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Connection
Reflection on a Visit to the West Bank
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FALL 2024
PRESBYTERIAN
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In May, the Rev. Christian Per- saud (from the Life and Mission Agency), the Rev. Dr. Dorcas Gor- don (from the International Affairs Committee), the Rev. Ian Ross- McDonald (General Secretary of the Life and Mission Agency) and Wendy Gichuru (staff with the United Church in Canada) re- sponded to the invitation of part- ners in Palestine and Israel to visit in order to witness and hear about the worsening conditions there.
During the visit, the group spent seven days in conversa- tion with Palestinian Christians, leaders both in the churches and in civil society, Palestinian non- governmental organizations, an Israeli human rights and Jewish religious group, and visited World Council of Churches offices, UN agencies and met with the Repre- sentative of Canada to the Pales- tinian Authority.
The people the group met with desperately want peace and look for ways Palestinians and Israelis can live together peacefully in the land.
The right of Israel to exist or defend itself was not an issue, as is sometimes reported. What the group heard was people pointing out that the Israeli government has failed to fulfill its obligation under the Geneva Convention to protect occupied people. There- fore, because of their status as subjugated/occupied people, Pal- estinians need the commitment and advocacy of both the Canadi- an government and the churches to bring about peace with justice.
The group heard from church leaders and groups that Palestin- ians feel angry and abandoned after 76 years of isolation, hard- ship, betrayal and the incremental loss of culture, communities and lives. Well before October 2024, thousands of Palestinians had been killed and millions displaced
and forced into exile.
Palestinian Christians are frus-
trated at the failure of both the Canadian Government and Chris- tian churches around the world to name honestly and accurately what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank. People associated with UN agencies the group visited say they have not witnessed a situa- tion like what is happening in Gaza today in 30 years of experience.
Local partners challenge the use of terms such as human rights, international law and the equality of all, while at the same time failing to name what is hap- pening in Gaza as genocide and the violence throughout the Occu- pied Territories as ethnic cleans- ing. They want the churches and the government to do more in de- manding a permanent ceasefire. They want churches and govern- ments to, as happened in South Africa, support boycotts, finan- cial divestment and sanctions to apartheid, and protest crimes.
There is mounting evidence of the Israeli government’s stated goal to have the whole land from the river to the sea as a Jewish state with Palestinians “transferred out” or permanently subjugated. Par tners asked us to understand that on finishing with Gaza, the Israeli government will turn to the occupied West Bank, based on the increased violence and persecu- tion people are experiencing in that area. They told the group that since October 7, with all eyes on Gaza, ethnic cleansing has begun in earnest with increased killing of Palestinians and incarceration without charge, including many children. Entire villages have been emptied, resulting in displaced families. They point to the area in the northern West Bank set aside for a Palestinian state, now the site of new illegal Israeli settlements.
Palestinians plead for the Ca- nadian government to collaborate more diligently and persistently with international partners to stop the building of Israeli settlements, many of which are so large that the Palestinians call them colonial outposts.TheUNhasdeclaredthe settlements to be against the 4th
Geneva Convention. The Palestin- ian community implores the group to ask why Canada won’t do more to call for the end of checkpoints, building apartheid walls, illegal incarceration of children, home demolitions, and violence target- ing Palestinian farmers and Bed- ouins that forces them to abandon their land. They want Canada to vote at the UN against the occu- pation and to oppose the increas- ing number of Israeli laws that enshrine apartheid institutionally in every facet of their lives.
The group heard that clergy are regularly harassed and spat upon, churches are vandalized, cemeter- ies desecrated, and entry to places of worship is controlled by the Is- raeli police who limit access. This year, for the first time, Palestinian worshippers in Jerusalem were prevented from going to Bethle- hem at Christmas and Palestin- ian Christians in Bethlehem were barred from visiting Jerusalem at Easter. Government representa- tives from around the world opted to accompany Christians to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher as a means of protection.
“Where is the church? Where is the church’s courage and in- tegrity?” they asked. “Why is there little more than silence from
so many of the church’s pulpits and public platforms?” “Why is the church not mobilized to do more to challenge the misuse of scripture and theology to justify the perennial sins of racism, co- lonialism and murder?” These are damning questions, and under- standably, partners are drawing damning conclusions about the church’s inaction and silence.
The questions that the experi- ence of Palestinians raise for the church are difficult but urgent and the church must respond to them, and inevitably repent of the sinfulness of some of the answers. Local Palestinian part- ners repeatedly asked the church to name honestly and accurately the unvarnished reality of what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank. They are asking the church not to accept or tolerate euphemisms and indirect speech which, in this case, has lethal consequences.
People asked the church to have the courage to “name things as they are” and not accept euphe- misms and lies. Naming things as they are is difficult and uncomfor t- able work, but people of faith have the resources, moral responsibility andholyvocationtodothatwork. Truth-telling is never simple; it is usually unpopular and always costs. Simplistic responses and popularity are not gospel priori- ties, but justice and truth are. Pal- estinian Christians would have the church engage in risky truth telling, meaningful advocacy, and prophetic action and decisions. Or, as the words on the Lutheran Church in Bethlehem put it, they are asking the churches “to pro- claim the gospel of liberation and to lift up a culture of life and hope.”
The Rev. Dr. Dorcas Gordon (centre right) at the pres conference.