T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM Retired pastor Jack Mithelman answers a question about the Israel and Hamas war. He gave a well-attended presentation about the conflict on Wednesday at the Marshalltown Public Library.

Whichever side of the Israel and Hamas conflict someone in Marshalltown might agree with, they are encouraged to reach out and provide support to the people caught in the middle of it.

Jack Mithelman, a retired pastor from Grinnell, spoke about the ongoing war during a Wednesday presentation. Hosted by the Synod Peace Not Walls Working Group, more than 70 residents attended the event at the Marshalltown Public Library. He stressed that he is not an expert on the subject, but rather someone who has visited the area four times.

“This has been a concern for me for the past 25 years,” Mithelman said.

He said Marshalltown residents can support organizations providing help to people caught in the war, such as the United Nations Relief & Works Agency, Doctors Without Borders, the World Food Program, UNICEF, the International Red Cross and Lutheran Disaster Response. There are also Christian schools and the August Victoria Hospital.

“There is a long list of helpers,” Mithelman said. “If you want to help, my suggestion would be you find one of those groups you have confidence in and support them financially. You can use them as a source of information for ongoing dialogue about this effort.”

Mithelman began the presentation by addressing the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. The attack carried out by Hamas, the governing body of the Gaza Strip often described as a terrorist organization in the U.S., resulted in the deaths of 1,139 Israelis, the kidnapping of 250 civilian and soldier hostages and a reigniting of the ongoing conflict between the two sides.

“This war did not begin in a vacuum,” he said.

While Mithelman said the actions can never be condoned, it must be placed in context. The area of Israel and Palestine can fit within the boundaries of Iowa seven times. The Palestinian city of Gaza is 25 miles long and six miles wide — equal to the space between Boone and Nevada and between Ames and Gilbert. A total of 2.3 million people reside within Gaza, equal to 21,034 people per square mile.

“By contrast, the 2022 population density of Iowa was 57 people per square mile,” Mithelman said. “So, if you can imagine 2.3 million people living within that square, you see the enormity of the situation.”

He then went into history, starting with land controlled by Palestine. After learning of the horrors of the Holocaust in World War II, the United Nations (UN) recommended part of Palestine be given to the Jews to protect them from such actions again. The Jewish people declared independence in 1948 and became the State of Israel. Since then, Israel has obtained control over more of the land.

Within the West Bank area controlled by Palestine, Mithelman said there are numerous illegal gated and guarded Israeli settlements. He said the UN recognizes the West Bank as part of Palestine. Under international law, Israel cannot build infrastructure or homes there, but the country has not adhered to that law.

Israel has built roads connecting the settlements, roads which only Jews can travel upon, Mithelman said. Putting that into perspective, he said Palestinian farmers might not be able to tend their lands since travel to their property could be restricted. To complicate the situation further, Mithelman said under Israeli law, if land has not been tended for three years, it is considered abandoned and could be confiscated. He said the actions equate to occupation which occurs when the military or a group of people take control of an area.

“The goal is to continue to move Palestinians in smaller and smaller fragments of land that were once designated for the Palestinian state,” he said.

Mithelman said the Oct. 7 was not unprovoked.

“Before Oct. 7, Gaza has been referred to as an open-air prison,” he said.

Gaza has been blockaded since 2007, and the residents — who are 98 percent Muslim, 2 percent Christian, and half are younger than 20 — can not enter or leave. There is limited access to resources, such as food, utilities, medical care and employment and more than 80 percent of the population are living in poverty.

When he visited Gaza, he used the same point of entry as the residents. Hundreds of thousands of people have to be at the entry point at 4 a.m. and return before 7 p.m. Sometimes it is closed, and people do not know why.

Mithelman then provided a timeline of the Israel-Hamas war. After the Oct. 7 attacks, Israel responded with continuous bombings on Gaza. He presented an Oct. 9 quote from Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.”

Gallant’s words are an example of dehumanization hate speech, Mithelman said, and are nothing new.

“It is increasingly heard within our own political context,” he said. “Hate speech from government officials almost always serves to incite violence . . . If the enemy is not human, they are not entitled to human rights. If they are not entitled to human rights, then whatever is expedient can be done to accomplish what is best for oneself.”

Electricity and communications in Gaza were severed on Oct. 11. On Nov. 24, Israel paused the bombings to allow for hostage and prisoner exchanges, but resumed on Dec. 1.

There are issues with getting aid to Gaza civilians, Mithelman told attendees. Since food has been cut off, people are starving and gangs are looting aid trucks. He said civilians block crossings in Israel because they do not want aid delivered to Gaza until all of the Oct. 7 hostages are freed. Mithelman said the Israeli navy has also attacked caravans.

He said while the word genocide is typically assigned to events and actions decades after the fact, there was a judgement in January from the International Court of Justice that genocide might be a plausible definition. Israel has been ordered to take measures to protect Gazan civilians. However, it has also been said Israel is protecting itself from a genocidal threat. The important thing in proving genocide is proving whether or not a group intended to eliminate a group of people.

“It is difficult for me to not see what is going on in Gaza as a movement in that direction,” he said.

He provided the crowd with some Gaza statistics of the conflict since Hamas attacked Israel.

There have been 29,514 Gazan deaths, 1.7 million people displaced, 17,000 children separated from parents and 6,000 people on a medical evacuation waiting list.

Prayer and advocacy for the people on both sides were encouraged by Mithelman.

“Most importantly, what I hope you do today, is talk about this presentation, what you agree with, what you disagree with, what you wish you knew more about, but use that in your conversations with friends, neighbors and family as we all seek that blessing of peace,” he said. “It is not hopeless. There are precedents for the world changing.”

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Contact Lana Bradstream

at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.