The (Theo)Politics of Innocence: Deconstructing the Innocent-Guilty Binary in Counterterrorism Discourse on Gaza

Taking its cue from Edward Said’s essay, “Permission to Narrate,” this paper seeks to understand how the power of narrative, and the power to narrate, have impacted Palestinians in Gaza. It situates the violence in Gaza within an international security paradigm, demonstrating how the construction of the “terrorist” as an enemy-Other enables discursive and narrative strategies that reinforce binaries and serve as moral cover for political violence. Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac’s 2023 sermon “Christ in the Rubble” and the critical responses it elicited provide a valuable case study for deconstructing the innocent versus guilty binary by examining Jesus the (innocent) Christ child and Jesus the (guilty) insurrectionist. Read alongside the work of James H. Cone and Richard A. Horsley, I argue that decolonial and liberation theologies offer resources to deconstruct and resist these authoritarian doctrines of international security.