A World of Pontius Pilates

The martyrdom of Gaza continues as "Christian" men in fancy robes and officials spewing rhetoric try to wash their hands of their complicity in the horrors in Gaza.

The eyes of the rebel have been branded by the blind
To the safety of sterility, the threat has been refined
The child was created, to the slaughterhouse he's led
So good to be alive when the eulogy is read
The climax of emotion, the worship of the dead
As the cycle of sacrifice unwinds
— Phil Ochs, “Crucifixion”

Early on Palm Sunday, imperial Israel bombed the al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, putting the medical facility out of service. The Baptist Hospital is managed by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which condemned the attack.

Meanwhile, tons of Baptist, Episcopalian and other sects presuming to adhere to Christianity either back Israel or pathetically wring their hands, without a hint of a plan to stop the slaughter of the innocents.

Also on Palm Sunday, imperial Israel destroyed a statue of St. George slaying evil represented by a dragon.

Some are obviously fully backing imperial Israel’s slaughter and starvation, but many who profess to be against it don’t do what’s needed to stop it.

My dad was fond of a story of an innocent man being executed and people are gathering at the square to view the killing. Most everyone knows the man is innocent, but no one does anything, they just let the execution happen. Then a beautiful young woman appears. Her head is uncovered. Everyone is aghast -- "how can you be in the square with all these men without a veil?" She responds: "There are no men here," indicting their collective cowardice.

It was of course Norman Finkelstein who wrote the book Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom.

We’ve talked about Jesus in the Rubble, and I made a flyer to try to help get the churches to wake up:

But Palestinians of Gaza are martyred every day, as Jesus was. As if crucifying babies. And the churches drone on.

Phil Ochs wrote “Crucifixion” about Jesus — and about JFK, who tried to stand up to imperial Israel as no president since.

Now, US presidents are not complicit in imperial Israel’s genocide, they are full blown partners. As are so many institutions in “the West”.

It is other countries, which claim to be opposed to imperial Israel’s slaughter, that are complicit.

They give speeches condemning Israel, pretending to wash their hands of the blood. But do pathetically little to stop the imperial juggernaut.

A world run by packs of Pontius Pilates.

Courts fail to assert themselves, or do so too little or too late.

The latest outrage is the International Court of Justice announcing they will delay their ruling on South Africa’s Genocide Convention case against Israel an additional six months.

In defense of martyrdom, John quotes Jesus: “unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

There need to be millions of such seeds.

I see a few.

Phil Ochs sings:

So dance dance dance
Teach us to be true
Come dance dance dance
'Cause we love you

I see a few seedlings sprouting into flowers this Spring, dancing in the wind, striving to be true.

A prominent example is Palestine Action, a group that is bravely attacking the weapons makers, see video:

May a million such beautiful, courageous flowers bloom and dance.

Though, when Ochs sings “So good to be alive when the eulogy is read” — how many killed in Gaza have even had eulogies?

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