Pax Christi appeal for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine

The Pax Christi International Community has issued the following message for all members to send to Christian faith leaders. The text can be downloaded in English, French and Spanish.

We are all shaken by the haunting images and news reports we receive daily. Just when it seems it could not get any worse - it does! What are we to do to stand in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in the Holy Land? How can we possibly make a difference? These questions plague us.

While none of us have the power to change policy or stop the carnage, we do have the power to tell our political leaders what we demand… an immediate bi-lateral ceasefire, the release of all the hostages and those held in Israeli detention, the full restoration of UNRWA funding and an end to unrestricted arms transfers to Israel.

We can - we must - ensure that the on-going plight of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem remain part of the story. It is all one… a systematic effort to erase half of the population from the Holy Land by any means necessary.

Embracing in full measure the teachings of Jesus to stand with the oppressed and marginalised while loving our enemies, our resolute demands must always be based in nonviolence.

The world is indeed watching and there is not a minute to waste. Our call must be loud, and our actions must be visible.

Nothing is too small or trivial to do.

It is our collective and persistent effort that can bring about the just peace which is so desperately needed.

An Open Letter to our Christian Faith leaders.

"In our pain, anguish, and lament, we have searched for God, and found Him under the rubble of Gaza" Rev. Munther Isaac

The unthinkable violence in the Holy Land has shaken us. The horrific brutality of the Hamas assault on 7 October has been met with months of unrelenting bombardment causing unthinkable death, injury, and destruction. With the denial of the essentials of life - water, food, shelter, medicine - and a litany of dehumanising and incendiary rhetoric, we've watched the worst impulses of revenge and rage take hold.

As we approach Holy Week, Pax Christi International, an organisation dedicated to nonviolence as the only path to a sustainable peace, implores you to speak out forcefully and often calling for an end to this carnage. Not one more life should be sacrificed.

In sermons and parish messages, in pastoral letters and statements you have the unique power to awaken the hearts and minds of the faithful. We beg you to use it. Call for an immediate bi-lateral ceasefire, the release of all hostages and those held in Israeli detention and the restoration of critical UNRWA funding.

Our resolve and courage to stand with the powerless is being tested. We look to you, our spiritual leaders, for a prophetic voice to denounce the evil of war and the killing of so many innocent men, women, and children…some barely in this world for hours.

Do we speak out on behalf of the most vulnerable…those caught in the crosshair of bullets and bombs?

Does our collective Christian voice echo the teachings of Jesus or has it, in its tepid silence, become another weapon?

We shudder to think that the cries of the living stones of Palestine have fallen on deaf ears. When will our sisters and brothers in Gaza know that the Church has not abandoned them? Or, like Jesus, will they be left to suffer alone in a garden of rubble? Have we too fallen asleep? The time to speak is now. There is not a minute to waste.

Help spread the message for Peace: Share the PCI's open letter and urge faith leaders to advocate for nonviolence in the Holy Land!

Download the letter in

English,

Spanish

French.