By Rev. Margaret Ernst, on behalf of Christians for a Free Palestine

This past Sunday, I guest preached at a church in Pennsylvania and one of the songs we sang was “Rain Down,” by Jaime Cortez. I swayed to the music, but my breath caught in my chest when we reached the end of the second verse. “God will protect us from darkness and death,” the line goes, “God will not leave us to starve.”

God will not leave us to starve.

Images of Palestinians starving — children, elders, people of all ages — flashed in my mind.

I felt a physical pain in my heart. We sing these proclamations of faith in a God who provides and does not let God’s children starve, I thought silently. Yet Palestinians are starving, right now.

The Bible is full of stories about food. Manna in the desert. Loaves and fishes. Like his Palestinian kin who are known for their hospitality, Jesus is always feeding people. Teaching, yes, but feeding people too.

I wanted to cry and scream thinking about the contrast between the unspeakable reality the people of Gaza are facing and images from this tradition — born in Palestine — of a world in which everyone eats.

In this moment, it is only political barriers that are causing Palestinians to die from hunger and mass killings. It is the Israeli government and its U.S. and Christian Zionist supporters that refuse to let enough aid in and which are running death traps that are killing more desperate aid seekers everyday, while bombs continue to rain down; It is the government with its U.S. and Christian Zionist supporters who have declared they will now occupy all of Gaza and annex the West Bank. We are in a unique and tragic situation in which fighting starvation takes a political fight, rather than simply sending aid. 

CFP is committed to continue that political fight. We recognize that this is a historic moment with more people and politicians than ever paying attention and calling for an end to the U.S. and Israel’s genocide and to the arms sales making it possible. We must push for this change to come as rapidly as possible, and we must be organized and resourced. 

Next week, CFP is launching a fundraising campaign to raise $75,000 by September 15 to fund our work to mobilize Christians to stop the genocide, including the forced starvation of Gazans. Over the next 5 weeks, we’ll be sharing with you stories from our community and allies about why funding CFP’s organizing is so important so we can play our role to keep this change happening.

While we continue to change the conditions leading to this starvation, we also want to uplift the work of organizations able to get aid to the Palestinians starving in Gaza. 

That’s why before we launch our fundraising campaign, we want to share with you ways you can give to aid efforts. We are sharing the following organizations that will get resources directly to Palestinians in dire need. 

• Sameer Project: a Palestinian-led aid initiative working to supply emergency shelter and aid to displaced families in Gaza.
• Al-Mawasi Clinic: In the midst of forced famine, relentless bombings, and devastation, the volunteer healthcare workers at the Al-Mawasi Clinic continue their mission — treating the wounded, caring for the sick, and saving lives with whatever limited supplies they have.
• Water is Life Gaza: This project is led by Palestinians in Gaza who are sourcing water from Palestinian-owned wells inside the north, bypassing occupation systems and international NGOs. They also distribute food locally for their communities, relying on community-led systems of survival under siege.

I don’t know how to answer the question of how a just God lets people starve.

My only answer is that it is not God who is starving the people of Gaza. It is the U.S. and Israel, backed by Christian Zionists. The famine in Gaza is a result of occupation and settler-colonialism — just like starvation faced by indigenous people in the genocidal colonization of Turtle Island. The starvation of Gaza is a direct result of systems made by humans and which can be changed by humans.

With our tears in our throats, with everything we have, let us live out a faith that feeds and heals people and which also changes systems so that all are free.