Local churches call it genocide — and say silence is no longer an option | Joyce M. Davis in The Patriot News

Joyce M. Davis, Outreach & Opinion Editor. July 23, 2024. Sean Simmers | 

• Joyce M. Davis | jdavis@pennlive.com

There was a time when mainline Christian churches in the United States were loath to say anything critical of Israel and its actions in the Middle East. That time has passed.

Throughout the United States and right here in Central Pennsylvania, many Christian churches and entire denominations are speaking out against what they say are Israel’s human-rights abuses in Gaza. Many are even accusing Israel of genocide against the Palestinian people.

That’s the word a coalition of faith groups in Central Pennsylvania is using to announce its Harrisburg Free Palestina Film Festival to call attention to Israel’s actions in Gaza. They called it ‘genocide’. It’s the same term used by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry in its report on Israel’s actions in Gaza.

It means the United Nations commission investigated Israel’s bombing and the conduct of its troops in Gaza and concluded that Israel was intentionally trying to wipe out the estimated 2.1 million Palestinian men, women and children living there.

It’s the same word the world used to describe what happened to six million Jews who were tortured, starved to death, shoved into gas chambers or starved to death in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Genocide.

The Christian leaders speaking out against it include representatives of the Quakers, the United Methodists, the Unitarians, the Church of the Brethren and the United Church of Christ. At their press conference on Thursday, they said it’s their moral duty to break the silence and to call attention to the suffering.

These pastors and laity say that what happened to Jews during World War II is happening to Palestinians today. There may not be gas chambers, but they say innocent people are being tortured, executed and starved to death in Gaza.... READ MORE   https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2026/09/local-churches-call-it-genocide-and-say-silence-is-no-longer-an-option-joyce-m-davis.html?gift=7d3a8e79-fdb9-4bf8-ab6c-ea305c86e25e

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An Israeli professor lost a prestigious US job offer after speaking out on Gaza. Now the university is paying him $250,000... The University of Minnesota withdrew an offer for Raz Segal to lead its Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies after an organized campaign against his hiring

A few hundred people gather to call for a ceasefire in Gaza before setting up an encampment on the lawn of the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis on 29 April 2024. Photograph: Star Tribune/Getty Images

 Alice Speri

Thu 6 Aug 2026 08.00 EDT

When the University of Minnesota (UMN) extended an offer to historian Raz Segal to lead its Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in June 2024, it did so upon the near-unanimous recommendation of a committee of academics after a rigorous search process. The scholars had enthusiastically praised Segal, with one committee member describing a presentation he gave as “breathtaking”.

But five days after making the offer, the university abruptly withdrew it, citing “perspective” it had received from members of the community. The reversal followed backlash over Segal’s criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza, which he called “a textbook case of genocide” in an October 2023 op-ed published in Jewish Currents. Segal’s critics condemned the piece, published just days after the 7 October attacks in Israel, accusing him of justifying Hamas crimes – an assertion that Segal rejected and the article does not sustain.

Last week, more than two years since the offer was rescinded, Segal reached a $250,000 settlement with the university. As is standard with such settlements, the terms of the deal stipulate the payout is not an admission of wrongdoing on UMN’s part. The university did not respond to a request for comment.

Segal said the significant sum should encourage the dozens of scholars who have been punished for criticizing Israel with firings, suspensions and investigations to “fight back”.

The settlement came after Segal obtained dozens of emails through a public records request, revealing a pressure campaign on university officials by donors, legislators and pro-Israel activists. The documents shared exclusively with the Guardian, reveal how the university shifted from defending Segal to eventually walking back their decision to hire him... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/aug/06/professor-israel-gaza-university-of-minnesota

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"I learned about the Holocaust even in rural Oklahoma. I read the Diary of Anne Frank when I was 10 years old. My mom watched Holocaust documentaries with me. We talked about it in high school -- to always, always, always look around and make sure we weren't BEING Nazis in some way...." Pamela Olson, author of Fast Times in Palestine

 

Pamela Olson  https://pamolson.org/

https://www.facebook.com/pamolson4/posts/pfbid02B46Qg3dgY9LaoGTjqRnfC9HDtioQYTizhiXqdEqXtuhEc8fmyH4tqo2qHYSuTg6al

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Pamela Olson

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A sponsored post on my feed asked people to share their experience of learning about the Holocaust as kids, and if they feared they might have to hide from Nazis one day.

 

I commented:

 

I learned about the Holocaust even in rural Oklahoma. I read the Diary of Anne Frank when I was 10 years old. My mom watched Holocaust documentaries with me. We talked about it in high school -- to always, always, always look around and make sure we weren't BEING Nazis in some way.

 

I felt like the US was being Nazi-like when we sanctioned Iraq and starved all those children. I felt like the US was being Nazi-like when we invaded Iraq and murdered hundreds of thousands based on a lie. (I would later learn that was just the tip of the iceberg.) So I went to the Middle East to meet Arabs and Muslims for myself -- to see if they were really the demons our news media made them out to be.

 

I traveled solo from Cairo to Istanbul in 2003, when I was 23 years old. It took about three months, and it was one of the most magical stretches of my life. "Beautiful and friendly" doesn't begin to describe it.

 

I did skip Iraq (too dangerous), and I planned to skip Israel / Palestine. But in the Sinai, I met an Israeli man who invited me to Israel, and in Jordan I met a British guy who invited me to visit the West Bank. I took it as a sign.

 

And I'm so glad I did. I was totally enchanted by the Holy Land and ended up living there for two years. I wrote a book about it that anyone can read for free here:

 

Get a Free PDF of the book here

(Also available as Kindle, Audible, paperback)

"We live in an age saturated with Holocaust books, films, documentaries, and lessons that teach us how dangerous dehumanization can be. We are reminded time and again that before people can be mistreated, displaced, or killed on a mass scale, they are first stripped of their humanity through words and imagery. And yet, when similar language is used today to describe Palestinians, much of the world remains silent—or worse, offers its support. If history has taught us anything, it is that when human beings are reduced to weeds, thorns, insects, or any other nuisance, the groundwork is being laid for people to accept what would otherwise be unacceptable. That is why the language matters. And that is why the silence is so troubling." ~ Mike Odetalla

Mike Hanini Odetalla

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Morning reflections regarding Gaza with coffee as I look over my yard:

6/08/26

I can't look at my lawn without thinking about the terminology that has been used over the years to describe military assaults on Palestinians.

"Mowing the lawn" was one such phrase used to describe repeated assaults on Gaza, reducing Palestinian men, women, and children to little more than blades of grass to be cut down.

More recently came "Field of Thorns," a term associated with the current Israeli leadership, where Palestinians are once again reduced to an unwanted nuisance that must be removed.

What I find most disturbing is not merely the language itself, but the world's reaction to it.

We live in an age saturated with Holocaust books, films, documentaries, and lessons that teach us how dangerous dehumanization can be. We are reminded time and again that before people can be mistreated, displaced, or killed on a mass scale, they are first stripped of their humanity through words and imagery.

And yet, when similar language is used today to describe Palestinians, much of the world remains silent—or worse, offers its support.

If history has taught us anything, it is that when human beings are reduced to weeds, thorns, insects, or any other nuisance, the groundwork is being laid for people to accept what would otherwise be unacceptable.

That is why the language matters.

And that is why the silence is so troubling.

~ Mike Odetalla

 https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10166147366441977&set=a.10150390714236977

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Nakba: Jewish voices are challenging the stories Israel tells about itself A film director, historian and Holocaust survivor speak to Al Jazeera as opinions shift.

Stephen Kapos and Gillian Mosely at the London screening of Planet Israel [Beardvoyage]

By Indlieb Farazi Saber

Published On 15 May 202615 May 2026

London, United Kingdom – The lights come up slowly inside a cinema in London’s buzzy Soho district, but nobody rushes for the exit.

As the credits roll, one woman lowers her face into her hands. A couple sit motionless. In the row ahead, someone exhales and says “Free Palestine”.

This screening of Planet Israel: A Cautionary Tale took place on the eve of Nakba Day, the annual commemoration of the 1948 forced displacement of more than 750,000 Palestinians and the killing of thousands more during the creation of the Israeli state.

The documentary, set for UK-wide release from 5 June, explores how trauma, nationalism and militarisation have shaped Israeli society after October 7, 2023, and during the war on Gaza. Featuring interviews with historians, academics, former soldiers and everyday Israelis, the film arrives at a moment when old political certainties around Israel are fracturing — increasingly among Jewish and Israeli intellectuals, artists, rabbis and historians themselves.

“The media has not reported this,” the film’s director Gillian Mosely told Al Jazeera from her London home, days before the screening. “British Jews are being treated as a monolith, which I think is fuelling anti-Semitism.”... READ MORE   https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2026/5/15/nakba-jewish-voices-are-challenging-the-stories-israel-tells-about-itself

Screenshot from Planet Israel, featuring historian Avi Shlaim discussing Israel and shifting public perceptions [Planet Israel] Historian Avi Shlaim, who is featured in Planet Israel, spoke of a rupture between Israel and Jewish communities around the world.

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TIME: The Solemn History Behind Nakba Day ... From 1947 to 1949, 531 towns were destroyed by Israeli militias- Of the 1.4 million-strong Palestinian population at the time, 800,000 were displaced; the massacres of families and towns left enduring scars on the survivors.

Arab refugees, mostly women and children, from a village near Haifa begin a three mile hike carrying large bundles of personal possessions to the Arab lines in Tulkarim, West Bank, on June 26, 1948.Bettmann Archive/Getty Images

by Juwayriah Wright

Wright is an Editorial Producer for TIME.

Every year on May 15, Palestinian people across the world observe what is known as Nakba Day, the solemn anniversary of the day in 1948 when the Arab-Israeli War began, precipitating a wave of displacement and expulsion among the Palestinian population. This year, with more than 450,000 people—nearly a quarter of Gaza’s population—newly displaced in just the past week, the commemoration of the Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe,” takes on new significance.

For those who observe it, Nakba Day is not only a day for mourning, but for a sense of re-establishment. Although it is annually remembered, the event has historical nuances and driving forces that can contribute to an understanding of the current events in Gaza. 

What is commemorated on Nakba Day?

Political Zionism—the movement to create a Jewish state—dates back to the 19th century, but the persecution of Jewish people in Europe in the 1930s and the horrors of the Holocaust helped drive a massive migration in that decade of 60,000 Jews to what was then known as Mandatory Palestine, the British-controlled land that was ... READ MORE  https://time.com/6978612/nakba-day-history/

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"The moral and political degradation of Israel is the subject of this remarkable book. The author, Omer Bartov, has impeccable credentials for writing it: he was born on a kibbutz, he served as an officer in the IDF, and is currently professor of holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University in the US." Avi Shlaim in The Guardian

Displaced Palestinians move with their belongings following Israeli evacuation orders for Gaza City in September 2025. Photograph: Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images

Israel: What Went Wrong? by Omer Bartov review – the long view

An erudite account of the foundation of the state and its subsequent moral and political decline

Avi Shlaim

Sat 9 May 2026

Israel’s attack on Iran is only the most recent example of its degeneration in recent decades, coming on top of its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories, ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, genocide in Gaza, invasion of Syria and relentless bombardment of Lebanon. The fact that the US joined in this illegal war confirmed to many in the region what they have long suspected: that the country is an outpost of western imperialism in the Middle East.

The state of Israel, which arose from the ashes of the Holocaust 77 years ago, has received an unprecedented degree of international sympathy and support ever since. This support was partly due to western guilt and partly due to the perception of the Jewish state as an island of democracy in a sea of authoritarianism. The country’s Declaration of Independence promised to uphold “the full social and political equality of all its citizens without distinction of race, creed or sex”. In the early years of statehood, Israel was seen in the west as an icon of liberal, progressive and egalitarian society.

Today, it is widely regarded as an immoral, violent, cruel and oppressive apartheid state... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/may/09/israel-what-went-wrong-by-omer-bartov-review-the-long-view

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