“It’s Changed Everything”: Interfaith Dialogue in the Wake of October 7, 2023

I sat down for tacos with a colleague in Culver City, California, one early summer’s eve. The conversation was light.   

That is, until it wasn’t.   

Involved with interreligious dialogue at the local, state, national, and intergovernmental level, my acquaintance was concerned about the impact of Hamas’ attack on Israel that killed nearly 1,200 individuals and the Israeli Defense Force’s (IDF) brutal reprisal against Gaza and its people in the months that followed had done irreparable harm to cause of peacemaking in the U.S.   

The intense, seemingly endless violence and the chilling prospect of a ceasefire without lasting peace, my acquaintance feels, is having a profound emotional, psychological, and practical impact on people who care about connecting across religious, cultural, and political differences.   

“It’s set us back at least 20 years,” they said. Communities that used to connect, colleagues that used to be in conversation, groups that used to meet, and initiatives that used to be shared have all been impacted. “It’s changed everything.”   

As Thomas Banchoff wrote for Commonweal, “the Israel-Hamas war illustrates the fragility of interfaith diplomacy” and dialogue.   

While many said numerous theological, social, and political gains had been made through interreligious engagement in the U.S. and abroad in recent years, the damaging impact of savage violence, polarizing discourse, divisive protests, and tiptoeing around political landmines is a stark reminder of interfaith dialogue’s delicacy and potential limitations.   

Since October 7 last year, the strain between the Jewish and Muslim communities — and beyond — has challenged the ability of interfaith spaces to function as facilitators for positive dialogue, let alone spaces for solidarity.   

While various initiatives can claim decades of leadership in interreligious dialogue and relationships built between leaders and laity from numerous traditions, many have struggled to gather communities during the conflict. 

In various private exchanges, leaders and community members express their frustrations with their community’s lack of speaking out but are unwilling to call out a lack of mutual accountability for what happened and continues to happen.   

This, say practitioners nationwide, has eroded and stifled opportunities for sustainable peace. 

From Puerto Rico to Palestine, with Solidarity

“We’ve been here before,” Margarita says as she holds a sign with bold, red and green letters exclaiming, Basta ya genocido! Variously translated as “enough is enough” or “stop already,” basta ya is a Spanish exclamation of exasperation. And Margarita is exasperated. “What I mean is [that] we’ve done this before,” she explains, “when they [the Israeli military] evicted families in Sheikh Jarrah in 2021, when Israel invaded Gaza in 2014, after Hurricane María, when they [the U.S. Navy] bombed Vieques, during the Second Intifada, I was out here, protesting. Enough is enough!”

Wearing a loose, floral, floor-length dress, brown jacket, and burgundy head covering, Margarita joined thousands of other Puerto Ricans in November 2023 demonstrating in Brooklyn and Manhattan on behalf of Palestinians, demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. At the march, Puerto Rican flags flew next to Palestinian ones alongside signs reading Puerto Rico con Palestina or “Puerto Ricans for Palestine.” Other protestors paired keffiyehs, headdresses that have become associated with Palestinians, with black-and-white banners representing Puerto Rican resistance to U.S. colonialism.

As a Puerto Rican convert to Islam, Margarita feels compelled to take to the streets. But even before she became Muslim, Margarita possessed a sense of solidarity with people in Gaza and the West Bank. “We share a history of oppression, of being under empire’s foot, of being a people without a nation,” she says, “so I’ll continue to show up until Palestine and Puerto Rico are free.”

Puerto Rican demonstrations for justice in Palestine, and Palestinian solidarity with Puerto Ricans, is nothing new. Forged in their common colonial condition, Puerto Ricans and Palestinians have long spoken up — and out — for each other’s fight against imperialism and for independence.

But for Puerto Rican Muslims in the archipelago and diaspora, that solidarity takes on additional, resonant meaning. For some, their faith imbues their solidarity with divine purpose. For others, it is solidarity that leads them to faith in the first place.

Accused of diverting funds to Hamas, former World Vision employee still awaits verdict

Mohammad el-Halabi believes the truth will set him free.

The former Gaza director of World Vision has now spent more than half a decade in prison, and according to his lawyer, the Israeli government has offered him plea deal after plea deal. He could potentially go home if he would only confess that funding for the Christian humanitarian aid organization was diverted to support terrorism.

But Halabi has refused.

“He is saying he will not admit to things he never did,” Maher Hanna, who represents Halabi, told CT. “He will not pollute the image of World Vision just to get a personal discount and go home to be with his children.”

Hanna, himself a Christian, said this is one of the remarkable things about this case that has not been noted in the international headlines: A Muslim man who worked for a Christian organization is refusing, under severe pressure and at great personal risk, to betray one of the largest evangelical charities in the world and harm its future work.

“We should admire that position that Muhammad is taking for himself. It’s a high Christian value,” Hanna said.

Close observers and insiders say Halabi’s trial looks like it will conclude this fall. The Israeli court could reach a verdict as early as this month.

Faith in the Face of Empire: Israel, Palestine, & a Conversation with Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb

Traveling through Israel & Palestine it is not difficult to find division. It is not hard to hear the antipathy. It is not tough to sense the tension. 

While there is much that is beautiful and awe-inspiring about “the Holy Land” there are also serious matters to consider when it comes to travelers from the U.S. who visit. Issues of politics and empire, rights and religion. 

The second post in my series on my recent trip to Israel, Palestine, and Jordan features the work of Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb — a writer, pastor, and the president of Dar al-Kalima University College in Bethlehem. Specifically, we will focus on his recent book Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible through Palestinian Eyes and I will share a short conversation between us to reflect on. 

*For more on religion & culture, follow Ken on Twitter!

Faith in the Face of Empire: The Bible through Palestinian Eyes is a theo-political book that seeks to situate the current political and social crisis of Palestine in the longue durée of history. Thus, it spans a long range of ancient and contemporary Palestinian history in order to provide insight into not only Scripture but the current cultural and socio-political climate. Raheb is pointed in his analysis and rigorous in both his scriptural exegesis and cultural interpretation. He does well to call out misconceptions by those on the outside looking in, rallying both biblical text and historical precedent to make the point that one cannot understand the Bible nor the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without conceptualizing the long legacy of empire in Palestine and the peoples’ response to almost continuous occupation for 7,000 years. 

“This is a rarely heard perspective on the Bible, and Raheb’s writing is strongest when he explicates the words of Jesus with his political and historical perspective as a Palestinian as well as his spiritual perspective as a Christian.”

— Publishers Weekly

Certainly, the book emerges out of Raheb’s context and his heart, therefore it is most certainly biased, but it may be an angle you have not heard before, but should be careful to listen to above the din of spin that often swirls around the hostilities in Palestine. If one is to lean into what Raheb has to say, he offers up new ways of seeing  the world and changing our viewpoint, which may in turn lead to a change in our posture toward the contemporary conflict. It is a stirring invitation and a well-stated proposition of liberation from empire in light of the Gospel. 

'Prophetic imagination helps us see beyond the current realities, #Christian hope empowers us to put a new vision into action.' | @RahebM

— Ken Chitwood (@kchitwood) May 31, 2015

The book is short, but stimulating. If anything, it is too brief to fully explore his demanding revelations and it begs further wrestling and conversation. To that end, I invite you to read his book, use it for a small group or book club discussion, and wrestle with what he has to say. Also, check out this short interview with the esteemed Rev. Dr. Raheb below:

Since the book’s release, what kind of reception and reaction have you received for your perspective on religion and empire, Christianity and the situation in Palestine? 

View fullsize

The reception of the book was, and continues to be, overwhelmingly positive. The book got a starred review with Publishers Weekly identifying it as a book of outstanding quality. It also made it on Amazon as a #1 best-seller in the category of “liberation theology” books and one of the best 10 best sellers among books on the Middle East. It has been translated into 7 languages and was discussed at all major schools in the U.S. And beyond, like Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Chicago etc. Only Christians Zionists attacked the book. 

What would be the number one thing you would recommend that Christians from the U.S. (my primary audience) do in the face of empire? What about those who embark on “Holy Land pilgrimages?”

To listen to the voices of those who are crushed by the empire and by the Israeli occupation especially to the voices of Palestinian Christians visiting them and connecting when they embark on a pilgrimage. A true pilgrimage is not  "to run where Jesus walked", but rather to meet his followers there, God is not in the ruins, he is risen, and can be experienced among his community. 

Why must we turn our thoughts to re-evaluating “faith in the face of empire” at this historical moment?

The international community have been providing the hardware for Israel to continue its occupation of Palestine, while the seminaries were providing the software, a theological framework that gives a Divine overcoat over the human rights violations in Palestine. This needs to change now as to bring justice to the people in Palestine, Israel and the people in the Middle East. This will help the relations between the western world and the Islamic world and it will ease many tensions world wide.

*Listen to Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb speak at Yale Divinity School: 

Israel: Two Case Studies in Politics and Freedom of Religion

For two weeks I traveled from Tel-Aviv Yafo, Israel to Madaba, Jordan; from Kiryat Shmona to Bethlehem, Palestine. As I sojourned in these places I listened and learned, I watched and weighed what I saw, tasted, heard, and walked around. Not only did I pay attention to the communities and locations I was visiting, but also the group -- the evangelical "Holy Land" tour -- with which I participated. 

Over the next couple of weeks I will be sharing perspectives and informed observations from my time in Israel, Palestine, and Jordan. They are limited, to be sure. However, I want to take the time to focus on pertinent issues regarding these places and U.S. involvement and experience. To do so, I am inviting other informed and expert voices into the conversation. 

The blogs will focus on two particular issues: politics & peace in the region and Christian travel and "Holy Land" tourism. 

View fullsize

In Israel, debates are being waged concerning women's prayer at the "Western Wall." PHOTO: Elizabeth Chitwood

This first week I am starting our conversation with a perspective from Dr. Alon Harel originally posted with Sightings from the University of Chicago's Martin Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion. Dr. Harel is a law professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he holds the Phillip P. Mizock & Estelle Mizock Chair in Administrative and Criminal Law. In this post, Dr. Harel shares his suggestions for temporary solutions regarding two explosive contestations over politics and religious freedom in Israel. This post is not necessarily an affirmation of Dr. Harel's words, but an opportunity to enter into the conversation and hear his perspective on what is often a contentious issue for many at home and abroad. I invite your comments and perspectives. 

Stay tuned for later this week when I share a conversation with Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb, a Palestinian Christian leader and Lutheran pastor in Bethlehem, about his book 

*For more on religion & culture, follow Ken on Twitter

View fullsize

Another debate is raging over prayer on "the Temple Mount," the site of the Golden Domed Shrine of Omar, a Muslim holy site. PHOTO: Ken Chitwood

Here are Dr. Harel's words for your review:

Two recent debates in Israel have drawn a lot of attention, raising questions about freedom of religion in cases in which the religious practices of one group directly impacts other groups.

The first is a debate concerning the desire of Women of the Wall to pray near the Wailing Wall. The second is a debate concerning the desire of Jewish Temple Mount activists to pray on the Temple Mount near the Dome of the Rock, a Muslim shrine.

The first debate involves Women of the Wall, a multi-denominational feminist organization based in Israel whose goal is to secure the rights of women to pray at the Western Wall, a remnant of the ancient wall that surrounded the Jewish Temple's courtyard (also called the Wailing Wall, see Sightings May 9, 2013 in Resources below).

The participating women conduct rituals which are according to prevailing view among orthodox Jews reserved for men. For instance the women read aloud from the Torah and use religious garments traditionally worn by men such as tallit, Tefillin and kippah.

While Women of the Wall also includes orthodox women their activities are considered offensive by Ultra-Orthodox groups who protest against the women and, at times, use violence against them.

The women regard their right to conduct these rituals near the Wailing Wall as part of their religious freedom while opposing orthodox groups argue against this right on the grounds that the Wailing Wall is a holy site and it cannot be used by groups who violate the rules of the Jewish religion as understood by them. 

The second debate involves Temple Mount activists— groups consisting of nationalist and orthodox Jews who wish to conduct prayers on Temple Mount which is also a holy site to Muslims.

Some members of these Jewish groups are extremists who wish to destroy the mosques on Temple Mount and re-build in their place the Jewish Temple which had stood in that location until it was destroyed in 70 CE. Others simply urge the government to allow Jews to pray on Temple Mount while conceding also the rights of Muslims to conduct their religious practices there.

While most orthodox Jews believe it is a grave sin to pray on Temple Mount (as it is a Muslim holy site), Temple Mount activists regard praying there as a fundamental right.

Both cases raise similar questions.

It is evident that Women of the Wall has an interest in conducting their rituals in the place which is among the holiest places to Jews. Yet it is also evident that the Wall is also holy to orthodox communities who regard these rituals as a grave sin.

The Ultra-Orthodox community claims that while no one may prohibit these rituals when they are conducted in Israel or the city of Jerusalem, performing them near the Wall should not be allowed since these religious rituals, for them, are no different than opening a night club or a brothel.

Similarly Muslims argue that Jewish prayers on Temple Mount disrupt their own rituals and is detrimental to their religious practices. The recent riots and violence in Jerusalem, including the attempt to murder a prominent Temple Mount activist (Yehuda Glick), are attributed by some observers to the recent efforts of Jews to pray on Temple Mount.
  
But while both cases raise similar questions the political forces that support the one group oppose the other. Women of the Wall is a group that is supported by liberal (including secular) forces in Israeli society. They want to challenge the control that orthodox Jews have over the Wailing Wall.

In contrast Temple Mount activists are supported by national extremists including extremists who are secular.

I find this state of affairs to be a regrettable one. I do not deny that there may be major distinctions between the cases that may justify a differential approach. Yet the public debate concerning the right of both groups to pray has similarities which ought not to be ignored.

A serious public debate concerning the right of each of these groups ought not to be subject to the positive or negative feelings one has towards one group or another.

The right to religious freedom is not only the right of leftist liberals to conduct feminist rituals nor is it only the right of extremist nationalists. It is not a political right but a religious one.

While it is evident that both Women of the Wall and Temple Mount activists have, in addition to their religious convictions, political and nationalist agendas, this does not justify treating the conflict as a political rather than religious conflict.

Ultimately the state of Israel and its political and legal institutions will have to address the conflict. The courts have an important role to play since some of the issues raise legal questions as well as questions that affect constitutional rights.

Religious leaders will also participate and their voices will inevitably be heard by the Israeli political establishment.

Lastly, the risks of violence and disruptions will also play a major role in guiding decision-makers. The issue is a thorny one and has a potential to trigger violence on a large scale. This fact is well known to political leaders.

My recommendations?

I would consider the possibility of setting up temporary arrangements that would be subject to review every ten years with the hope that there would be greater trust between the groups in the future. I would also favor pragmatic decisions even when pragmatism conflicts with some of my moral and political convictions.

Resources:

Hirschhorn, Sara. “Women of the Wall Prevail.” Sightings, May 9, 2013. https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/women-wall-prevail-sara-hirschhorn.

Women of the Wall. http://womenofthewall.org.il.

Chabin, Michele. “Jewish girls want to read from the Torah at the Western Wall, new bus ads proclaim.” Religion News Service, October 13, 2014. http://www.religionnews.com/2014/10/13/jewish-girls-want-read-torah-western-wall-new-bus-ads-proclaim/.

Goldenberg, Tia. “Ultra-Orthodox Jews Attack Jerusalem Buses Over Women Of The Wall Ad.” AP Huffington Post, October 23, 2014, Huffpost Live/Religion. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/23/ultra-orthodox-jerusalem-bus-ad_n_6036936.html.

Sharon, Jeremy. “Women of the Wall smuggle tiny Torah scroll to Western Wall for Bat Mitzva.” Jerusalem Post, October 24, 2014, Israel News. http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Women-of-the-Wall-smuggle-tiny-Torah-scroll-to-Western-Wall-for-Bat-Mitzva-379719.

Times of Israel staff. “New bill would allow Jews to pray at Temple Mount: Likud, Labor lawmakers behind controversial initiative; regulations currently permit only Muslim worship in compound.” Times of Israel, May 19, 2014, Israel & the Region. http://www.timesofisrael.com/mks-propose-law-allowing-jews-to-pray-at-temple-mount/.

JTA. “Despite confiscations, Women of the Wall light Hanukkah candles.” Times of Israel, December 19, 2014, Jewish Times. http://www.timesofisrael.com/despite-confiscations-women-of-the-wall-light-hanukkah-candles/.

Eisenbud, Daniel K. “Jerusalem’s Temple Mount closes to all visitors after shooting of Yehuda Glick: Prominent right-wing activist evacuated to capital’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center for surgery; police searching for suspect.” Jerusalem Post, October 30, 2014, Israel News. http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Unknown-assailant-shots-seriously-wounds-known-right-wing-activist-in-Jerusalem-380210.

JPost.com Staff. “Chief Rabbi: Jewish prayer on Temple Mount is crime punishable by death.” Jerusalem Post, November 7, 2014, Arab-Israeli Conflict. http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Chief-Rabbi-Jewish-prayer-on-Temple-Mount-is-crime-punishable-by-death-381106.

Margalit, Ruth. “The Politics of Prayer at the Temple Mount.” New Yorker, November 5, 2014, News. http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/furor-temple-mount.

Yashar, Ari. “Netanyahu Assures EU: No Jewish Prayer on Temple Mount.” Arutz Sheva Israel National News, November 7, 2014, Inside Israel.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/187176#.VPOxk1ouxbk.

Israel Today Staff. “Muslim Cleric Says Jews Should Prayer on Temple Mount.” Israel Today, December 23, 2014, News. http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/25699/Default.aspx.

Image: On the right, the Western Wall, a remnant of the ancient wall that surrounded the Jewish Temple's courtyard in Jerusalem, Israel. On the left, the Dome of the Rock, a Muslim Shrine located on Temple Mount; Credit: Sean Pavone / shutterstock.com creative commons.

Author, Alon Harel, (D.Phil. Oxford University) is Phillip P. Mizock & Estelle Mizock Chair in Administrative and Criminal Law at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In 2014, Harel was Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago Law School. He specializes in political philosophy, jurisprudence, criminal law, constitutional law, and law and economics. He is a leading advocate of Israeli human rights in Israel. Harel is the founder and editor, with David Enoch, of the journal, Jerusalem Review of Legal Studies. He is the author of the monograph, Why Law Matters, Oxford Legal Philosophy (2014)