Violence has become the watchword of the Middle East, and we living in Palestine and Israel feel it and experience it on a daily level. In my time in Zababdeh, not far from Jenin, I have grown more and more tired of just-war theory and arguments of military self-defense. Elizabeth and I have witnessed the glorification of violence by Israelis and Palestinians. There is much to say on the topic of violence: the rise of religious extremisms, the body-counting games, the double-standards applied both globally and locally. But my hope is that the Christian response to violence is repentance. In the gospel of Luke, Jesus was addressing the crowd when they brought the news that Pilate had mingled the blood of the faithful with their sacrifices. In responding to them, in the face of this violent act, Christ cautions that we must repent; otherwise, we will suffer the same fate—that is, we will be doomed to perpetuate the dead-end game.

I believe that the Palestinian struggle for self-determination and dignity must continue, but it must eschew violence and adopt a non-violent strategy. To my mind, it is the only way that accepts the humanity of, and even—dare I say—loves the enemy. If Palestinians continue to meet the violence of the Israelis—who have targeted children in their classrooms, pregnant women on their way to the hospital, doctors in their ambulances—with violence, they will lose.

The Israelis are strong, and they use the means of the strong—military weaponry, tanks, airplanes, helicopters, bulldozers, soldiers, snipers, armed civilians, closures, curfews, demonization, manipulation, propaganda, religious fervor. The Palestinians are weak economically, politically, and militarily, but they have resorted to the violent methods of the strong. They can never win. They can never achieve justice and peace, because the strong will always destroy the weak when they use the same means.

The Palestinians—and those in Israel and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and, by extension, around the world who stand with them against the injustices and humiliations and daily indignities they face—must first embrace their weakness, manifesting the power that is inherit in it. The power of the weak will defeat the power of the strong every time. And in their victory, all of the violence, power, terror, brutality, and cruelty will be redeemed. This is the message of the cross—that the one who accepted its fate is the one who gave redemption to those who sought to destroy him.

This is my hope for a way out of the conflict. I offer it not only because I think it is pragmatic, but because I believe it is faithful. And I urge us as a church to fight these battles using the power of the weak.

We shall celebrate its perfected victory together.