As American Christians who enable Israel’s actions through our government’s support, we are not separate from what is unfolding in Palestine. We must accept our part in it, bear witness, and stand in support of the besieged Palestinian people.
Today we are witness to what can only be described as the unstoppable momentum of church opposition to Israel’s program of discrimination, dispossession, and ethnic cleansing. Together with the BDS call, the Kairos call from Palestinian churches has awakened the global church to the urgency of the Palestinian plight and to the theological imperative to act.
In a decisive vote, 266-116, commissioners attending last week’s General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) approved a resolution titled, “On Recognition That Israel’s Laws, Policies, and Practices Constitute Apartheid Against the Palestinian People.”
The New England Conference of the United Methodist Church condemned Israel’s apartheid system June 11 by an 88 percent to 12 percent vote. The move comes at a key moment in the movement by Christian churches to attack by name the apartheid treatment of Palestinians. The Presbyterian Church will vote on their apartheid “overtures” in the first week in July, while the Episcopal Church is expected to vote on apartheid the following week.
“The continued occupation in Palestine/Israel is 21st century slavery.” With these words, Rev J. Herbert Nelson II, the Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church USA, demonstrated his courage in acknowledging the humanity of Palestinians.
The Presbyterian podcast “A Matter of Faith” devotes an episode to Israel-Palestine in a conversation with Noushin Framke.
The western leaders who praise Desmond Tutu are ignoring a central legacy. His brief tours of Palestinian communities aching under the weight of Israeli tyranny quickly led him to condemn Israeli apartheid. His understanding of the essence of the Christian message as one that actively sides with the downtrodden drove him to support the Palestinian boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement.
One year after Chicago Episcopalians knocked down a resolution condemning Israeli apartheid by a sizeable margin, its convention approved a similar resolution by 72 to 28 percent. The turnaround is a measure of the dramatic rise in American awareness of the Israeli system, and reflects the judgments of two leading human rights organizations earlier this year.
Churches in the Middle East and organizations representing Christians have condemned the violence in Gaza that killed more than 240 over the past two weeks, and Israeli aggressions in Jerusalem. Here is a rundown of the latest statements from leading ecclesiastical organizations.