A Serious Moral Response to the Gaza Genocide
As Israel continues killing Palestinians under the cover of a collapsed ceasefire, a minister lays out what justice actually demands, not what's politically convenient.
Rev. J. Mark Davidson
5/7/20264 min read
It’s been more than six months since the multi-phase Israel-Hamas “ceasefire” was put into effect. The agreed-upon hostage and prisoner exchange has occurred, but progress to further stages of the agreement has stalled. Thoughtful observers of the Middle East (Southwest Asia) predicted that Israel would not honor the ceasefire, since its track record is always to violate ceasefires. Those predictions proved correct. Since the so-called “ceasefire” has been in effect, Israel has continued its airstrikes and its artillery shelling of Gaza. According to Volker Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Palestinians are still being killed and injured in what is left of their homes, shelters, and tents of displaced families, on the streets, in vehicles, at a medical facility, and a classroom…The unrelenting pattern of killings reflects continuing disregard for Palestinian lives, enabled by sweeping impunity.” Since the “ceasefire” began in October 2025, Israel has killed over 700 Palestinians, including 67 children. Israel has reneged on its commitment to facilitate the entrance of 600 trucks per day carrying desperately needed humanitarian food aid, temporary shelter, and medical supplies. The 100 trucks they are allowing is deliberately inadequate. The vast majority of the Palestinians in Gaza are chronically sick, severely malnourished, and huddling in tents. As the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights put it: “Palestinians have no blueprint for survival: whatever they do or don’t do, wherever they go or don’t go, there is no safety or protection afforded to them.”
The question we should be asking ourselves is: what is a serious moral response to the genocide in Gaza?
It seems to me – and this is corroborated by historians, social change theorists, and experts in international law – there are five major elements. I am well aware of the challenges in actually accomplishing any of these elements. But my point here is not how practical or doable any of them are, but that this is what justice requires. It is a call to think ethically about our obligations, however unfulfillable they may be or appear to be in the near or long term.
The killing must stop. Not slow down, stop. This means western powers, principally the United States, must stop supplying Israel with weapons. As long as the flow continues unabated, apartheid, genocidal Israel has demonstrated it will continue killing at will. Rogue nation Israel will continue wreaking havoc throughout the region. It is the depth of depravity to keep facilitating this carnage.
There must be accountability for war crimes. If there is to be any hope for the future, the past must be addressed. Meaningful consequences must be imposed on wrongdoers - all those who have violated international humanitarian law in the genocide in Gaza. Otherwise, grievous atrocities will undoubtedly continue. The failure to hold war criminals accountable normalizes this inhumanity, and ensures its repetition. If we want a world without genocide, then all nations and all leaders must know that they face grave consequences for committing “the supreme crime.” There is a mechanism in the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court for imposing such consequences. We must shore up the structures of moral accountability.
Addressing what happened in Gaza over the past 2 ½ years has to include reparations. The massive destruction that Israel inflicted on the Palestinian people in Gaza must be repaired. Morality dictates that the international community spare no effort in redressing Gaza’s immense losses. This means removing the rubble, disabling unexploded ordnance, rebuilding hospitals, water treatment plants and power stations, schools and universities, mosques and churches. It also means helping the people of Gaza begin their long healing journey from unspeakable trauma, and begin to rebuild. All of the US military aid that the Israeli government and the Israel Lobby are demanding be sent to Israel over the next 10-15 years (@ $50,000,000,000) should be redirected to the reconstruction of Gaza. Israel is a wealthy country. They can see to their own defense. Gaza, by contrast, is one of the most devastated, desolate places on Earth. Israel has turned the “largest open-air prison on the planet” into an utter wasteland, unfit for human habitation. Yet, despite everything, Gaza’s proud and resilient people have the will to rebuild their homes and their lives in Gaza. However, they now lack the material resources to do so. Justice requires that those from whom so much has been taken should be fully compensated for their losses and equipped with the means to reconstruct their country. And justice further requires that those who devastated the people of Gaza should sacrifice in order to bring remedy and restoration.
A serious moral response to genocide involves identifying the “enabling conditions” that made it possible and justified it, and working to denounce and dismantle them. UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, has “followed the money,” and uncovered the vast network of global corporations and governments which have supported the genocide and profited from it. She calls it an “economy of genocide.” The international community and a wide array of social institutions have already developed “socially responsible investing” and “boycott, divestment, and targeted sanctions.” These tools equip individual and institutional investors to penalize corporate misconduct and reward corporate responsibility. If we are serious about preventing future genocides, it means ramping up public pressure on corporations and governments to follow their own codes of conduct and their better angels, or face significant challenges to their bottom lines.
The fifth element of a serious moral response to genocide is visionary. It has to do with envisioning alternatives to supremacy and dominance. It means daring to speak of hope. Not wishful thinking. Not sentimental dreaming. Not optimism. But hope in the sense of believing in human possibilities. I have been impressed with Ilan Pappe’s book, Israel on the Brink: And The Eight Revolutions That Could Lead to Decolonization and Coexistence. Pappe suggests we are at an inflection point, and that Zionism is showing signs of unraveling. I recommend this book for anyone who is worn out with all that has gone so tragically wrong, yet retains energy for serious hope. Voices for Justice in Palestine will be hosting the famous historian in a webinar on Sunday, May 31st, 2:00 – 4:00 pm. Prof. Pappe will be guiding us as we explore the revolutions that could lead to decolonization and coexistence. Please join with us!