Statement on Palestine
Why write a solidarity statement? Our intention is to:
Express Forefront’s core values (radical equity, uncommon kinship, anti-racism, etc) with renewed courage and clarity
Answer the call from Palestinian churches calling us to repent and stand in solidarity
Provide a counter-narrative to harmful Christian Zionist settler-colonial theologies, connecting the current crisis with deeper systemic root cases and historic injustices
Commit to actions and catalyze advocacy in our community for a lasting ceasefire, peace, justice, self-determination, liberation, and safety for all in Palestine/Israel.
Other examples: World Council of Churches statement, Riverside Church for Ceasefire, Jewish Rabbis letter for ceasefire, Uniting Church statement,
“Learn to do right; seek justice; defend the oppressed” (Isa 1:17).
We call for a permanent ceasefire, freedom for all captives and hostages, and an end to all occupation, oppression, antisemitism, anti-Palestinian racism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and US-funded war in Palestine and Israel. We repent that we have failed to speak up louder and sooner. We’ve had to do the work of discussing and organizing within our congregation, so we can now speak loudly with one unified voice against the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. We will not be silent.
In the words of Palestinian Reverend Dr. Munther Isaac, “Silence is complicity and empty calls for peace without a ceasefire and end to occupation, and the shallow words of empathy without direct action - are all under the banner of complicity.”
This letter is meant firstly for (1) our Forefront community to commit to our own actions, (2) secondly for the wider Christian church to address our exegetical and historical complicity, and lastly, (3) for our elected representatives to call for a justice-led peace as outlined below.
At Forefront, we believe Jesus was and is always on the side of those who were marginalized and disempowered. This belief and our desire to live like Jesus calls us to actively name and resist systems and policies of oppression.
To our Forefront community, we say:
We have heard your calls to take action for Palestine. So we commit to:
Forming a Palestine Liberation Taskforce to organize our church community
Creating a Forefront group chat to share and join protests and mobilization actions
Publicly naming and speaking against genocide, occupation, and all forms of oppression in our sermons, prayers, blogs, newsletters, social media and statements
Educating ourselves, including preaching sermons and hosting guest speakers, book clubs, events and groups to study and discuss Palestinian history and the ongoing apartheid and genocide of its people.
Learning from Palestinian faith leaders and those on the ground to understand and meet tangible needs
Partnering with other churches and community organizations
Advocating to our political representatives for policy change - see asks further below
Email freepalestine@forefrontnyc.com to join any of these actions above!
At Forefront, we are more interested in asking questions than prescribing all the answers in the spirit of the ancient Jewish practice of Midrash. We want to question and deconstruct harmful theologies that have enabled oppression and injustice in our world. This begins with our own scriptures. How do we grapple with the passages in Deuteronomy and Joshua in the Bible that advocate the slaughter of Canaanites by Hebrews? What do we do with concepts such as “chosen people” or “promised land”? How have literal interpretations of the apocalyptic end-times historically joined forces with imperialism and fueled Christian Zionism? How do we reckon settler colonialism in our land with the American Christian legacy of “manifest destiny” and genocide against Native Americans which relies on similar theological tropes as Zionism? How might we support calls for “land back”, the Right to Return, and other restorative reparations for Palestinians and for the First Nations that we acknowledge every Sunday?
As we envision the next 500 years of Christianity, we will continue to ask courageous questions and seek more just and equitable ways to embody Christ in the world.
Speaking to the wider Christian Church, we say:
As Christians, we believe that the image of God is embodied by everyone and that all human life is sacred. Since October, over 1,100 Israelis and over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 10,000 children killed by Israeli bombings in Gaza. As peace-following and justice-seeking Christ-followers, we disavow all forms of violence, including institutional violence by those with power.
We recognize that this violence did not start on October 7th, 2023. Palestinians have been bombed and displaced from their lands since 1948. From violent and illegal Israeli settlements on the rise in the West Bank, increasing starvation as a weapon of a war in Gaza, deprivation of Palestinians’ right to self-determination, extrajudicial killings, restrictions on freedom of movement and assembly, and the forced displacement of 1.8 million people, it is clear we are witnessing an apartheid regime and genocidal violence that our faith calls us to speak up against, especially since US taxpayer dollars are funding much of this violence.
We know the threads of injustice against the Palestinian people are deeply woven into our history as Christians, partially stemming from decades of problematic theology that weaponized the Bible to justify oppression. Ideas like Christian Zionism, "promised land" narratives, dispensationalism, and more have provided theological fuel for the Zionist project to establish a settler colonial Jewish state of Israel at the expense of other groups — including the ethnic cleansing and dehumanization of Palestinians. And so, the political construct of Zionism, or its dismantling, is our responsibility as well. Christian Zionism is the dominant form of Zionism. Not only does it predate Jewish Zionism, but there are more Christian Zionists in America than there are Jews. According to Pew Research, twice as many white evangelicals compared to Jews say Israel was given to the Jewish people by God. To call this solely a "Jewish-Muslim" conflict in which Christians have no stake, not only ignores Christian Zionism, but also ignores the existence of Palestinian Christians, including respected theologians such as Mitri Raheb and pastors such as Munther Isaac.
We wish to make clear our acknowledgment of the historical trauma that the Jewish people have borne at the hands of Christians for centuries, including complicity in the Holocaust of the Jewish people. We also acknowledge that Judaism is not the same as Zionism, and thus, anti-Zionism does not equate to anti-Semitism. We look to the leadership of Jewish groups such as Rabbis For Ceasefire and Jewish Voice for Peace who demonstrate this well. We believe that it is possible to repent of Christianity's painful history of anti-Semitism while also repenting of Christian Zionism's violent ideology.
To guide us, we look to the life of Jesus. In our Scriptures, Mary, from Nazareth, fled southwards to Bethlehem to escape King Herod’s killing of baby boys and had to give birth to Jesus outside as no one would take her in. In our present day, 50,000 Palestinian pregnant women in Gaza have been forced to flee southwards to escape bombing and give birth in tents, with no one to take them in. If Jesus were born today in Bethlehem, he would be in Palestine under the apartheid state of Israel. Over Christmas, churches in Bethlehem staged a nativity scene of a baby Jesus under the rubble. “Emmanuel” means “God with us”, and we feel Jesus is with those who are under the rubble right now, amidst the ruin and bombardment of innocent civilians. As Rev. Isaac says, “The majesty of the incarnation lies in its solidarity with the marginalized.” Our God became human in the form of Jesus, a poor Jewish refugee child born in Palestine, who was displaced, lived under occupation, spoke truth to power, was incarcerated and killed by the state. Such a life calls us, as followers of Jesus, to resist the forces of empire, occupation, and to rise up in the spirit to love, do justice and commit ourselves to liberation. We believe the human action of liberation is sacred work.
In late 2023, Palestinian Christians issued a Call for Repentance to Western Church leaders. May we hear and answer this call. May we stand in solidarity with Palestinian Christians and work towards a just peace in Palestine/Israel. May we learn more about historical and ongoing violence in Palestine, and how this land, people and place is interwoven in the stories that ground our faith. May we reject interpretations of scripture that legitimize ethnic cleansing and dehumanization of people. May we affirm the right of Palestinian people to self-determination and acknowledge their struggle as an anti-colonial struggle. May we recognize the role of the Christian Church in colonization across the world and in the US. May we acknowledge the role of the Christian Church in the persecution of Jewish and Muslim people historically and today. May we deepen our understanding of the role of the Church in this violence and take action to repent of it. May we recommit ourselves to anti-racism, including action on anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism, Antisemitism and Islamophobia. May we affirm the rights of all people to live in peace, justice and dignity.
The indiscriminate murder of Palestinian civilians is an atrocity funded by US tax dollars. American churches are privileged with an elevated moral authority, and the ability to represent their congregations to Congressional representatives. As churches, it is our moral calling to speak up for ceasefire and justice with urgency.
How we take action on Palestine is a test of the world’s conscience and the church’s conscience. Let us not falter in this hour of need. Join us in speaking up now.
To our elected leaders, we write:
As people of faith in your electoral districts, we watched the events of October 7th and the weeks to follow in horror. Christian, Muslim, and Jewish traditions all uphold the sanctity of life. The past months have shattered that sanctity.
We mourn for the over 1,100 Israelis killed on October 7th and we mourn for the over 30,000 Palestinians who have been killed in the Israeli military response since then. The indiscriminate murder of Palestinian civilians is an atrocity funded by US tax dollars.
As faith leaders, we preach about the value of all human life. We can not in good conscience be silent while the Israeli military levels Gaza’s neighborhoods and all of its hospitals indiscriminately and with impunity. There is no morality in the deaths of children in NICUs starved of power and the thousands of children left to be fished, limb by limb, from the rubble.
As our elected representatives, we call on you to act with a consciousness that values all human life... It’s your moral obligation to do everything in your power to demand a permanent ceasefire, the release of all innocent captives and prisoners, put an end to Israel’s violence and settler colonial occupation and withhold US military funding until Israel does so.
Anything short of a permanent ceasefire is insufficient. A temporary pause in the killing and displacement of millions of Palestinians is insufficient. And a return to oppressive apartheid, as experienced by Palestinians in the “open air prison” of Gaza, is insufficient. We urge you to make a public, unequivocal statement in support of a permanent ceasefire, or join your colleagues in sponsoring Rep. Cori Bush’s Ceasefire Now Resolution (H. Res 786) - which is based directly on demands by American Palestinians from Gaza.
We urge you to take action now. Millions of lives depend on it.
Co-created by,
Forefront Congregation Palestine Liberation Taskforce
Signed off by,
Forefront Executive Council of Co-Pastors
Forefront Leadership Team