ASIA/HOLY LAND - Justice and Peace Commission: The war in Gaza is not a “Just War”

Jerusalem (Agenzia Fides) - "As Catholics in the Holy Land, who share Pope Francis’ vision for a peaceful world, we are outraged that political actors in Israel and abroad are mobilizing the theory of “just war” in order to perpetuate and legitimate the ongoing war in Gaza," said the Justice and Peace Commission of the Holy Land in a document published to point out the misuse of a term used in Catholic doctrine. That term is “just war”, a concept developed in pre-Christian antiquity, that, "to our alarm as Christians, is increasingly being weaponized to justify the ongoing violence in Gaza".

The document of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Holy Land (see attached original versions in English and Arabic) recalls the indispensable conditions that make it possible to define a "just" war from the point of view of Catholic doctrine, which are also found in paragraph 2309 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

According to Catholic teaching, the use of arms is legitimate only when the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain; all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective; there must be serious prospects of success; and the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated.

Following "the horrific attacks on October 7 on military installations, residential areas and a music festival in southern Israel by Hamas and other militants and the catastrophic war waged in response by Israel," the Justice and Peace Commission document dated Sunday, June 30, says, "Catholic leaders, beginning with Pope Francis, have continuously called for an immediate ceasefire and a release of hostages. Catholic moral theologians around the world have also outlined how neither the attacks by Hamas on October 7 nor Israel’s devastating war in response satisfy the criteria for “just war” according to Catholic doctrine".

As has been noted, in the new outbreak of violence in the Holy Land, "it is impossible to judge whether there are 'serious prospects of success' due to Israel's lack of objective. 'Just wars' must clearly differentiate between civilians and combatants, a principle that has been ignored in this war by both sides with tragic results. 'Just wars' must also employ a proportionate use of force, which cannot easily be said of a war in which the Palestinian death toll is tens of thousands of people higher than that of Israel, and one in which a clear majority of the Palestinian casualties have been women and children".

"The dubious application of 'just war' theory to modern conflicts," the Justice and Peace document states, "has led to the idea that 'just' wars might only exist in very rare cases. This is especially true within a context in which the development of the contemporary arms industry, capable of causing death and destruction on an unknown scale".

The Document also cites the constant warnings of Pope Francis, who already on October 11, 2023, four days after the Palestinian attacks on southern Israel, "evoked the Israeli right to self-defense in the wake of the Hamas attack", but also added that he was concerned "about the total siege under which the Palestinians are living in Gaza, where there have also been many innocent victims".

There are those pretending - according to the document from the Justice and Peace Commission in the Holy Land - "that the war follows the rules of “proportionality” by arguing that a war that continues until the bitter end might save the lives of Israelis in the future, therefore balancing the scales of the thousands of Palestinian lives being lost in the present. In doing so, they privilege the security of hypothetical people in the future over the lives of living and breathing human beings who are being killed every day. In short, the manipulation of the language of just war theory is not only about words: it is having tangible, fatal results".

"Though we are a small community in the Holy Land," the Justice and Peace Commission Document states, "as Catholics we are an integral part of this land’s identity. We wish to make it clear that we, and our theological tradition, must not be used in order to justify this violence. The witness that we bring is not one of war, but one of transformational love, one of freedom and equality, one of justice and peace, one of dialogue and reconciliation". (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 1/7/2024)

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