Israel-Hamas War

This letter comes almost three months into Israel’s war on Gaza. Many credible voices (Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the United Nations — to name a few) claim this war to be a war of ethnic cleansing.

Religion News Service selected 13 who made their mark this year, speaking out on a range of contentious issues and challenging the nation to live up to its values.

Because of the war in Gaza, there was no Christmas in Bethlehem this year. Leaders from all the Palestinian churches cancelled public celebrations. There was no Christmas tree, no decorations in Manger Square, no Christmas parade and no Baba Noel delivering gifts to children.

But can poetry be heard over the sounds of war — the bombs, the sirens, the screams? Palestine needs the stillness of a cease-fire. More, it needs a cease to violence that only a nonviolent movement might help create.

The Israel-Hamas war, along with the rise in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents in the U.S. and around the globe, were named the top international and domestic religion stories of 2023 by members of the Religion News Association.

In the West Bank and Gaza, Christians are searching for ways to celebrate a subdued Christmas, with festivities canceled for the first time since the First Intifada in 1988. 

A group of local residents frustrated and horrified at what has been going on in Israel and the Gaza Strip over the last two months have banded together to create a new organization, the Inland Northwest Coalition for the Liberation of Palestine.