Kairos Palestine II leaders speak to PC(USA) delegation about their recent call for justice
Leaders convey the urgency faced by Palestinians living in Gaza and throughout the West Bank
BEIT SAHOUR, West Bank — Leaders that worked last year to publish Kairos Palestine — The Palestinian Christian Initiative called “A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide” met this week with the six-member delegation from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to explain the thinking behind the document, published in November.
The Rev. Jihyun Oh, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the PC(USA) and Executive Director of the Unified Agency, is leading the delegation.
“Some people see us as strangers in this land,” said Rifat Kassis, coordinator of Kairos Palestine, a Palestinian Christian ecumenical movement. “We are indigenous people.”
“We didn’t think we would write one 16 years after the first one, but we find we are living in an even worse reality of genocide and settler colonialism,” said Mays Nassar, project manager for Kairos Palestine. “We are uncompromising about our reality. We ask people of faith and governments to uphold this reality and join us in declaring this.”
Christians can “take concrete measures based on their faith to put pressure on their governments,” she said. “For us Palestinians, it’s faith-based resistance. We want to have a future for our children here.”
“We can’t just say, ‘we have a Kairos document,’” said Dr. Muna Mushahwar, a physician who also met with the delegation. “The language has to be as realistic and clear and as harsh as the facts on the ground.”
The war in Gaza has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians and more than 2,100 Israelis.
“The soft language we were asked to use — that doesn’t work anymore,” Mushahwar said. “We need straightforward language.”
A strong part of the document, Mushahwar said, looks “at our internal situation and calls our own people to get our house in order.” It also speaks about women and young people, many of whom have been blocked from higher education opportunities.
“What if we are one of those cultures who are occupied and fade away? We have to choose to assimilate into their system or die,” she said. “It’s our right to exist with dignity.”
The document “lists actions everyone can engage in,” including nonviolent resistance, Nasar said. “We feel an obligation to instill hope in younger generations. We know we have a clear message and a right to our land, our cause.”
It’s not a conflict, Kassis said. “It’s a military occupation, a colonial settler regime, apartheid, displacement and genocide. We want churches to stop normalizing violence.”
“We want churches to look at our churches with different eyes. The whole context is a context of oppression.” It’s like an earthquake, Kassis said. “It is structural violence practiced against us from birth to death.”
“This is the mission of the church,” he said. “When people are being slaughtered, when their homes are destroyed, it is the mission of the church to stop this.”
“Politics are too precious to be left to the politician,” Kassis said. “This is the ethical weight of the churches. We are looking for an ethical and moral voice to speak truth to power.”
The document “came out of the community,” Nassar said. “Women and young people have been involved in writing the document, and we also had partners and friends. It involved everyone, even Palestinian Muslims as well. We carry the responsibility to educate our Palestinian community so it’s representative of everyone.”
“In the document, we say that our resistance is in hoping. Your hope is a sort of resistance,” Mushahwar said. “It’s not a useless hope, but we need to make things work. If we are to preserve our way of living and who we are, this needs to be done.”
“In the U.S., you can say whatever you want about anything, but there is no real freedom of speech when it comes to Israel,” she said. “I don’t understand churches who say it’s not a genocide. When you say that, you’re saying we’re not good enough. This is unethical and unchristian.”
“You can’t unsee the reality of what you have witnessed,” Nassar said, thanking the PC(USA) for its historical support. “This second document is a renewed call for faith, hope and love for Palestinians.”
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