The current conflicts between Israel and Gaza have been a prominent topic of discussion around the world as of late. News stations have been playing footage of the war on repeat, with updates being aired every few minutes.
On Oct. 18th, Samford’s Department of History and Biblical and Religious Studies held an informative panel on the recent events regarding Israel and Gaza. The meeting was held in Brooks and led by History Department Chair Jonathan DenHartog and panel members Annie DeVries, Anthony Minnema and Jason Strange.
DeVries provided historical context for the events in the Middle East. She began by explaining what Palestine is, which requires a more complicated explanation than one might think.
Palestine has only been recognized internationally as a state since 2012, after receiving a majority vote from the United Nations. Palestine is governed by the Palestinian Authority, created in 1993, but has not been consistently unified since Hamas’ election in 2006. Palestine was settled in the West Bank of Gaza after the Israeli-Arab war in 1948 when the Palestinians sought refuge from the conflicts in Israel at the time. They anticipated this move to be temporary, hoping to return home when the war was over; this has not been the case. To this day, Israel has almost complete control over Palestine, which has led to decades worth of tension and battles between Palestine and Israel, with both sides claiming current Israeli territory as their homeland. Throughout this time both sides have employed extremely violent methods and guerrilla tactics, taking countless lives and causing chaos amongst Palestinian and Israeli natives.
DeVries went on to explain the origins and motivation of Hamas, which is an Islamist political group that came to fruition in 1986 after the first intifada (Palestine uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip). Hamas split Palestine’s parliament in the 2006 election, creating even more division within Palestine. Currently, there is no single vision for government authority among all Palestinians. Hamas authority is seeking control from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip and control over the nation of Israel, along with wanting an Islamic government. Hamas headquarters has been established in Qatar since 2012.
Professor Jason Strange offered a look at how the citizens of Palestine and Israel have been affected. He stressed that what he says is based on impressions of actions taken by Israel and Palestine along with conversations that he has had with colleagues in the region and is not to be taken as fact.
Strange explains that Israel is a young country and is still finding its “sense of self”. Israel has claimed the land that they believe to be rightfully theirs, but in doing so, has displaced the Palestinians. Strange believes that as Israel has gained power, Palestine has lost its sense of self, and Palestinians feel they have no support from the countries around them. He maintained that a comment he has often heard from Palestinians is that ‘Palestinians are the dogs of the Arab world’. Strange tells of conversations he has had with both Israeli and Palestinian citizens who have been affected by the attacks. He says all have responded with “a strong sense of gratitude for contact and expressions of care”, and he gets the impression that those on all sides are feeling “emotionally traumatized.” After hearing Strange’s accounts of those within the conflict, it is evident that the violence being inflicted is changing the attitudes of victims on all sides of the war and affects them on a deeply personal level.
Finally, Professor Anthony Minnema spoke on the nature of Islamic Jihad. “Jihad”, which translates to struggle, appears 41 times in the Quran. He explains that many of the times in which it is mentioned, it does not condone or mention the use of violence. There are very few passages within the Quran condoning violence that connect to modern thoughts concerning Jihads. Lately, Jihad has become synonymous with the discussion of Holy War. Minnema explains that within Islam there is a great question of authority, and who exactly has the right to say that a violent form of Jihad is necessary. This causes confusion and friction within the Islamic faith.
The meeting concluded with the panel taking questions from listeners, after which a closing reflection was made by Professor Minnema. Minnema emphasized the sensitivity of the situation and encouraged students to further educate themselves on the subject and pray for peace for those involved.
