If Not Now, When?
“...and whoever saves a single life is considered to have saved the whole world.” Talmud (Sanhedrin 37a), Quran 5:32
On October 7th, the militant organization Hamas launched brutal attacks against Israeli civilians. 1,200 innocent Israelis were killed. 5,400 were injured. At least twenty kibbutzim suffered violence and destruction, with homes burned and children, elderly, and women subjected to the carnage. Many of the first responders have not been able to describe the horrors they witnessed out of respect for the privacy and dignity of the victims. Places like Be’eri and Kfar Aza will bear the scars of this trauma for decades to come. At least 242 hostages are still being held by Hamas, including the elderly, women, and children – one hostage believed to be as young as nine months old.
Netanyahu’s Israeli government retaliated against Hamas’ atrocities with indiscriminate air strikes followed by a ground invasion of the Gaza strip. 13,000 Palestinians have been killed, including 5,500 children and 3,500 women. A child is believed to be killed every 10 minutes. 1.5 million Palestinians have become internally displaced. The bombardment of the strip has resulted in a catastrophic destruction of vital civilian infrastructure, which includes more than 43,000 housing units being destroyed and 225,000 damaged. In a complete breach of international laws of war, Israel has bombed religious sites resulting in the destruction of 66 mosques and at least 3 historic churches. The education system has collapsed, with five out of six of Gaza’s traditional universities forced to shut down due to the attacks. Multiple UN-run schools have been subjected to Israeli airstrikes. The healthcare system in Gaza has been decimated. Severe shortages of food, water, medicine, and fuel as a result of the Israeli blockade have further exacerbated the crisis.
Numbers and words fail to capture the humanitarian disaster on the ground and the unprecedented scale of human suffering. The loss of a single innocent life is one too many, and in this onslaught, thousands of innocent Palestinian and Israeli lives have been stolen. In all probability, by the time this article is published, the statistics cited above will have changed for the worse.
It has been two thousand years since Rabbi Hillel taught us, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the entire Torah, and the rest is its commentary.” Eight hundred years since the English Barons forced King John to sign the Magna Carta. Five hundred years since Giordano Bruno cried from the burning stake, “And nonetheless it moves!” Two hundred and thirty-two years since Thomas Jefferson’s Bill of Rights enshrined basic liberties and protections into law and separated church from state. One hundred and seventy-five years since Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her colleagues demanded suffrage for women. Seventy-five years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. Thirty years since Nelson Mandela and co-strugglers dismantled apartheid in South Africa. Then today in the year two thousand and twenty-three, should we really be debating the merits of a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip?
The need for solidarity and hope has never been greater. Let us uphold the sanctity of life. We must seek the better angels of our nature and ask, “If I am not for myself, who is for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”