Amy Valdez Barker

For hundreds of years, Jewish people have been the victims of horrific violence. That historic backdrop of pain and trauma does not justify the crushing apartheid policies they’ve imposed on Gaza and the West Bank for over 50 years… but it does help explain it. For decades the Palestinians have endured daily doses of terror, discrimination and abuse from the State of Israel. That does not by any means justify the violence of Hamas… but it does help explain it. The current violence of both Hamas and the State of Israel create the conditions for more violence, adding fuel to an already combustible fire. For many people the evil we are seeing daily by both the State of Israel and Hamas makes more killing justifiable. But violence only leads to more violence. Hatred begets more hatred. We cannot build a better future by killing each other’s families. Jesus was right - if we live by the sword we die by the sword. Violence is a dead end. Love is the only way forward, even the audacious love for our enemies. Love requires treating the person on the other side of the wall as nothing short of sacred, a child of God made in the image of God. Killing babies is terrorism, whether it is done with bombs or with guns or knives - it is evil. Violence is always evil, no matter what flag it’s wrapped up in. Let us continue to work for peace… and do all we can to interrupt the war… and grieve every life lost… and commit ourselves to building a world where every person is sacred. – at Philadelphia, PA