It has been one year since fighters from Hamas and other militant groups fired rockets and crossed the border from Gaza into Israel, brutally killing nearly 1,200 people and kidnapping 251 more, ripping apart families and traumatizing the country. It has been one year since Israel retaliated with airstrikes against the crowded cities of Gaza, soon to be followed by a ground invasion and blockade that cut Gaza’s access to food and fuel. Why do we care? Why don’t we just look away and trust these far-off countries to sort it out themselves? 

In a time of unimaginable violence in the Middle East, how can the Church imagine a future reconciliation? What wisdom can Christians gain from Jewish, Muslim, and Middle Eastern Christian concepts of justice? In this conversation, we talked with Palestinian Christian Salim Munayer about his latest book, Reconciling Justice: Concepts of Justice in the Multireligious Context of Palestine/Israel.

After everything that has already happened, Gaza’s Christians may now be facing their biggest challenge since the war began.

We at Peace Catalyst see the escalating violence between Israelis and Palestinians, and the increasing deaths on both sides, as reprehensible and counterproductive to any holistic or just peace. As peacemakers who have worked for ten years to build peace between Christians and Muslims, we know that this conflict is very important to both communities, and we understand that there are many passionate perspectives and competing calls for justice.

I have to ask this question because sometimes I think that we can equate criticism or accountability with hatred and not love. But when we love someone we want to see them at their best and living up to the values they proclaim. We want them to thrive, and we want them to live in light of whom God has created and called them to be, which can often mean holding them accountable to the principles and standards they have professed or proclaimed a desire to uphold. 

I want to address several reasons why evangelical believers in the Middle East—and particularly in Palestine and Israel—are upset with Trump's declaration. My critique is from an evangelical perspective and it is a plea to my brethren across the water.

From the perspective of Israelis, in recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, "United States president Donald Trump is to be commended for finally correcting the painful and unjust slight and doing justice to the Jewish State. But that is only a part of the truth. There is another truth as well, and there will never be peace as long as we hang on to only part of the truth as if it were the full truth."

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has lasted for 60+ years and has included eight wars, a series of armed conflicts, and a military occupation of Palestinians. And yet, peacemaking is happening in the very midst of it. Here's what's going on in Bethlehem.

Photographer, visual peacemaker, and Peace Catalyst staff member, Andy Larsen has spent a good amount of time in the Holy Land and has collaborated with Emmy award-winning producer John Yeager to produce the movie Blessed Are The Peacemakers to document Andy's journey through the Holy Land and to tell the stories of real people living life there.