See also a commentary in support of Jewish people.
The 81st General Convention will convene at a moment as consequential as any in the recent history of Palestine and Israel. Since October 2023, Israel’s military attacks have killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and obliterated every element of community and society: homes, places of worship, hospitals, and schools, in actions that the International Court of Justice has judged to be plausibly genocidal. Conditions for Palestinians in the West Bank worsen daily, and in the United States, “student intifadas” at some college and university campuses have heated up conversations about this nation’s financial, military, and diplomatic support of Israel’s actions.
Not surprisingly, then, an unusually large number of resolutions focused on Palestine and Israel will be considered at Convention to bring the attention of deputies and bishops to these events. Four resolutions have particularly important policy implications for the Episcopal Church. A010, A011, A012, and D003 call for naming the policies of Israel toward Palestinians as apartheid and condemning those policies. D005 asks Convention to acknowledge that the global boycott, divest, and sanction movement is consistent with Episcopal Church policy and that the movement is a nonviolent means of ending Israel’s discriminatory policies. These resolutions highlight the dual role of resolutions: influencing church policy and providing prophetic witness.
Two resolutions, C027 and D012, seek to condition U.S. military aid to Israel, seemingly unlimited in recent catastrophic events, so that the aid is not used to promote further violence or in violation of human rights, a stance consistent with previous resolutions and U.S. law. Three resolutions, D007, D009, and D013, all address the emergent needs for ceasefire in Gaza and providing humanitarian aid, while also asserting that any solution for Palestinians and Israelis must include equal rights, freedom, and self-determination for all parties.
Rejecting the politicized theology of Christian Zionism and its destructive influence on public policy is the subject of D006. D004 affirms that Palestinians are among the indigenous people of the land, despite fraudulent claims to the contrary over many years, and honors their rights as such. C002 invites pilgrims to the Holy Land to engage contemporary realities during their visits and learn from Palestinians about living in faith under occupation.
Some people in the church have focused sharply on Hamas’s actions on October 7, 2023. We believe this singular focus ignores history and the context of decades of daily, grinding injustice against Palestinians. Indeed, on October 6, the people of Gaza were already existing in what UN Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk calls unlivable conditions of impoverishment and oppression from almost 20 years of Israel’s siege and blockade. “Managing the conflict,” an act of the powerful against the powerless, has displaced any hope for a just settlement.
Narrowing our perspective to one day out of so many allows us to completely dehumanize the fighters who broke out of their blockade on October 7, releasing the rage of decades. We default to tropes attributing the actions to people harboring ancient grievances, instead of confronting the obvious reality of a people struggling to break free of decades of discrimination and deprivation. Without context, we further risk seeing Israel’s horrific response as justifiable and sustainable. Israel’s actions, however, have not righted the wrongs of October 7, nor will they. They will only breed more suffering, more resistance, and more death and destruction, a situation Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi recently described as an abyss.
Resolution D007 has it right: “No lasting peace can be achieved nor justice established until Israel’s military occupation and control over Palestinians comes to an end and Palestinians and Israelis have equal rights, freedom, and self-determination.” These resolutions offer an opportunity for General Convention to move in that direction.
