A government out of control
by the Rev. Dr. Dorcas Gordon**
As I stood near the Gaza border, with the Erez crossing on my right and looking into northern Gaza, I experienced deep anger, bordering on rage, that a genocide was taking place before my eyes, and I could do nothing to stop it. Some members of our group were in tears, others were singing and praying as smoke or dust rose in front of us just beyond the border.
Was this smoke or dust evidence of the road that Israel was building, following through on the Generals’ Plan to cut off the northern section of Gaza from the rest of Gaza with the intention to depopulate it? Was I seeing the Israeli military in tanks and armored vehicles making sure that it completed the ethnic cleansing of the 50,000 to 75,000 Palestinian people, mostly women and children, in the northern towns of Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoon and Jabalia under siege since early October and cut off from obtaining food, medicine, and water (Mondeweiss, December 2, 2024)?
Northern Gaza, from a lookout one kilometre away at Sderot, Israel.
Afterwards as I tried to reflect on what I had seen I was struck in a visceral way to what extent the Israeli government had given up all pretense of being “the only democracy in the Middle East.” Instead, it now stands exposed as a state of relentless savagery and disinformation, having lost all moral ground.
Visiting the West Bank served to intensify my rage. Young people attending university in Nablus, full of life, telling us of future plans that to me seemed so unrealizable in the midst of ongoing raids by the Israeli military with their killing machines. While we were there an announcement was made that one student had been murdered the day before by the IDF as he waited for his ride to school—so much potential cut off in an ordinary moment of life.
We heard from the mother of a young woman in prison held under administrative detention, already renewed once with the possibility of further renewals. No evidence was presented of any crime. This young woman had been charged and incarcerated based on secret information about which even her lawyer was not informed. (Shortly after returning home, we celebrated news of her release, knowing from experience that subsequent arrests are common, and the process repeats itself.)
We visited the Armenian enclave in the Old City of Jerusalem. Here, young and not so young Armenians fight to maintain their community, daily under threat by Israeli settlers with their insatiable appetite for more land and fewer Palestinians. The settlers’ ultimate goal is to rid the Old City of its Christian presence, a presence which dates to the early days of the Jesus movement.
Israeli symbols portray the incursion of Jewish Israelis into the Old City of Jerusalem.
Since October 7, 2023, the Israel government has been moving forward with the calculated goal of forging an Israel that not only includes Gaza and the West Bank (”from the river to the sea”) but also realizes its Zionist dream of forging an empire of “a greater Israel.” The radical ministers in the Netanyahu government have falsely claimed that this empire includes the biblical lands to the east of Palestine between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers (namely, parts of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Türkiye, The Week, October 18, 2024). Israel has already invaded the sovereign nations of Lebanon and Syria and recently occupied the demilitarized zone in the Golan Heights.
What to conclude: We in the West, through racist, colonial eyes, often define the Arabs as the problem for Middle East stability. Before it’s too late I hope we begin to focus on the real problem – an Israeli government that is out of control and that is supported by our government to kill Palestinians, to steal their land, and to ethnically cleanse them. More than ever, we need to insist that international humanitarian and human rights law must prevail. And we as Christians must hold fast to the prophetic principles that undergird the existence of the three Abrahamic faiths– “to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
** Rev. Dr. Dorcas Gordon
Dorcas Gordon lives in Newcastle, ON and is a member of the Presbyterian Church of Canada (PCC). An ordained minister and theological educator, she currently serves as a member on a variety of international and national boards. She and her husband, Noel, have travelled often to Israel/Palestine and have led several study tours sponsored by the PCC. As well as a supporter of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East and Independent Jewish Voices, she is a member of an ad hoc group of Canadians working to encourage the Canadian government to appoint a Special Envoy who will investigate the violent treatment of Palestinian children at the hands of the Israeli military and settlers.