Call to Action for Justice & Peace in Palestine
Dear Pilgrim Praxis Readers: This post comes with heavy heart and high commitment to respond to the catastrophe we have been watching over 75 years and especially since October 6th of last year. Countless Palestinians have been killed (estimates start at 31,000 today but more lie under rubble, and executions, bombing, and dying of famine and disease goes on unabated.)
The United Nations Security Council has called for a ceasefire but Israel seems intent on defying this global call. The President of Colombia is calling on nations to cut diplomatic relationships with Israel if it defies the call. People of faith everywhere join Palestinians in the call for an end to ethnic cleansing and genocide and finally the pursuit of justice and peace in Palestine.
The letter which follows was created by members and friends of the United Church of Canada responding to cries for help and solidarity from Palestinian Christians and to mandates the UCC has given itself. Please read this letter, search out more information, and speak out calling for justice and peace for ALL in Palestine. To write the Church officials: cge@united-church.ca; the UCC website includes letters sent by the Moderator and General Secretary.
For an informed history of the 75 years, read the remarkable volume by Israeli professor of history (at Exeter U in UK) Ilan Pappe entitled "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" or watch the interview with him for 25 minutes on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5CpuPEgLJU. The UCC website includes letters sent by the Moderator and General Secretary
TO:
EXECUTIVE OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL of THE UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA, and its members
The Moderator, The Right Rev. Dr. Carmen Lansdowne
The General Secretary, The Rev. Dr. Michael Blair March 21, 2024
cc. Commissioners of the General Council
The Rev. Dr. Japhet Ndhlovu, Executive Minister, Church in Mission
Ms. Jocelyn Bell, Editor, Broadview magazine.
“Justice is driven back and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled like a drunk in the streets, honesty cannot enter. Truth is nowhere to be found and whoever shuns evil becomes prey. Yahweh looked and was displeased that there was no justice. God was appalled that there was no one to intervene.” (Isaiah 59:14-16)
Dear Members of the General Council Executive (GCE) of the United Church of Canada (UCC)
We write to you, the elected and appointed leaders of the United Church of Canada, to call for a comprehensive, prophetic, and urgent response to the genocide and other war crimes occurring in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
As you will recall, we wrote to the GCE on November 9, 2023 requesting the UCC to write to the Prime Minister calling for a ceasefire, respect for international humanitarian law on the part of all parties to the conflict, humanitarian aid to Gaza, and a just resolution to the decades-long Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. We also requested educational actions in support of responses to the crisis by UCC communities of faith across the country.
Since last October, the situation has continued to deteriorate, with most Gazans driven by the Israeli military into the southern margin of the Gaza strip, and thousands currently facing starvation. Housing, hospitals, churches, mosques, universities, schools, bakeries, and small businesses have been destroyed in the bombardments. The majority of the more than 31,000 killed have been women and children. The extent of this human-made catastrophe and the inability, to date, of the international community to bring the conflict and destruction to an end, is shocking and appalling.
We believe the current catastrophe – the culmination of 75-plus years of injustice and endless bloodshed – in Gaza and in the illegally occupied and settled West Bank areas, including East Jerusalem – demands urgent faith-based, prophetic witness and action, and generous pastoral care for all concerned. We are speaking out again because mandates and scripture clearly demand that our whole Church respond to this human tragedy with compassion, lament, outrage, and faithful action and prayer.
We expect the leadership of our Church to initiate and be at the forefront of denomination-wide witness and action to confront and stop the continuing genocide in Palestine and address the root causes of the oppression of the Palestinian people. The slaughter must stop, as must Israel’s apartheid regime of oppression and settler colonial domination. The way to just peace must be found through negotiation leading to self-determination where all peoples of Palestine – Muslims, Jews, Christians, Druze, Baha’i, non-religious – in all their diversity are free to enjoy full and equal rights.
Mandates and Messages Calling for Action
1. This 44th General Council (GC) and, you, its Executive (CGE) have challenged the whole church:
- Through the Strategic Plan 2022-2025. We were called to: “witness in love and justice to the liberating healing Christ risen in this place and time,” “to be a bold, connected, evolving church of diverse, courageous, hope-filled communities united in deep spirituality, inspiring worship and daring justice;” “to have a common orientation towards work that is deep, bold, and daring;” “to embolden justice: collaborating to mend church and world.”
- Seven principles were developed to guide the Church’s justice work: anti-oppression, truth-telling, holistic scope, respect for human dignity, full participation and decolonization, equity mutuality and reparations, and costly and prophetic solidarity. (cited in Broadview, March 2024, p.53)
2. Palestinian Christians sent an open ecumenical letter to the western churches calling us to repent for ignoring the ongoing oppression and, now, horrific devastation of both people and place in Palestine. “…We are disturbed by the silence of many church leaders and theologians when it is Palestinian civilians who are killed. We are also horrified by the refusal of some western Christians to condemn the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestine and the oppressive and racist military occupation that constitutes the crime of apartheid.” “We hold western church leaders and theologians who rally behind Israel’s wars accountable for their theological and political complicity in the Israeli crimes against Palestinians which have been committed over the last 75 years.”
3. The International Court of Justice (ICJ), responding to the application of the government of the Republic of South Africa, made a provisional judgment in January 2024 indicating that genocidal conditions in Gaza are plausible:
The court cited various examples showing that the Israeli action is aimed at Palestine and not only Hamas.
The court considers urgency and concludes that there is possibility of irreparable harm to the Palestinians should it not order provisional measures at this stage. The healthcare system and breakdown of public order and epidemic is identified with irreversible conditions as declared by the UN.
The court notes Israel says the war will continue for several months. Meanwhile Gazans do not have basic conditions for life. Therefore, the catastrophic conditions will further deteriorate before the court makes a final order.
Israel must take all acts to prevent all conditions in Article 2 of the Genocide Act, that is, to not commit any acts of Genocide.
(https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240126-sum-01-00-en.pdf)
4. Some Canadian churches, including the UCC, having heard the call of Palestinian Christians for repentance, recently responded with a letter and “confessed, with contrite hearts and deep sorrow for the ways we have failed God, you, and all who are our family in faith in the land of the Holy One. We decry the devastating loss of life in Gaza, particularly the deaths of thousands of children. We condemn the lack of moral and political leadership from our government. We must do all we can to protect the human rights and struggle of Palestinians for justice, security, freedom, and dignity.” “We confess our complicity in the violence.”
“We acknowledge our complicity in the dehumanization of you as Palestinians, beginning with our apathy in the 1948 Nakba that displaced hundreds of thousands of your families from their homes and communities, and which continues with our ongoing complicity in the daily displacement of your families and neighbours today.”
“We confess that our colonial doctrines and the ways in which we read the Bible have been used to justify war, apartheid, discrimination, and ethnic cleansing here in the land called Canada, and to tolerate and justify it in Palestine and other places.”
“We commit to continue working with you to end the ongoing illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine. We commit to continue mobilizing our fellow Canadians for action.” … https://presbyterian.ca/2023/12/20/open-letter-to-palestinian-christians-from-christians-in-canada/
“Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, so that you may live and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” (Deuteronomy 16:20)
Summary
As of today, we are all agreed that none of us has done enough. We believe profoundly that the imperatives, mandates, and the messages from Palestinians, the Canadian Churches, the International Court of Justice, along with our foundational Christian documents – scripture, creeds, GC reports like “Mending the World” – compel our Church to more faithful action.
We must stop failing the Palestinian people.
We believe that there is a pent-up concern - in the Church and perceptible globally - which apprehends (as did the ICJ) that Israel’s war on Hamas is part of a much larger comprehensive genocidal effort by the Zionist Israeli government to ethnically cleanse Palestine – Gaza and the Occupied Territories and East Jerusalem – of Palestinians so that a final resettlement of these territories by Israelis may take place.
The Israeli cabinet has approved a military ground invasion assault plan on Rafah; it has been blocking the necessities of life from reaching starving and wounded Palestinians; it continues the bombardment terrorizing hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians corralled in south Gaza and killing many daily.
In the face of this apocalyptic, hugely asymmetrical conflict, the phrases “Deep Spirituality, Bold Discipleship, and Daring Justice” are empty without action. We acknowledge gratefully the several letters that have been sent by the Moderator and the Chair of the National Indigenous Council, and by the General Secretary to express concern and to “amplify the voices of members” about the horrors they have witnessed.
It is simply not enough. We are failing the Palestinian people and our partners in Palestine.
To our knowledge, the GCE has not met specifically to discuss the gravity and devastating consequences of this current and historic murderous assault on world peace, on relations between peoples and religions, on all our partners in faith. Our Church has undertaken no special or sacrificial action to respond to the tragedy God and the human community are witnessing. We lament this lack of will for courageous and prophetic witness which our Strategic Plan is affirming and calling us to live out.
The decision was taken at the last GC, as we understand it, to effectively suspend consideration of new prophetic action and policies related to Palestine/Israel until the justice principles were approved and apparently until further work was done on internal antisemitism within the United Church of Canada. The justice framework was approved in principle at the last annual GC meeting and it was said they could be applied on experimental or trial basis.
However, there is an overall perception on the part of many that as a denomination we are somehow in a special state of waiting and there is an ethos of constraint impeding us from taking bold leadership in addressing the genocide and the more than 75 years of oppression. The historic urgency of this time requires us to take immediate and concerted action to fully address all the issues brought to the 44th GC by at least 5 regional councils and do it now even while other important work moves forward.
There can be no experimental or constrained approach to the justice which God requires of us.
As God stands appalled witnessing injustice and slaughter, and because the Kairos moment is now, we are compelled to call for unprecedented levels of faith-driven defense of life, justice, and peace in the name of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We remember Jesus’ words: “If these [disciples] were silent, the stones would shout out.” (Luke 19:40) The silenced voices under the Gazan rubble still call us.
We know how difficult it is for many concerned about this catastrophe to be able to raise their voices to communicate their concerns and to engage through constructive action. Truth telling has become hazardous. We live in a time when the pro-Israel lobby has been effectively controlling the narrative and weaponizing the term “anti-Semitism”, a term which labels an evil all must resist. But when virtually any critique of the state of Israel and its actions against Palestinians is deliberately and falsely deemed to be “anti-Semitic,” then truth is stifled and, too often, innocents are punished.
Members of The United Church of Canada and all Canadians urgently need to be empowered to distinguish in their discourse between anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, anti-Judaism, critique of Israeli policies and actions, anti-Palestinianism, and Islamophobia, so that informed and thoughtful discourse can contribute to justice and peace.
Proposal for Action
In view of the urgency of the situation in Palestine and Israel and the sacred responsibility of the United Church to respond faithfully and generously now, without further delay,
We propose:
1. That the Moderator, in her role as spiritual leader of the Church,
a. send a pastoral letter to the entire Church in this season of death and resurrection and ask that it be read in all worship gatherings and other assemblies of the Church. Its aim is to communicate to the entire Church: the threat and harm caused by the catastrophic conflict in Palestine / Israel, the urgency in the face of death to choose life by responding faithfully to this catastrophe, to strive to learn more about this conflict, to act in the interest of justice and peace, life and well-being;
b. convene the General Council Executive in extraordinary session before Easter, to consider ways and means for the denomination to respond to the urgent call for justice and peace in Palestine – a denomination-shaping issue - and
c. recommend that the GCE “call a special meeting of the General Council” (Manual D.5.3.2.g.) to receive the recommendation of the GCE for an urgent action plan to involve the entire Church as this crisis represents a denomination-shaping issue. [Manual D.3.2 Special Meetings of the General Council. If it decides the circumstances are exceptional, the Executive of the General Council may call a special meeting of the General Council between regular meetings.]
d. forward this letter to the Commissioners of the General Council.
2. That the General Council Executive affirm the Moderator’s request to convene the General Council and
that the Executive and / or the General Council consider the following actions:
a. To assess the current relevant framework and policies pertaining to Palestine / Israel and to rescind any impediments constraining the Church’s prophetic witness.
b. To embrace the call and provide space for the voices of Palestinian partners of the UCC under the ethic of “nothing about us without us” when their life and future is discussed; to seek the advice of informed and independent Jewish witnesses, and suitable other resource persons, including GC office staff, Ecumenical Accompaniers appointed by the Church, religious and legal scholars like Prof. Yakov Rabkin, etc. for their discernment about the current catastrophe in light of its 75-year history.
c. To mobilize the entire denomination:
i. to call for the cessation of the genocide, address root causes in support of justice and peace in Palestine / Israel, and
ii. to embrace the UCC’s commitment to Palestinians’ self-determination and their full exercise of rights and freedoms under international law within the territories historically called Palestine, and
iii. call Israel to adhere to the Fourth Geneva Convention and resolutions of the United Nations in order that justice and peace may be made real for all who dwell in this tortured Holy Land.
d. To mandate the GCE and GC office and/or regional staff to immediately develop and implement comprehensive action plans to respond to the Palestine /Israel tragedy, including
i. To provide educational resources on a priority basis, as part of the Church’s overall Anti-Racism initiatives and de-colonializing imperatives, including UCC resources and others already developed by world Reformed and Methodist communions, Sabeel and Independent Jewish Voices, and other denominations and secular organizations;
and
in light of the increasing weaponization of “anti-Semitism,” special attention to provide resources that can assist members to distinguish between and speak truthfully and constructively about anti-Judaism, anti-Zionism, anti-Semitism, anti-Palestinianism, and Islamophobia, criticism of policy and actions of the government and state of Israel and of Palestinian governing bodies.
ii. To provide regular and frequent updates and resources to local communities of faith via the E-ssentials resource, UCC website, and other means of communication about this comprehensive action plan to encourage and empower UCC members
iii. To encourage members to donate sacrificially to established UCC partner bodies that foster renewal and well-being for all Palestinians, and especially children and youth.
e. To demand (in partnership with other denominations and organizations as possible) that the Government of Canada call for:
i. Immediate and permanent ceasefire,
ii. the release of all detainees under administrative detention and political prisoners by Israel and the hostages held by Hamas,
iii. immediate adequate provision of humanitarian necessities for Palestinian life;
iv. An immediate embargo on the transfer of military goods to Israel, including the cessation of new arms export authorizations, cancellation of previously approved permits, and halting of exports through third states, such as the U.S.
v. The historic rights including the right of self-determination and the right of return for Palestinians;
vi. explicit support for the case brought by South Africa to the ICJ, thereby demanding that Israel adhere to the requirements of international law, to the resolutions of the United Nations and to the judgements of the ICJ – using all diplomatic efforts to bring about justice.
vii. Full and equal adherence to requirements of international law, to the resolutions of the United Nations, and the judgements of the ICJ; and
viii. the International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute Israeli and Hamas leaders who committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine / Israel.
We believe that many UCC members and adherents and Canadian society as a whole are awaiting a robust, fully public, broadly visible, and prophetic UCC response to the historic and current catastrophe in Palestine / Israel, and that now is the Kairos moment for our Church to take bold, daring, and faith-based steps that reveal the United Church’s abiding and global commitment to the divine call for justice and peace for all members of God’s global family and for Creation itself.
We want to respond to God’s unconditional love and God’s persistent requirement of us, namely, “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)
In faith,
Steve Berube, Paula Butler, Chris Ferguson, Susan Ferguson, Pierre Goldberger, Dale Hildebrand, Glenys Huws, Bern Jagunos, Gary Kenny, Maria Morales, Hal Llewellyn, Karen MacKay Llewellyn, Harry Oussoren, Maureen Scott Kabwe, Margie Sumadh
Pilgrim Praxis
