In light of all this and the ongoing conflict and suffering of the people of Palestine, I find myself turning to all Churches, and peace- loving people, to listen to the voice of the powerless, the true bearers of the cost of the conflict in the past as well as in the present, here in the land of the Holy One. As the Church proclaims Jesus, the victim of the powerful, who is Lord of all, it is called to be the voice of the voiceless, to speak for a purpose and a future for humanity beyond political self-interests. The Church is called upon to speak out against injustices. If we do not make their silence heard, the stones of the Land would cry out. Conflicts are not solved by simple goodness, nor by the 'if only' method.
Peace is only relevant when the conflicts are carefully and accurately analyzed.
Without such analysis, and the work that is demanded as a result, our words about peace tend to become pious wishes, but ineffective, and our Church prayers for peace become stereotyped and conventionalized. The situation we are faced with is comparable to South Africa before the collapse of Apartheid, if not more difficult. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the majority of the Palestinians found themselves either refugees or second-class citizens in their own country. Therefore, they have always found themselves in a position of resisting the occupation. Military administrative detentions without charges, home demolitions, uprooting trees, land confiscation, and the expansion of settlements in a provocative and flagrant violation of the sovereignty of Palestinian lands, closures, denials of access to medical facilities and limitations on movements of goods and labor are normal daily occurrences in Gaza and the West Bank today.