On Holy Saturday, we held a multi-faith vigil for Palestine in the Lower Gardens in Bournemouth. We walked in solemn procession to the pier, dug a grave in the sand and buried dolls representing the 15,000+ babies killed by Israel in Gaza. I spoke briefly about the Palestinian Christian community and their resilient faith contrasted by the silent complicity and cowardice of Western church leaders unwilling to hear and respond to their cry for justice.
“Gaza today has become the moral compass of the world”,[1] insisted the Reverend Dr. Munther Isaac in his now famous 2023 Christmas sermon, entitled, “Christ in the Rubble.”[2] It is sobering to realise that for the first time in history, genocide is being recorded live on social media by the victims themselves. No one can now say they did not know.
The struggles Palestinian Christians face today
I am sure like me you are here because you feel you have no choice. It is a moral imperative to show solidarity with people in Gaza and Palestine. Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing genocide. Palestinians in the Occupied Territories are living under apartheid. They are facing ethnic cleansing. The Palestinian Christian community is a double minority, among Jews in Israel and among Muslims in Palestine. They are close to extinction. Frankly I believe this is part of the Zionist strategy. As you may know Christian Zionists outnumber Jewish Zionists 10 to 1.
- The Zionist movement depends heavily on unilateral US military and financial support and vetos in the UN. The presence of an indigenous Palestinian Christian community is an inconvenient truth. Zionists want to portray this as an eternal religious war – Christians and Jews against Muslims. The presence of an indigenous Christian community undermines that narrative. Ironically, Palestinian Christians represent the mother Church. They trace their origins to the Day of Pentecost. In the Acts of the Apostles, Arabs are mentioned in the list of ethnic groups present. Palestinians were responding to the good news of Jesus Christ centuries before the Gospel reached our pagan shores in England. When the Archbishop of Canterbury initially refused to meet with Revd Munther Isaac, allegedly to avoid offending the Jewish community, a Guardian article quoted Munther as saying,
“The small Christian community in Gaza has discovered what is hell on earth. Most of them have lost their homes… There is no life left for them. This war will most likely bring an end to Christian life in Gaza. Everyone wants to leave.
“It is so painful for us to see the Christian church turn a blind eye to what is happening, offering words of concern and compassion, but for so long they have been silent in the face of obvious war crimes. Churches seem paralysed, and they seem willing to sacrifice the Christian presence in Palestine for the sake of avoiding controversy and not criticising Israel. …
“If it has not become clear to the world that this is a war of vengeance aimed at destroying the possibility of life in Gaza, and not a war on Hamas, I am not sure what more proof people need. The destruction of schools, universities and hospitals is everywhere. The Israeli soldiers brag and joke about it. How is the killing of 12,000 children a war on Hamas?”How tragic that Palestinian Christians feel ignored and abandoned by the Church in the West. They demand justice – only justice. Because peace without justice is appeasement.
What is the role of faith in justice?
Our faith – this is our understanding of God’s will – determines how we understand justice and respond to perceived injustice. As followers of Jesus Christ, by stark contrast to Zionists, our struggle for justice requires the repudiation of violence as the means of resolving injustice. On Good Friday, Jesus expressly repudiated the idea that, as a king, his followers would or should fight for him. This is why in the Sermon on the Mount he had promised his followers blessings as they struggle against opposition in order to follow him,
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:11-12)
This is our jihad. Jihad is translated in English as “Holy War”. It literally means “struggle”. In the New Testament, the language of conflict and warfare is used to describe the struggle Christians face in living the holy life as God intends. In the Christian Scriptures the ‘enemy’ is never identified as other people, but evil forces at work in the world. The apostle Paul wrote,
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:10-12)The evil powers are therefore spiritual in nature and heavenly in source, supernatural, evil and demonic. Zionism is but one contemporary manifestation. Christian Zionism is therefore a heresy and a prostitution of our faith.
Cowardice of the Church in the UK
I am deeply ashamed of our government’s refusal to impose sanctions on Israel, to ban arms exports and support the ICC and ICJ investigations into genocide and war crimes. Or even demand Gazans be given immediate and full access to food, water, fuel, shelter and medical supplies.
But I feel more than shame at the silence of Church leaders. I feel anger toward so called religious leaders who are failing to give moral leadership and pressure the government to comply with UN resolutions and uphold the rule of international humanitarian law. Where are the Archbishops and Bishops today? They still refuse to acknowledge let alone condemn Israel for imposing apartheid, and perpetrating ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza and Palestine. They are false prophets crying ‘peace, peace’ when there is no peace. They have not only lost their voices but also their moral authority. Why is this? There is an unhealthily close and long-standing relationship between the leaders of the Church of England with the Board of Deputies of British Jews, who describe themselves, unapologetically, as a pro-Israeli lobby.[1] This has merely confirmed their unwillingness over many years to engage with the indigenous Palestinian Christian leadership, whether Sabeel Jerusalem or Kairos Palestine, who represent all mainstream denominations in Palestine.
Immediately following the Hamas atrocities of 7thOctober, the archbishops, both in their public statement and in correspondence to the Board of Deputies, demonstrated ‘solidarity’ with Israel, without any recognition of the 75 years of brutal military occupation which had led to the Hamas attack. Significantly, all four statements the Archbishops and bishops have published since October 2023, perpetuate the falsehood that Israel has the “right of defence”. In international law an occupying power has no right of defence whatsoever. It is the Palestinians who have not only the right of defence, but also the right to resist Israel by the use of force. When referring to Israeli and Palestinian casualties, the Bishops use different terminology. While Israeli casualties resulted from “abhorrent terrorist attacks” Palestinian casualties were a consequence of Israel exercising its “right to self-defence”, justifying the distinction by claiming there is “no equivalence” between the two sides. According to the bishops, Hamas has acted “in violation of international law” whereas Israel’s actions have only been “inconsistent with international law.” The emotive language used in their statements to describe the actions of Hamas included, “abhorrent”, “atrocities”, “pogrom”, “terrorist action”, “brutality”, “human shields” and “indiscriminate”.
These contrast markedly with words used to describe Israel’s actions. Significantly, none of these words were used. Instead, more neutral terms were employed such as “proportional”, “discriminate”, “bombardment” and “ground offensive”. The most frequent term used, however, was “self-defence”, the archbishop even referring to his desire for a “military victory”. The statements also studiously avoid using terms such as “apartheid”, “ethnic cleansing”, “war crimes” or “genocide”. If Gaza is indeed the moral compass of the world, it is evident that the Church of England leadership are relying upon a very different compass – one that steers them to prioritise their relationship with the Israel lobby over that of the people of Palestine, and in particular, our sisters and brothers within the Palestinian church now close to extinction. To the leadership of the Church of England, I respectfully ask, where is your moral conscience?
A Message of solidarity across religions
If our political and religious leaders have failed Palestine, what can we do? I commend to you the work of Sabeel and Kairos and two other NGO’s – ICAHD UK which is dedicated to challenging apartheid and building democracy in Palestine and also the Convivencia Alliance which brings together Jews, Muslims and Christians dedicated to one democratic state in Palestine – from the river to the sea. We must work together with people of faith, Jews and Muslims especially who share our vision of justice and peace. We must first and foremost pray to the God of justice to bring an end to this evil, will punish war criminals and bring swift justice and lasting peace to Palestinians free in their own land.
And we must act. If our leaders won’t impose sanctions yet, we can boycott and divest from companies profiting from or facilitating the genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.
Divestment is, as you know, one of the three strategies – Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS for short). It is a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity. Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the BDS call urges action to pressure Israel to comply with international law and bring an end to Israeli apartheid and settler colonialism in Palestine. Boycotts and Divestment are like two hands – they complement each other. On the one hand we can boycott goods and services from Israeli and international companies profiting from, or facilitating, the colonisation of Palestine, the illegal settlements in the West Bank and genocide in Gaza. The other hand – divestment campaigns urge banks, local councils, churches, pension funds and universities to withdraw investments from Israeli and international companies that sustain Israeli apartheid. As individuals we can also withdraw our savings, shares, or investments in the same companies we are boycotting.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu compared South Africa with Palestine.
“The end of apartheid stands as one of the crowning accomplishments of the last century, but we would not have succeeded without the help of international pressure… If apartheid ended, so can the occupation, but the moral force and international pressure will have to be just as determined. The current divestment effort is the first, though certainly not the only, necessary move in that direction.”
Palestine’s Christians are resisting evil – non-violently – sacrificing their possessions, their land, and in many cases their lives. If Gaza is indeed the moral compass of the world – if Christ is under the rubble with his faithful people in Palestine, what is he calling you and I to do this Easter, to show that we are faithful in following him?
