Send a letter to the Canadian Council of Churches and its member churches.

Palestinians called out to the world in the 2009 Kairos Palestine “Moment of Truth: a word of faith, hope and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering.”

With this Kairos Palestine set in motion a global movement, rousing the churches to action and awakening civil society to the reality of Palestinian suffering. However, the response was and continues to be wholly insufficient.

In June 2017 on the 50^th year of the occupation an open letter from Christians in Palestine to the National Coalition of Christian Organizations in Palestine (NCCOP) was sent to the World Council of Churches and the ecumenical movement saying “[w]e are on the verge of a catastrophic collapse. This could be our last chance to achieve a just peace.”

The call of the Palestinian Christians urged churches to:

·         recognize Israel as an apartheid state;

·         condemn the Balfour declaration as unjust;

·         take a clear theological stand against any theology or Christian group that justifies the occupation and privileges one nation over the other based on ethnicity or a covenant;

·         revisit and challenge religious dialogue partners;

·         defend the right of Palestinian Christians to resist the occupation creatively and non-violently support BDS.

·         publicly and legally challenge Christian organizations that discredit our work and legitimacy

Still Canadian churches remained silent. Then, Kairos II, A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide was released at the 16^th Kairos Conference in Bethlehem in November 2025. Kairos II names the genocide in Gaza, the “silent genocide” in the West Bank, and the ethnic cleansing and apartheid across historic Palestine.

The Canadian Council of Churches while somewhat active in regard to Palestinian human rights and international law at one time, has been at best quiet over the last few decades despite a more proactive approach by the World Council of Churches. To read more, check out the full post on our website.

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.

It is certainly well past time for the Canadian Council of Churches and its member denominations and affiliates to speak out, and support the call from Christian churches in Palestine. During over two years of genocide, the Canadian Council of Churches made one pathetic statement that did not name Israel’s occupation, apartheid, nor genocide, writing as if Gaza was a natural disaster of some sort, stating solidarity with Israelis and asking the Israeli government to allow aid.

Ask the Canadian Council of Churches and its members and affiliates how they can speak of Christian fellowship or communion while denying, supporting, justifying, or remaining silent in the face of genocide.