Gaza
Artist Emmalene Blake puts the finishing touches to a mural of Hind Rajab, the 6-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in Gaza, along with several family members and paramedics, outside Dalymount Park in Dublin, ahead of the friendly match against the Palestine women's national team and Bohemians Women. Credit: PA Images via Reuters Connect
I went on a trip to the American South with the Telos Group, a nonprofit dedicated to equipping people to advocate for peace and reconciliation amid conflict. The purpose of the delegation was to help Palestinians learn about the histories and current realities of the Black and Indigenous struggle for justice in the United States.
The World After Gaza: A History, by Pankaj Mishra
PANKAJ MISHRA OPENS The World After Gaza: A History with the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising in German-occupied Poland. The Jews imprisoned in the ghetto fought their Nazi captors for “a few desperate weeks” until they were crushed. Mishra quotes one of few survivors, Marek Edelman, who “was ‘terribly afraid’ that ‘nobody in the world would notice a thing,’ and ‘nothing, no message about us, would ever make it out.’”
The Israel Defense Forces’ ongoing destruction of Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israeli civilians by Hamas has been livestreamed by journalists, mothers, and teenagers. Globally, many suffered “an inner wound,” Mishra writes, from watching these cruelties: Israel’s bombs targeting children, schools, and hospitals; military dogs mauling disabled Palestinians; and IDF soldiers denying starving people access to food. Despite Palestinian efforts to broadcast the war crimes, Gaza still burns. Mishra contrasts reactions to the atrocities in 1943 Warsaw and in Gaza today to explore Western state-sanctioned violence.
Although Western Allies pledged never to let the genocide of the Holocaust happen again — a promise that has defined Western morality for decades — the violence unleashed in World War II death camps has been repeated across the globe in Japan, Vietnam, Rwanda, Iraq, Syria, and Gaza.
Mishra, a British Indian writer, links the rhetoric of Israel’s ethno-state to the Hindu nationalism of his native India. From a Hindu Brahmin family, Mishra recalls his childhood admiration of Israel’s leaders and how he, and many other Hindu nationalists, admired their macho tactics.
Courtesy of No Other Land
A SMALL TREE grows near the parking lot at a state park close to my home. I noticed this tree more than a decade ago when our children were very small: A sapling rooted in the crack of a giant boulder.
Over the past 14 years the split in the boulder has widened. As the tree has gotten a little taller and broader, the rock has gradually changed its shape, splitting and cracking. The tree’s bark folds around the rock; the two have become inextricably bound up with one another.
Social transformation can be slow, quiet work, like roots pushing their way through rock. It’s often hard to see the impact your life, your work, your presence, your art, your words are making on the impenetrable forces around you. Ask me to move a two-ton rock and I’ll laugh in your face; it's impossible. And yet, I remember that little tree.
Extremely heavy forces are at work in this world: racism, misogyny, greed, violence. And yet people keep finding ways — like that tree growing down into stone — to stay rooted, find joy, grow, even thrive. What if the response to these very real and very heavy stones threatening to crush our humanity is not a sledgehammer but a sprout?
Palestinians walk past a damaged church after the death of Pope Francis was announced by the Vatican, in Gaza City April 21, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Francis called the church hours after the war in Gaza began in October 2023, Antone said, the start of what the Vatican News Service would describe as a nightly routine throughout the war. He would make sure to speak not only to the priest but to everyone else in the room, Antone said.
Photo of Peter Beinart. Graphic by Ryan McQuade.
Peter Beinart, author of Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza, rejects the idea that the liberation of Palestine is an antimsemitic project. In fact, he argues that Zionism has become an idol for some Jewish leaders, and advocating for Palestinian people
Photo of Rev. Munther Isaac by Josiah R. Daniels. Graphic by Ryan McQuade.
In ‘Christ in the Rubble,’ Palestinian pastor Rev. Munther Isaac surveys the devastation of his homeland and finds God in the most unexpected places.
Palestinian fishermen ride a boat as they work, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, at the seaport of Gaza City Feb. 16, 2025. Credit: Reuters/Osama Al-Arabid.
In the halls of empire, men sit at gleaming tables untouched by war, they speak of peace as though it is theirs to grant. But they have never gathered their children into one room to sleep at night so that if death comes, it takes them together. They have never watched the sky split open with fire, felt the air convulse after the blast, felt the wind howl past — hot, violent, and thick with the dust and scent of obliteration. And yet, they sign their names to ceasefires, shake hands, and expect the world to applaud. They do not blush as they bankroll the demolition of homes, the bombing of hospitals, and the erasure of entire families .
During the first week of February, U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whois the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. This meeting took place as the fragile ceasefire agreement between the Israeli occupying forces and the Palestinian militant group, Hamas, hung in the balance. Trump, never one to concern himself with the nuances of international law (or any law, really), originally floated the idea of the U.S. “owning Gaza” on Feb. 4 and then has since doubled down on this colonial fantasy, one so crude and reckless that his own administration scrambled to downplay it.
Palestinian fishermen repair their net, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, at the seaport of Gaza City on Feb. 16, 2025. Reuters/Osama Al-Arabid.
Amid the fragile ceasefire, the exchange of hostages, and the temporary pause in Israel’s genocidal onslaught against Gazans, nearly six hundred Christians huddle together in one of Gaza’s battered churches, their prayers rising above the rubble as a defiant testament to their faith and resilience. Among them, Gazan Christian George Antone boldly declares, “For us, as Christians, we are not leaving Gaza. We will remain in Gaza and help people in Gaza reconstruct their houses, rebuild the streets. Yes, we will stay in Gaza. We are not leaving.”
Antone’s words stand in stark contrast to the explosive press conference at the White House on Feb. 4, when President Donald Trump brazenly suggested that the United States should “effectively own” Gaza, proposing to turn it into a real estate venture while displacing Palestinians from their homeland and relocating them to neighboring countries.
Palestinians react as they wait for news of a ceasefire deal with Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Jan. 15, 2025. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
Israel and Hamas agreed to a deal to halt fighting in Gaza and exchange Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, an official briefed on the deal told Reuters on Wednesday, opening the way to a possible end to a 15-month war that has upended the Middle East.
Rev. Munther Isaac. Graphic by Ryan McQuade/Sojourners.
When I visited Rev. Munther Isaac in Bethlehem, the West Bank, in October, he mentioned that he was previously opposed to liberation theologian James H. Cone. Isaac was trained in theologically conservative teachings, growing up in a conservative church and then leaving Palestine to attend a conservative seminary in the U.S.
Pope Francis meets with the Italian pilgrims of the Camino de Santiago cared for by the Don Guanella organization at St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican, Dec. 19, 2024. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane
An Israeli government minister criticized Pope Francis on Friday for suggesting the international community should study whether Israel’s military offensive in Gaza constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people.
Ruth Padilla DeBorst delivers he plenary speech on “justice,” which the Lausanne Movement would later apologize for, at the Fourth Lausanne Congress in Incheon, South Korea, on Sept. 23, 2024. Photo courtesy the Lausanne Movement. Photo credits for the Lausanne Congress: Michael Bode, Gjermund Oystese, MaryChris Lajom, Grace Snavely, Matthew Lauber, Altin Serani, Jaqueline Baisi, Gersham Girum
Ruth Padilla DeBorst told her audience: “There is no room for indifference toward all who are suffering the scourge of war and violence the world round, the uprooted and beleaguered people of Gaza, the hostages held by both Israel and Hamas and their families, the threatened Palestinians in their own territories, all who are mourning the loss of loved ones.”
Less than 48 hours later, the director of the Fourth Lausanne Congress emailed all attendees, issuing a lengthy apology for Padilla DeBorst’s speech.
A group of Mennonites with Mennonite Action protest on a lawn in Washington, D.C., on July 30, 2024. Rachel Schrock, courtesy Mennonite Action.
Starting on Thursday, July 18, between 35 and 125 Mennonites and interfaith allies from the U.S. and Canada made steady progress on their 11-day, 141-mile “All God’s Children March for a Ceasefire” trek from Harrisonburg, Va., to Washington, D.C. Upon arrival in Washington on Sunday, July 28, the marchers urged Congress and President Joe Biden’s administration to support an immediate, permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages and political prisoners, an end to military aid to Israel, and a political solution that ends the occupation of Palestine, ensuring peace for Palestinians and Israelis. And on Tuesday, July 30, 46 of the people were arrested by Capitol Police during a protest.
An image from Saint Philips Church (which is also known as the Baptist church and is part of Al-ahli Al-arabi Hospital) that was converted into a clinic to treat the injured in Gaza City. July 4, 2024. Via Reuters.
The Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East protested the closure of Al-Ahli Arab Anglican Hospital in Gaza City as a result of the evacuation of several residential districts ordered by the Israeli military.
Video footage from a drone, released on May 8, 2024, by the Israel Defense Forces, showing the place where IDF artillery and fighter jets struck over 20 Hezbollah terror targets in the area of Ramyeh in southern Lebanon. The IDF claim they struck, “military structures, and terrorist infrastructure”. They added: “During the strikes, secondary explosions were identified, indicating the presence of weapon storage facilities in the area.” Via Reuters.
A group of us stood on a hill overlooking northern Gaza this spring, not far from the border fence. We were close enough to see the buildings of Beit Hanoun and Jabalia. After a few minutes of description by our guide, we surveyed the scene with binoculars. On closer inspection, what had appeared to be buildings turned out to be rows of rubble. While for months we have viewed such images on screens, actually seeing the destruction, through plumes of smoke and dust, was surreal.
People gather at the University of California, Los Angeles, as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, in Los Angeles, Calif., May 1, 2024. REUTERS/David Swanson
Since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a terror attack against Israel, young people across the country have looked with alarm at Israel’s military action and the U.S. support for it.
“As soon as that day happened, I felt I was just kind of flung into high gear,” said Logan Crews, who is a first year Master of Divinity student at Yale University. “I began talking to friends right away and just processing through what was happening.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters camped out on the Princeton University campus on April 24. Photo: Mary Ann Koruth/NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK
Just a short walk from my home near Princeton University, students, faculty, staff, and community members have come together to demand the university divest from financial and military support of the state of Israel and release a public statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza — one of many similar protests that have been happening at college campuses across the U.S. over the past two weeks. Stroll by the encampment at any given time, and you’ll see folks of all ages and races gathered together on blankets and tarps sharing crowdfunded hot meals as scholars address the group; kids play and others offer physical and spiritual care, or clean up the encampment grounds. You might hear community announcements, prayer, music, or, at times, chants like “disclose, divest / we will not stop / we will not rest.”
Clergy attend the Easter Mass at St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on March 31. REUTERS/Remo Casilli
“I appeal once again that access to humanitarian aid be ensured to Gaza, and call once more for the prompt release of the hostages seized on last Oct. 7 and for an immediate cease-fire in the Strip,” he said in his Urbi et Orbi address.
Palestinians walk on the day of the first Friday prayers during Ramadan near the ruins of a destroyed mosque, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 15, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
Palestinians in Gaza held the first Friday prayers of Ramadan outside the ruins of a mosque leveled by Israel’s offensive, one of hundreds the Hamas-run authorities say have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli attacks since October.
Mourners attend a vigil service at the Prairie Activity & Recreation Center for Wadea Al-Fayoume, 6, a Muslim boy who according to police was stabbed to death in an attack that targeted him and his mother for their religion and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas, in Plainfield, Illinois, Oct. 17, 2023. REUTERS/Jim Vondruska
Human rights advocates have cited a rise in Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian bias, and antisemitism in the U.S. and elsewhere.