Why I Am Not a Christian Zionist

March 2, 2025

By Karen Weeks

I will never forget the video of a Palestinian father holding two plastic grocery bags filled with the remains of his sons, killed in an Israeli airstrike. Nor the heartbreaking images of babies left to die in a pediatric ICU at a hospital in Northern Gaza under fire, nor the tragic death of 19-year-old Shaaban Al-Dalou, burned alive in his tent while seeking shelter at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. These images would have sparked worldwide outrage if the victims had been white, American, or Israeli. But instead, most of the world has turned a blind eye.

I grew up in a small Midwestern town, surrounded by a predominantly white, middle-class community. I was unaware of racial discrimination, except for what I read in history books. To me, slavery was a past issue, and Martin Luther King Jr. had paved the way for equality during the Civil Rights Movement. My experiences were limited, and I lived in a racial "bubble," attending a predominantly white public school and church. My father worked internationally, but although he was never openly prejudiced, he also never spoke out against racial injustice.

In my teenage years, I occasionally heard about conflicts in the Middle East but didn’t understand the history or politics. I assumed the people involved were simply extremists—uneducated, with a bent toward violence. I remember asking my father why they didn’t just talk through their conflicts. His answer, “Those people (Arabs) don’t think like us,” left me with the impression that they were just inherently different and irrational.

In 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, I was initially confused, thinking it was just another flare-up in the Middle East. However, as the situation escalated and Israel launched a counterattack on Gaza, I began researching. A friend loaned me books she’d read about the region, and one of them, Blood Brothers by Father Elias Chacour, an Arab Christian Palestinian priest, opened my eyes. Chacour had lived through the Nakba in 1948 and had spent his entire life advocating for peace between Palestinians and Israelis. His story moved me deeply. I learned that Palestinians, including Arabs, Christians, and Jews, had lived in harmony in the region for centuries before the 1948 UN partition, which gave 55% of Palestine to a Jewish state, despite Jews only representing about 30% of the population.

While I had often felt horrified by the accounts of the Nazi concentration camps and extermination of thousands of Jews during WWII, it seemed equally wrong for Palestinians to be uprooted, displaced, and even murdered for the sake of providing an ethnocentric nation state for the Jewish people.

By 1949, Israel had taken 78% of Palestine, forcing 750,000 Palestinians into refugee status, while over 500 towns and villages were destroyed. The refugees were prohibited from returning home, despite international law recognizing their right of return.

I read articles by historians, describing decades long mistreatment and oppression of Palestinians by those who wanted to create a modern state for Jewish people to live and thrive – not the Jewish people who were indigenous to the land of Palestine – but the Jewish people who were displaced throughout Europe after having survived the Holocaust in Germany. It became clear to me that the modern state of Israel is not the same as the Israel of the bible, as many Christians think. In fact, before European Jews immigrated and began settling Palestine, they considered building settlements in Uganda.

I began reading about Palestinian journalists and human rights activists whose reports didn’t align with the Western narrative. I learned of Rachel Corrie, an American activist crushed by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003 while protesting the demolition of Palestinian homes. I also became aware of the Christian Zionist narrative, which believes that God’s will is to drive out the Palestinians to make way for the Jewish state, based on a misinterpreted prophecy about Christ’s second coming.

As a Licensed Professional Counselor, I recognize patterns of trauma and aggression. Those who have been oppressed often become oppressors themselves if they don’t grieve their wounds. Without intentional healing and forgiveness, unresolved bitterness and hatred can leak out, perpetuating cycles of harm. This dynamic is not just personal—it’s evident in national and global conflicts.

As someone who believes in the dignity of all people, I began to share what I was learning with a small group of peers, as well as write to my representatives to voice my concerns.  I also turned to art as a way to process my grief and outrage over the oppression and violence faced by Palestinians. Through my art, I express a prayerful solidarity with the Palestinian people—people who share the same desires for safety, freedom, and peace as anyone else.

Karen Weeks is a Therapist, Counselor and Spiritual Director. She has worked for over 15 years as a licensed professional counselor in both Ohio and Michigan, and is Owner of Soul Care Solutions, PLLC.