[vc_row fade_scroll=”yes” enable_content_animation=”yes” animation_preset=”Fade In Up” css=”.vc_custom_1747930724485{padding-bottom: 25px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text el_class=”abstract”]Before delving into the video \u201cThe curse of Gaza,\u201d it is necessary to establish a fact that can no longer be ignored: according to local health authorities, approximately 60,000 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip. Of these victims, almost a third are believed to be children. These numbers tell us about the human cost of a bitter conflict that echoes ancient memories.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]These shocking and tragic figures play a significant role in the necessary remembrance of the past, because the Old Testament is not a dead letter: its words, promises, and commands still resonate today. And even today, they are used as tools to legitimize what is happening on the contemporary scene. In this article, I will revisit the transcript of my latest video and delve deeper into some of the themes in order to expose the mechanism that turns biblical literalism into a militant ideology.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row enable_content_animation=”yes” animation_preset=”Fade In Up” css=”.vc_custom_1747930712862{margin-top: 20px !important;margin-bottom: 50px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_video link=”https:\/\/youtu.be\/thgvKQ9gJlw” align=”center”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row enable_content_animation=”yes” animation_preset=”Fade In Up” css=”.vc_custom_1747930770591{margin-top: 20px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n
When I reread the biblical passages, Gaza emerges as a nerve center on the map of conflicts at that time.<\/p>\n
In Judges<\/b>, it is the setting for the story of Samson<\/b>: here he is captured by the Philistines<\/b>, the enemies par excellence of the Israelites, and it is here that he performs his most sensational acts, even \u201cuprooting the gates of the city\u201d and dragging them away, a sign of a conflict that is both military and symbolic. In Numbers, the explorers sent by Moses report the presence, precisely in the region of Gaza, of the Anakim, the \u201csons of Anak,\u201d giants who inhabited the region. The image emerges of a coveted but perceived as inaccessible land, populated by superior powers, giving rise to the idea of a conquest requiring absolute authority.<\/p>\n
In the Prophets<\/b>, Gaza is often called to judgment: Amos<\/b> pronounces his severe formula\u2014\u201cFor three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not revoke my decree\u201d<\/i>\u2014and with it establishes a memory of repeated guilt, as if the city were the natural target of punishment.<\/p>\n
In this context, Gaza becomes a moral frontier<\/b>: a place to be subjugated and reconquered, an emblem of a conflict that the Bible records with the harshness of a news report. And it is precisely this chronicle of Philistines, giants, and oracles of destruction that, if read carefully, still resonates today and offers a ready-made lexicon to justify new wars on an ancient city.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row enable_content_animation=”yes” animation_preset=”Fade In Up” responsive_css=”margin_top_large:50px|margin_bottom_large:20px|margin_bottom_small:30px”][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_single_image image=”1503″ alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row enable_content_animation=”yes” animation_preset=”Fade In Up” css=”.vc_custom_1747930838361{margin-top: 20px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\nThe code of destruction and the promise of territory<\/h2>\n
The Bible, as I have argued for years, codifies war with precise words. In Deuteronomy 20<\/b> we read: \u201cYou shall not spare anything that breathes<\/b>,\u201d so the order calls for total extermination: men, women, children, the elderly, even animals. In Genesis 15, Yahweh makes a promise to Abraham of a Greater Israel: \u201cTo your descendants I give this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates<\/i>.\u201d Later in Numbers, he narrows the boundaries (from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean to Lebanon), a sign that the ultimate goal is calibrated to the test of facts. In Joshua, we find this observation: \u201cI gave you a land you did not labor for, cities you did not build, olive groves and vineyards you did not plant.\u201d It is an essential grammar: conquest, replacement, legitimization.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row enable_content_animation=”yes” animation_preset=”Fade In Up” responsive_css=”margin_top_large:50px|margin_bottom_large:20px|margin_bottom_small:30px”][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_single_image image=”1535″ alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row enable_content_animation=”yes” animation_preset=”Fade In Up” css=”.vc_custom_1747930857330{margin-top: 20px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\nBiblical quotations in today’s political discourse<\/h2>\n