BETRAYING OUR OWN VALUES:

 Palestinians in the West Bank face a host of constant (yet underreported) injustices: frequent killings at the hands of Israeli forces, warrantless arrests and incarceration (often of children), confiscation of land and demolition of homes, restrictions on travel and access to hospitals and holy sites, internal displacement and foreign exile, vigilante violence and intimidation by Israeli settlers, and systematic humiliation at checkpoints and border crossings. Particularly heartbreaking are the stories of Palestinian women forced to give birth at Israeli-controlled checkpoints because they were not allowed through in time to reach the hospital. Some have even lost children as a result.

Palestinians who live in the impoverished and densely populated Strip compare it to an "open-air prison."

These realities confront not only Muslims, but Christians, too. In Israel proper and the West Bank, many of the historic churches I have visited during pilgrimages have been set on fire and spray-painted with hateful messages by Israeli Jewish vandals. In Bethlehem, the West Bank town where Jesus was born, a towering cement wall snakes through the city. Billed as a "separation wall" to keep Israel safe from Palestinian aggression, the wall ignores the intended border for an eventual two-state solution. Instead in many places it slices through Palestinian land, cutting off family members from each other and making daily life a struggle.

Many Americans assume that the West Bank and Gaza are fully autonomous Palestinian territories. But Israel exerts considerable control over the West Bank and Gaza through military occupation, and Palestinians there lack many political rights. They liken the West Bank to a piece of Swiss cheese: small pockets governed by the Palestinian authority exist within broader Israeli control. Israel's construction of housing for Jewish Israeli settlers in the West Bank--often supported financially by American Christian congregations, but illegal under international law--further impedes any potential two-state solution. For many Palestinians, it's a continuation of the region's tortured history of land confiscation and displacement, and a reminder of the broken promises of statehood for indigenous Palestinians made by the international community after the 1948 creation of the State of Israel as a Jewish homeland.   

The situation in Gaza is even more dire than in the West Bank. Palestinians who live in the impoverished and densely populated Strip compare it to an "open-air prison," in which Israeli forces have set up a blockade of basic goods, exert control over borders and airspace, and implement tight restrictions on entry and exit. These and other Israeli measures amount to "collective punishment," illegal under international humanitarian law. Successive Israeli bombing campaigns (the latest killed over two hundred and fifty people) have reduced much of Gaza to rubble; even so, Israel continues to thwart the rebuilding of Palestinian homes and businesses. Although Israel withdrew settlements and permanent troops from Gaza years ago, the U.N. still considers it an "occupying power" there. None of this absolves groups like Hamas for its targeting of Israeli civilians in rocket attacks--it killed thirteen people in Israel during the recent attacks--but it does provide context for the news stories we consume. 

Today, life in the territory that Israel controls is fundamentally unequal. The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem and Human Rights Watch both characterize conditions across Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel proper as de facto "apartheid," since the Israeli state is "advancing and cementing the supremacy of one group" over another. The Catholic bishops in the Holy Land have also raised warnings, especially about the impact of Israel's 2018 "Nation State Law." The legislation, according to the bishops, "provide[s] a constitutional and legal basis for discrimination among Israel's citizens," privileging Jewish citizens above all others. They have called for its repeal, noting that Israel's status as a democracy is jeopardized if its non-Jewish citizens--including Christians--have fewer rights.

The reality of Israeli dominance over Palestinians makes violence against Palestinians a fact of life in the region. It shouldn't take attacks on Israelis alone for us to notice. The loss of each life--Israeli, Palestinian, or otherwise--is a travesty, and as Catholics we are called to secure the dignity and promote the flourishing of all. We also need to pay special attention to the "least of these," the ones who are suffering the most harm, and stand up on their behalf.

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