Reposted from Middle East Monitor, July 14, 2026
A detailed Palestinian Christian report documenting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and Israel’s apartheid system will be discussed across the Church of England after its General Synod overwhelmingly backed engagement with the document, despite warnings from pro-Israel groups, including Britain’s chief rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis.
The Synod voted to stand in solidarity with Palestinian Christians and their fellow Palestinians. The motion encourages engagement at every level with the report A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide, also known as Kairos Palestine II, which describes Israel’s assault on Gaza as part of a continuing project to seize Palestinian land and ethnically cleanse its indigenous population.
The Synod also committed the Church to hearing the Kairos Palestine declarations as expressions of the lived experience of Palestinian Christians and encouraged dioceses, clergy and local churches to engage with the documents in pursuit of a fuller understanding of conditions in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Addressing the Synod, the archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, warned that Palestinian communities were being displaced as illegal Israeli settlements expanded across the occupied West Bank.
“Put simply: Palestine […] is disappearing,” Mullally told members, adding that the threat facing the shrinking Palestinian Christian community was “existential”.
Mullally called for “a new and active solidarity” with Palestinian Christians and warned that the Church could not ignore the urgency of the situation.
Mullally said she had heard the appeal of Palestinian Christians during a recent visit to the region, including testimony from communities facing Israeli settler violence, economic pressure, land seizures and displacement.
The archbishop said Kairos II reflected the pain and trauma of Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. She urged the Church to listen to testimony that may be difficult to hear rather than exclude Palestinian Christian voices from discussions about their own future.
Kairos Palestine published A Moment of Truth on 14 November, 2025, following consultation among Palestinian Christian clergy, theologians and laypeople from different church traditions.
The document declares that Palestinians are living through genocide, ethnic cleansing and forced displacement and describes Israel as a “colonial, settler, and exclusionary entity”. It identifies Palestinians as the indigenous people of the land and argues that Israel has established an apartheid system to control Palestinian land, movement and political rights.
“The genocidal war on Gaza is the continuation of the Zionist project to seize all of Palestine,” the document states, linking Israel’s assault on the besieged enclave to the Nakba, the occupation and decades of Palestinian dispossession.
The document also criticises the so-called Abraham Accords, under which several Arab governments normalised relations with Israel while the occupation and dispossession of Palestinians continued. It calls on churches to distinguish between religious dialogue with Jewish communities and political engagement with Zionism.
Kairos Palestine has urged churches worldwide to move beyond statements of sympathy and adopt what it describes as meaningful and costly solidarity with Palestinians facing occupation, apartheid and forced displacement.
The Synod’s resolution also calls for Church resources that will help dioceses and congregations understand conditions in Palestine and respond through prayer, theological study, advocacy and practical assistance for churches serving Palestinian and Israeli communities.
Members altered the motion’s language to state that the Church would “hear” rather than “receive” the Kairos declarations. However, attempts to remove Kairos II through a concerted effort by Zionist figures, including Rabbi Mirvis, who has a son serving in the Israeli army, from the resolution failed and the commitment to Church-wide engagement with the Palestinian Christian document remained.
The resolution received overwhelming support across all three houses of the Synod. Bishops approved it by 25 votes to none, with five abstentions. Clergy backed it by 115 votes to 20, with 30 abstentions, while lay members supported it by 113 votes to 27, with 35 abstentions.
Mirvis condemned the decision in a post on X, describing the vote as “shameful”.
It is shameful that the Church of England General Synod has recommended engagement with Kairos II.
This is a document full of falsehood, which openly rejects dialogue, uses extreme rhetoric to challenge the very existence of Israel and objects to existing peace agreements in… https://t.co/hxQnsAW449
— Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis (@chiefrabbi) July 13, 2026
Pro-Israel group, The Board of Deputies of British Jews had called for Kairos II to be rejected, claiming that its description of Zionism as a settler-colonial movement distorted Jewish history and identity.
However, the Synod resisted demands to exclude the Palestinian Christian document.
The vote comes amid growing concern about the survival of Palestinian Christian communities under Israeli occupation. Mullally warned that Christian villages such as Taybeh were approaching disappearance because of settler violence and worsening social, economic and political conditions.
Mullally echoed her predecessor former Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Anglican Archbishop of Jerusalem Hossam Naoum, who also spoke of the threat of “extinction” faced by Palestinian Christians from “radical” Israeli groups.
Middle East Monitor is a website that covers news, opinions, features and multimedia from the Middle East and North Africa. It focuses on Palestine, Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and other regions.
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