The Wild Reed: “A Genocide Has Been Normalized”

The Reverend Munther Isaac is a Palestinian Christian theologian and the pastor at the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem.

Last Christmas, Rev. Isaac delivered a sermon entitled “Christ in the Rubble: A Liturgy of Lament,” which received worldwide attention. At last weekend's Easter Vigil mass, the focus of Rev. Isaac’s sermon was Western complicity in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. Following is an excerpt.

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Today we have entered a new phase of the war of genocide, in which the people of Gaza are being killed by hunger, thirst and disease. They are starved to death. It is a slow death. They are hanging between heaven and Earth, dying slowly while the world is watching. They have no form or majesty, that we should look at them, from whom men hide their faces.

It took more than five months and 32,000 people killed, including 13,000 children, for the U.N. Security Council to finally pass a ceasefire. But nothing has changed on the ground. Since when does Israel care about U.N. resolutions? Israel has never been held accountable or even condemned by Western leaders. This remains the single biggest problem today. Right now we are pleading for aid and food to enter. We gave up on a ceasefire. Just bring food, water and medicine. Lord, have mercy.

Friends, a genocide has been normalized. And as people of faith, if we truly claim to follow a crucified savior, we can never be okay with this. We should never accept the normalization of a genocide. We should never be okay with children dying from starvation, not because of drought or famine, but starvation, man-made catastrophe, because of the empire. A genocide has been normalized, just as apartheid was normalized in Palestine and, before that, in South Africa, just as slavery and the caste system were normalized. It has been firmly established to us that the leaders of the superpowers and those who benefit from the modern colonialism do not look at us as equals. They created the narrative to normalize genocide. They have a theology for it. A genocide has been normalized. This is racism at its worst.

And the very same political and church leaders who lined up in October, one after the other, to give the green light for this genocide, giving it the cover of self-defense, cannot even bring themselves to condemn the obvious war crimes being committed by Israel. They are good at raising their concern, make statements that they are “troubled” by the killing of our children. We’re sorry that the killing of our children by your weapons, actually, troubled you. They want to convince us that they actually care. So, their response? They are silent during the genocide and then show up afterwards with charity to say that they care. Can we really accept this?

Many countries rushed to suspend their funding of UNRWA based on mere allegations that were not fully proven, yet did nothing with regards to the clear findings of the ICJ. The amount of hypocrisy is incomprehensible, and the level of racism involved for such hypocrisy is appalling. And now some politicians claim that their patience with Israel is ending. And we say nothing can wash the blood from your hands.

– The Reverend Munther Isaac
Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church – Bethlehem
Excerpted from “Easter Vigil for Gaza”
March 30, 2024

The Wild Reed

Thursday, April 04, 2024

“A Genocide Has Been Normalized”

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