May 2025

Opinion: Educating Ourselves About Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem

By Craig G. Bartholomew

KLC is not here to tell you what to think – indeed we welcome civil, rigorous discourse from a variety of perspectives. What we are here for is to help you become better informed so that you can think well about the major issues of our day. Geopolitically Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan come into particular focus at this time, although there are many other places of major concern.

Ever since Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel, Evangelicals, mainstream media and our politicians have kept remarkably quiet about what Israel is doing in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem, even as the body count rises relentlessly in Gaza, with Israel most recently blocking all humanitarian aid into Gaza for some 50 days while the bombing continues.

Is this genocide and are war crimes being committed? One way to become informed about this is to read the Rome Statute of the ICC. The Rome Statute deals with genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and acts of aggression. Article 6 lists five acts that constitute genocide. Among the crimes against humanity listed in Article 7 are: extermination, deportation or forcible transfer of populations, torture and apartheid. “Extermination” is clarified as follows: “’Extermination’ includes the intentional infliction of conditions of life, inter alia the deprivation of access to food and medicine, calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a population”. Article 8 on war crimes includes: “Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly”.

You can find the Rome Statute here – it is eminently readable.

125 countries are signatories to the Rome Statute. Neither Israel nor the USA are signatories. Part 9 deals with “International Cooperation and Judicial Assistance.” Article 86 begins: “States Parties shall, in accordance with the provisions of this Statute, cooperate fully with the Court in its investigation and prosecution of crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court.”

The Rome Statute is not infallible or inerrant, but it is a major way in which the global community seeks to restrain the very worst acts of humanity. As we seek to name what is going on in Gaza today, as well as proposals like that of President Trump to relocate some 1 million Palestinians to Libya, the Rome Statute should be an important part of our reflections.

The West Bank

Amidst all that is going on in Gaza the West Bank receives far less attention. A BBC documentary recently released is worth watching. It is produced by Louis Theroux and called The Settlers. It is readily available on BBC here or on YouTube, etc. It is informative and searing. My one quibble is its lack of religious literacy. The settlers he interviews often refer to the Bible but this is never pursued or discussed.

Gaza

One day, everyone will always have been against this, by Omar El Akkad (Canongate, 2025).

El Akkad, an author – of novels and non-fiction – and journalist, was born in Egypt, grew up in Qatar, moved to Canada and now lives in the USA. This is an altogether searing, exceptionally well written book in which El Akkad weaves together his own narrative with that of Gaza. As the title indicates, the time will come when everyone will be opposed to the war crimes in Gaza, but by then it will be too late for far too many. The illocutionary force of his title and book is to nudge us to take note of what is going on in Gaza today, and if we determine that they are war crimes, to be opposed to them today. On the second to last page El Akkad writes:

There will be people who never move on, who to the end of their lives struggle to unsee the image of the body turned to red paste, the child forced to eat animal feed, the bones pushing against the skin, the slow extinguishing of life at the hands of hunger, the older siblings who must tell the younger ones that everyone else is gone, the hastily dug graves vast against the horizon, like goose bumps on the flesh of the earth. And every time they hear a politician profess the supremacy of international law, of human rights, of equality for all, they will hear only the sounds of screaming.