We are U.S. Catholics with strong ties to the Holy Land. Over the last several months, we have watched in sadness and horror the surge in violence in Israel-Palestine. One of us has Jewish Israeli family and initially came to Middle East peacebuilding work after a college semester in East Jerusalem, where she studied with a Palestinian Catholic professor and volunteered in the West Bank. The other of us focuses on Muslim-Christian relations and traveled to Israel-Palestine while living in the neighboring country of Jordan, where she came to know those in the Palestinian refugee community there, including Catholics.
It is not just our relationships with the people of the Holy Land and our time spent there that have ignited in us a concern for the situation in Israel-Palestine today. Our Catholic faith motivates and guides us, too. We both serve on the Catholic Advisory Council of an organization called Churches for Middle East Peace. Along with other Catholic groups, we recently organized and released a national Catholic sign-on letter on Israel-Palestine, which so far has garnered signatures from over 5,000 U.S. Catholics—bishops and clergy, women religious, laypeople, academics and activists. They include Cardinal Robert McElroy; the Rev. Bryan Massingale; Simone Campbell, S.S.S.; Hosffman Ospino; Elizabeth Johnson, C.S.J.; M. Shawn Copeland; Chris Kerr of the Ignatian Solidarity Network; Gloria Purvis; Francis Clooney, S.J.; and over a dozen other Jesuits.
In writing the letter, one important resource we drew on was Catholic social teaching. Catholics have applied the principles of C.S.T. to many contemporary challenges, including racism, immigration, economic injustice, environmental degradation and more. The principles of C.S.T. allow us to look at the situation in Israel-Palestine through the lens of our faith, and help us work toward a future in the Holy Land marked by justice and peace for all.
The basis of C.S.T. is the inherent dignity of all persons and their right to life. This principle reminds us that each and every person, Palestinian and Israeli, is created in God’s image and likeness, and is thus deserving of life, safety and basic rights. Over the last several months, thousands of these precious lives have been shattered. On Oct. 7, nearly 1,200 people in Israel were killed in Hamas’s brutal attack; 240 more were taken hostage. As of this writing, at least 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the months since by Israel’s unprecedented military assault in Gaza. Due to Israel’s widespread bombing, whole family lines have been decimated and tens of thousands injured, and the majority of Gaza’s two million residents are now displaced, lacking basic necessities like food, medical care, education and adequate shelter.
In the face of these infringements on human life and dignity—which amount to war crimes on the part of both Israel and Hamas—Catholic leaders have, for months, been calling for an immediate and permanent cease-fire, the release of hostages, and robust humanitarian aid to Gaza. This call has been voiced by Pope Francis, major Catholic orders and institutions, and the swath of American Catholic leaders and laypeople who signed our open letter.
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Julie Schumacher Cohen is a member of the Catholic Advisory Council of Churches for Middle East Peace, an ecumenical coalition of church bodies, having previously served as its deputy director. She is also assistant vice president for community engagement and government affairs at the University of Scranton and a Ph.D. student in political science at Temple University.
Jordan Denari Duffner, PhD, is a theologian and scholar of Muslim-Christian relations and interfaith dialogue. She is the author of Finding Jesus among Muslims and Islamophobia: What Christians Should Know (and Do) about Anti-Muslim Discrimination. She is also a member of Churches for Middle East Peace’s Catholic Advisory Council, and serves on the National Catholic-Muslim Dialogue.
With thanks to America and Julie Schumacher Cohen and Jordan Denari Duffner, where this article originally appeared.
