Religion and history underlying Middle East conflicts

With the war raging in Gaza and tense partisanship closer to home, we on the religion desk dived into some questions that could help our readers get more perspective – or answer something they might have been afraid to ask.

One such question, “When is criticism of Israel antisemitic?”, addressed in an article written by scholar of modern Jewish history Joshua Shanes from the College of Charleston, was among our most-read pieces. “In general, calls for Palestinian equality are legitimate even when they upset Zionist identities,” he argued.

Other articles provided more context and religious understanding of the Palestinian region. A Christian Palestinian human rights scholar, Roni Abusaad, wrote about the holy sites in Bethlehem and Jerusalem, which Palestinian Christians and Muslims cannot freely access. An article on Gaza’s largely destroyed Omari Mosque highlighted the rich and pluralistic history of the place. The mosque was once a temple to Philistine and Roman gods, as well as a Byzantine and Catholic church, and had engravings of Jewish ritual objects.

Another piece on the ongoing conflict pointed to the diversity of Israeli peace movements and how the months since Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, have been excruciating for the peace activists.

In other coverage, we continued our series on colonialism and its impact on our world – in both big and small ways. A fun piece from the series, which was a reader favorite, explained the colonial legacy of the iconic Christmas pudding: The ingredients for the pudding came from former British colonies and continues to be enjoyed in places the empire once ruled.

My personal favorites this year included articles on how we think about patience, or when not to be patient – explained through the writings of medieval Islamic thinker Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, and another on the Japanese art of wabi-sabi, which has something to teach us about healing, imperfection or something broken or unsaid.

On a note of hope, my colleague Molly Jackson’s favorite piece was on Abraham Lincoln’s call for Americans to heed their ‘better angels,’ and the story behind the famous phrase at a time when Americans were more divided than today. “The idea of needing our ‘better angels’ in civil discourse seems pretty important this year,” she said.

We wish you find hope, joy and happiness in this new year.

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