Church of England votes to hear Palestinian Christians on Israeli genocide in Gaza
Christian Palestinian mourners bid farewell to Saad Salameh and Foumia Ayyad, who were killed in an Israeli air strike that hit the Holy Family church in Gaza City, 17 July 2025
Elis Gjevori reports in Middle East Eye on 14 July 2026:
The Church of England has voted to hear Palestinian Christians, defying efforts by pro-Israel organisations to dismiss their testimony about Israel’s “settler colonialism” and “apartheid system”.
The General Synod, the Church’s legislative body, backed an amended motion on Monday urging congregations and institutions across England to “hear” and engage with testimonies produced by the group Kairos Palestine.
The Kairos document describes Israel as a “colonial enterprise” that has inflicted a “genocidal war on Gaza”. Synod members replaced the word “receive” with “hear”, making clear that the engagement did not require the Church to endorse every sentence.
The motion also recognised the document as “heartfelt expressions of the lived experience of Palestinian Christians” and called on the Church to stand with Palestinians in non-violent resistance to Israel’s occupation. It also rejected antisemitism, anti-Muslim hostility and other forms of religious and ethnic prejudice.
The vote marks an important break from a pattern in which western religious institutions have often discussed Palestinians while excluding Palestinian Christians from the conversation.
The Kairos II document, formally titled “A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide”, includes testimonies and calls for global campaigns of resistance, advocacy and popular pressure, including boycotts, divestment and sanctions. Palestinian Christian clergy and lay leaders published the document in November in response to Israel’s destruction of Gaza and escalating violence and ethnic cleansing across the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank. It also rejects Christian Zionism as a theology “produced by the theology of racism, colonialism, and ethnic supremacy”.
“Any genuine beginning must involve dismantling settler colonialism and the apartheid system built on Jewish supremacy, as codified in Israel’s racist Nation-State Law,” the document says.
The language used in the document echoes findings reached beyond Palestinian Christian circles.
A UN commission, Amnesty International and the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem have concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.
‘Document reflects trauma’
Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally backed the motion after visiting the region in June.
“The fear was palpable among everyone we met, Palestinian and Israeli. From Gaza to the north of Israel, from southern Lebanon to the West Bank, people across the region are traumatised by ongoing conflicts,” she told the Synod.
On Kairos II, Mullally said: “This document reflects the pain and trauma of the Palestinian people.” She said the Church must hold difficult conversations “and take the risk of engaging across divides”.