Written by Tracy Busse
Today I read an article about the loss of lives in Israel and Palestine and since then the following quote continues to tear at my heart. Israeli Defense Minister said, “We are fighting human animals and we will act accordingly.” What he is saying is that the Palestinians they are fighting are sub-human and therefore their approach to war will reflect that. In a lecture I attended with Bessel van der Kolk, he shared how humans in World War I had to be trained to kill. Oftentimes, cousins were fighting cousins and other relatives. At the beginning of the war, soldiers would reach the frontline and just stare at one another. To change this response, military trainers used rhetoric and other tactics to dehumanize the opposition, and it worked. Someone effectively trained them to kill, and the impact of this was devastating.
Whether we are talking about war, racism, gender violence, terrorism, colonialism, etc. what we must know is that our nervous system is wired for connection, not destruction. Stephen Porges has backed this up by saying the way mammal’s vagus nerve and sympathetic system operate together is an evolution that debunks survival of the fittest but says those who come together and stand up for one another will be the ones who thrive in life. Destruction and dehumanization of human life are the very things that rob us of our humanity and destroy our future. It is inhumane to say another human is sub-human or, in the words of the Israeli defense minister, “human animals.”
We were not born with the belief that individuals with a different skin color, gender, or nationality different from our own are worth less than us. Our families, our nations, the media, and a variety of institutions trained us that other humans could be less human than us. This truth grieves me at the core. Long before the current war in Israel broke out laws to dehumanize all Palestinians existed in Israel. This does not excuse the dehumanization that we clearly see today by the Hamas who kill civilians versus military targets, and yet Israel’s response is also hitting civilians without remorse. How do we respond to this cycle of violence?
Desmond Tutu writes in God has a Dream, that “a person is a person because they recognize others as persons.” He goes on to say, “All over this magnificent world God calls us to extend his kingdom of shalom- peace and wholeness- of justice, of goodness, of compassion, of caring, of sharing, of laughter, of joy, and of reconciliation.” Across the nations, we are people who hurt because someone else did not recognize us as a person equal to them. We all lose when this occurs and we dehumanize ourselves when we deem one group of people more important than another.
The situation in the Middle East is very complex and I will not speak to that adequately in this space, but my heart breaks because I have been guilty of thinking other humans are more important than I am and I more important than others. Maybe all of us have been guilty of this in one way or the other. I do not know. But if I live from that belief, I am ripped away from my humanity and I turn my back on God’s love. It is my call as a follower of Christ to reclaim my humanity and expose the love in my heart for all people, no matter who they are, what they believe, or where they come from. This does not mean I will intentionally put myself in the path of abusive people. That is the opposite of love for either of us. What it means is that I will see everyone’s humanity and act accordingly from the place of love, the core of my humanity. My ears ring with Christ’s words, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Forgive me.
