Before Christmas, The Catholic Register published a commentary by the group Catholics for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land setting out the Palestinian perspective on the war in Gaza. This week, as a fragile cease-fire begins after 15 months, two eminent Canadian Jewish leaders state the case for Israel and Jews globally.

The Dalai Lama reminds us, “The very nature (of war) is one of tragedy and suffering.” This is true for both active combatants and civilians. The loss of one life is too many. This is certainly where both of us stand. We are enjoined to “Seek peace and pursue it” (Psalm 34:14). And this is what has made us active in promoting peace in the Middle East — a peace based on mutual recognition and respect — as well as in the interfaith movement here in Canada.

Advertisement

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas — a terrorist group under Canadian law — invaded Israel. Civilians were murdered, entire families were annihilated, babies, toddlers and children were massacred, women were raped, young adults at a peace concert were gunned down, agricultural communities were completely destroyed and hundreds of hostages taken. A day that is normally a celebration, a festival marking the annual completion of the reading of the Torah, became the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. 

The next day, war against Israel broke out on several fronts: Hezbollah used its bases in Syria and Lebanon to fire on Israeli communities, including Muslim and Druze villages, and Houthi-controlled Yemen launched drones and hypersonic missiles against Israeli cities. 

With children, young women and elderly Holocaust survivors held at gunpoint in tunnels in Gaza, with Hamas vowing to repeat the invasion again and again, the nightmare wasn’t confined to a single day, however horrific. And there was no end in sight.

Behind it all, the head of the octopus, the Iranian regime, later bombarded Israel with the largest single day ballistic missile and drone attack in human history, with projectiles even flying over some of the world’s holiest sites. Israelis felt that their very survival was at risk.

As Israel defended its citizens from these attacks, it also faced an explosion of social media condemnations of Zionism and well-orchestrated public demonstrations targeting the only democratic nation in the Middle East with accusations of apartheid and genocide. 

Along with those hateful words, Jews around the world began to experience the highest levels of anti-Semitism in generations. In Canada, Jewish schools were shot at, synagogues firebombed, Jewish-owned businesses vandalized, Jewish students harassed, hateful slogans heard in our streets and violence became common. Over the past year, there has been a 670- per-cent increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the country.  

This context is critical for understanding the misleading premise of claims by groups such as Catholics for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land (CJPHL) and the goal behind their misinformation campaign which doesn’t refer to “Hamas” even once in a recent op-ed published by The Catholic Register. Not once. 

Imagine learning about the Allied invasion of Germany in 1945... reading about the damage to German cities... a society and economy in ruins... but never once reading the word “Nazi.” This alone suggests the CJPHL is interested only in a preconceived narrative.

Contrary to what such groups claim, Israel has not been engaging in an “ongoing assault on Palestinians” since 1948. In November 1947, as the British Mandate was ending, a UN decision to create a Jewish and an Arab state, which was supported in a vote by Canada and a majority of nations, was accepted by the Jews and rejected by the Arabs. Had the 1947 Partition Plan been agreed upon by the Arabs, there would have been two states for two people for more than three quarters of a century.

From 1948 until 1967, Palestinians were ruled by Egypt and Jordan. Since then, despite multiple efforts to resolve territorial claims while respecting mutual needs for security, stability and status, Palestinian leaders have rejected multiple mediated offers by Israel for a two-state solution.

Hamas took control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in 2007 following a bloody internal Palestinian conflict. From that time, smuggling from Egypt into Gaza included missile components and equipment to construct attack tunnels. 

Advertisement

Notwithstanding rocket attacks from Hamas and other terrorist forces, Israelis transferred electricity, water and regular consumer goods into Gaza and thousands of workers entered Israel every day to earn a living. All these arrangements were much more complicated than the false portrayal by Catholics for Justice and Peace of an “Israeli blockade” in the Holy Land.

It should be noted that the same Hamas that invaded kibbutz homes is the Hamas that dug tunnels underneath Palestinian homes, schools and hospitals, fired rockets from residential neighbourhoods, used Palestinian children as human shields, stole aid intended for Palestinians and started a war it acknowledged would lead to suffering and tragedy. 

The rabbis of the Talmud warn, “Those who are merciful to the cruel will end up being cruel to the merciful.” (Kohelet Rabbah 6.17). In a similar way, Pope Francis wrote of the obligation to resist an aggressor: “…true love for an oppressor means seeking ways to make him cease his oppression; it means stripping him of a power that … lets criminals continue their wrongdoing” (Fratelli Tutti 2020).

In complex urban settings, Israeli military action to end Hamas danger to Israelis and Palestinians sought to accomplish this while limiting civilian casualties, resulting in a mortality ratio of 1.5 civilian deaths for every Hamas combatant killed. (The post-World War II ratio in conflicts around the world is nine civilians killed for one combatant, illustrating Israel’s efforts to limit civilian suffering). Even though every life lost is a tragedy, civilian deaths in war do not constitute genocide, which requires an intent and effort to destroy another population. In fact, the population in Gaza grew by two per cent during these months of war.

We see such accusations and demands from CJPHL and others as going far beyond any legitimate criticism of specific policies of the State of Israel. As caring Jews with deep ties to the Holy Land, we have our own differences with Israeli authorities, but we do not accept  delegitimization, demonization and double standards applied only to Israel. 

Moreover, we see CJPHL and others as undermining efforts of thoughtful Catholics to restore relationships between Christians and Jews at a time when we need more reconciliation and less hatred. 

Bizarrely, the CJPHL’s op-ed in the Register makes no mention of the Indigenous relationship that Jews have to the Holy Land. Hanukkah marked an historic effort of Jews to maintain their place in that land against an invading colonialist force. Approximately two centuries after the Maccabees, Jesus was born a Jew in the Jewish city of Bethlehem, from a Jewish mother, in a Jewish land. 

Indeed, Jews bear the same name (Israel), speak the same language (Hebrew), worship the same God and reside in the same land as they did 3,000 years ago. 

For Catholics to understand their Jewish brothers and sisters, it is important to know Israel lies at the centre of the religious and cultural identity of a vast majority of Jews. Only three per cent of Canadian Jews do not believe in Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish State. 

The centrality of the Land of Israel and the return of the Jews to the land of their ancestors may be the most important commonality between the major Jewish denominations today (Orthodox, Conservative and Reform). Judaism is, at its core, a religion based on the calendar of the Land of Israel and the prayers, practices and festivals of the Jewish people are inextricably linked to it. For centuries in the diaspora, every day Jews would turn in prayer to face the direction of Jerusalem. 

We believe in good relationships between Catholics and Jews. Although the history of the treatment of Jews by the Catholic Church is problematic, since Vatican II major progress has been made. This year marks the 60th anniversary of Nostre Aetate, and we are grateful for the transformation from disputation to dialogue.

We believe the Church can play a role for peace in the Holy Land and between Canadians. But adopting the false narratives such as that of the CJPHL will only bring animosity and division.

Advertisement

Instead, let us dream together of a joint pilgrimage of Jews and Catholics to Rome and Jerusalem, to explore the depth of our relationship and the richness of our shared history in the Holy Land. 

(Baruch Frydman-Kohl is Rabbi Emeritus of Beth Tzedec Congregation in Toronto and a recipient of the Order of Canada. He is the co-chair of the Canadian Rabbinic Caucus and sits on the National Bilateral Catholic-Jewish Dialogue. Richard Marceau is vice-president and general counsel at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. He served as an MP and is the author of the book A Quebec Jew.)