by Simon Rocker, Jewish Chronicle
Kairos Palestine text brands Israel a ‘colonial settler entity’ and criticises Abrahams Accords
The Chief Rabbi has warned that a Palestinian-Christian group’s document due to be discussed by the Church of England’s governing body “contains so much falsehood” about Israel and “can only harm the cause of peace”.
On Sunday, the Synod is set to consider a motion encouraging engagement with A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide published by Kairos Palestine “as part of a quest for greater understanding” of the conflict.
The document calls for a review of Church investment policy after the International Court of Justice advisory opinion that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories was illegal.
According to A Moment of Truth, “The genocidal war on Gaza is the continuation of the Zionist project to seize all of Palestine, emptied of its Palestinian people.”
It brands Israel a “colonial, settler, and exclusionary entity”, describes Palestinians as the “indigenous people of this land”, criticises the Abraham Accords – Israel’s agreements with a number of Arab countries – and calls on churches to “distinguish between dialogue with Jews and dialogue with Zionism”.
While it condemns the killing of civilians by Hamas on October 7, it says the attack was “born out of decades of injustice, oppression and displacement since the Nakba of 1948” and, alluding to Israel’s actions in Gaza, says: “The claim of ‘self-defence’ cannot stand. How can a coloniser defend itself against those it has colonised and expelled from their land?”