The Church in solidarity with Palestine

On the morning of 14 July a significant motion in support of Palestinian Christians and fellow Palestinians was passed by the Church of England General Synod. In spite of intense lobbying from the Israeli Embassy, the Board of Deputies and vocal pro-Israel voices, the Carlisle motion has officially passed at the General Synod. It was passed with an overwhelming majority in all three houses, Bishops, Clergy and Laity, twenty-five bishops voting in favour, none against and five abstaining.

The Carlisle motion is emphasising the Church of England’s support for the Palestinian people.

One of the architects of the motion was The Venerable Stewart Fyfe, Archdeacon of West Cumberland, in the Carlisle diocese, hence the name of the motion. The other person involved was Valerie Hallard,  the original author, who is a member of Sabeel-Kairos, a campaigning Christian Charity which works with Kairos Palestine. This motion was before the Synod five years ago but was not passed until now.

The arguments against were that the document risked undermining ‘decades of careful relationship building’ between  the Palestinian Christians and Jews.

Archbishop Mullally, Archbishop of Canterbury, referring to her recent visit to the Holy Land last month, said the fear that the shrinking populations of Christians will get even smaller, is real; what is happening now is an existential threat to Christians in particular. 

The dissenters claimed that the ‘Kairos’ document (which inspired the motion)  contained ‘falsehood about Israel, harming the cause of peace and undermining Christian Jewish dialogue’.

In my opinion this is long overdue, most of the Christian organisations up to now have shown an appalling lack of support for Palestine and in fact it has been the opposite, massive support for Israel, particularly with Zionist Christians, has been disgraceful.

Now this motion has been passed we wait with bated breath to see how the motion will transfer into action to support it. There needs to be a robust response to all the atrocities that the Palestinian people suffer on a daily basis in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. Free Palestine!