How should Christians feel about the war in Gaza and the broader Israeli-Palestinian struggle?
Of course, any follower of Jesus should oppose needless slaughter, which in this case takes place in the land where Christ lived.
A conflict which pits Muslims against Jews presents many challenges to the small Christian community in Israel/Palestine and to Christians globally, particularly as Christianity’s history with both groups contains great controversies.
Irish Catholics tend to lean strongly towards supporting Palestine. Prayers for the suffering people of Gaza and Ukraine are said at Masses regularly, various initiatives are taking place within parishes and the Bishops’ Conference recently came out strongly against the Israeli offensive.
Similar feelings appear to be intensifying throughout the Christian world. Two recent events – the IDF strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church which killed three people, and the attack by Jewish settlers on the Christian village of Taybeh on the West Bank – have brought long-simmering tensions to the surface.
The radicalisation of a considerable portion of Israeli society in recent decades has been accompanied by an upsurge in anti-Christian bigotry.
In 2024, The Times of Israel reported on newly-compiled statistics which showed that there were 111 attacks on Christians in Israel in 2023.
This was an increase on the figure recorded for the previous year, with attacks on church properties being the largest category of attack, followed by instances of Christian clergy being spat upon.
A recent US State Department report tells a similar story, including about the practice of ultra-Orthodox extremists spitting upon those who are immediately recognisable as Christians.
Pilgrims from Ireland and further afield increasingly report experiencing low-level harassment from ultra-orthodox Jews when visiting the Holy Land.
This should be recognised, but it should also be placed in context. In spite of the problem of Jewish extremism, the record of Israel in treating its Christian minority remains vastly superior to the record of its Middle Eastern neighbours.
In her 2021 book, ‘The Vanishing,’ the American journalist Janine di Giovanni describes how ancient Christian communities have been systematically destroyed in Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Palestine.
In the case of Iraq, American-led interventionism can be blamed for this, but the practice of targeting Christians extends across the Muslim world, and is being driven by the same radical Islamist ideology which inspires Hamas.
Across the Muslim world, Christians are being persecuted, expelled or slain, and the Christian population is plummeting as a result. A glance at the Open Doors World Watch List 2025 map shows that deadly anti-Christian persecution is the norm in the Middle East, but not in Israel.
In fact, the Christian population in Israel has grown considerably in numerical terms since the country’s establishment.
This is a simple fact which cannot be overlooked even by the most ardent critic of Israel: Christians can live in relative peace and security in Israel, but the same can not be said for the Islamic societies which surround it.
Islam has been at war with Christianity since its inception, and it still is. During the Crusades, the key focal point of this struggle for control over the Holy Land, but Christians long ago abandoned any hope to establish a Christian political entity there which could protect the Christian population and secure safe passage for Christian pilgrims. The best Christians can hope for is that those governing that sacred soil will act fairly.
For all Israel’s flaws, from its foundation in 1948 and since its conquest of East Jerusalem in 1967, the Jewish state has been a good custodian of the holy sites of Christianity.
Yet the presence and safety of Christians, Christian churches and Christian schools on Israeli soil should not be allowed to obscure the facts about what that country is doing.
Pacifism and Christianity do not fit together, but the Catholic Church has always laid down strict criteria governing the use of military force: what is known as the ‘just war’ doctrine.
Among the conditions mentioned within the Catechism on paragraph 2309, “the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.”
In other words, violence meted out in a war must be proportionate – and Israel’s actions in Gaza are anything but. According to the UN, Israel’s response to the horrific attacks of October 7th (which killed around 1,200 people in Israel) has resulted in 60,000 deaths in Gaza up to now.
Regardless of the precise breakdown between civilians and Hamas combatants among those casualties, it is easy to see why most of the world instinctively sympathises with the Palestinians.
The additional requirement within the Catechism that “there must be serious prospects of success” is also not being met, as the continuation (and potential escalation) of the Israeli offensive appears to be motivated by Benjamin Netanyahu’s need to placate Jewish extremists in his cabinet, rather than being part of a serious plan to free the remaining hostages.
Long before October 7th, Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians had already turned many Irish Catholics off Zionism as a concept.
Today’s Israel is a settler/planter society to a much greater degree than was the case a generation ago. There are around 700,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the number of settlements is growing in a country whose population is below 10 million.
The scale of settler activity cannot be blamed on Netanyahu alone – instead, it is part and parcel of what Israel is. If the settlements were truly unpopular, their growth would have been stemmed long ago.
Long gone are the days when Israeli Prime Ministers like Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert were willing to contemplate withdrawing from the vast majority of the West Bank and allowing a Palestinian state to be created (offers which were foolishly and inexcusably rejected by Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas).
Instead, successive Israeli governments have ignored successive American presidential administrations by expanding them relentlessly, while turning a blind eye to the unofficial action like that which recently saw Jewish attackers running amok in Taybeh in a bid to drive out the Christian villagers.
Christians also take issue with this process too, unsurprisingly. Of the Ten Commandments, two relate to the theft or coveting of others’ property. Whatever happens in Gaza, Israel’s actions on the West Bank are likely to ensure that its unpopularity among Christians abroad grows.
Anti-Israel sentiment is also increasing in America. The fact that the American Ambassador (and former Evangelical preacher) Mike Huckabee recently condemned violence by Israeli settlers is significant.
Evangelicals have been a core part of the pro-Israel coalition which has dominated American politics for generations, and opportunistic politicians like Netanyahu have proven themselves adept at cultivating this support base in spite of the anti-Christian sentiment which is so common in Israel.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s autobiography, ‘Bibi,’ includes a quite frank description of how this has been accomplished (unsurprisingly, while communicating for an American readership, Bibi says little or nothing about Jewish anti-Christian bigotry, while detailing various instances of Palestinian oppression of the Christian minority).
Now that a component of the MAGA base has fallen out of love with Israel, there is an opportunity for American Christians to do much more to aid their co-religionists there, and to aid the cause of peace.
Pope Leo XIV’s call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza should be embraced by Christians of every denomination.
More broadly, support for Israel should be strictly conditional on a tougher line being taken against Jewish extremists who harass Christians or attack Christian churches in Israel proper or on the West Bank.
Netanyahu is as transactional a figure as Trump is. If the price of maintaining international support and avoiding more anti-Israeli measures is more handcuffed Hasidic fanatics, then he will pay it, and Christians would be safer as a result.
As for how Christians should view the Palestinians, the same rules should also apply. For far too long, pro-Palestine campaigners in the West have infantilised the Palestinians: excusing their atrocities and their leaders’ corruption. It is time to start demanding more of them.
The Canadian Prime Minister’s recent announcement of a conditional recognition of Palestinian statehood was strikingly different to the Irish government’s condition-free approach.
Carney said Canada intended to take this step, but that it would be “predicated on…much-needed reforms, including the commitments by Palestinian Authority President Abbas to fundamentally reform its governance, to hold general elections in 2026 in which Hamas can play no part, and to demilitarise the Palestinian state.”
In the long-run, the message that ‘if you want our support, you must improve your behaviour’ is likely to be a lot more productive than ‘we will support Palestine regardless of what the Palestinians do.’ That goes for criticism of Israel too: it would be far better if anti-Israel measures were linked to steps which the Israeli government could take to remedy its poor behaviour.
Ultimately, the world’s Christians cannot force the Muslims of Palestine and the Jews of Israel to agree to a lasting peace. They must make the hard decisions themselves.
At the very least though, they can do more to help the modern-day disciples of Christ caught in the middle of this cauldron.