These are perilous and volatile times in Palestine and Israel. State violence is escalating ever more. Since the start of 2023, Israeli settlers and soldiers attacking Palestinians have killed, on average, one Palestinian a day, not just with impunity, but with the imprimatur of Israel's current extremist government. Netanyahu and his ministers shamelessly have signaled their intent to annex the West Bank and effectively extend Israel from the river to the sea. 

The 2018 Nation State Law enacted de jure what continues to be writ large de facto, proving that Israel ‘s claim to be a Jewish and democrat state is an oxymoron. But not only an oxymoron. The claim has been a cynical charade, a deceitful lie, providing cover for Israel’s ongoing Nakba. As a Palestinian member of the Knesset, quoted in a recent New York Times article, asserted, “Democracy cannot exist while you’re occupying other people.” 

The deceit has been obvious to many, now undeniably so, since the release of the several recent human rights reports documenting that the government of Israel perpetrates the international crime of apartheid. Undeniable. But that has not stopped predictable backlash to the reports: charges of antisemitism, efforts to discredit and rebuke, vilification of truthtellers, and criminalization of nonviolent resistance to apartheid, such as BDS. 

There is, however, nothing . . . nothing . . . democratic about apartheid; it is a racist, domination system, denying rights to a whole class of humanity, in this case Palestinians.

What for us, as people of faith and promoters of human rights for all God’s beloved, do these times require? Here are some of thoughts from and priorities for UCC PIN:

Become megaphones declaring Israel’s government an apartheid regime, and then go further. Engage your congregation in taking the pledge to become an apartheid free congregation, joining the newly launched Apartheid Free Communities Campaign. (See article below).

Engage in advocacy, holding our own US government to account, for being an “enabler” as Michel Moushabeck writes in his article “We Can’t Just Let Blinken Give Israeli Apartheid the US Stamp of Approval” (See Breaking the Stories). U.S. military aid to Israel, almost 4 billion dollars a year, makes our own government complicit in Israel’s ‘matrix of control.’ In the words of the 2021 General Synod resolution, “advocate for the cessation of U.S. military aid to Israel until such time that Palestinian human rights, civil rights, and self-determination are fully realized and protected.” 

As a matter of faith, be steadfast in pursuing nonviolence, “an active practice,” as Jonathan Kuttab, writing for Sabeel and FOSNA, describes, “of opposition to injustice and principled confrontation with the oppressors while aimed at a proper solution based on equality, dignity, and justice” (see “On Armed Struggle and Nonviolence” in Breaking the Stories). Opportunities for nonviolent witness are many. Here are some examples: support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement; challenge laws and executive orders, now in force in 35 US states, that criminalize BDS; learn about the Deadly Exchange campaign and investigate whether your local police force has received Israeli training.