This editorial from the Catholic Herald reflects on the attack on Christians in Gaza yesterday.
There is one part of the Church where the celebrations for Christmas have already been put on hold, and that is the Holy Land, where Church leaders encouraged Christians to curb the usual festivities and decorations out of respect for the suffering caused by the current conflict.
It began with the barbaric Hamas atrocities against Jews on 7 October and yesterday it continued with the attacks by the Israeli defence forces on the Holy Family Church in Gaza. As our cover this month by Christian Adams reminds us, the place the Three Wise Men visited is now in a region disfigured by war and destruction.
The statement by the Latin Patriarch, Cardinal Pizzaballa, does not equivocate about the nature of the Israeli Defence Force attack on the church “A sniper of the IDF murdered two Christian women in the Church of the Holy Family where the majority of Christian families have taken refuge…Seven other people were shot and wounded as they tried to protect others. They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the parish, where there are no belligerents.”
The patriarch said that IDF tanks had also targeted the Convent of the Sisters of Mother Theresa, which houses 54 disabled people and is part of the church’s compound, designated as a place of worship since the start of the conflict. An initial rocket attack destroyed the generator and caused a fire, and it was followed by two further rockets. The 54 disabled residents are now displaced and without the electricity generator for respirators, some may not survive.
To talk of “murder” in this context seems entirely apposite. How, in God’s name, is it possible to claim that a sniper targeting an elderly woman, and her daughter, as she tried to drag her mother to safety, could be justified as an attack on Hamas? How was the Church where Christian families were sheltering considered a legitimate target? And how is it possible to justify a rocket attack on the convent of the Sisters of Charity and the disabled people they care for? There can be no group less politicised, more innocent, more palpably benign, than the Sisters of Charity. But it was not enough to save them. It is impossible to imagine that the IDF did not know what and whom they were targeting. There was no threat to the IDS from the parishioners of the Holy Family Chruch targeted by the sniper, or from the disabled residents of the Sisters of Charity convent. The attacks were brutal, unjustified, wilful and murderous.
The toll of death and destruction may be small-scale relative to the overall casualties of Palestinians since the Israeli counteroffensive, but they tell us a great deal about the nature of that offensive. It should add to the pressure from Western governments on Benjamin Netanyahu to stop his undiscriminating assault on civilians which has resulted in the deaths of an estimated 18,000 people. It should focus the attention of the US administration and European governments on the nature of what is happening in Gaza.
This is not to say that Hamas is not culpable; its rocket attacks on Jerusalem, which was protected by the so-called Iron Dome, could have destroyed, among other places, the Franciscan friary inside the walls. And of course the conflict was precipitated by the initial Hamas atrocities against 1,400 Jews. But the nature of the Israeli response has diminished the sympathy that followed the 7 October attacks. This latest assault on Christians will further compromise the moral standing of the Israeli forces. In addition, the IDF killings of three Israeli hostages who had been held by Hamas and who had held up white flags before they were shot, has prompted further questioning of its tactics.
This attack is just the latest assault on Christians of the Holy Land whose numbers have plummeted in recent years – and we should remember that in 1948, before the foundation of the state of Israel, they made up some 30 per cent of the population. There are now said to be barely 1,000 Christians in Gaza, even though the Holy Family Church is an historic place of worship. Christians were already leaving the area before the Israeli offensive against Hamas; the displacement and loss of life has expedited a further exodus.
In East Jerusalem, Christians, including Armenians, have seen a similar catastrophic decline in numbers. We are in danger of seeing nothing less than the extinction of local Christianity in the home of Christianity. And although Christ and his apostles were of course Jews, we should remember that Arabs were among the very first Christians, being mentioned among the peoples gathered in Jerusalem at Pentecost. The Holy Places may attract hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in good times, but as Fr Luke Gregory OFM, our diarist this month, observed in an interview, the Church is in danger of losing something even more important: its living stones, the Christians of the region.
Before the start of the most recent conflict, Christians were subjected to the provocations of extremist Jewish factions, including settler groups, especially in Jerusalem, who sought to assert the Jewish presence at the expense of Christian and other communities. This was abetted by corrupt elements within the churches: controversial and disputed land sales by individuals within the Greek Orthodox and more recently the Armenian Church, meant that the tiny area of Jerusalem which was home to them is being reduced even further. These extremist Jewish groups are not representative of Israel’s Jewish majority but they have the support of the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
These problems may seem of far less importance than the appalling, wholescale loss of life, but any increase in the numbers of Christians leaving the region where they have lived for 2,000 years is nothing less than a tragedy. The interests of the Christian community must be considered in any peace settlement – though the prospect now seems remote – such as that still envisaged by the US administration and Israel’s Western allies. President Biden has visited the Holy Places, including Bethlehem, and has worshipped at the place of Christ’s birth. He must not forget the Christian community there, which is far larger in its significance than in its numbers. This should continue to be a triune culture, with Christians as well as Jews and Muslims, and even though Christians are so much smaller in number than the others, their influence is very real.
Catholics outside the region can help them; in our charitable giving – especially during this Christmas season – we should do our best to support Christians in the Holy Land, and their neighbours and their local industries, which will have suffered not just physical damage during the conflict but the loss of outlets and export routes. Organisations such as Pro Terra Sancta, which Fr Luke, our diarist, works with, help the Christians of the region to find fulfilling work. Without employment, these people, especially the young, will have no choice but to leave their homes and the decline will continue.
Just as importantly, we should continue to pray for our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land after this latest tragedy. It’s the most fundamental form of solidarity we can offer, and it is transformative.
Photo: Nuns and parishioners gather for Christmas Eve mass at the Holy Family Church in Gaza City, 24 December 2022. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP) (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images.)
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