On December 15, ALL Forum board members and representatives of partner organizations issued a statement titled “The Violence and Targeted Killings in Gaza Must Stop Immediately”. The statement was based on the belief that Israel military’s killing of civilians had reached an extreme and that no more innocent blood should be spilled. Even western media outlets such as CNN and BBC have been using the phrase “Israel and Palestine Conflict” or “Israel-Gaza War” to describe the conflict, which is an inaccurate expression presupposing that Israel and Palestine are two equal players in the war. For sure, Hamas must be condemned for its brutal attack on Israel on Oct. 7, when some 1,200 people, many of whom were civilians, were killed, leading to the war between Israel and Hamas eventually.
But the international community knows well about the fact that the Palestinian tragedy stems from Israel’s brutal violence and illegal occupation of a peaceful indigenous Palestinian people and its subsequent rightwing regime. This has beentrue from the time Israel forcibly occupied Palestinian land and founded the“state” 75 years ago to the current massacre of innocent people in the region. Backed by the United States and Britain, Israel’s use of force is being done in the name of anti-terrorism. As of December,2023,morethan 20,000 people including women and children were killed by Israel’s indiscriminating bombardment on Gaza.In the face of such massive killing, the UN, “third world” countries, and even Middle East countries have remained powerless or silent on the killing spree,pursuing their own interests first. The U.S. and the UK media have been incorrectly reporting the massive killings of Palestinians.
Recognizing this, ALL Forum members demanded clarification from the Israeli government in the statement by saying, “To date we call on the military of Israel to disclose to the International Community solid evidence of the hospital being used as Hamas offensive operations.” This is in line with CNN and BBC reports that the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office spread disinformation that Hamas had beheaded dozens of infants and toddlers, and then ran with it. Later, a CNN reporter apologized when the prime minister’s office changed its story to say it “can not confirm that fact. I needed to be more careful with my words and I am sorry.” The reporter must have double checked and confirmed the fact before going for the public which is one of the most fundamental and important ethics for any journalists. This is why Western media outlets that repeat these false Israeli claims have been blamed for “incitement to massacre.” Yet the extent to which the U.S. and Israel are aggressively to control coveragaea of Israel’s massacres of Palestinian civilians is hard to fathom it’s not just about control.
The U.S.-led powers have rejected multiple UN Security Council resolutions to stop the war. This includes the governments like those of UK, France, and Japan which have supported Israel’s occupation. The justice and peace that Jesus called for cannot be realized in Gaza and Palestine as a whole when the super powers in the world actively support or remain silent about these atrocities in the name of God. There can be no justice and peace for Palestinians as long as Israel believes in this perverted version of Zionism despite the fact it has been used as political ideology by state power of Israel, and as long as its people are misled to the false belief that Israel is the only nation saved and its people alone are chosen by God. Therefore, all the wrong theologies which would justify and legitimate the killings of Palestinians must not be supported by any Christians. The people of Gaza are now asking the conscience of the entire human race today. But we have to remember again that the handful distorted Zionists and the ultra right-wing Israeli government do not represent all the people of Israel. The same is true with Hamas.
Once again, we echo the statement of the ALL Forum and call fot an end to the war.
“ALL Forum strongly calls for an immediate and full ceasefire, protection of civilians, and intensifying humanitarian aid. Israel must immediately stop bombing Gaza, lift the blockade and withdraw its plans for ground troops in the war-torn region and must also immediately withdraw from all military occupation zones, including Gaza. We call for Israel to return to a path of peace and respect for international human rights law.”*
