Resolution MB 013

Resolved, The Executive Council of The Episcopal Church, meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina, April 18-20, 2024, gravely laments the continuing violence, destruction, and loss of life in Gaza following the events of October 7, 2023, and be it further; 

Resolved, that the Executive Council join with the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem in calling for “the speedy distribution of humanitarian aid; the release of all captives; the unimpeded access of fully-equipped doctors and medical staff to tend to the sick and injured; and the opening of internationally facilitated negotiations aimed at ending and moving beyond the present cycle of violence” (Easter Message) , and be it further; 

Resolved, that the Executive Council echo the call of our own Presiding Bishop and more than 140 other leading clergy that “We, as global Christian leaders, stand with our brothers and sisters in Christ in Palestine and around the world and say the killing must stop, and the violence must be brought to an end,” and further that “The horrific actions Hamas committed on October 7th in no way justify the massive deaths of tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli military.” (Statement) ; and be it further; 

Resolved, that the Executive Council affirm the statements in a recent letter by Churches for Middle East Peace to President Joseph R. Biden that “We implore you to have the moral courage to end U.S. complicity in the ongoing violence and, instead, do everything in your power to prevent the potential genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” (Statement) and be it further;   

Resolved, that the Executive Council further affirm Churches for Middle East Peace’s recent letter stating, “We repent of the ways we have not stood alongside our Palestinian siblings in faithful witness in the midst of their grief, agony, and sorrow,” (Statement), and be it further; 

Resolved, that the Executive Council urge all Episcopalians to join the call for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza and to strongly urge President Biden and all representatives in Congress to call for a humanitarian truce, as voted for by the United Nations General Assembly. (United Nations); and be it further; 

Resolved, that the Executive Council continue to unreservedly reject all forms of antisemitism and anti-Jewish hatred, and all forms of Islamophobia, including any conflation of the acts of national governments with the sentiments, beliefs, or actions of Jews and Muslims around the world. (2003-D077) (1991-D122), and be it further; 

Resolved, that the Executive Council lament and urge the end of the continued detention of thousands of Palestinians without charge, as particularly highlighted by the case of Layan Nasir, a parishioner of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Birzeit, the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, (SOURCE) and be it further; 

Resolved, that the Executive Council send prayers and encouragement to our Anglican siblings in the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem and the Middle East facing an existential threat to their continued ministry in the Holy Land and encourages all Episcopalians to support the Diocese through pilgrimage, prayer, and donations to the American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem.  

 

Since December 2023, international human rights organizations have found that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war. Over the past months, the United Nations, including the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization, has declared that a famine is “imminent”. More recently, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stated, “The situation of hunger, starvation and famine is a result of Israel’s extensive restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid and commercial goods, displacement of most of the population, as well as the destruction of crucial civilian infrastructure.” The time to act is now.