We’re Again Confronted with a Choice of “Nonviolence or Non-Existence”

Nonviolence is the only option for Israeli/Palestinian coexistence

Warmongering never leads to peace

In response to Hamas’ brutal and savage attack against Israel on Oct 7th, 2023, that resulted in the death of over 1,000 Israelis, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has engaged in two weeks of artillery bombardment and airstrikes of Gaza. The retaliatory attacks have resulted in more than 15,000 Palestinians being injured and more than 5,000 being killed. Women and children comprise over 60 percent of the fatalities and those injured.

In addition to the nearly 6 million Palestinians who are currently refugees as a result of the 1948 “Nakba,” almost 1.4 million Palestinians have been displaced during the past two weeks and have sought refuge in UN schools and hospitals, while hundreds of thousands more are facing genocide as the current Israeli siege — which has only worsened what were already dire conditions due to Israel’s 16-year blockade — has cut off water, food, electricity, and medical supplies.

While the October 7 attack by Hamas against Israel is indefensible, the actions of the IDF, which include bombing and issuing evacuation orders for hospitals, are not acts of self-defense but instead acts of “collective punishment,” which are prohibited under international law and amount to a war crime.

Most of the calls for retaliatory violence are simply calls for collective punishment and should not be framed as promoting “self-defense.” Immediately after the October 7 Hamas attack, several American politicians, including Senator Lindsey Graham and Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, started advocating for retaliatory acts of collective punishment.

Graham stated,

We’re in a religious war here, I’m with Israel. Do whatever the hell you have to do to defend yourself. Level the place.

Nikki Haley took to social media, saying,

This should be personal for every woman and man in America…This is not just an attack on Israel, this is an attack on America because they hate us just as much…. And I’ll say this to Prime Minister Netanyahu, “Finish them. Finish them…” They should have hell to pay for what they have just done.

Calls for unrestrained retaliatory violence are not about self-defense. They are about collective punishment, which is prohibited under international law. Neither the eradication of Israel nor the collective punishment of the Palestinian people is a viable option. Responsible leadership is not about advocating retaliatory collective punishment but about figuring out how to foster peace and reduce violence.

The choice is nonviolence or nonexistence

Inspired and influenced by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. traveled to India in 1959. In a radio address made during his visit, King stated,

For in a day when sputniks and explorers dash through outer space and guided ballistic missiles are carving highways of death through the stratosphere, no nation can win a war. Today, we no longer have a choice between violence and nonviolence; it is either nonviolence or nonexistence.

Eight years later, King spoke out against American involvement in the Vietnam War. On April 4, 1967 (one year to the day before his assassination), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered one of his most powerful and challenging speeches, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.” In his speech, King called for a “radical revolution of values” that emphasizes love and justice for all people — especially those marginalized by society.

As I think about life for Palestinian people since Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, which has resulted in systematic human rights violations against Palestinians living there, I’m reminded of King’s words regarding the people of Vietnam:

As I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond in compassion, my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula…. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the ideologies of the Liberation Front, not of the junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them, too, because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries.

There will be no meaningful solution in Occupied Palestinian Territories until some attempt is made to know the Palestinian people and “hear their broken cries” as they have lived under Israel’s ruthless policies of land confiscation, illegal settlement and dispossession, and rampant acts of violent oppressive exploitation for more than half a century.

According to King, defending the rights of all people, especially the oppressed, requires a “radical revolution of values.” Critiquing America’s involvement in Vietnam, King said,

A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, ‘This way of settling differences is not just.’

King went on to say,

America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war…. War is not the answer….

The backlash King received for his criticism of the war and his defense of the Vietnamese people was swift and sharp. It was similar to the current backlash being experienced by people who dare defend Palestinians and criticize Israel’s 56-year occupation and military rule in Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Palestine and the Ottoman Empire

To understand the contemporary conflict between Palestine and Israel, it’s essential to understand the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire and British colonization of Palestine.

The Ottoman Empire was one of world history’s mightiest and longest-lasting dynasties. Osman I, a leader of the Turkish tribes in Anatolia, founded the Ottoman Empire around 1299. The empire lasted for more than 600 years. Much of Christian Western Europe long viewed the Islamic-led Ottoman Empire, which ruled large areas of the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and North Africa, as a threat. This was primarily because many European Christians viewed the Ottoman Empire exclusively as an Arab Islamic Empire despite it being essentially a European Empire influenced by Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.

The Ottoman Empire not only offered safe passage to Sephardic Jews fleeing persecution in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), but by the early 16th century, the Ottoman Empire had one of the largest Jewish communities in the world. Jews and Muslims lived in relative peace with one another in the Ottoman Empire.

At its height, the Ottoman Empire included Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Albania, Bosnia, Serbia, Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria (all of which currently exist as nations/states except Palestine). Although some have denied the existence of a region known as “Palestine” before the nineteenth century, sources from throughout the Ottoman period are full of references to “Palestine.” In 1516, the Ottoman Turks invaded and occupied Palestine, lasting 402 years (1516–1918).

While the Ottoman Empire began to lose its economic and military dominance over Europe in the 1600s, it was during the Balkan Wars, which took place in 1912 and 1913, that the Ottoman Empire lost nearly all its territories in Europe. The Ottoman army entered World War I in 1914 on the side of the Central Powers (including Germany and Austria-Hungary).

British mandate and the colonization of Palestine

During 1915–16, the British High Commissioner in Egypt, Sir Henry McMahon, secretly corresponded with Hussein bin Ali, the Ottoman governor of Mecca and Medina, promising an independent Arab state in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, including Palestine, if Hussein bin Ali helped lead an Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire and supported Britain in the war. The Arab revolt, led by T. E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) and Hussein’s son, Prince Feisal, successfully defeated the Ottomans. Britain took control of much of this area during World War I.

Britain, however, made other promises during the war that conflicted with their promise of an independent Arab state. Britain and France made a secret agreement in May 1916 to carve up the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire and divide control of the region. Furthermore, in 1917, British Foreign Minister Lord Arthur Balfour issued a declaration announcing his government’s support for establishing “a Jewish national home in Palestine.”

After the war, Britain and France convinced the new League of Nations (precursor to the United Nations) to grant them quasi-colonial authority over former Ottoman territories. The British and French regimes were known as ‘mandates.’ France obtained a mandate over Syria, carving out Lebanon as a separate state. Britain received a mandate over the former Arab provinces where they had promised to create an independent Arab state. Throughout the region, Arabs were angered by Britain’s failure to fulfill its promise to create an independent Arab state, and many opposed British and French control as a violation of their right to self-determination.

Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel

The rising tide of European Jewish immigration, land purchases, and settlements in Palestine generated increasing resistance by Palestinian Arabs. Although the United States supported the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which favored the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, President Franklin D. Roosevelt assured the Arabs in 1945 that the United States would not intervene without first consulting Jews and Arabs in the region. By this time, the British, who held a colonial mandate for Palestine until May 1948, opposed the creation of a Jewish state and an Arab state in Palestine and the unlimited immigration of Jewish refugees to the region.

In May 1946, President Harry S. Truman announced his approval of a recommendation to admit 100,000 displaced Jewish persons into Palestine and publicly declared his support for the creation of a Jewish state in October. On November 29, 1947, the United Nations adopted Resolution 181 (also known as the Partition Resolution), dividing Great Britain’s former Palestinian mandate into Jewish and Arab states in May 1948, when the British mandate was scheduled to end. Under the resolution, the area of religious significance surrounding Jerusalem would remain under international control administered by the United Nations. Palestinian Arabs refused to recognize this arrangement because they regarded it as continued European colonization of Palestine.

The history of the people and region of Palestine and the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is misunderstood by many (if not most) people. The United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (UNISPAL) provides the world’s largest repository of documents and resources regarding Palestinian history and identity. The following four-minute video produced by UNISPAL is an excellent primer on this history.

A vision for peace that transcends religious self-interest and embraces religious reconciliation

Despite the significant role religion often plays in debates regarding identity and homeland, arguments rooted in religious pre-history referring to promises made by deities to human beings provide no solutions to this conflict. Appeals to stories involving religious patriarchs like Abraham and his sons Isaac and Ishmael or to regions and people referred to as “Philistia” and “Philistines” to justify one group’s superiority over the other will not resolve matters, especially when such appeals advocate the annihilation of one group to fulfill alleged God-given rights of the other.

As a scholar of Christianity and Judaism whose training focuses on the production and interpretation of biblical literature, I’m acutely aware of how religious texts, in general, and biblical texts, in particular, are often used to promote specific self-interests rather than universal human interests.

Do I have an answer to the long history of violence that has taken place between Israelis and Palestinians? Do I have an answer to the recent violence between Israelis and Palestinians? No. I have no answers. I do, however, unequivocally assert that the recent violence demonstrated by Hamas and the violent retaliation shown by Israel will NEVER bring peace between Israelis and Palestinians. I believe the answer lies in a “radical revolution of values” described by Martin Luther King, Jr. and exhibited by Nelson Mandela when he was released from prison after 27 years.

Immediately after his release from prison and his election as President of South Africa in 1994, Nelson Mandela declared,

Men of peace must not think about retribution or recriminations. Courageous people do not fear forgiving for the sake of peace.

Five years later, Mandela reaffirmed his belief in the ability of forgiveness to contribute to peace, reconciliation, and democracy building:

The experience of others has taught us that nations that do not deal with the past are haunted by it for generations. The quest for reconciliation was the fundamental objective of our struggle… to build a South Africa that indeed belongs to all. The quest for reconciliation was the spur that gave impetus to our difficult negotiation process and the agreements that emerged from it.

The desire to attain a nation at peace with itself and able to build a better life for all is the primary motivation for our Reconstruction and Development programme. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which operated from 1995 to 1998, was an important component of that process. The group uncovered crimes committed during the apartheid era and could choose to provide amnesty to those who confessed. Its work was a critical milestone in a journey that has just started...

Just as we reached out across the divisions of centuries to establish democracy, we need now to work together in all our diversity, including the variety of our experiences and recollections of our history, to overcome the divisions themselves and eradicate their consequences. Reconciliation is central to the vision that moved millions of men and women to risk all, including their lives, in the struggle against apartheid and white domination. It is inseparable from the achievement of a non-racial, democratic, and united nation that affords common citizenship, rights, and obligations to each and every person, while it respects the rich diversity of our people.

We think of those whom apartheid sought to imprison in the jails of hate and fear. We think, too, of those it infused with a false sense of superiority to justify their inhumanity to others, as well as those it conscripted into the machines of destruction, exacting a heavy toll among them in life and limb and giving them a warped disregard for life. We think of the millions of South Africans who still live in poverty because of apartheid, disadvantaged and excluded from opportunity by the discrimination of the past. We recall our terrible past so that we can deal with it, forgiving where forgiveness is necessary — but not forgetting. By remembering, we can ensure that never again will such inhumanity tear us apart, and we can eradicate a dangerous legacy that still lurks as a threat to our democracy….

None of us can enjoy lasting peace and security while a part of our nation lives in poverty. We should not underestimate the difficulties of integrating into our society those who have committed gross violations of human rights and those convicted of being informers and collaborators. But we also have many encouraging examples of great generosity and nobility on the part of our community members….

The best reparation for the suffering of victims and communities — and the highest recognition of their efforts — is the transformation of our society into one that makes a living reality of the human rights for which they struggled. We should forgive but not forget. Leaders should emerge from all parties and all walks of life to build our nation. Its foundation will be hope and its edifice a future that we create together.

Mandela exhibited the sort of “radical revolution of values” King articulated. This sort of radical revolution of values is also demonstrated by the Jewish-Palestinian peace-building organization Roots. On its website, the organization is described as follows:

We are a unique network of local Palestinians and Israelis who have come to see each other as the partners we both need to make changes to end our conflict. Based on a mutual recognition of each People’s connection to the Land, we are developing understanding and solidarity despite our ideological differences. Roots is a place where local peoples can take responsibility. Our work is aimed at challenging the assumptions our communities hold about each other, building trust and creating a new discourse around the conflict in our respective societies. This is a grassroots and local model for making change — from the bottom up.

On October 15, 2023, just days after the violent Hamas attack on Israel and the violent retaliatory attacks on Gaza by Israel, the leaders of Roots posted a video response on their Facebook page titled, ‘Peacemakers at a Time of War.’ They prefaced the video with the following words,

What is the role of the peace-makers at times like this? We at Roots are not sure ourselves. Certainly ‘the day after’ we have a crucial role to play in picking up the shattered pieces and slowly inching again towards understanding, recognition and reconciliation. At that point there will be no replacement for our work. But while our two Peoples are at war and particularistic tribal emotions are so frenzied, it seems to some on both sides that talking at this point is like talking to the wall, or worse. The differences of perspective appear to be unbridgeable. Other Roots activists believe deeply that we can still listen to each other.

The video of a conversation between the Israeli and Palestinian founders of Roots is heart-wrenching. Both men share their pain and differing perspectives. They also reveal what leadership looks like that understands the reality of “nonviolence or nonexistence.” While they struggle to find a solution, they realize that continued violence and war will never lead to peaceful Israeli/Palestinian coexistence. Unfortunately, the video is only viewable on Facebook. For those with access to Facebook, it is well worth watching.

Please don’t ask me what I would do

As I stated previously, I do not have a solution to the Israeli/Palestinian crisis — if I did, I would be a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize — so please don’t leave comments asking me what I would do if my home were illegally occupied or brutally attacked. I’m not a world leader attempting to negotiate peace between peoples who have been in conflict with one another for centuries. I’m a college professor at a small liberal arts college, trying my best to live an ethical, morally responsible life in the space I occupy.

While I may not have a solution, I’m confident that warmongering and promoting retaliatory collective punishment is not a viable solution. No world leader committed to promoting peace and justice should engage in promoting unrestrained retaliatory violence.

I conclude with a final quote from a 1957 sermon delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. The sermon was titled, “Loving Your Enemies.”

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

If you liked this article, check out “World Religions Working Together for Justice — Part II,” which I wrote during a personally transformative experience at the 2023 Parliament of the World’s Religions.

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