The Canadian Council of Churches (CCC) has remained shamefully apathetic in response to Palestinian Christians’ calls for solidarity. Meanwhile, CCC members like the United Church of Canada, made quick and decisive statements about the United States invasion of Venezuela. CCC is made up of 26 member churches which comprise 85% of all Christians in Canada. Despite the CCC and its member churches receiving over 2,700 letters asking for the Council to support the call for solidarity from Christians in Palestine (Kairos II)— CCC and its churches continue in silence.
Palestinian Christians are asking international Christians to:
- Take action to dismantle settler colonialism in and apartheid system of Israel
- Advocate for international action, protection, and accountability for war criminals and compensation for survivors
- Support global movements of resistance, advocacy, and popular pressure
- Ensure independence of decision-making and the right to self-determination
- Support a global theological movement that is rooted in the contexts and struggles of peoples oppressed by the world’s empires.
- Reject the oppression and injustice that is the theology of Christian Zionism
- Reject any and all attempts to conflate antisemitism with opposition to apartheid
- Creative resistance embodied in the popular Palestinian movements confronting occupation, settlement expansion, settler terrorism and apartheid
Since October 2023, the CCC has made one pathetic statement that only named, what they called “the devastating situation in Gaza”. This statement, which included no mention of apartheid, occupation, or genocide, came nearly two years into Israel’s escalated and ongoing genocidal campaign.
“As a Christian Palestinian denied since 1948 the inalienable right to return to my homeland, I view the silence of the Canadian Council of Churches—while a regime found by leading UN bodies and human rights organizations to be inflicting apartheid, occupation, and genocide on indigenous Palestinians—as a profound moral and legal failure, betraying both Christian ethics and Canada’s stated values.”
Khaled Mouammar, A Christian Palestinian Arab Semite from Nazareth denied the right to return since 1948 because of my religious and ethno-cultural category. former national president of the Canadian Arab Federation and a former member of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
That being said, the World Council of Churches (WCC) called for an end to Israel’s decades-long occupation, blockade, and systematic inequality imposed on the indigenous Palestinian people, as well as sanctions on Israel. Yet, CCC and its members continue to demonstrate apathy towards Palestinian Christians. CCC and its member churches also fail to speak out against Christian Zionist charities in Canada that are fuelling Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and genocide.
Therefore, we are renewing and expanding our call for the CCC and its member churches to:
- Support the call of Palestinian Christians by committing to the demands in the Kairos II call.
- Follow the lead of the WCC to by demanding an end to Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and genocide.
- Speak out against Christian Zionist charities that fund Israel’s settler colonial project.
READ MORE: Put Your Faith Into Action, End Your Apathy Towards Palestinian Christians
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