On 13th August 2024, the Israel Palestine Committee, carrying out the instructions of the 2024 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, wrote to Rt Hon David Lammy, the new foreign secretary. https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/news-and-events/news/articles/church-writes-to-foreign-secretary-on-israel-gaza-war
There is always pressure for churches to be reacting and responding to world events and events at home. I remember when I was part of the Church of Scotland’s Church and Society Council (R.I.P) that convenors were constantly being asked to make statements and press releases. The broad range of views on most topics, the need to have General Assembly backing for important pronouncements, and the need to move beyond talk to action and not to speak in isolation from ecumenical and interfaith partners make this process fraught. There is a real possibility of producing a lot of words which affect nothing positively.
A recent example of a statement made in support of Palestinian Christians which caused an unforeseen negative reaction among some is the World Council of Churches’ ‘Statement of the escalating crisis in Gaza.’ The World Council of Churches, ‘a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism’ is a fellowship of 352 denominations from more than 120 countries, representing over 580 million Christians worldwide.[1] The executive committee of the WCC meeting in Bogota, Colombia 6-11th June 2024 produced the statement.[2] I can imagine the drafting and redrafting that went into writing that document, having been part of such drafting committees myself. On June 19th 2024, Kairos Palestine, ‘a Christian Palestinian movement’ born out of writing the Kairos Palestine document, wrote an open letter in response.[3] https://united-church.ca/news/kairos-palestine-responds-world-council-churches-statement
Ostensibly, the WCC statement was made in support of Palestinian Christians. The response of Kairos Palestine illustrates exactly why such statements can have the opposite effect to that intended.
First, Kairos Palestine’s letter firmly rejects the WCC description of Israel’s ‘ongoing military aggression in Gaza’ as an ‘escalating crisis’. The WCC statement is wary of using the word ‘genocide’, and does not reference the ICJ provisional finding that Israel is ‘plausibly committing genocide in Gaza’[4] or the UN Commission of Enquiry which concludes that ‘Israel is committing the crime of Extermination against the Palestinian people.’[5]
Litotes, the opposite of hyperbole, is often used for fear of causing offence. Its use here has caused great offence to Palestinian Christians and their supporters.
Secondly, the Kairos letter writers, normally polite and neutral in their responses, ‘deplore’ the failure of the WCC statement to set the ongoing atrocities in the context of the ‘seven decades colonial regime’ and occupation and increasing escalation of violence, house demolition, settler expansion, displacement and arrests in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
As a consumer of media here in Israel I see the outrage felt by Israelis about October 7th, who feel violated and very afraid, recycled in every bulletin. It is very rare for the context of occupation and the sense that the world was not paying attention, which emboldened the Hamas attack, to be mentioned. The same omission in the WCC statement is thus felt even more deeply.
‘As the statement lays out the drastic statistics of the genocide in Gaza, it does not directly point to Israel, the perpetrator.’[6]
The WCC statement is also criticized for using strong language of condemnation for Hamas’ actions without using the same strong condemnation of Israeli actions. There is talk of the need for increased humanitarian aid without condemning the deliberate withholding of aid.[7] ‘No amount of aid can replace the Palestinian quest for freedom and justice. This should be the essence of the statement and any act of solidarity.’[8]
Statements, in an attempt to be fair, often ‘both side’ the criticism of violence and the call for accountability, ‘despite,’ as the Kairos letter says, ‘the stark differences in power dynamics.’ The result is ‘to obscure the massive asymmetry of powers and the seven decades of colonization of Palestinian land and oppression of its people.’ Both side-ism equates the nearly 40,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza and the 1200 Israelis killed on October 7th. Kairos Palestine ‘upholds the God-given sanctity of life for all people’[9] but the media, generally, does not. Palestinians are ‘terrorists’ and Israeli soldiers are ‘patriots defending their country’. Rarely are Palestinians described as acting in self-defense.
The WCC statement rightly condemns sexual atrocity against Israelis, but does not condemn longstanding practices used by the Israeli military to sexually humiliate: ‘forced public nudity, forced public stripping, sexualized torture and abuse and sexual humiliation and harassment.’[10]
In its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages in Gaza and all persons detained in Gaza and the West Bank without due legal process the WCC statement again fails to recognize the asymmetry. There are an estimated 140 hostages in Gaza and nearly 9000 Palestinian prisoners, almost 3,500 held without charge.[11]
I find myself extremely uncomfortable with the numbers game, since every human life is precious, but unless the numbers are used, the inequality and scale of the injustice is obscured.
The WCC statement ‘urges all members of the international community to rediscover their moral and legal commitment to the equal rights of all, to uphold and apply the principles of international law without discrimination and intensify efforts to promote and implement a just peace.’[12]
There is no explicit condemnation of the hypocrisy of western powers calling for peace and de-escalation while sending weapons of war and finance to Israel. There is no explicit mention of the striking interim findings of the International Court of Justice following the preliminary case brought by South Africa or the application of the International Criminal Court Prosecutor which calls for arrest warrants to be issued to leaders of both Israel and Hamas.
The Kairos Open Letter asks the World Council of Churches to ‘go beyond a call for immediate ceasefire to call for decolonization of the Palestinian lands and an end to oppression.’[13] I understand why the WCC has not done this. The existence of the State of Israel since 1948 is not on the table. The two state solution, increasingly imperiled by Israel’s illegal settlement construction, changing facts on the ground, is still the WCC position (as it is the Church of Scotland’s).
As I see it, the standard has to be recognition of the human rights of all people, both Palestinian and Israeli as ‘a cornerstone for peace’.[14] But this is only credible if the WCC offends many nations, including the UK and the USA, by calling out their hypocrisy.
This is the path trod by the prophets, and that is the final summary of the Kairos letter:
‘At the time of genocide, we need the churches and their widest ecumenical expression, the WCC, to voice their prophetic voice, to avoid neutrality and not to be “balanced” in the midst of genocide, and not to ignore a brutal colonization that preceded October 7th by seven decades.’[15]
The penultimate paragraph of the Kairos letter says, ‘We do not need a statement that comes 8 months too late, but rather an action plan for the implementation of the unique Christian message and mission which churches should contribute to the struggle against genocide and ethnic cleansing practiced by Israel against the Palestinians.’[16]
And there’s the rub: for what actions can Christians take? And what is unique about the Christian message? I return, as I often do, to the weathered stone which sits at the gateway to the Tent of Nations: We refuse to be enemies. Jesus’ call to love enemies and do good to those who persecute you is more than challenging.
The Kairos letter finishes with a quote from the original Kairos document (section 3.4.1):
The mission of the Church is prophetic, to speak the Word of God courageously, honestly and lovingly in the local context and in the midst of daily events. If she does take sides, it is with the oppressed, to stand alongside them, just as Christ our Lord stood by the side of each poor person and each sinner, calling them to repentance, life, and the restoration of the dignity bestowed on them by God and that no one has the right to strip away.
Although statements from churches about world events and injustices are often called for, and when written are agonized over to get the wording ‘right’, it is easy for others to see what is ‘wrong’, as Kairos Palestine’s reaction to the Bogota statement of June 2024 shows.
What is needed is deeper theological reflection that leads to action, so that statements are not so much position papers but statements of intent and calls to action.
It makes sense then to have fewer statements but make them bolder, more prophetic and more practical.
As always, the views expressed in this blog are personal and not the views of the Church of Scotland.
[2] https://www.oikoumene.org/resources/documents/statement-by-the-world-council-of-churches-on-the-recent-escalation-of-violence-in-the-middle-east
[5] https://www.ohchr.org/en/news/2024/06/commission-inquiry-occupied-palestinian-territory-concludes-israeli-authorities-and
[6] Open Letter paragraph 3.
[7] There is evidence that Hamas have also prevented distribution of food aid.
[8] Open Letter paragraph 4.
[9] Open Letter Paragraph 5.
[10] https://www.ohchr.org/en/news/2024/06/commission-inquiry-occupied-palestinian-territory-concludes-israeli-authorities-and
[12] WCC Statement page 3.
[13] Open Letter paragraph 9.
[14] Open Letter paragraph 9.
[15] Open Letter paragraph 9b.
[16] Open Letter paragraph 9c.