to me throughout that this is just kicking the can down the road, and the proof of that is evident every single day. Nothing I’ve seen, heard or read in the past 90 (and counting) days suggests that anyone, anywhere, is holding the aggressors to account.

Which means it is a time for us to play our part. We are surely already on our knees but is there not more?

We need to be writing to and calling on our politicians if we are not already doing so.

We need to be writing to and calling on our Ministers of State to stand up for simple decency.

We need to be out protesting in the towns and villages of the UK week by week.

Is it wrong to also suggest that if we have media opportunities, then we should be taking them to call out what is happening? We can call it genocide; we can call it a war crime(s); I see ‘domicide’ is being quoted in today’s press although frankly that’s been very obvious for more than a month. Quite simply, if more children were killed in just the first 3 weeks of this ‘conflict’ than in all the world’s conflicts in each of the past 3 years, then ‘feeling it is beyond us to do anything’ is not an option.

Significantly too, we need our church leaders to be challenging the absolute injustice of what is happening, because if our world leaders cannot see it, then they need our help. There is nothing right about what is happening this month in Gaza – and unless we step up then there will be nothing right about what is going to happen in Gaza next month.

Some of us have seen the sermon by Lutheran minister Munther Isaac, from Bethlehem, preached on Christmas Eve. It’s available on YouTube; catch it while you can. The words are of course hard for us to comprehend here in the UK in that we don’t have the same context as the one from which he speaks, but they are powerful and vital.

None of this changes the essential point though. It is recognising that we are all made in His likeness and when that becomes understood and practised, in our own towns as well as across in the Middle East, finally some semblance of calm might come to bear.

But beyond that, now is the time to make our ‘STOP IT!’ heard.


Images | The Wailing Wall, Jerusalem and a section of the Separation Wall | David Nelson
 

David Nelson is a member of a Baptist church in West Yorkshire. He has travelled to Israel and the West Bank twice in the past year and was due to go again on Monday 9 October until the flight was cancelled the day before.

He is a supporter of Amos Trust, a small creative human rights organisation based in the UK and registered as a charity. Their principal area of work is supporting partners in the West Bank and Gaza. 

 

Lynn Green, General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, joined Christian Aid and 20 other Christian leaders in December in calling for an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages, alongside other movements towards peace and accountability in the devastating conflict in the Holy Land

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