When a Palestinian theologian and pastor was asked, ‘Where is God in all that’s happening?’ his answer was ‘God is under the rubble’.[1]
What’s happening in Gaza is horrific and like nothing I have seen before. We are enduring a big collective trauma. As a Palestinian refugee in the diaspora, I grew up with the pain of being a stateless Palestinian and heard the story being passed on of how my parents were only little when they left their town and were told, ‘you will return in a few days’, which never happened. I don’t personally come from Gaza but my parents lived in the Nuseirat camp. Most of the people in Gaza now are displaced and made refugees a second time after the Nakba in 1948 (Nakba means “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war). You can imagine how what is happening in Gaza now has been so triggering, not only for me and my family, but for a lot of Palestinians around the world, Christians and Muslims alike.
But this has been made even harder and more real to me than a news report or numbers, because my sister and her family and many of my relatives are in Gaza and have been under constant bombardment. For days we won’t hear from them because there is no way to communicate. They have no electricity or water. All essential basic needs for life, from food to medicine are gone. My sister was staying in our family home and it was bombed two weeks into the start of the incident. The kids got slightly injured and the house got some damage. Then again on the 16th of November the whole neighbourhood was wiped out. Our family house where my sister was staying was mostly destroyed and on fire. They were the only survivors. Their whole neighbourhood of 70 people were killed. My family alone were rescued with ropes.
To inform us how to pray: Palestinians in Gaza feel let down. Not as loved or precious to the world. They don’t count as equals or worthy. Their blood is cheap .. they use words like we are "horrible, inhuman animals” as was described by the Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.[2] For my family the fact that Old Testament scriptures were quoted by Israeli generals and Netanyahu to call for the war was a source of anger and put them off the Bible. Also, the lack of essential needs in Gaza like water, electricity, the internet and fuel mean that they are completely cut off. My sister reported that the 15 bakeries in her area were all bombed. It’s hard to reconcile these facts without feeling that these are attacks on a whole people and an attempt to empty the land and instill fear.
How we can pray
Ceasefire: I would want the war to stop now. I believe Psalm 46 and Micah 4:1-5 is a great way to see and pray God’s vision that war weapons will turn to harvest tools.
Please pray for walls against the message of the gospel to come down... the generations of extremism created as a reaction.
Peacemakers from both sides will rise up and be strengthened ... wise leaders and fathers and mothers who would embrace God’s plans to welcome and love sacrificially, who believe and see the humanity in the other. As a BMB I need to commit myself again and again to peace and to love. Ephesians 2.
We are grieving, so pray God will comfort us with all comfort.
Written by a Palestinian believer from a Muslim background (BMB) living in the Middle East.
Footnotes
[1] https://sojo.net/articles/god-under-rubble-gaza
[2] Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant Al Jazeera 9th October 2023 https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2023/10/9/israeli-defence-minister-orders-complete-siege-on-gaza