Join Us for a Conversation with Dr. Ruth Padilla DeBorst about Gaza through Latin American Eyes

Dr. Padilla DeBorst is the professor of Global Christianity at Western Theological Seminary. I first met her when she spoke last year at the Christ at the Checkpoint conference in Bethlehem.

She has also twice been a keynote speaker at the Lausanne Conference on world evangelism.

Last year her references to the American church’s failure to address its own complicity in the ongoing Gaza genocide sparked considerable controversy. We will certainly be talking with her about that situation and its aftermath.

Your link to the interview is posted in the photo above. Or you can copy it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xZGxJic2vM

 

 

Torture Happens

Well, I have been away for some time now. Partly, I have been doing a lot of traveling recently. Partly, I have been busy working on a new book project.

But I intend on becoming a more regular poster again soon after Christmas. For now, here are a few thoughts churned up by a recent encounter. Thanks for reading.

“Torture Happens”

The week before Thanksgiving signals an annual event that I have been blessed in being able to attend since my retirement in 2015. That event is the annual joint meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature, the American Academy of Religion and the Institute of Biblical Research.

This year the meetings occurred in San Diego, CA. Thousands of scholars, academics and independent researchers gathered together from around the world to enjoy a very large religious book fair (where I could easily spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars!) and a vast cavalcade of lectures, presentations, seminars, panels and special events touching on the wide array of topics falling under the rubric of “religious studies.” (I confess that I am an academic geek and feel as though I’ve died and gone to hog heaven every time I attend this conference.)

Ever since my book on Christian Zionism was published in 2021—titled Like Birds in a Cage: Christian Zionism’s Collusion in Israel’s Oppression of the Palestinian People; if you have any interest in this subject and have yet to read my book, you should ask for it as a Christmas present—I have made a point of attending every session available on the subjects of Palestine, Israel, Christian Zionism, and the war against Gaza.

Among the many sessions I attended this year was one hosted by two Israeli Jews slated to discuss the achievements of political Zionism in modern Israeli society. At least that’s what I understood the catalogue description to promise.

The first speaker was an elderly rabbi who gave a long, rambling disquisition (a midrash, I guess you could say) on who knows what. I’m afraid I cannot tell you what his intended topic was supposed to be. It was a stream of consciousness oration that wandered, seemingly without purpose, from one disjointed topic to the next and could easily have given all rabbis a bad name were a listener prone to gauche generalizations.

The second presentation was offered by an Israeli journalist who shared interesting stories focused on the history of modern extremism in Israel. The general upshot seemed to be that “life in Israel is complicated.” Ok. Thank you very much.

I can’t remember what triggered my decision to ask a few questions of the second speaker. I can only recall that I wasn’t buying his pro–Israel slant on what it was exactly that made life in Israel so complicated. I raised my hand to remind him that Israel was a highly militarized society (much like ancient Sparta) which dominated and oppressed an entire group of people, i.e. the Palestinians, having kept many of them under severe, military occupation since 1948.

He replied with standard attempts at justifying the unjustifiable. It’s what most Zionists do.

I pushed back by mentioning the story of my friend, Munther Amira, who was tortured daily during his recent imprisonment in Israel. His physical abuse was not isolated. It was universal and systematic. No one was exempt.

“Torture happens,” was the Jewish Zionist’s answer.

I was dumbstruck. “Are you kidding me!?” I replied. “Is that all you’ve got to say?”

Yep, that was all he had to say. “Shit happens.” (My rephrasing).

I describe the daily dehumanization of my friend, and he hands me a cheap, working–class bumper sticker in response. Shit happens.

What kind of a tawdry, demented view of life is this? But, of course, such a perspective only applies when bad things happen (I’ll try to stop writing the word shit now, even though it seems very much at home in a story like this) to other people, not to oneself or to one’s own loved ones. When bad things happen to Israel, such as October 7, 2023, their pain serves to justify all manner of seething revenge and genocidal retribution.

In the case of Israel, “genocide happens.” The world says “Yes” and goes on its merry way.

I am not surprised to hear ethnic nationalists, like my political Zionist interlocutor, think or speak so crudely, without conscience. But I am truly shocked to hear Christians talk this way, for it reveals a moral compass smashed to smithereens. For, yes, I have also heard good, church–going folks also say things like “shit happens.” (Oops.)

Many bad things happen in life. Rape happens. Child abuse happens. Wickedness happens. What matters is not our ability to restate the obvious but our ability to respond with outrage and work towards a better world, a world where wickedness no longer happens without comment or correction.

The divinely endowed Image of God in humanity is defamed in myriad ways every single day in this world.  Every assault against another human being is an attack against the divine image. The awful repetitiveness of such blasphemies may become a recipe for conscientious exhaustion, but it can never become an excuse for indifference, acceptance or feigned impotence.

We are not helpless. Wherever wickedness is permitted it can also be condemned, corrected and terminated. Following this alternative path is the prophetic responsibility of the Christian church.

God cares deeply about such things. And because God cares, God’s people are obligated to devote their lives to doing whatever they can to stem the tide of wickedness in this world, and to mend the wounds of all those who have suffered such wickedness themselves.

I am not a postmillennialist, like many liberation theologians appear to be. I do not believe that anybody’s activism, no matter how far ranging, is ever going to eradicate all wickedness from this world. For that, we must await the return of Christ himself. But we are called to help “prepare the way.”

Yes, torture happens. Any craven numbnuts can know this much. The Christian’s obligation, however, is not simply to know that it happens, but to scream a lifetime of outrage over its reappearance; to work to stop it; to help to heal those who have suffered from it; to see that it is never resurrected in our lifetimes.

Yes, wickedness happens. This is one of the several reasons that Jesus died on the cross for all the wickedness of this world. We can thank our God that Christ did not look at this corrupt society of ours and conclude, “Well, wickedness happens down there.”

Christ did not shrug his shoulders and go on his merry way—a decision he certainly could have made had he wanted to. Rather, he stopped and saw. He heard. He cared. He came down, and he entered into the human condition. He served. He sacrificed. And he rose from the dead in victory.

He now calls us to serve, to sacrifice, to expend ourselves in doing whatever we can toward ending such wickedness as torture, rape, child abuse, and all other forms of human oppression as we await his Return. Though we will never end it all completely, we must do our part in smashing these works of the devil beneath the jackboots of righteousness.

No one is ever free simply to say “torture happens” as if it were a wisdom–filled observation on life.

We have but two options when we say these two words: we may weep, and we may plan to end it as we cry.

An Interview with Palestinian Theologian-Pastor, Mitri Raheb

My friends at the Christian Forum on Israel-Palestine recently interviewed the influential, internationally known Palestinian pastor-theologian, the Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb.

We had a wide-ranging discussion about the war against Gaza and the West Bank and its effects upon the Palestinian Christian community.

Please check it out:

Watch My Conversation with a Palestinian Friend Recently Released from Prison in Israel

This coming Friday, July 12 at 1 pm Eastern time, 10 am Pacific, I will lead the next episode of the Christian Forum on Israel-Palestine.

The following link will allow you to watch the conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYXuwuUNJ-k

Our guest will be my friend Munther Amira. Munther is a Palestinian, non-violent, peace activist who lives in the Aida refugee camp where Terry and I stay during our visits to the West Bank.

Munther was arrested by Israeli soldiers in September 2023 and released in February 2024. He will talk with us about the dire conditions for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

But he will especially describe the brutal changes implemented after the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Trust me. You won’t want to miss Munther’s first-hand account of Palestinian Life in an Israeli Prison.

Again, use the following link to watch this important conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYXuwuUNJ-k

CFIP Conversation with Journalist Ali Abunimah

You are invited to join the Christian Forum on Israel-Palestine this coming Tuesday (tomorrow, June 18) for our second conversation. This time we will be talking with Palestinian-American author and journalist Ali Abunimah, founder and senior editor of the Electronic Intifada.

You won’t want to miss it!

Use this link for the livestream and to view the recording after the fact: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYLhwY_yThU

 

Palestinian Girls Plead for Help Beneath the Rubble

These videos speak for themselves.

These are only two little girls who are, fortunately, rescued. The United Nations estimates that some 10,000 Palestinian bodies have never been rescued. They remain in the rubble.

To watch the above video use the URL address inbetween the brackets: [https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6pfJ3gCrcxs]

Watch Our Upcoming Interview with Historian Ilan Pappe

I am happy to announce the next episode of the Christian Forum on Israel-Palestine. It will be broadcast on June 8th, 4 pm Eastern, 1 pm Pacific.

We will be speaking with Ilan Pappe, one of the world’s premier historians of modern Israel, but especially of the Israel/Palestine conflict.

When the time comes you can watch this conversation by clicking on the following link or paste it in your computer’s URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2Azgev9Rc8

Professor Pappe has written many important books. Perhaps his best known publication is The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. His most recent work, Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic (available in September), deals with the power and influence of Israeli/pro-Zionist  lobbying efforts around the world.

Please join us for what I know will be a fascinating conversation with one of Israel’s foremost historians.

 

I am deeply disappointed to say that I will not be participating in this particular conversation.  I will be flying home from Israel on June 8. But trust me, I will NOT miss any more of our upcoming conversations.

Mark you calendars now, not only for Ilan Pappe, but for what I know will be another fascinating conversation with Ali Abunimah, the founder and chief editor of The Electronic Intifada, on June 18.

I will provide more information once I return from my trip to Israel-Palestine.

“Jewish students reject claims that campus protests for Palestine have been antisemitic”

The Jewish magazine Forward has published two different letters written by Jewish university students insisting that the anti-genocide demonstrations on their campuses have NOT been antisemitic, but that all impulses towards

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violence and antisemitism have been imported by outside instigators.

Here is a brief excerpt of the Foward article titled “Jewish students reject claims that campus protests for Palestine have been antisemitic“. All emphasis is mine:

Editor’s note: Today we published two open letters from college students regarding the protests that have been roiling campuses nationwide for weeks. Below, 750+ Jewish students from 140+ campuses say they “reject the claim that these encampments are antisemitic and that they are an inherent threat to Jewish student safety.” In the other letter, 280+ Jewish students at Columbia University argue that their “concerns have been brushed off and invalidated” when calling out antisemitism on campus. The original letters can be found here and here.

We the undersigned are Jewish students on college campuses in solidarity with student encampments for Gaza. We reject the ways that these encampments have been smeared as antisemitic and we call on our institutions to take action to stop Israel’s assault on Gaza. 

In the last week, we have watched the movement of student encampments for Gaza spread across the country. We have also watched as these protesters have been met with repression, arrests, violence, and false claims of antisemitism. As Jewish students, we wholeheartedly reject the claim that these encampments are antisemitic and that they are an inherent threat to Jewish student safety. We believe that safety for Jewish students can only come when all students are safe, including Palestinian students, BIPOC students, and queer and trans students.  

While journalists, students, and even police have consistently reported encampments to be peaceful, school administrations and city officials have intentionally and consistently escalated through state violence. Their tactics have included arresting and brutalizing students, and denying students access to housing, medical care, and religious spaces. The majority of these acts have targeted Arab, Muslim, Black, and brown students. This violence we’ve seen this week does not make any of us safer. We wholeheartedly condemn the brutal repression of the encampments. 

You can read the entire article here.

The Nation: “Student Encampments Aren’t a Danger to Jews. But the Crackdown Is”

“The narrative of protesters endangering Jewish students has been used to justify police repression. But at the Columbia encampment, I saw a commitment to confronting antisemitism.”

Journalist Hadas Thier has written a good article for The Nation magazine giving an insider’s look at the anti-genocide demonstrations happening on American campuses.

The article is titled “Student Encampments Aren’t a Danger to Jews. But the Crackdown Is.”

Here is a brief excerpt:

. . . Since then, the story of protesters endangering and threatening Jewish

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students has been used to justify the brutal repression that they’ve been met with. But I spent the last week speaking to students across many campus encampments, and last Wednesday I made my way to Columbia’s encampment to get a picture of it for myself. My experience was decidedly different from the story we’ve been fed.

In the middle of the lawn, surrounded by a low buzz of students sitting in study circles, making art, pointing out a hawk that flew nearby, working on laptops, I met Atesh, a Columbia student who asked to be identified only by his first name for fear of reprisal. He told me how meaningful it was for him to participate in his first Passover seder with about 100 other students and professors on the lawn. There, Jewish students had led their peers in songs and rituals. The Passover seder is a Jewish tradition that celebrates liberation and is rooted in community, inquiry, and questioning. It was a fitting celebration for the encampment.

As Atesh was talking to me, another student approached us, looking for a Jewish member of the encampment to connect with. Atesh shrugged and said, “We’re all Jewish. We’re all Palestinian.”

Later that day, I sat on the lawn with nearly 200 students to listen to Jewish students lead a teach-in about antisemitism. Some discussed their experiences growing up in predominantly Christian towns where pennies were thrown at them and conspiracy theories about Jews were ubiquitous. Others shared their impressions of why so many American Jewish communities feel connected to their Israeli counterparts and why conversations about Palestine are difficult to have. A few recounted why their opposition to the current war is rooted in their traditions and observance of Judaism. All of them expressed discomfort at having to take center stage. But they felt an obligation to do so because of the ways in which the “safety of Jewish students” has become a disingenuous rallying cry of everyone from liberal college presidents to MAGA-aligned politicians.

I am an Israeli-born Jew who has been involved in Palestine activism for over 20 years, and I have never experienced the level of solidarity and the depth of understanding about antisemitism that I am seeing across college campuses right now. In the past, I had seen antisemitism only on the fringe of the movement, turning up through an occasional odd and unsettling poster at a protest, summarily dismissed and removed by organizers. At the center of the movement, I always felt welcome and comfortable as an Israeli-born Jew. But, still, until the recent phase of the new movement for Palestine emerged on American campuses last fall, I had never before witnessed such a deliberate commitment to learning about and confronting antisemitism head on. . . 

. . . “It is not that they care about Jewish students,” JVP [Jewish Voice for Peace] member Maya, told me. “They actually care about Zionist students.” Among those arrested and suspended were many Jewish students, she said. “They do not care about the safety of the Jewish students that are in the camp or that are part of this movement. And they’ve shown that by arresting and by attempting to erase the fact that we even exist.” Anti-Zionist Jews, she explained, “are not part of [the administration’s] fight against antisemitism.” . . .

You can read the entire article here.

Counterpunch: “The Distortion of Campus Protests Over Gaza”

Helen Benedict has posted a good story at Counterpunch magazine investigating the student protests launched against the Gaza genocide.

The article is titled “The Distortion of Campus Protests Over Gaza.” I include a brief excerpt below:

. . . Even as the now-notorious student tent encampment there stretches through its second week, all is calm. Inside the camp, students sleep, eat, and sit on bedspreads studying together and making signs saying, “Nerds for Palestine,” “Passover is for Liberation,” and “Stop the Genocide.” The Jewish students there held a seder on Passover. The protesters even asked faculty to come into the encampment and teach because they miss their classes. Indeed, it’s so quiet on campus that you can hear birds singing in the background. The camp, if anything, is hushed.

Those protesters who have been so demonized, for whom the riot police are waiting outside — the same kinds of students Columbia University’s president, Minouche Shafik, invited the police to arrest, zip-tie, and cart away on April 18th — are mostly undergraduate women, along with a smaller number of undergraduate men, 18 to 20 years old, standing up for what they have a right to stand up for: their beliefs. Furthermore, for those who don’t know the Columbia campus, the encampment is blocking nobody’s way and presents a danger to no one. It is on a patch of lawn inside a little fence buffered by hedges. As I write, those students are not preventing anyone from walking anywhere, nor occupying any buildings, perpetrating any violence, or even making much noise. (In the early hours of April 30th, however, student protesters did occupy Hamilton Hall in reaction to a sweep of suspensions the day before.)

As a tenured professor at Columbia’s Journalism School, I’ve been watching the student protests ever since the brutal Hamas attack of October 7th, and I’ve been struck by the decorum of the protesting students, as angry and upset as they are on both sides. This has particularly impressed me knowing that several students are directly affected by the ongoing war. I have a Jewish student who has lost family and friends to the attack by Hamas, and a Palestinian student who learned of the deaths of her family and friends in Gaza while she was sitting in my class.

Given how horrific this war is, it’s not surprising that there have been a few protesters who lose control and shout hideous things, but for the most part, such people have been quietly walked away by other students or campus security guards. All along, the main messages from the students have been “Bring back our hostages” on the Israeli side and “Stop slaughtering Gazan civilians” on the antiwar and pro-Palestinian-rights side. Curiously enough, those messages are not so far apart, for almost everyone wants the hostages safe and almost everyone is calling for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take a different direction and protect the innocent. . . 

You can read the entire article here.