The World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) continues its four-week campaign focused on Bethlehem and the Ush Ghurab area of Beit Sahour, entering now into its third week.
The conversation this week continues with the responses from partners from Kairos Palestine and inhabitants of Beit Sahour town, who engage in advocacy and witness to protect the Ush Ghurab area and the living Palestinian Christian community it sustains. Kairos Palestine shared their responses to questions from Muna Nassar, WCRC’s executive secretary for mission and advocacy, for last week and this week. Their responses spur the communion into action to accompany their advocacy.
You appealed to ‘churches, faith leaders, and the international community’ to move beyond statements and take immediate action. Looking back at that appeal: what responses have you received, and what forms of solidarity have proven most meaningful — or most disappointing?
So far, the responses we have received as a response to the appeal have been relatively limited compared to the urgency and gravity of the situation. The solidarity expressed mainly came through letters of support and endorsements from churches and ecumenical partners, online campaigns, media attention, liturgical resources and advocacy initiatives directed toward policymakers. At the same time, many responses have remained limited to expressions of concern without concrete follow-up or action, while land confiscation and settler violence continue to intensify.
The most meaningful forms of solidarity have been those that moved beyond symbolic statements toward concrete and sustained engagement — including churches and organizations that amplified Palestinian voices, integrated the issue into their worship and advocacy work such as this campaign by the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) campaign on Ush Ghurab, accompanied Palestinian communities on the ground, and were willing to challenge political complicity and systems of injustice through concrete ethical action. An important recent example was the endorsement of the second Kairos Palestine document by the United Church of Canada General Council Executive, which not only endorsed the document for study and reflection, but also called for concrete action. Their endorsement encouraged churches and communities to name the reality truthfully, advocate for accountability and international law, reject theologies that justify oppression, engage in courageous and costly solidarity, and support creative nonviolent resistance, including boycott, divestment, and Sanctions.
What truth, specifically, do you believe the global church is failing to speak about Palestine and why is that silence a theological failure, not merely a political one?
Many churches are failing to speak clearly the simple truth that Palestinians are fully human and that injustice against them cannot be justified theologically, politically, or biblically. Many churches remain silent because they are afraid of being labeled antisemitic whenever they show solidarity with Palestinians or criticize Israeli policies. This fear is deeply connected to the legacy of Christian antisemitism in Europe and the guilt many churches still carry after the Holocaust. Instead of liberating themselves through a theology rooted in justice and human dignity, many became trapped in a post-Holocaust theology that gives moral immunity to oppression when it is committed by Israel.
The rise of Christian Zionism has made this even worse, especially in some Western churches where biblical faith has been transformed into unconditional political support for power and occupation. In this theology, Palestinians, including Palestinian Christians, become invisible. But this silence is not merely a political failure; it is a theological one. Christianity loses its. moral credibility when it speaks about love, justice, and human dignity in general but becomes silent when these values demand a cost. The church continue preaching about speaking truth to power but fails to implement this, fearing its cost. The Gospel cannot be selective. A church that ignores the suffering of an oppressed people while protecting its institutional comfort, funding, political alliances, or public image betrays the heart of the Christian message.
Too often, churches have reduced themselves to humanitarian institutions that provide aid while avoiding prophetic witness. They feed the wounded but refuse to challenge the systems wounding them. Yet the role of the church is not only charity; it is truth-telling. If the church cannot stand clearly against injustice in the land where Christ himself lived under empire and occupation, then its theology risks becoming disconnected from the very Gospel it proclaims.
Christian Zionism has a significant influence in many global South contexts, in Pentecostal and evangelical communities, and in some Reformed bodies as well. How can one engage and conscientize about the danger of Christian zionism?
Christian Zionism is an ideology that has produced fear, violence, and destruction. If, as Jesus said, “You will know them by their fruits,” then its fruits must be examined critically: death, dispossession, and devastation. There is nothing Christlike in Christian Zionism. Christian Zionism weaponized the Good News of the Bible to promote and advance a theology that justifies oppression and violence.
Churches, theologians, pastors, and Christian institutions therefore have a responsibility to challenge biblical interpretations that sanctify domination and instead recover a liberative reading of scripture rooted in truth, justice, equality, and the sacredness of all human life. Conscientization also requires amplifying Palestinian Christian voices and testimonies. For too long, many churches in the Global South and elsewhere have encountered Palestine primarily through politicized biblical narratives rather than through the lived experiences of Palestinian Christians themselves. Hearing directly from Palestinian Christians — their theology, witness, suffering, steadfastness, and hope — helps dismantle harmful narratives and restores the human dimension that Christian Zionism often erases.
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Join WCRC next week for the fourth instalment of the Focus on Ush Ghurab through a webinar, Settlement Expansion in the West Bank, International Law, and the Church’s Response. The conversation will feature voices from Kairos Palestine and leaders from Beit Sahour. The webinar will begin on Tuesday, June 9, at 4 PM CEST. There will be time for questions and comments after the presenters speak. A recording of the webinar will be made available following the event.
Register for the webinar: tinyurl.com/wcrcwebinar
Moderator – Muna Nassar, executive secretary for mission and Advocacy of the WCRC
Philip Vinod Peacock, general secretary of the WCRC
Rifat Odeh Kassis, general coordinator of Kairos Palestine
Laith Qumsieh, mayor of Beit Sahour
Dalia Qumsieh, founder and director of The Balasan Initiative for Human Rights
Munther Isaac, pastor and director of the Bethlehem Institute of Peace and Justice
