Todays marks the third anniversary of the invasion of southern Israel by Palestinian militia, in which 1,182 people were killed, 251 kidnapped and over 4,000 were wounded.

The operation was planned years in advance by senior Hamas military leaders. In the build-up to the invasion, large amounts of munitions had been covertly stockpiled in Gaza. Soldiers had trained by attacking mocked up Israeli villages in Gaza. 

When the day came, thousands of rockets were fired into Israel, followed by waves of Palestinian soldiers who emerged from tunnels purpose built for the operation. A number of different military groups took part: Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the National Resistance Brigades of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and even some civilians. They crossed from Gaza into Israel, arriving by foot, motorcycle, car and motorized hang glider. Their mission was clear: a handwritten note found in the pocket of a commander of the Hamas military wing urged his operatives “to kill as many Jews as possible, to behead them, to tear out their hearts and livers for Islam.”

The element of surprise gave the attackers an initial advantage - by the time the Israelis were able to mobilize and respond, the Palestinians had inflicted significant casualties on the mainly civilian population. Ostensibly on a mission to kill and terrorize Jews, the invaders killed indiscriminately, including young revelers attending the Nova Music Festival. Overall, victims included members from thirty different countries. The largest number of non-Israelis killed were Thai nationals, of whom 41 were slaughtered.

For the benefit of Palestinians back home, helmet cameras and cell phones recorded the soldiers’ engagements. What the recordings show is a catalogue of terror and carnage. In the middle of an attack on an Israeli kibbutz, one terrorist called his parents and said:

“Hi Dad. Open my WhatsApp now and you will see all those killed. Look how many I killed with my own hands. Your son killed Jews.” 

His father responded, “may God protect you.” 

The terrorist replied, “Dad, I’m talking to you from a Jewish woman’s phone. I killed her and I killed her husband. I killed ten with my own hands.” 

His parents replied, “Oh my son. God bless you,” with his mother adding, “I wish I was with you.”

Unable to defend themselves, many of the victims tried to run away but were killed or kidnapped. Some were trapped in their homes which the soldiers set on fire, leaving whole families to burn to death. In one video, I watched a father hurrying his two young children into a “safe” room. When the soldiers arrived, they discovered the room and threw a hand grenade inside. The father threw himself on the grenade to save his children’s lives and was killed. The children were then taken into the kitchen, where the Hamas soldier offered them a drink from the fridge.

Despite having tried to kill them, the senior commander told the children that Hamas didn’t kill children. Actually the youngest victim of the October 7 attack was 12 hours old, killed by a bullet. On another occasion, a baby was placed in an oven and roasted alive. From the evidence, it is clear that the invaders had decided to act with the utmost barbarity and savagery.

Soldiers amputated limbs from their victims, often while they were still alive. In one sickening case, a terrorist tried repeatedly to behead a Thai worker using a garden hoe. An Israeli soldier was ambushed and decapitated. The soldiers took live hostages and kidnapped corpses. Bodies were mutilated and set on fire, or booby trapped with grenades, in order to kill other family members.

A report published by Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on UK-Israel, chaired by Lord Roberts of Belgravia, covers the full extent of the invasion, including details of the harrowing sexual violence inflicted on women. Ruth Halperin-Karradi, Professor of Law at Bar-Ilan University and a member of the Civil Commission on October 7, noted that 

“In so many cases, there are no direct [female] victims who are able to speak - for the very grim reason that Hamas made sure to kill almost each and every one of them. The very few that did survive are too traumatized to speak…”

Yet the mutilated bodies of women, with legs broken and other desecrations committed, tell their own story; Satan himself would have been astonished at the sadism and depravity of their killers. On Oct 12, 2023. the American secretary of state Antony Blinken was shown images of the October 7 attack. Taken aback at the brutality and savagery of the Palestinian attackers, he described the massacre as “pure evil.” The crimes were all pre-meditated; the sickening sexual assaults, in particular, were all part of a plan. 

Much has happened in the three years since then. October 7 revealed something about our world which became apparent in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Across the world, the actions of Hamas were being applauded and affirmed. One could have expected this from Muslim countries, but what was really surprising was to discover a large body of western opinion cheering on the terrorists.

This seemed to me to strike at the heart of our western values of respect for others and the sanctity of human life. Leaving aside the justification for war against Israel - remember that it is in Hamas’s charter to destroy Israel completely and annihilate the Jews - surely the behavior of Hamas against civilians was intrinsically wrong? Seldom in human history has the full depravity of humankind been so completely exposed. Wasn’t it our duty to say so?

That was the question that came to mind as I sat in Philadelphia Cathedral for the Annual Convention of the Episcopal Church on Saturday, October 21, 2023, two weeks after the invasion. Among the resolutions to be considered that day was one condemning Israel for practicing “apartheid” against Palestinians and charging Israel with war crimes. In the shadow of the recent massacre, the resolution seemed grotesque, evil. 

I struggled with the succession of speakers who came to the microphone to voice their support for the resolution. How is it possible, I wondered, to claim the mantle of “Christian” while excusing and condoning acts of the utmost anti-human barbarity? At that moment my view of what makes a person human began to change. There were no longer shared values of decency and goodness between me and these others.

It was a deeply distressing experience, despite the resolution being narrowly defeated. How to explain it? First, I doubt that neither Israel nor Hamas give two hoots what the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania thinks of them. The resolution, which was likely drafted prior to October 7, was performative, a way for its proposers to signal to others their support for a nation struggling to liberate itself from oppression. This view, however, is a simplification that disregards the Palestinians’ failure to self-govern effectively. For twenty years prior to the attack, the Palestinians had had full control of Gaza, along with the benefit of billions of dollars of UN aid.

There is no shortage of groups around the world who are imprisoned, tortured and oppressed - the Uyghurs in China for example - but in our western culture, it is Israel who gets singled out for criticism. When western supporters of Hamas call for a two state solution, they are betraying their ignorance of history. The Palestinians have for decades refused opportunities for statehood, most notably in 2000 at the Camp David summit. In a recent interview, President Clinton said that Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian leader who took part in negotiations, rejected a deal that would have granted the Palestinians a state with a capital in East Jerusalem and 96 per cent of the West Bank. The reason for Arafat’s rejection was the same then as it is now: Hamas do not wish to co-exist with Israel, but to see Israel wiped off the map, “from the river to the sea.” 

At the diocesan convention, those who promoted the resolution had chosen to ignore the crimes of October 7 in order to show support for the oppressed Palestinians. However, it also sent another, altogether unintended signal. Some Christians, even ordained ones, have no scruple in turning a blind eye to rape and murder if it furthers a political cause.

We are living in the aftermath of October 7 today. Anti-Israel sentiment is now synonymous with anti-Semitism; Jews here and abroad risk abuse and even violence when walking down a public street. Among the young, anti-Semitism has become a kind of mania. Dissent from the anti-Zionist cause is no longer tolerated. Like the Maoist Red Guards of the 1960s, the online mob seek out the waverer and doubter in order to destroy them. 

The most recent victim of this anti-Israel crusade was the popular singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran. When Sheeran’s tour support act, the American rapper Macklemore, chanted pro-Palestine slogans from the stage, Sheeran’s promoter fired him. The online community of fans and influencers wanted to know if Sheeran shared Macklemore’s views? Sheeran made the mistake of trying to adopt a neutral pose - anathema to the cultural Marxists who believe that “everything is political.” Sheeran’s desire to appear impartial cost him his band members, who resigned in protest. Later he was mocked by regime comedians on Saturday Night Live UK. 

The speed at which Sheeran was isolated and vilified was frightening. This is part of a general trend towards totalitarianism that I have written about previously. It starts when ideological thinking - thinking politically in terms of identities, categories and classes - replaces individual centered approaches which concentrate on love and on the intrinsic value of the human person. 

The poet Maya Angelou once said "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” That is how I feel about the Palestinians since October 7, 2023. I speak not as an ideologue but as a human being, as one who saw the gates of hell opened and who recoiled at what he saw. Of course, the Israelis retaliated and many more died. That was all part of the plan, which succeeded beyond Hamas’s wildest dreams. 

I still have the problem of what to do about my own judgement of those who ignored the brutality of October 7. Where is our common ground? If our shared humanity does not take priority over our ideological positions, then I don’t know what can be done. Modern history is filled with examples of dehumanization and death. Ideology should never get the better of our human instincts to protect rather than to destroy, to love rather than to hate.

These “better angels of our nature,” as Abraham Lincoln called them, are imbedded in our Christian faith. Christians are called to recognize the full humanity of every person, and never to see them as a statistic, or a “class group.” The shocking events of October 7, 2023 raise two important and related questions. The first is “what does it mean to be human?” and the second is, “how do we stop anti-Semitism spreading through our society? 

To the second question, the presence of anti-Semitism is a clear sign of a society’s moral decay. History teaches us that its cancerous growth depends on the acquiescence of the majority of the people toward the minority who are practicing it. The cure for our body politic is to identify this disease and speak out fearlessly when it appears. Staying mute against anti-Semitism, for fear of disapproval or cancellation, only facilitates its spread. 

To the first question, “what does it mean to be human?”, scripture tells us that each one of us is made in the image of God. That confers on us God’s blessing and, at the same time, a responsibility to live into the fullness of our divinity. We are flesh and blood, touched by God’s hand and infused with the Holy Spirit. Are we able to see in each other the godly humanity that is our inheritance? Or must we demonize each other and live divided, opposing the unity that Jesus sought?

As for the victims of October 7, and those Palestinians killed in response, the example of Our Lord has something profound and unequivocal to say to us. Jesus submitted himself to the weight of human cruelty when he was ridiculed, beaten and crucified. In seeing wounded humanity, we see also the God who suffered and died for us. If we do not feel compassion for those who are killed, tortured, maimed and raped, then we are no better than those who put Jesus to death. His death was our shame, and his love was our redemption. The highest aim of our humanity is to see God in those we hate, and to let our hate turn to love.

Father David