Iftar in the Rubble
Palestinians in Gaza broke their Ramadan fast together surrounded by rubble, sharing simple meals under string lights despite catastrophic violence. These images speak to the Palestinians’ resilience and demand accountability from the world witnessing their ongoing erasure.
Rev. J. Mark Davidson, Executive Director
3/7/20252 min read
Iftar is the meal that breaks the fast at the end of the day during the holy month of Ramadan. Palestinians living in Gaza observed Iftar in the midst of rubble. The images of a long, shared table, overhead strings of lights, hospitality in spite of it all, moved me. Tables across Gaza this year are meager; some broke their fast only with water. But what struck me was that they kept to the rhythm of their lives. Despite abject destruction and desperate circumstances, they made room for sacred moments. These images of Iftar in the rubble represent a deeply human symbol of the power of survival and the amazing persistence and resilience of the Palestinian people. They show the life they wish to live, the dignity they deserve, the world they desire.
These images move us, but they also convict us. Gaza consists of over 75% refugees, all of whom the Israelis forcibly displaced from their lands and homes in what is now southern Israel, and prohibited them from returning. Yet, even their temporary homes in Gaza proved hostile to their existence. Israel ethnically cleansed them in 1948 and dumped them in Gaza. But there was more terror awaiting them. The most intense bombardment in history (October, 2023 – present) rendered Gaza “uninhabitable.” Raja Shehadah, in his book, What Does Israel Fear From Palestine? (2024), answers definitively: “What Israel fears from Palestine is Palestine’s very existence.”
The plan of the Zionists from the beginning was to seize and settle the maximum amount of the land of Palestine with the minimum number of Palestinians in it. In the horrors of the Nakba (1947-1949), the Naksa (1967), taken together, close to a million Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their land and homes. The Gaza genocide and the current violent annexation of the West Bank are all part of a longstanding, ongoing plan to erase Palestinian life in Palestine, and replace them with Jews from around the world. This is the eliminationist/replacement logic inherent in the Israeli settler-colonialist project. Images of severely traumatized, multiply-displaced Gazans observing Iftar in the rubble convict us because we are fully complicit in the death and destruction over the years, especially over the past 18 months. It happened on our watch, executed by our government with our tax dollars, and we were unable to prevent it.
Peter Beinart, in his book, being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning (2024), suggests that the right response of Jews who are faithful to their core moral and spiritual teachings is to tremble before the judgment of God. He cites Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel speaking to an antiwar group in 1968 at the height of the War in Vietnam: “God’s voice is shaking heaven and earth, and humanity does not hear the faintest sound. The Lord roars like a lion. His word is like fire, like a hammer breaking rocks to pieces.” It is not only Jews, but Christians, and all people of faith and conscience, who must tremble as we face the reckoning. Listen, then act.