Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Challenging Netanyahu’s Ideology of Force

Original article: Bienaventurados los que trabajan por la paz: contra la ideología de la fuerza de Netanyahu By Vera Baboun, Ambassador of the State of Palestine in Chile In the spirit of Holy Week, the events that transpired in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, March 29, 2026, bore exceptional gravity: Israeli police barred Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and Father Francesco Ielpo, Custodian of the Holy Land, from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Mass. The Patriarch’s subsequent ability to preside over Mass in Gethsemane undermines the claim that the restriction was based on security concerns. This incident was not a neutral precaution but an act of control over access to worship.

Transforming prayer into a matter of «permission» is not protection; it is the denial of an inherent right that no occupying power has the authority to restrict. As Father Rifaat Bader noted, stating that the Patriarch «will be allowed» to enter is not a favor but an aggression against a natural right. This measure was not isolated: the Holy Sepulchre and Al-Aqsa were also closed, and for the first time since 1967, Muslims were barred from praying Eid al-Fitr at Al-Aqsa, contradicting international law, which denies Israel, as an occupying power, sovereignty and jurisdiction over occupied Palestine.

Since the beginning of 2026, Israel, in its role as the occupying power, has openly intensified a policy aimed not only at repressing the Palestinian people but also at undermining the foundations of the two-state solution and closing off any real prospect for peace. The land legislation pushed on February 8 and 15, which is designed to deepen control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory and facilitate new forms of appropriation and annexation, the decision approved by the Knesset on March 30 that paved the way for legislation allowing the execution of Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails, the escalating violence from settlers, the ongoing expansion of settlements, and the continuous devastation of Gaza all reflect a singular logic: to entrench domination, consolidate control, and systematically dismantle the political, legal, and human foundations of Palestinian existence. After 78 years since the Nakba—the Palestinian catastrophe, 59 years of occupation, the assassination of the peace-seeking Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin by Israeli extremism in the heart of Tel Aviv, following the Oslo Accords of 1993, and the genocidal devastation of Gaza, an unavoidable question arises: what mindset continues to feed and sustain this occupation?

This logic underpinning the occupation was unabashedly exposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a televised press conference held in Jerusalem on March 19, 2026, amid Lent. On that occasion, he stated: «History shows that, regrettably and sadly, Jesus Christ does not have an advantage over Genghis Khan. Because if one is strong enough, ruthless enough, and powerful enough, evil will triumph over good.

» Beyond the deeply offensive nature of this comparison between two radically different historical figures in their identity, message, and moral and human standing in history, his words did more than provoke outrage among Christians and non-Christians alike. They laid bare the moral and political logic that sustains much of the occupation: a perspective in which ethics lose their value if not backed by force, and where power ceases to be limited by law and becomes the ultimate source of legitimacy. In this framework, violence becomes normalized as a political tool.

Afterward, Netanyahu tried to legitimize his argument by invoking Will Durant, claiming that an ethical civilization cannot endure without the strength necessary to defend itself. However, this appeal reveals a selective reading. Durant acknowledged the realities of power without concluding that morality must yield to strength.

On the contrary, in Caesar and Christ, he wrote: «Caesar and Christ met in the arena, and Christ won. » The idea is clear: domination may be temporarily imposed, but does not ensure a profoundly enduring moral victory. In the Palestinian context, Netanyahu’s ideological language is not perceived as a mere historical metaphor, but as an explicit justification for the oppressive system imposed upon the Palestinian people.

Practically, this means presenting siege, confiscation, collective punishment, and disproportionate violence as harsh, yet supposedly necessary measures. Thus, his statement not only compares historical figures but normalizes injustice, rendering it an acceptable political logic. In modern times, the central question is not who has the power to impose their version of truth, but why the international community established international law, human rights, and the United Nations.

These frameworks exist precisely to prevent force from becoming the sole source of legitimacy. If every state defined good and evil according to its own interests, the international order would be reduced to a logic of domination. International law was born to reject that logic and affirm that justice must be based on shared principles, on human dignity, on the rights of peoples, and on the limits of power.

Ultimately, the prolonged Israeli occupation of the Palestinian people must come to an end, not only as a concession to political convenience but as an unavoidable legal, moral, and historical necessity. After decades of dispossession, military occupation, and systematic denial of their most basic rights, the Palestinian people have the right to live as all peoples of the world should live: in freedom, security, dignity, and peace. A just future cannot be built on domination, nor can lasting peace arise from oppression.

Moreover, the security of one people can never be guaranteed at the cost of the subjugation and humiliation of another. “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9).