Arm Chair Debates Over The Bombing Of Gaza: 'Collateral Damage,' A War Crime, Or Genocide?

Rafah, in southern Gaza. Fatima Shbair/Associated Press
New York Times 1/29/24

"When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must—at that moment—become the center of the universe.”    

 - Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel

At this moment the world is experiencing almost unimaginable horrors triggered by the barbaric October 7 assaults by Hamas on Israeli civilians. The massive revenge attacks by Israel have resulted in the deaths of over 25,000 men, women and children living in Gaza, an area of land much smaller than Rockingham County and which is home to over two million people, many of them now homeless. Some of these have already been living in refugee camps for decades, and now have been stripped of all but the barest of necessities.

Not only homes but most hospitals have been destroyed, and those that still exist are despearately short  of the staff, supplies and space necessary to provide care for the thousands in urgent need. Scores of children have had their limbs amputated without anesthesia, and many have suffered severe burns and other injuries that will result in their being maimed for life. According to UNICEF spokesman James Elder, child deaths due to disease and malnutrition may well surpass deaths by bombardment. 

All of this requires a focus on this kind of suffering of innocent people as representing, for us, "the center of the universe." 

I'm tired of hearing debates over which side is most at fault, or whether the destruction of human habitat and whole human communities can sometimes be justified as "defense." There is no defense for inflicting carnage and causing needless suffering of God's children. What is at "fault" is human beings anywhere and for whatever reason resorting to violent and evil means to achieve their ends. 

So whether we call it genocide, or Gaza-cide, domicide, a form of holocaust or just some regrettable "collateral damage," it all represents an affront to God Almighty for which we are complicit by our silence.