Palestinian Christians Cry Out, Part II

This week, we take a deep dive into the remaining sections of Kairos Palestine II- “A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide.” You can access the full document here.

A consistent throughline of Kairos Palestine II is that there can be no enduring solution to the crisis of Palestine-Israel without first dismantling oppressive, racist systems. The Palestinian Christians dream of new horizons of hope, justice, and equality, but they know that these dreams can only become reality if the barriers that block these dreams are removed:

• “To speak of a political solution today is futile unless we first undertake the serious work of acknowledging and rectifying past wrongs – beginning with recognition of the historic injustice done to Palestinians since the rise of the Zionist movement and the Balfour Declaration. Any genuine beginning must involve dismantling settler colonialism and the apartheid system built on Jewish supremacy as codified in Israel’s racist Nation-State Law. {4.2}.”

The Palestinian Christian community also names Christian Zionism as a major obstacle, and calls on the global Church to repudiate Zionist theology:

• “Christian Zionism calls on a tribal, racist god of war and ethnic cleansing, teachings utterly alien to the core of Christian faith and ethics. Christian Zionism must therefore be named for what it is: a theological and moral corruption. After all efforts to invite Christian Zionists to genuine repentance have been exhausted, moral, ecclesial, and theological responsibility requires that they be held accountable and that their ideology be rejected and boycotted {3.7}.”

A significant contribution of the Kairos Palestine II is its description of genocide in ways that go beyond the technical definitions of international law, in ways that ground it historically and theologically. First, grounding genocide in their history:

• “Genocide…began in the minds of the settler-colonial powers of Europe when they denied the image of God in others and legitimized death, domination, and slavery. We consider the State of Israel, established in 1948, to be a continuation of that same colonial enterprise built on racism and the ideology of ethnic or religious superiority. This project settled Palestine and worked to displace the indigenous people of Palestine from the time of the Nakba until today. Our present Palestinian reality is the inevitable outcome of Zionist ideology and the supremacist settler-colonial movement, itself a product of the imperial mindset {3.3}.”

Second, grounding genocide theologically:

• “Genocide is a structural sin against God, against humanity, and against creation. It stands in direct opposition to the great commandment of love, the summary of the whole law (Galatians 5:14). Those who deny the genocide committed against the Palestinian people of Gaza – despite the overwhelming evidence, testimonies, and even the statements of the Zionists themselves – deny the very humanity of the Palestinian people [3.4}.”

The pain and brokenness of the Palestinian Christian community comes through loud and clear. They wonder what “Christian fellowship” and “Christian communion” means when so many in the American church are denying, supporting, justifying, or remaining silent before genocide. They are asking: how can you claim to be in communion with us when your actions deny our very humanity? At the same time, they are deeply grateful to churches that have stood in public solidarity with them in their darkest hour:

• “We express our gratitude to all churches that have recognized the injustice inflicted upon us and the genocidal war in Gaza. We salute all the voices that have taken a religious and moral stand against Zionism and so-called Christian Zionism – rejecting genocide and apartheid and calling for an end to arms shipments to Israel and for the prosecution of war criminals. We hear in these voices support of our hope, a sign of the Holy Spirit, and the presence of moral conscience in humanity {3.5].”

Kairos Palestine II lifts up the BDS movement – the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement inspired by the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and the Montgomery Bus Boycott in the Black Civil Rights movement. The Palestinian Christian community sees the BDS movement as an “effective form of creative resistance rooted in the logic of love and nonviolence {2.5}.”

• “We repeat and emphasize our appeal to the churches of the world – working together with both religious and secular coalitions – to pressure their governments to isolate Israel, hold it accountable, impose sanctions, boycott it, and to ban the export of arms until it complies with international law, ends oppression and tyranny, and adheres to the principles of justice and peace {3.10}.”

There is a deeply Christian character to this declaration, not only in its prophetic insistence on justice and equality, but also in its profound love and caring toward the members of its own community and the environment. Four aspects of this pastoral caring shine through…

1) tending the environment:

• “In the face of the ecocide perpetrated by Israel in Gaza and…the environmental destruction in the West Bank that threatens future generations, we renew our belonging to this land and our rootedness in it. We affirm the sanctity of life and the duty to care for creation {2.6}.”

2) caring for the disabled:

• “We recognize the urgent need to protect all those who are vulnerable in society: the victims of occupation and colonization: people with disabilities, especially those who have lost limbs; the brokenhearted, the grieving; al all who are marginalized for any reason including victims of domestic or social violence, economic exploitation and gender-based abuse [2.7].”

3) lifting up the essential contributions of women:

• “Among the faces of steadfastness and hope in our society stands the Palestinian woman – grandmother, mother, sister, and daughter – the unbending backbone, partner in the struggle, holding together home, land, memory, and future all at once…There can be no true liberation without her full participation at every level of decision-making and nation-building [2.8].”

4) preserving the Christian presence in the land of Christ’s birth:

• “Our message to ourselves as Palestinian Christians is this: We feel the weight of history upon our shoulders and we are determined to preserve the Christian witness in this Holy Land….The preservation of the Christian presence is both a national cause and priority….We are the sons and daughters of the first Church…We do not live on the margins of this land. We are woven into its fabric. We carry its history and heritage. Its very soil knows us as its own….the bells of our churches continue to ring – bearing witness to the truth and proclaiming resurrection every day {2.9, 2.10}.”

Kairos Palestine 2025 – “Faith in a Time of Genocide” - closes by invoking the God of the oppressed - “We renew our word of hope in the God of the poor, the oppressed, and the downtrodden…We declare our adherence to our faith in a holy and just God, and in the right God has given us to live with dignity on our land and the land of our ancestors. This is our hope. This is our steadfastness. This is our resistance {4.1}.”