Christian Palestinian churches applaud World Council of Churches for its resolutions condemning Israel over Gaza

Mail & Guardian

08-07-2025

Gaza has been destroyed following continued strikes by Israel. (X)
The central committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) has been commended for its recent statement denouncing Israel for what it called a system of apartheid imposed on Palestinians 'in violation of international law and moral conscience'.
At its 18 to 24 June meeting in Johannesburg the WCC, which represents more than 600 million people in 110 countries, issued a statement urging governments, institutions and churches to speak with 'clarity, urgency, and commitment to the principles of justice under international law and ethics' and to mobilise against Israel, calling for sanctions, disinvestment and a comprehensive arms embargo.
The WCC commended the South African government for
Kairos Palestine, an organisation of Palestinian Christians, applauded the WCC's resolutions as an acknowledgement of seven decades of 'systematic oppression, displacement, segregation, and denial of basic human rights' endured by Palestinians.
The
'If there are any experts on apartheid in the world, it is us, so when we say it is
apartheid, you have got to believe us,' SACC general secretary Reverend Mzwandile Molo said, describing Israel's treatment of Palestinians as worse than apartheid in South Africa.
'We were never under military rule. Ultimately I was still a civilian in the eyes of the courts. In the occupied territories you are treated as if you are under military occupation,' he said.
The WCC's central committee has taken a step in the right direction, said Moravian
theologian and former director of the National Research Foundation Robert Kriger.
While in exile in Germany, Kriger was active in an ecumenical anti-apartheid
group, Pro Ökumene, which supported the WCC's programme to combat racism (PCR)
in the 1970s through the 1980s, at a time when there was widespread antagonism, especially among Western mainline churches, towards the ecumenical body.
The WCC's work at the time revolved around the PCR, to the point where apartheid was declared a confessional crisis in the Lutheran family and religious leaders such as Alan Boesak — speaking for the black reformed churches and as president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches — publicly called the system a heresy.
A special fund was established, with $200 000 initially taken from WCC reserves, to fund anti-apartheid political groups for humanitarian purposes.
'All hell broke loose,' Kriger recalls, with Western and South African media proclaiming: 'Churches fund terrorism.'
There will probably be 'much similarity with what the WCC is going to face now with its
statement on Palestine', Kriger said. Molo echoed this, adding that there might be pressure on some to backtrack.
'This is what happened with the PCR in South Africa and for some of us this moment is as monumental as that was,' Molo said.
There is no doubt that a major shift has taken place in WCC public policy, said Stiaan van der Merwe, a Christian activist involved with a nascent initiative called South
African Christians for Palestine. But he added: 'There are questions that still need consideration in relation to the WCC and the wording and content of the resolutions.'
South African Christians for Palestine held a vigil with support from members of South African Jews for Palestine (SAJFP) outside the venue where the WCC central committee's deliberations took place last month.
SAJFP member Rina King said the mood was tense and uncertain until Van der Merwe came out and told the vigil keepers that the resolution had been passed.
'We cried and danced around,' King recalled. 'What a victory for humanity and international law.'
While South African Jews for Palestine has come out in strong support of the WCC central committee, the resolutions will probably get a hostile response from the predominantly conservative broader South African Jewish community.
'I expect they will say the WCC is funded by Iran,' said Molo, referring to the standard line taken by South Africa's chief rabbi, Warren Goldstein, who has referred to the government's case at the ICJ as the 'diplomatic equivalent' of the Hamas attack on Israeli civilians in October 2023 which triggered the current war on Gaza.
Goldstein did not respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, United States authorities arrested and interrogated Pastor Khader El-Yateem,an adviser to the WCC central committee and executive director of Justice
and Services at the Evangelical Lutheran Council of America, on his return from the Johannesburg conference.
Relations between South African and President Donald Trump's administration have been tense recently over Pretoria's stance against Israel, of which the US is a staunch ally.
'[It is a] dark moment in the US, but in this dark moment there are possibilities of regeneration. Thousands are marching for justice and the pendulum has
swung so far into the very worst that Americans can be that they can no longer depend
on their exceptionalism,' Molo said.
'The moral bankruptcy of the Israeli state is obvious. To defend it you have to either lie to yourself or to be willfully blind. Let me be frank, the greatest struggle for this work is not in South Africa; it is not even in Europe. We must all supplement, but the greatest
struggle is in America.
'Palestine is almost a definer of our moral choices and of whom we want to become as
a common humanity, and that is why it is so important. It is almost becoming
emblematic of the fight for a common vision of what we can be and should be,' Molo added.
He said there was a need to connect the Palestinian struggle to the struggles of many African people, some of whom were facing their own genocides in their countries.
'If we are not able to connect those struggles we are going to lose our African brothers and sisters. Our commitment is to universalised human dignity,' Molo said
He said South Africa's experience of inter-religious dialogue could be offered as 'a gift to help people find each other rather than as a judge' in countries such as Nigeria, where there is conflict between the Islamic and Christian faiths.