Don't let Rev. Munther's speaking Arabic put you off--try and read the subtitles.
Were you aware, Rep. Mast, that there are Christians in Gaza? On December 16th, the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City came under attack by Israeli forces, killing two women, and injuring seven, and shattering the illusion that any place in Gaza could be safe. There WERE many ancient and historic Christian Churches in Gaza which have been destroyed by the Israeli Occupation Forces.
Gaza was noted in the Bible as a stop for Jesus, Mary, and Joseph on their journey to and from Egypt. Gaza was once home to a thriving Christian community, but a count this year found just a hundred and thirty-five Catholics there, among a thousand and seventeen Christians, according to the Catholic Church. Those who stay speak of feeling an ethnic connection to Gaza, as Palestinians, and a spiritual one, as Christians.
Palestine’s Christians, totalling 50,000 across the occupied
territories, are sometimes referred to as ‘living stones’, a metaphor
first invoked by Peter the Apostle, the ex-fisherman called upon to be a
disciple of Jesus, to describe the role of believers in building the
spiritual house of God. Today, the term harks to their special status as
custodians of a faith born on their land.
“It’s very disappointing, very frustrating, and the average Palestinian Christian is angry with the Church leadership,” Salim Munayer, a Palestinian Christian theologian who founded Musalaha, an N.G.O. that facilitates reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians, told me. “Palestinian Christians are still treated under a Eurocentric lens of traditional Christianity that sees them first as Arabs, second as Christians. Western Christians treat us like the ‘other’ or a second class.”
The Reverend Munther Isaac, a Palestinian Lutheran minister in Bethlehem, has been pointed in his commentary about Gaza, designing his church’s Nativity this year to resemble Jesus as an infant trapped under the rubble. In his pre-Christmas sermon, which went viral on social media, he stated, “To our European friends, I never, ever want to hear you lecture us on human rights or international law again. We are not white, I guess—it does not apply to us according to your own logic.”
I asked Isaac about his sermon and potential repercussions. “This is a genocide,” he said—a sentiment shared, amid debate about the use of the term, by many Palestinian Christians. “We can’t be silent, and we have an ethical responsibility, a moral responsibility to speak,” he added. “And this is why I always say the churches must be stronger. We have a platform we must use.”
I hope you are able to open your heart, Rep. Mast, to see that you support a regime which persecutes Christians. It is not the Israel of prophecy, but a racist and secular state whose support is not in the interest of the United States.
Have you every heard of the USS Liberty Incident in 1967, Rep. Mast? Probably not, or you wouldn't be as open in your support for Israel.
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