No excuse for the violence, but it’s not without cause

Oct 27, 2023

By Jean-Paul Vesco OP
The absolutely Machiavellian barbarity staged by Hamas in its surprise attack on the Israeli population has shocked the Western world. It immediately and obviously provoked an outpouring of unanimous condemnation.

My own shock and condemnation blocked me from maintaining a minimum of distance and the space of inner freedom we need to reflect. This is the trap set by Hamas, and we have largely fallen into it.

I do not wish to paint the belligerents with a broad brush without any nuance. We can also see that the military response it provoked has offered Israel the perfect opportunity, not only to try to put an end once and for all to Hamas, but also to further reduce Gaza’s already limited autonomy. The Israeli prime minister has even called Gaza “the city of evil that must be destroyed” like Sodom. But are there not fifty, or forty, or thirty, or twenty or even ten righteous people left in Gaza (Gn 18, 22-33)?

Abandoned
Unfortunately, although there’s no excuse whatsoever for Hamas’ barbaric violence, it is not without cause. I’ve experienced some of the injustice and humiliation that are the daily lot of Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere, in territories that the governmental, or “savage”, colonisation has methodically fragmented to the point of making sovereign territorial unity, however modest, impossible. Historical and daily injustice, the use of disproportionate balance of power and permanent humiliation are the bedrock of a violence that is not blind. But we struggle to see this.

Before this latest bolt out of the blue, who cared about the abandoned peace process that had definitively ruined the hope of a viable Palestinian state? We heard nothing more, the lid seemed hermetically sealed and all was going well for us. And today, are we outraged by the words of the Israeli minister of defence, when he says “we are faced with animals and we must treat them like animals” to justify depriving an entire population of water, food, gas and electricity, thus presenting a war crime in the eyes of the world?

Are we outraged to see men, women and children drowned under a deluge of bombs, taken hostage both by Hamas and by governmental vengeance with unlimited military means? These men, women and children are not Hamas. For the most part, they too are victims.

A conflict that touches us all from within
I live in a Muslim world, where indignation, to the point of unspeakability and sometimes to the point of excess, has been focused entirely on the plight of the Palestinians for decades. The rift with the Western world on this and other issues is staggering, and it continues to grow.

There are many other conflict situations that are more or less ignored, but this one is a hotbed of infection for the whole world. It touches us all from within, because it touches Jerusalem, city of peace always at war, city of the Divine Presence, city of the three inextricably intertwined monotheistic religions.

In this conflict, geopolitics and religions, sacred history and the imperatives of justice are intertwined, and it is as concrete as the despoiling and destruction of olive groves to build a wall that is supposed to enclose some and protect others. Not forgetting, of course, the weight of the tragic memory of the Shoah.

How can I keep myself between the equal dangers of falling into indifference or prejudice, for which I’m sure I’ll be criticised? Certainly, by being aware of our powerlessness to influence a conflict that is holding the world hostage, and at the same time being aware of our ability to take concrete action to prevent this evil from spreading. There are two ways: prayer and relationships. Words are the bulwark against violence.

Finally, I am convinced that lasting peace cannot be won by chaos. It can only be built on justice. “Love and truth meet, justice and peace embrace”, says the psalmist (Ps 84). And again, “Peace on Jerusalem, peace to those who love you” (Ps 121). --LCI

(Jean-Paul Vesco is a Dominican friar who has been ministering in Algeria for more than 20 years. Appointed Bishop of Oran in 2012, he is currently the Archbishop of Alger.)