On the wall in front of Canada's Parliament, October 10, 2025   

18,500+ Palestinian children' murdered in the assault on Gaza by Israeli military are posted.  100,000+ people maimed and injured since October 8th, 2023 are remembered - the climax of a century of Israeli settler colonial occupation, repression, and violence to clear and steal the land of Palestine.   Will the Shalom / Peace / Salaam of the Holy One ever take root in Palestine?

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Part 1: Assessing and Acting

Desperate hope is associated with the “Peace Plan” announced by the Trump administration and signed in Qatar by the Israeli cabinet, and by a variety of world leaders including Canada's Mark Carney.

The clearest sign of the “Plan’s” effect is the release of 2000 Palestinian hostages and prisoners (150 of which Israel has now exiled from their home in Palestine), and the release of the 20 living and 28 deceased hostages held in Gaza. Both releases evoked great rejoicing (though Israel forbade celebrating in the Occupied Territories.) Any release of captives evokes tears of joy and enthusiastic  family celebrations . They also remind us that more than 10,000 Palestinians, including far too many children, remain in Israeli captivity.

Another sign is the long line up of trucks at the Rafah border-crossing finally being allowed to move into Gaza to end the famine of food and other necessities of which Palestinians have been deprived for months. This inhumane and criminal blockade and weaponization of essentials for life has cost the lives of far too many. And even now Israel continues to block food trucks to punish Palestinians whenever it chooses.

The silence of the artillery and bombs launched against huddled Palestinians in tents and other makeshift “homes” is a big sign.  Alas, it is not a complete silence.  But even after the “ceasefire” bombs have been dropped and Westbank killings continue.  Life in what remains of Gazan streets is safer.

People say that the 20-point  “Plan” is a sign of peace. Trump even likes to make people believe that “his Plan” (conceived largely during the Biden administration, we’re told) brings to an end a 3000 year-long “war” between Jews and Palestinians. That’s a pompous bit of self-congratulatory wishful thinking which won’t stand up to real history. It may last only as long as DJT’s wandering mind pays attention to Palestine.  BTW real history records that before Zionist ideology began to steer Jewish history, many Jews and Arabs lived in peaceful co-existence in Palestine and the Middle East.

The “Plan” is loaded with purposeful intentions, but the “signs” already reveal the fragility of most points.  Israel may have signed the “Plan” but its actions after signing testify to its penchant for boundless independent, self-serving action.  Honouring agreements and international laws, including the Charter of the United Nations which birthed Israel in 1948, ranks as a very low priority for the Netanyahu regime.

The major weakness of the “Plan” is its failure to address Israel’s domination and control in the Middle East, in general, and Palestine, in particular. It calls for the “de-radicalizing and disarming of Hamas” but says nothing about the limitless terror that Israel has rained on Palestine and its fragmented people.  The relentless stream of weapons sent to Israel from USA, the European Union, UK, and Canada clearly helped the horror to continue. Not even Israel’s ("secret") nuclear weapons have ever been cited as a violation of international agreements. Israel regards itself and is treated as the fully armed innocent, while the evidence points to powerful criminality.

What the “Plan” appears to say is that Israel’s ambitions for Greater Palestine can continue to be pursued.  Israel will not, says point 16 of the “Plan”, annex or occupy Gaza, but nothing in the “Plan” challenges Israel’s ambitious actions to annex the Westbank and East Jerusalem.  In the “Plan” Gaza is the outlier but seemingly unconnected to the illegally Occupied Territories.   The Plan may delay Israel’s own "Plan Dalet" to “divide and conquer” Palestine, but Israel has not renounced the notion of claiming the entire Palestine landmass.

Politicians will continue, we hope, to give flesh to the skeletal peace “Plan”. Perhaps they will be able to achieve a few more of its aspirations.  But observers and activists on the ground need to continue their intensive advocacy for truth, justice, and the liberation of the people and State of Palestine. Allowing political leaders consciously or not to return Palestine to the pre-October 7^th status or to continue Israel’s occupation and subjugation is intolerable.

I believe there are important goals to pursue given this "Plan".   People of faith need to continue to pray, discern, learn and act for the liberation of Palestine and the well-being of all who live in the Middle East. Not to do so would devalue  the high-cost sacrifices Palestinians have borne for the past 100 years and the catastrophe of the past two years.

Faith communities – unilateral and inter-faith, and humanitarian organizations like Amnesty International – must reinforce their witness for the well-being of the people and State of Palestine and work for peaceful co-existence with Israelis.

The advocacy campaigns of the past two years must be continued and strengthened:  ceasefire, embargo of weapons, humanitarian supplies, release of prisoners.  These are simply basic “first-aids” for the people of Palestine living in disaster zones.

Israel must be made to feel the world pressure for truth, justice, and real peace.  BDS (boycott, divest, sanction) measures and the anti-apartheid campaign must be strengthened. Israel must understand that it can no longer be a rogue and pariah state which flouts at international law and shelters under the USA wings for impunity. An ethno-religious racist anti-Palestinian Zionist state can no longer be allowed to “ethnically cleanse” Palestine of its non-Jewish indigenous peoples. Neither international law nor biblical/religious truth permit it.

Among the countless tasks before faith-based and goodwill advocates, some priorities stand out:

1.     Medical care – mental and physical,  in suitable facilities, must be restored and strengthened to deal with the grief and mental distress suffered by Palestinians, and the treatment and rehabilitation of the more than 100,000 injured, maimed, burned, and de-limbed must be prioritized in cooperation with appropriate partners, e.g. MSF, international hospital partnerships, Save the Children, etc.

2.     Education – For two years education for all ages has been curtailed.  Schools, colleges, universities, etc. were intentionally destroyed and leading professionals in many fields esp. medicine and journalism were targets for Israeli snipers and bombs.  Special leadership development programs must be instituted. Anti-racism programs to counter both anti-Palestinianism and anti-Judaism must be enhanced and popularized.

3.     Raising funds for restoration and repair.  The Western nations and churches have much to confess in their treatment of both Palestinians and Jews.   Virtually all Christian churches are in our era in the process of selling or transforming countless properties. A significant portion of the revenues should be dedicated to the global task of remediating the disastrous effects of settler colonization.  Western states must contribute large amounts to compensate for the huge profits made from “war” production and sales. 

4.     Investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity.  The Nurnberg Trials after World War II were intended to ensure that “never again” would such racially based genocide be allowed to happen.  The Gaza horror dispelled that notion. Granting impunity to the criminals who ordered and facilitated the Gaza horrors will do nothing to stop another genocide.  The International Criminal Court must be encouraged to investigate intensively and extensively so that when the time is right, prosecutions and trials can begin for all charged. (Hamas leaders alleged to have committed war crimes have been assassinated by Israel operatives.)

Part 2: After Ceasefire – more in the next Pilgrim Praxis blog post.....