Critical Theology of the Palestine Movement

Peace, Liberation, and Justice in Gaza and Around the World

The ongoing genocide in Gaza resembles the atrocities inflicted by our own country’s wars in Asia and around the world. In a 2023 interview, the Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen carefully mentions the continuity between Asia and Palestine:

“The greatest acts of anti-Asian violence are not carried out within the United States. The greatest acts of anti-Asian violence are carried out in America’s wars in Asia. That’s been true for a century. And if you consider Palestine to be a part of Asia very broadly speaking, I see total continuity between what the United States has done in the Philippines, in Korea, in Japan, in Laos, in Cambodia, in Vietnam, and now with Gaza.” (2023)

Today more than ever, the world seems to continue what the philosopher Max Horkheimer described as “uninterrupted militarism” (quoted in The Frankfurt School, page 78). Famous for his pessimism, Horkheimer seems confirmed in his critical theory: European so-called “Enlightenment” literally “destroys itself — it ends up in barbarism.” New settlements, old empires, and the criminal wars of our bourgeoisie prove “barbarism is not the effect of outside forces” (1985, page xiii). Rather, violence is native to the ruling class, and certainly not from any outside source.

Rich and powerful countries accumulate wealth not from any single historical event, but in an ongoing process of war, revealing capitalism as war. Capitalism has imperialism for its condition of possibility. By occupying the deserts and militarizing the oceans, “the islands of the South Seas, for instance, have become stationary aircraft-carriers.” Already in his 1955 book, the French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss anticipated how “civilization is no longer a fragile flower,” for the reason “humanity has taken to monoculture, once and for all” (1955, page 39). From Tristes Tropiques, the homogenized world mirrors in Horkheimer a “totally administered world [verwalte Welte]” (1985, page 115). A close collaborator of Horkheimer, the philosopher Theodor Adorno associates the age of technology with a certain type of managed man.

“The technization [Technisierung] makes gestures precise and rough, and it does the same to men. Thus one forgets how to close a door softly, carefully, and yet firmly. One has to slam the doors of autos and refrigerators.” (quoted in The Frankfurt School, page 119).

I appreciate how certain men share a common cause in uselessness because no one really hopes to influence Americans who seem to have everything already, from the dream car to the new refrigerator. From his 1954 book, the theologian Roger L. Shinn criticizes the way in which

“American propaganda often says that our tremendous production and our high standards of living make us worthy to follow. Gradually we are realizing that such propaganda often makes other peoples despise rather than honor us.” (The Sermon on the Mount, pages 19–20)

A change of heart or metanoia can come from the smallest difference. Christians, Jews, and Muslims know the difference between Moses and the Pharaoh. There is nothing more natural than resistance to oppression. “Real peacemaking takes courage. It is not a matter of crying peace where there is no peace.” (1954, page 19) The hollow kind of peace which comes from merely accepting oppression is a poor substitute for real peace.

On Peace and Violence

We are far from peace so long as Palestinians are unheard and unseen, except as passive, “objects of humanitarianism” (page 39). From his 1968 book, the Brazilian theologian Paulo Freire scrutinizes the false generosity of rich and ruling classes who profit from poverty. The false question of generosity dissolves into an open demand for justice. For a future which is liberating, the oppressed are the answer to a new question:

“Who are better prepared than the oppressed to understand the terrible significance of an oppressive society? Who suffer the effects of oppression more than the oppressed? Who can better understand the necessity of liberation?” (Pedagogy of the Oppressed, page 29)

Without acknowledging the root cause of violence, a blanket condemnation equivocates its perpetrators with its resisters. The state of Israel, so eager for recognition, fails to recognize itself as the source initiating violence. The so-called right to defend itself masks a lawless and unconditional license.

“Never in history has violence been initiated by the oppressed. With the establishment of a relationship of oppression, violence has already begun.” (1968, page 41)

Only an ideology of the ruling class could market genocide into a blameless tragedy, rather than a crime. History did not begin a year ago. Since then, the bombing campaign testifies to the cruel revenge the state of Israel will be goaded into the moment Palestinians resist injustice.

On Liberation and Justice in Christian Theologies

A genuine solidarity with the oppressed is not an effect of outside forces, but an authentic expression of love. From his 1987 book, the theologian Phillip Berryman argues:

“a responsible commitment within class conflict is an expression of love for neighbor. They are not “fomenting” hatred, as critics contend; class conflict already exists. Through solidarity in struggle with the poor, class division must be transcended in a new type of society.” (Liberation Theology, page 26)

Future society inherits past ideas and institutions which are as unfit for the future as old rags for patching a new garment. As a former Catholic priest, Berryman interprets a political and spiritual Christ, whose gospel message poses a “permanent critique” of all institutions as mere means, rather than ends in themselves. After a permanent critique, the conservative attitude seems as unfit for the future as old wineskins for new wine. Any law-and-order ideology stressing obedience can deify the state and make an idol of military force.

From the gospel of Mark (chapter 2, verses 23–27), after Jesus breaks the Sabbath, he is confronted by the Pharisees, who are the strictest upholders of the Law (Bart D. Ehrman 2000, page 17). Jesus refutes the Pharisees with an exception in the Hebrew Bible when David violated the Law, from which Jesus concludes: “The Sabbath was made for the good of man; man was not made for the Sabbath.” The statement inveighs against raising the Law or its obedience to a good for its own sake. Although he promises not to dethrone the Law, Jesus denounces those who follow orders down to the smallest detail because they forget the higher importance of mercy and justice. These are the virtues most needed today in Gaza, the mercy and justice denied to the Palestinians as much as our own country’s poor and condemned classes. In their clamor for liberation, we fail to recognize Jesus himself. All our words of recognition come too late, and we pretend to have supported the Palestinian cause all along.

Works Cited

Berryman, Phillip. Liberation Theology: The Essential Facts about the Revolutionary Movement in Latin America and Beyond. Meyer Stone Books. 1987.

Democracy Now! ““A Man of Two Faces”: Author Viet Thanh Nguyen on New Memoir, U.S. Imperialism, Vietnam & More.” October 25, 2023.

Ehrman, Bart D. The New Testament: Course Guidebook. The Teaching Company. 2000.

Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Translated by Myra Bergman Ramos. Seabury Press. 1973. Original manuscript in Portuguese 1968.

Good News for Modern Man: The New Testament in Today’s English Version. American Bible Society. 1966.

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Tristes Tropiques: an anthropological study of primitive societies in Brazil. Translated by John Russell. Hutchinson & Co. 1961. Originally published in France, 1955.

Shinn, Roger L. The Sermon on the Mount. United Church Press. 1954.

Tar, Zoltán. The Frankfurt School: The Critical Theories of Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno. Foreword by Michael Landmann. Schocken Books. 1985.