‘I love our homeland, but we can’t condone the starvation of civilians’

Israel, the only national home for the Jewish people, deserves security and a cessation of the hatred that has assailed it since its inception.

The trauma that continues to afflict the heart of the country, and of Jews worldwide, since Hamas’s brutal and cunningly sadistic attacks of 7 October 2023 has reawoken the worst horrors of Jewish history.

But it is the suffering in Gaza that impels me to write now. It is a catastrophe for innocent Palestinian people caught between the contemptuous nihilism of Hamas and Israel’s attacks.

Homeless, surrounded by devastation, numerous Palestinians, including very many children, are plagued by hunger.

Israel has every reason to insist that supplies will not be stolen by Hamas, as they often have been. Israel has equally good reason to seek the complete removal of Hamas from Gaza. But substantial quantities of aid must be allowed in. Neither Jewish nor humanitarian law condones the starvation of non-combatant civilians.

The continuing fighting is also disastrous for the remaining hostages. Most of their families, some of whom I know, are calling urgently for the fighting to end and negotiations to resume, despite the horrors which returnees testify to being subjected to by Hamas and its jeering supporters. The families long for those still alive to be returned to them and for the dead to be brought home for burial.

As of last week, some aid is thankfully entering into Gaza. On Thursday, bakeries with the World Food Programme began receiving flour from lorries entering the strip. There is a plan for Israel to work with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed initiative, to create “distribution hubs” to feed Palestinians but keep the aid from Hamas, though the UN has criticised this as insufficient for Gaza’s 2 million citizens. The objective is a workable plan to end the possibility of starvation in the strip.

If adequate humanitarian aid does not enter Gaza, this will not just be a human tragedy but deeply damaging for Israel’s international moral standing as a democratic state, formed in the furnace of persecution.

The persistent hatred to which the country is subject, including the nefarious policies of Iran and its surrogates Hezbollah and Hamas, and the attacks by the Houthis – who have done nothing positive to help the Palestinians – has inevitably toughened Israel’s policies and, sadly, hardened hearts.

But this does not excuse the withholding of basic food and medicines – not just, it should be noted, by Israel but by Egypt and especially by Hamas itself, from hopeless ordinary people, trapped in war.

Such conduct also painfully affects the good name of Judaism, a faith founded on the principle of the sanctity of life, created in God’s image.

It runs counter to Judaism’s values of justice and compassion. It contradicts what we have painfully learned from our long history as victims of persecution, pogroms and mass murder: that, despite the hatred to which we have been and often still are subject, as demonstrated in the terrorist murders of two Israeli embassy officials in Washington last week, we must endeavour not to treat innocent others as we have been treated.

The majority of Israelis, and Jews worldwide, believe deeply in these foundational values of our religion and our country. Israel has every justification for the profound pain it feels, and for seeking the utter defeat of Hamas, which is internationally condemned as a terrorist organisation.

Hamas not only sets no store by human life; it uses civilians, including children, as shields and rejoices in their deaths.

But what is happening now may perversely be strengthening it as it cynically draws Israel into the dark tunnels of destruction and blames it for what ensues.

I write with an anxious heart, from deep concern for Israel, my people and all human life. I pray for an urgent end to suffering and bloodshed, and a path forward toward security, dignity and hope, for Israel, Palestinians and the region.

I therefore hope that the view of countless Israelis and Jews worldwide will prevail, and adequate aid will reach all those who need it.

Jonathan Wittenberg is the senior rabbi of Masorti UK. He is writing in a personal capacity

Photograph by Abdel Kareem Hana/AP