The most frustrating aspect of speaking or writing about Palestine/Israel over the years is to encounter the same evasive, knee-jerk reactions: "It's all so complex", "There are two sides to the story", "We should leave them to deal with it".
When I ask, "What is so complex about the situation?", the usual answer is "Israel also has a right to exist". This response betrays a heart-breaking case of historical amnesia. In the late 1970s the PLO (then the main political arm of the Palestinian people) demanded a two-state solution. Where in the world has any people been willing to surrender 80 per cent of its ancestral lands to a foreign colonial power? And in the Oslo Peace Accords of 1993, the PLO renounced the use of violence and accepted the Israeli state. What did they get in return? Continuing ultra-right Jewish settler violence; and Netanyahu and his Likud party scuppered the accord which led to the second Intifada (or "uprising") and the popularity of Islamist groups like Hamas.
When I ask, "What is the other side to the story?", the usual answer is, "Israel has a right to defend itself against terrorism". Yes, Israel has that right. But Hamas also has the right, under international law, to resist a foreign military power that has occupied its lands for 56 years. And, of course, both sides have a moral obligation to engage in military action that respects the Geneva Conventions and other aspects of international law.
Paolo Freire, the eminent Brazilian educationist noted that violence never begins with the oppressed. Every non-violent demonstration in Gaza and the West Bank over the past 56 years has been brutally suppressed by the Israeli army. Why does this not also count as "terrorism"?
As for the response "Leave them to deal with it", this is to ignore the fact that the tragedy of Palestine is a creation of British imperialism, and that since 1967 the US has exacerbated the tragedy by giving unconditional military and diplomatic support to Israel. So no British or American government (or British or American church) can wash its hands in mock innocence.
In November last year, 69 international Christian church leaders and aid agencies sent a strong letter to world leaders saying "enough is enough" and calling on them to support a bilateral ceasefire. "We are deeply grieved", they wrote, "by the complicity of the United States and several other Western countries in the continued violence through efforts to actively oppose a ceasefire, including by vetoing multiple United Nations Resolutions". They drew attention to "the conflict's broader backdrop -- ongoing Israeli occupation and the disenfranchisement of Palestinians for more than 70 years. Three-quarters of Palestinian residents of Gaza are refugees dating back to 1948."
Most Christians I know will use various tepid statements bemoaning the "humanitarian tragedy" that has befallen Gaza, they may even call for a ceasefire and the release of hostages, but simultaneously refrain from mentioning Israeli war crimes/genocide, the historical backdrop to Hamas' terrorist attacks on October 7th, and the thousands (but the most conservative estimates, around 5000) children and women held in Israeli prisons without any recourse to lawyers or their families (all of which violate international law!).
I'm often accused of antisemitism because I call Israeli terrorism by its appropriate names -- war crimes and genocide. That accusation is absurd and unjust on its surface. I understand not wanting to isolate Jews (particularly in light of America's guilt for the Holocaust). But I suggest we still need to follow the example of Jesus. The Lord of the Church and the world. He hung out with the most ostracized of his society, and not with the people in power. He alienated the religious establishment.
That, I think, is what being the disciple of Jesus Christ means.
If crucifixion was the form of execution the Romans reserved for terrorists and the "scum of the earth", then we can take a cue from the early Church who announced that among that crucified "scum" was one who was the Son of God, the Savior of the world. Our credibility as Christians doesn't depend on our unbroken political success. Our credibility depends on our continued willingness to be judged by what we announce and the One to Whom we point.
That is the only "policy" on Israel and Palestine I will ever have.