The Pope is right about Israel and Gaza. This is not war, this is cruelty. Opinion

Pope Francis is a man of contradictions.

Despite leading a Church with a long, sordid history synonymous with conflict, injustice and abuse, the aging, ailing Argentinian Jesuit strikes me as, at his core, a modest priest who despises human suffering and misery. Is.

Like you and me, the Pope can see what Israel has done with such heartless cruelty to the barren, dystopian ruins of Gaza and to the Palestinians besieged for more than a year in the occupied West Bank.

I believe Francis understands that bearing witness to human suffering and misery on an almost incomprehensible scale requires a response, terrible, given the prevailing circumstances. Silence means, at the least, insignificance. Acceptance and, at worst, conscious complicity.

So, to his credit, the Pope has said what needed to be said.

Indeed, the Pope has abandoned neutrality in favor of a raw, refreshing honesty to declare – with blunt language – his sympathy and solidarity with the millions of Palestinian victims of Israel’s relentless murderous lust.

I am confident that Francis will be remembered for taking an honorable stance for the right reasons at the right time, while many other “leaders” in Europe and beyond have armed the apartheid regime with weapons and diplomatic cover for the beginning of the 21st century . Centenary Massacre.

Francis will also be remembered for refuting attempts to intimidate or threaten to qualify or retract statements he made “from the heart” that Israel is guilty of “brutality” as it annexes Gaza and much of the West Bank. Works systematically about adding to the dust. And memory.

Instead, motivated by an appropriate sense of truth and righteousness, the Pope has refused to back down or “soften” his comments.

The Pope’s defiance is not only commendable, but also solid evidence that he has no intention of abandoning the Palestinians. Many fraudsters have abandoned them, claiming they are horrified by how many innocent people have died and the gruesome manner of their deaths.

What have Pope Francis and the Vatican said and done to address the outrage of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the accused war criminal’s apologists at home and abroad?

Israel’s frustrations began in earnest in February. The Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, condemned Israel’s so-called military campaign, noting the number of Palestinians killed under constant bombardment or slowly dying due to starvation and disease.

“Israel’s right to self-defense must be proportionate, and with 30,000 dead, it certainly is not,” Parolin said at the time.

Israel’s response was as swift as could be expected. Furious diplomats attached to Israel’s embassy to the Holy See issued a message calling Parolin’s comments “reprehensible.”

Yes I agree. Truth can sometimes be “scandalous”. Still, it is true.

Since then, of course, the “disappointing” number of Palestinian casualties has mounted, with more than 45,000 killed – mostly children and women – and 108,000 or more injured, often seriously.

Meanwhile, many Palestinians have been forced to march to and from phantom “safe zones” in Gaza, where they are bombed while they seek futile shelter in makeshift “homes” amid the debris or rain. And they are dying in weak tents surrounded by mud.

Then, in book excerpts published by Italian daily La Stampa in late November, the pontiff argued that many international experts found that “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of genocide”.

The Pope said, “We must examine it carefully to assess whether it fits the technical definition (of genocide) drawn up by international jurists and organizations.”

Once again, Israeli officials reacted furiously, insisting that the Pope’s comments were “baseless” and a “trivialization” of the term “genocide”.

The hyperbolic response was curious because the International Court of Justice in The Hague had ruled almost unanimously in January that South Africa had made a plausible case demonstrating that Israel had demonstrated intent to commit genocide.

As a result, in accordance with international law, the Court was required to proceed with a full hearing and ultimately rule on the question raised by the Pope: Is Israel guilty of the crime of genocide in Gaza?

Amnesty International announced its verdict in early December and concluded that “Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip”.

Agnes Callamard, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, said that Israel’s “specific intention” was to “destroy the Palestinians in Gaza”.

He said, “Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intention to physically destroy them.”

On a credible note, Israel and its surrogates dismissed Amnesty International as a nest of anti-Semites in a pedestrian attempt to discredit its damaging findings.

It is very difficult to tar the spiritual leader of 1.4 billion Catholics with the same trite rumor after accusing him of “cruelty.”

In his Christmas address Francis condemned the killing of children in an Israeli airstrike the day before.

“Yesterday, children were bombed. This is cruelty. This is not war. I wanted to say this because it touches the heart,” the pontiff said.

Reportedly, the Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned the Vatican ambassador for tough talks to express its “deep dissatisfaction” with the Pope’s blunt comments.

According to Israeli media reports, there was no “formal reprimand” at the meeting. I’m sure the Vatican would have been relieved.

What I find instructive is that the Israeli Foreign Ministry has expressed its “deep dissatisfaction” with the Pope’s appropriate use of the three-letter word, and not with the fact that his marauding armies have killed 45,541 Palestinians and The count continues in just over 14 months.

In any event, I think the Pope showed remarkable restraint. He could describe the grief, loss, and suffering that Israel has caused in Gaza and the occupied West Bank – without a moment’s regret or remorse – as obscene, disgusting, or contrary to decency and humanity, the rules of “war”. Forget about it.

I suspect that “brutality” hits a sensitive mark because it is a stinging reflection of Amnesty International’s finding that Israel’s broader intention is to mastermind the wholesale destruction of Gaza and the desperate souls whom it actually considers “subhuman.” Is.

Israel’s “cruelty” is deliberate. This is not a “mistake” or a regrettable byproduct of the unpredictable uncertainties of the “madness” of war.

Cruelty is a choice.

The untold benefit of that option is that the perpetrator derives an intoxicating measure of satisfaction, if not pleasure, from taking his unflinching revenge on largely defenseless people.

This is the essence of cruelty.

Pope Francis didn’t say so, but he might as well have said so.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.