The credibility of the gospel in Palestine and Israel

A Palestinian Christian's view

Bethlehem native Fares Abraham, founder and president of Levant Ministries.

Today’s guest post comes from Fares Abraham, founder and CEO of Levant Ministries, which seeks to engage Middle Eastern youth with the gospel through media strategies and centers based in Palestine, Egypt, and Jordan. Abraham was a speaker at the “Church at the Crossroads” conference near Chicago on September 11–13; this post contains portions of his conference message. He was born in Bethlehem; his wife, Soha, grew up attending Gaza Baptist Church and has numerous family members living in Gaza.

Today, we are at a real crossroads—historic, moral, and spiritual—because the church’s witness is at stake. The world is watching to see how Christians will respond to the grave, manmade evil in our beloved homeland.

What the church believes, says, and does in this moment will either empower our gospel witness or silence it; it will either heal or harm; it will either draw people to Jesus—especially in the Middle East, where I serve—or push them away.

As Palestinian Christians, we want the gospel to win—the gospel of peace, reconciliation, and love; the life-giving gospel of Jesus Christ that is not entangled with politics; the gospel that heals, restores, and brings life. That is what we as Palestinian Christians stand for—and what we have preached in the Holy Land for 2,000 years.

The church was loud and clear on October 7, 2023—standing in solidarity with Israel, mobilizing tens of millions of dollars, donating ambulances, providing shelters for displaced Jewish families. The church—rightly so—stood for the many innocent Israeli civilians whose lives were shattered.

But now the silence of the same churches is deafening. Some remain paralyzed by confusion. Others still doubt the scale of human suffering in Gaza, even while watching videos of kids taking their last breath, children amputated without anesthesia, or fathers killed while seeking aid.

Meanwhile, world leaders have spoken out—embarrassed by Israel’s indiscriminate killing of civilians, journalists, doctors, aid workers, and even Christians inside their churches. But the church remains missing in action while innocent lives slip away before our eyes—20,000 children killed, 150,000 people wounded, neighborhoods and hospitals flattened, widespread famine.

We Palestinians know we are not perfect. We admit this. Even Palestinian leadership has admitted it. Our society needs major reforms. President Abbas has denounced Hamas and called them to disarm. But Israel’s leaders, in the meantime, use Hamas to advance their own agenda—deepening division and shutting the door to peace. Both failures crush hope and leave ordinary families to bear the cost.

There is no “both-sides” symmetry here, because the weight of suffering is not symmetrical. In this hour, the overwhelming burden of devastation falls on Gaza. Naming this truth does not diminish Israeli grief; it simply points to where the cross is heaviest and where the compassion of Christ must lean most urgently.

Too often, when Palestinian Christians speak out—when we condemn Hamas atrocities, pray for hostages, cry for Gaza’s children, or say no to starvation—we are dismissed or, even worse, accused of antisemitism.

Antisemitism is a sin. It is evil. But so is the dehumanization of Palestinians, who are also created in the image of God. The gospel calls us to reject both.

I’m not asking you to abandon your love for Israel. I’m asking you to expand that love to include all whom God loves—including Palestinians. And let me remind us: being pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian is not a contradiction. Supporting the dignity of both strengthens your witness.

What am I asking the church to do?

1. Pray differently. Just as we pray for the peace of Jerusalem, let us also pray for the peace of Gaza and the whole region.

2. Examine your theology. We must reject frameworks that erase Palestinians, distort Scripture, or sanctify violence and return to the cross as the center of our witness.

3. Stand with the church in Palestine, in Israel, and across the Middle East.

We need a comprehensive solution that addresses the root causes of this 77-year-old conflict based on the biblical call for peace, justice, and reconciliation. The war did not begin on October 7, 2023, and unless Israeli occupation, blockade, and statelessness are confronted, cycles of despair and violence will continue. That is why I believe our theology and witness must lean toward justice and compassion for all.

I asked Dr. Abraham one question: What else can Israel do when Hamas is embedded in Gaza? He answered as follows.

I believe the question is framed as a false binary. The assumption is that the only choices are to tolerate Hamas (which was Israel’s policy since 2006) or unleash massive and indiscriminate force on civilians. But there are other paths, such as prisoner exchanges, intelligence-driven operations, and targeted actions that avoid mass civilian death. Prisoner exchange has already proven effective during the course of this war. To justify indiscriminate destruction because Hamas hides among civilians is, in effect, to legitimize collective punishment—something both international law and biblical justice reject.

What has become increasingly evident since the earliest days of this war is that the military campaign is not solely about Hamas. The scale of devastation and displacement points toward a broader aim: emptying Gaza of its people and reshaping the territory for expansionist purposes. Disturbingly, some members of Israel’s governing coalition have said this openly, speaking of “voluntary migration” or a “new Gaza” cleared of its current population. Their candor makes plain what the destruction itself already suggests.

More deeply, Hamas is not sustained only by weapons but by despair and hopelessness. Unless those underlying realities of occupation, statelessness, and blockade are addressed, new cycles of violence will always emerge. In that sense, killing thousands of innocents is not only immoral but counterproductive.

As followers of Christ, we cannot embrace the logic of “no other choice.” Jesus refused that logic in Gethsemane, rebuking the sword even when violence seemed inevitable. Our calling is to bear witness to a better way, one that resists evil without multiplying evil and that seeks life and justice for all.