Not Condemning Hamas, the CBF's Mistake, Shani Louk

Institutions and the Hamas Horror

Leading religious and educational institutions is a difficult venture. Sometimes knowing when to speak and when to be silent is difficult. Issues like war and peace, the role of government, or how to resolve race disputes can be extremely complex. Because of this difficulty, institutions are often reticent to get involved in such disputes, and rightly so. On occasion, however, events occur that are so toxic that the distinction between right and wrong is clear.

In the events of October 7th in Israel, there is no lack of clarity. Evil has announced its intentions with clarity, recorded them for posterity, and celebrated them with shouts of “God is great.” It is a moral requirement for organizations to publicly denounce Hamas, and support the safety of Israel and Jews worldwide. It is moral malpractice to avoid condemning these terrorist atrocities and Hamas by name. Unfortunately, that malpractice is shared by many organizations, including religious ones.

The Response of the CBF

I share the statement of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF).[1]

As thousands of people have been killed, injured, or displaced in Israel and Gaza, we long for an end to the violence, the making of lasting peace, and we join our Baptist brothers and sisters in the region in prayer. We also join our partners at the Baptist World Alliance and the European Baptist Federation in asking that we follow paths of peacemaking that unequivocally reject terrorism or any acts that target civilians, include dehumanizing language, or limit human rights on the basis of ethnicity or faith.

Prayers for Israel

Notice what is missing. There is no denunciation of Hamas by name, no acknowledgment of the depth of the horrors inflicted on the Israelis, no call for justice, and no acknowledgment of Israel’s right to self-defense. It simply states there is violence that has harmed people and encourages peacemaking. Putting “dehumanizing language” beside terrorist activity as if these were two equal activities is a serious error.

Context

Context matters. Hamas, beheaded babies, burned families alive, murdered children with knives while their parents watched, posted videos of murder, used Facebook to broadcast the murder of a grandmother, went on a campaign of rape including raping women beside dead bodies, kidnapped civilians, used their people as human shields, put their critical terrorist infrastructure in hospitals and schools, dismantled their water supply to make rockets to fire at Israel, and paraded the dead body of a Jewish woman to the delight of Palestinians who shouted with glee and spat on her. This is but a partial list of their atrocities.

Against the backdrop of charred Jews in their cars, images of bloodied nurseries, videos of torture and kidnapping, videos of terrorists gunning down people in their own cars, and Hamas holding small children as hostages, the CBF’s statement is not helpful.

American Universities

When looking at the response to the Hamas atrocity in American universities, the CBF’s response looks even worse. Palestinian student organizations are staging protests in multiple universities in support not just of the Palestinian cause, but of the tactics of Hamas. At George Mason University students chanted, “They’ve got tanks we’ve got gliders, glory to the resistance fighters.”[2] Tufts University students praised the “creativity” of Hamas in its “historic attack on the colonizers.”[3] Student organizations at Harvard University signed a letter blaming Israel for the gruesome attack.[4] At UNC-Chapel Hill protesters used an image of paragliders, in effect glorifying the tactics of Hamas.[5] WRAL reports that pro-Palestinian protestors at UNC pushed a Jewish professor down the stairs at a rally and pelted him with a drink.[6] A professor at Yale University posted on Twitter, “Settlers are not civilians. This is not hard.”[7] Of course, that attitude gives legitimacy to the deliberate targeting of civilians, giving license for what Hamas has done.

In seeing the pro-Hamas protestors at her school, a shaken, weeping Jewish student at the University of Washington cried out to the university leaders, “They want us dead, how are you allowing this,” to no avail.[8]

Pro Genocide

In New York, hundreds of protesters chanted “From the river to the sea…” A chant promoting genocide.[9] Protesters made signs bearing that same slogan for protests at Harvard and UNC Chapel Hill.[10] [11] In front of the Sydney Opera House, protesters chanted “Gas the Jews.”[12]

The Day of Rage

Hamas has proclaimed October 13th to be a day of rage. Police in London and New York have encouraged Jews to refrain from wearing identifying clothing. Further, they have warned them to stay away from public places, like Synagogues. That warning is not in Jerusalem or the Middle East. That is in England and the United States. By the time the morning of the 13th arrived in the United States, a knife-wielding man in Paris had murdered a teacher and seriously wounded two others,[13] and a Jewish diplomat was stabbed in China (warning graphic video of the event).[14]

The Problem of Silence

With the ubiquity of the pro-Hamas sentiment, it is important for organizations to make clear they denounce Hamas. Silence now gives comfort to Hamas and Hamas supporters. Worse, it instills fear among Israelis and Jews. Why should Jews not fear now?

What makes the CBF’s statement more difficult to understand is this post from Oct 7th at 5 p.m., “If we as leaders don’t speak up publicly against injustices, we are irrelevant to this generation…” “We can’t say we love our neighbors and stay quiet when members of our community are brutally killed…”[15] Ironically, the post would have been made at 11 p.m. Jerusalem time, while Israel was still suffering an unfolding horror. While Hamas was murdering Jews, the CBF tweeted about the importance of speaking out against injustice. Then said nothing about the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

It is legitimate to ask why the CBF will not speak publicly against Hamas. I have asked. The response was twofold. First, the CBF does not make a practice of making such statements. Second the CBF wanted to promote the response of their partners on the ground. I do not find those responses compelling.

In light of the worst mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust, the CBF did not condemn Hamas. In light of the largest kidnapping of Americans since 1979, the CBF did not condemn Hamas. I am deeply troubled by this.

A Policy of Non-Engagement

There are organizations, like Stanford University, that have taken a policy of not making public statements on political matters. Fearing that public statements on one event will require public statements on other events, they simply want to stay focused on events within their purview. While that is a fair position in ordinary events, it is not good now. The safety and well-being of Jews on their campus are in their purview, especially in light of so many academics publicly supporting Hamas. It would be wise for them to change course. They do, however, have a policy against such statements. They do not speak on public issues.

While other organizations do not do advocacy, the CBF does. The CBF has two full-time advocacy staff members. They advocate on the issues of predatory lending, immigration, and asylum seekers. CBF advocacy aims to equip congregations to engage “…in advocacy on a national level.”[16] To suggest that the CBF does not do advocacy is not correct. The CBF does advocacy on public issues, but they have chosen to refrain from condemning Hamas in this situation. They will not advocate for the Israeli people murdered by Hamas or the hostages. I wish I understood why.

Shani Louk deserves more.

More by Layne Wallace: Hamas’ Evil Atrocity

[1] I have been part of the CBF for many years, although I’m known as a bit of a maverick. I opposed publicly the Illumination Project and believed that the Four Fragile Freedoms concept was the wrong foundation for the organization.

[2] https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1712598076383465719

[3] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12620307/Tufts-University-students-palestine-statement.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=social-twitter_dailymailus

[4]https://en.huji.ac.il/sites/default/files/en.new.huji/files/letter_to_harvard_university.pdf

[5] https://www.chronicle.com/article/pro-palestinian-student-groups-use-of-this-image-is-drawing-outrage-heres-where-it-came-from

[6] https://www.wral.com/21093642/

[7] https://twitter.com/howertonjosh/status/1712133986883883472

[8] https://twitter.com/mozgovaya/status/1712562024440549450

[9] https://www.timesofisrael.com/pro-palestinians-celebrate-hamas-attack-as-israel-supporters-rally-in-new-york/

[10] https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/12/business/harvard-doxxing-truck-israel-hamas-statement/index.html

[11] https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article280459834.html

[12] https://nypost.com/2023/10/10/reprehensible-protestors-chant-gas-the-jews-outside-sydney-opera-house/

[13] https://www.euronews.com/2023/10/13/one-dead-two-injured-in-france-school-knife-attack