Although I wouldn’t officially begin until later in the month, I was announced as the new Senior Editor at Good Faith Media (GFM) on October 6, 2023. The following day, Hamas militants from Gaza attacked Israel, taking 250 hostages and murdering over 1,100 Israeli civilians, military forces and other foreign nationals. Since then, many of the hostages have been murdered as well. 

On October 7, I was traveling in Europe on vacation between my previous role and beginning work with Good Faith Media. I attempted to remain oblivious to the outside world while I was away, but the consistent barrage of phone alerts made that impossible.

I quickly learned this was more than just the typical Middle East skirmish. It was historic and consequential.

Over the next few days, the Good Faith Media team kept me informed and invited my feedback on an official statement GFM would make about the attacks. I was in that awkward “in-between time,” but grateful to be included.

The statement, released on October 9, began with the following: “People of good faith condemn acts of violence toward all people regardless of religious affiliation. We also recognize that conflict never occurs in a vacuum.”

Those two sentences highlight the tension we have faced in covering this tragic story for the past year. How do you recognize and condemn brutal acts of violence by Hamas on the one hand and, on the other, acknowledge that this story did not begin on October 7, 2024? And how do you say, “This story didn’t begin on October 7,” without somehow implying that innocent civilians are responsible for their own deaths? 

At GFM, we have attempted to walk this highwire by remaining true to our mission, which centers on the principles of freedom, inclusivity, and justice. This requires us to amplify the voices of those who are not free, those who have been excluded, and those who have been on the receiving end of injustice.

What is clear is that these marginalized voices have come from all sides of the conflict.

There is a rising tide of antisemitism around the world that didn’t begin on October 7, but has grown alongside Israel’s retaliation against Hamas. In the United States, this antisemitism has come from the political right and left.

At the same time, Islamaphobia is also on the rise, as peaceful Muslims and Arabs have been falsely conflated with terrorists. Like antisemitism, this didn’t begin with the Hamas attacks, but it has been amplified in the year since.

While all this has occurred, at least 43,000 bearers of God’s image have been killed in the conflict. The actual number of deaths, when you count secondary effects (i.e., hospitals being bombed, preventing critically ill people from getting the care they need,) is likely over 100,000.

Since October 7, we have not always gotten everything right, but we have attempted to listen. This is rarely easy, as people from all sides of the conflict speak from places of great pain.

It is also challenging when there is a false perception that fairness requires giving everyone an equal voice. Because of our mission, we would not share stand-alone articles on the conflict from folks like John Hagee, Benjamin Netanyahu or Yahya Sinwar. 

But we must continue to listen to and amplify the most marginalized voices and actively work toward peace. That includes victims of antisemitism, Islamaphobia and other weapons of war. This is our continued commitment, and we welcome thoughts on how best to do this.

We also must remember and heed the words of Shane Claiborne, which we shared in our initial statement: “We can and we must stand against the violence of Hamas and against the violence of Israel and against the violence of the US… and still believe in freedom for Palestine. We cannot build a peaceful world by killing each other’s children. Violence only begets more violence. And until every Palestinian and Israeli life is seen as equally precious and treated with mutual love and respect, there will not be peace in Israel.”