How to pray in the context of a genocide?
Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and Israel’s subsequent genocidal response on Gaza, many people of faith have struggled to know how to pray in a way that acknowledges the suffering of all victims of violence, but also understands the structural injustice that favours one people over another.
Dr. Sarojini Nadar holds the Desmond Tutu (SARChI) Research Chair in Religion and Social Justice at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. She recently wrote a piece critiquing “neutral prayers” which give equal weight to the oppressor and the oppressed. She writes,
“Neutral prayers silence the specificity of Palestinian suffering and uphold the power dynamics of apartheid. … To pray equally for both the machinery of occupation, and those struggling under its boot, is to erase the very real and genocidal violence being enacted on Palestinians.”
Further, she writes, “We must reject the ‘all lives’ matter rhetoric, in this context, not because we don’t believe that all lives matter, but because Palestinian lives, like Black South African lives have not mattered equally!”
Professor Nadar’s full reflection was take from her social media accounts: here.
On neutral prayers for peace…
On this day, the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s birthday, and on the one year anniversary of the start of the genocide in Gaza, I’m reminded of his words spoken in a speech at Stanford University in January 1986:
"In a situation of injustice and oppression, there can be no neutrality. You have to take sides. You have to say, "Am I on the side of justice, or am I on the side of injustice. When an elephant is sitting on the tail of a mouse, and you say, "I am neutral", the mouse is not going to be particularly pleased about your neutrality. You have already made a decision! You have decided to be on the side of the powerful, of the elephant. There is no neutrality. You have already, in fact, made a choice. "
I'm seeing various calls for prayers for peace and for the return of hostages, alongside prayers for Gaza. Of course hostages must be returned safely! But these neutral prayers for peace belie a disingenuous pretence that somehow the return of Israeli hostages will undo the decades of trauma, suffering, and violence against the Palestinian people. As if the ongoing hostage-taking of the Palestinian people—who have been trapped in the world’s largest open-air prison—will disappear once the hostages from October 7th are returned. I think we need to pause and ask what are we doing when we offer such neutral prayers? The late Archbishop Tutu began every meeting he held, whether it was with journalists or heads of states with prayer. Today, when I read these neutral prayers for peace, and I recall his radical theology for justice, I wonder if we could consider the following:
1. Peace is Not the Absence of War, But the Presence of Justice
To paraphrase Martin Luther King Junior "peace is not the absence of war, but the presence of justice." Neutral prayers imply that peace can come simply from ending violence on both sides, but peace without justice is an illusion. True peace requires the dismantling of the structures of violence, such as the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Just as Archbishop Tutu and liberation theologians in South Africa called for the end of apartheid as a condition for peace, we must demand justice for Palestinians as the foundation for peace. Justice and peace are inseparable.
2. Neutrality Upholds the Oppressor’s Power
When we pray equally for the occupier and the occupied, we are ironically choosing a side—the side of the oppressor. Neutral prayers silence the specificity of Palestinian suffering and uphold the power dynamics of apartheid. In South Africa, black liberation theologians did not confuse the violence of white supremacy with the righteous struggle for liberation. They named the oppressor and the oppressed. To pray equally for both the machinery of occupation, and those struggling under its boot, is to erase the very real and genocidal violence being enacted on Palestinians.
3. False Moral Equivalence Perpetuates Injustice
Neutral prayers suggest a moral equivalence between the violence of the occupier and the suffering of the occupied. This "both sides" rhetoric, reminiscent of apartheid church theology (as the Kairos document labeled it), obscures the disproportionate power and violence against Palestinians. It implies that the suffering is mutual when, in reality, the scales of violence are tipped overwhelmingly against the Palestinian people. Peace cannot be achieved through a false equivalence that perpetuates systemic injustice. We must reject the "all lives" matter rhetoric, in this context, not because we don’t believe that all lives matter, but because Palestinian lives, like Black South African lives have *not* mattered equally! And because such a claim neutralizes the specificity of Palestinian suffering under a brutal and ongoing genocide.
4. True Peace Requires Naming and Dismantling Apartheid
Just as black liberation theology in South Africa named apartheid for what it was, true peace today requires overtly naming the Israeli occupation as an apartheid system and standing firmly against it. Praying for peace while ignoring the apartheid system that fuels the violence is not just ineffective—it is complicit! Tutu’s legacy reminds us that real peace begins with justice—with the end of occupation, the return of stolen land, and the dismantling of the apparatus of apartheid.
5. Radical Solidarity, Not Neutrality, is the Path to Justice
In moments of extreme inequality, neutrality is not an option. We must take a stance of radical solidarity with the oppressed. This is why Tutu did not hold back from supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against both South African and Israeli apartheid as a sign of solidarity, because he understood the need for concrete action against oppression. Neutral prayers buy into the rhetoric of "sending thoughts and prayers" without actually taking any further radical actions of solidarity with those who fight against injustice.
6. Neutral Prayers Silence the Cry for Liberation
To pray neutrally is not simply to passively amplify a call to peace, it is to actively silence the call for liberation. Tutu’s words remind us that both silence and neutrality in situations of injustice is a form of complicity. If we are serious about peace, we must stop offering neutral prayers and instead work toward justice for the Palestinian people, just as we did for Black South Africans.
7. An alternative to neutral prayers: Praying with intention
What is the alternative? In our prayers, we must of course hold space for the humanity of both the oppressed and the oppressor. But, we have to do so, recognizing that the suffering while both deeply felt, is rooted in fundamentally and radically different realities. We should pray not to conflate their experiences, as neutral prayers do, but to acknowledge the supremacy that underpins oppression and fuels injustice in the hearts and minds of those who wield power, especially those in the West who send arms to Israel. Our prayers must call for an end to this supremacist thinking, seeking transformation for the oppressor, while praying for strength and resilience in those who resist the colonial and brutal occupation, for it is often within this struggle that their humanity is at stake. Instead of offering neutral prayers that obscure the specific contexts of suffering, we should pray with intention, asking for liberation for the oppressed and for the courage to confront and dismantle the systems of violence that perpetuate inequality. This loving and justice-oriented approach compels us to seek not only peace, but a transformative justice that uplifts the marginalized and challenges the structures that bind us all.
In memory of our beloved Arch: Salaam, Shalom, Shanti.