The Cross and the Pieta. The Passion of Palestine

In every parent cradling a lifeless child, we see the Pieta. In every bombed home, a new Golgotha. Gaza suffers an unending Good Friday.

Michelangelo’s Pieta, the larger-than-life sculpture of the crucified Christ held tenderly in Mother Mary’s lap, has attracted visitors to Rome since it was installed in the old St. Peter’s Basilica more than 500 years ago.

Contemplation of the Pieta gifts one with the powerful presence of sacrifice and divine acceptance, life summoned from stone, transcending death. Christians approach Good Friday with two powerful remembrances: Christ’s sacrifice and redemption on The Cross, and the acceptance, love and compassion expressed through The Pieta.

Countless images emerging from Gaza, of the sudden deaths of children, by bombing, shrapnel, gunshots, and grieving parents evoke modern day Pietas, occurring with terrible frequency. Unlike Michaelangelo’s crucified Christ, the dead children are seldom intact.

They are horribly mangled and disfigured, limbless, headless, often identified by a scrap of clothing. Yet, the bereaved parents, holding what is left of their child wrapped in white shroud, look to the heavens, and, resonating with divine grace and acceptance recite “Allah Akbar,” God is Great.

The forbearance, the courage under fire, the suffering of the people of Gaza in the face of the relentless and cowardly bombing attack which seeks to exterminate them has awakened the moral conscience of people all over the world.

As my own attention is riveted to the daily massacres in Gaza, to the graphic videos of extraordinary human suffering sent to me, I find myself filled with a deep sense of anguish at witnessing the collective punishment, the death and destruction of innocents and, equally, the loss of humanity of the perpetrators, which leads us all into an eternal Valley of Shadows.

The feeling of grief at what is unfolding before our eyes is unshakable, at times unbearable, and I know I am not alone in sensing this.

It is not only Gaza which is dying.

Our country is dying, from indifference, distraction and crass political calculations which justify mass murder on the installment plan, with the remorseless, clipped reduction: “They are human shields!” Or, for those mired in genocidal sanctimony: “Kill the children before they become terrorists.”

And so, the children of Gaza are being killed, by the tens of thousands. Videos of those deceased children whose bodies were not mangled, show they were obviously well cared for by their families, some dressed smartly, some dead in their resplendent Eid finery, the boys with neat haircuts and the girls, long hair, beautifully combed, with colorful bows.

As to the survivors holding dead children, their soul-piercing cries of grief invite deep compassion for all those who bear the cross of war. The Pieta is a universal symbol. It speaks to a broken-hearted father or mother grieving a dying child who was the center of a family’s existence.

All of Palestine is a children’s graveyard. Numerous doctors have testified to the unusually large numbers of children who have been killed by sniper shots to the head. Most deaths, however, are due to a stunning array of U.S. munitions being used on defenseless Gazans.

A child is either made a casualty or an orphan by the thousands of U.S.-made MK-84, 2000 lb bombs, costing $16,000 each, which upon impact wields a shrapnel-flinging, death-dealing blast radius of hundreds of yards.

The MK-84 carries 945 lbs. of tritonal explosives and can create a crater 50 ft. deep. This bomb was used to massive impact at the Jabalia Refugee Camp on October 31, 2023, killing over 100 civilians. The U.S. transferred 14,000 of these bombs to be used against Gazans in the past 18 months.

There is more. The BLU-109 Penetrator Bomb with 530 lbs. of high explosives, can blast through concrete or rock, and detonate with the force of an earthquake. When it hits a Gaza apartment building, everyone inside is killed. Even nearby non-target apartment buildings, with the residents inside, collapse, with crushing force.

The GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (SBD) is a precision-guided, glide bomb. It weighs 250 lbs., and delivers a highly explosive 36 lbs. of AFX-757. It produces high civilian casualties in Gaza residential areas and in Gaza schools, through fragmentation over an area the size of a football field. Each bomb cost $40,000.

In May of 2024, GBU-39’s hit a designated safe zone, in the Tel al-Sultan Tent Camp, killing countless civilians. This precision bomb was used to strike the Al-Sardi UNRWA School on June 6, 2024, where 6,000 displaced Gazans waited for relief. The same bombs killed over 100 Gazans, when the Al-Tabaeen School was attacked on August 10, 2024, during dawn prayers.

These bombs, and specially fitted Joint Attack Munitions (JDAMS), have been dropped on the people of Gaza, including in so-called safe zones such as Deir al-Balah, using a variety of US-made aircraft, including F-151s, F161s and F-351s, whose pilots are either trained in the U.S. or by US personnel abroad, with respect to combat doctrines, weapons deployment, precision guidance and rules of engagement.

On the ground, U.S.-supplied tank shells, rifles, sniper ammunition, firearms, assault rifles, grenade launchers , and tens of thousands of small arms rounds are used against Gazans.

U.S. tax dollars, U.S. planes, U.S. bombs, U.S. missiles, U.S. tank shells, U.S. rifles, ammunition, U.S. grenade launchers, U.S. training, U.S. guidance from a trillion dollar military budget, using U.S. proxies to annihilate the 2.2 million defenseless people of Gaza.

The destruction has been accomplished during both Democratic and Republican administrations. Congress has never given explicit approval for a war against the people of Gaza. It has massively rejected efforts by Senator Bernie Sanders to block arms sales. Absent the support of the United States of America, this war would have ended shortly after it started.

Yet it continues. Nearly 100,000 tons of US bombs have been dropped on Gaza, about 6 times the explosive power of bombs dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, which equaled 15,000 tons of TNT. This in one of the world’s most densely populated, areas. There are 15,000 people per square mile in Gaza, compared with the average American population density of 94 persons per square mile.

On September 11, 2001, the United States was attacked. Over 3,000 people were killed in a nation of 300,000,000 persons, equal to one death per 100,000. Gaza has experienced at least 55,000 deaths, in a population of 2.2 million, a death rate of 2,500 per 100,000 people.

In terms of a population-adjusted equivalence, Gaza has experienced a 9/11-equivalent every five hours, or over four population-adjusted 9/11s every day for the last year and a half.

If the US had experienced the same per capita death toll, population-adjusted deaths would number 8,350,000. (This number arrived at by applying Gaza (population 2.2 million death rate since October 2023, 55,000 for a death rate of .025, times the current US population of 334 million).

Based on UN reports, an estimated 15,000 children have been killed, with at least 30,000 with injuries, many life-altering, including amputations; tens of thousands of children are suffering from severe malnutrition.

So frequently perilous is everyday life for the children of Gaza and their parents that one young Palestinian girl, as she lay in shocked agony on a cart, seriously injured by shrapnel, asked over and over, through acute pain: “Uncle, is this a dream, or is it reality?” She is/was five years old.

Then there is the young Gazan boy, asked what he wanted to be when he grew up. His heartbreaking answer: “Children in Gaza do not get to grow up.”

One official quoted in a report by the United Nations Human Rights office, described residents of Gaza as “human beasts…dealt with accordingly,” recalling the Nazi-era language of untermensch, beasts, classic dehumanization used to justify violence.

There is an inhuman, organized effort to bomb and to destroy the people of Gaza.

The world is witnessing the systematic destruction of homes, mosques, schools, universities, hospitals, markets, water systems, and sewer systems, and the calculated attempt to kill off an entire people.

Through their great tribulations, the people of Gaza have demonstrated an uncanny resistance which defines not the character of terrorists, but of a brave people, who face death with faith and fortitude.

My wife, Elizabeth, visited Gaza after the last major incursion. What she saw there would shake the soul of anyone not hardened by ideology. She entered schools that served as classrooms by day and emergency shelters by night. She sat with trauma therapists tending to shattered minds and broken families. She met university students who still spoke of dreams. Her account, published in The Hill, is a witness to the truth so often buried under official narratives.

We must believe, even now, that the great suffering of Gaza, reminiscent of the Passion itself, may one day give rise to a resurrection—not only of lives, but of dignity, justice, and peace. The arc of crucifixion to resurrection is sacred metaphor and moral instruction.

Gaza images also challenge doom, such as the hands of Gazans which reach out from underneath the rubble, stretching toward the sky, defiantly, triumphantly.

Millions are marching for peace, globally, waving the Palestinian flag, to end the war, and to demand accountability for those who instigated it, and those who prosecuted it. Young people, refusing to serve in the military, are rejecting the call to kill Gazans, to occupy, to bulldoze homes, to drop bombs, rejecting orders that nullify one’s soul.

The world is changing and the world is watching. No nation can forever remain above the law. There will be legal consequences even for those who do not believe in international law, who practice genocide with an air of impunity. I predict those in authority who have enabled or prosecuted this war against the people of Gaza will one day be held responsible. They will be brought before a world tribunal and they will meet justice, in a new Nuremburg proceeding.

What People of Conscience Can Do:

The path to peace begins with recognizing the humanity of all people. Let us grieve for every innocent life lost—Israeli and Palestinian, Christian, Muslim, Jewish. Let us speak not from a place of hostility, but from a deep moral longing to prevent further bloodshed, and to chart a future rooted in dignity and justice for all.

Rather than be immobilized by the immensity of the Gaza tragedy, we can use the power of our hearts and our intent for peace to:

1. Raise a Voice for Ceasefire and Life

• Encourage elected leaders to support a permanent ceasefire, the opening of humanitarian corridors, and the protection of civilians.

• Join with others across faiths and backgrounds in peaceful vigils, calls, and community forums.

2. Support Humanitarian Relief—Without Borders

• Give generously to organizations providing life-saving aid:

  • International Red Cross and Red Crescent

  • World Food Program (WFP)

  • UNRWA, Catholic Relief Services, Lutheran World Federation, and other Christian and interfaith relief groups

  • Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) and Doctors Without Borders

3. Build Bridges Through Education and Empathy

• Host or attend events that elevate the stories of both Palestinians and Israelis working for peace.

• Share voices from those directly affected, including Christian leaders in Bethlehem, peace advocates in Tel Aviv, and trauma healers in Gaza

4. Engage in Nonviolent Advocacy

• Promote dialogue, not division. Advocate with compassion—for policies that protect civilians, honor human rights, and de-escalate conflict.

• Avoid demonization. Instead, call on all governments and actors to uphold their highest values and responsibilities.

5. Support Economic Accountability With Care

• Where appropriate, consider thoughtful economic action to encourage institutions to stop violations of human rights.

• Ensure all actions are rooted in ethics and transparency, not punishment or hostility.

What Congress and the International Community Can Do:

We must engage with members of Congress, to demand that the United States change its policies in Gaza and the West Bank.

1. Lead with Moral Clarity: Stop Funding the Killing!

• Congress has the power of the purse. It must stop all appropriations being used to destroy Palestine.

• The killing must stop. Congress should support a bipartisan, permanent ceasefire resolution and advocate for negotiations that include all parties.

2. Ensure Humanitarian Access and Protection

• Demand safe passage for food, water, fuel, and medicine.

• Restore full funding to UNRWA and support agencies feeding, sheltering, and treating civilians.

3. Uphold U.S. and International Law

• Conduct full, independent investigations of all civilian harm—including the use of U.S.-supplied weapons.

• Condition any military assistance on clear adherence to international humanitarian law, as required by the Leahy Law and Arms Export Control Act.

4. Support a Long-Term Political Solution

• Champion efforts toward a just and lasting peace that guarantees safety, dignity, and self-determination for Palestinians and security for Israelis.

• Recommit to a diplomatic process that includes diverse voices: religious leaders, youth, civil society, and those committed to coexistence.

5. Protect Civil Liberties and Dialogue at Home

• Safeguard the rights of Americans to speak, protest, and organize nonviolently for peace.

• Ensure campuses, houses of worship, and communities are safe spaces for open dialogue, not silencing or fear.

A Final Word: Peace Is the Moral Center

This is a crisis of leadership, power, and policy. People of every background long for peace. Let us be among those who do not just curse the darkness, but light candles; who build bridges, not walls; who seek not revenge, but reconciliation.

May our beloved United States begin to turn its swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, for the survival of our nation and the world.

And may the deeply mournful scenes in Gaza, reminiscent of the Pieta, reenacted daily, be followed by a new dawn of restoration and healing of the Palestinian people, celebrating the indomitability of the human spirit, bringing with it a new human hope for peace, salaam, shalom.

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Read Elizabeth Kucinich’s account of her visit to Gaza following Israel’s 2014 military assault, here.