May 16th, 2024
At the invitation of the South African Council of Churches, a delegation from Kairos Palestine participated in an advocacy trip to South Africa from May 4th to May 9th which included several cathedrals, churches, universities, community and cultural institutions in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria, where the delegation met with political, community and religious leaders, emphasizing the bonds of solidarity and interdependence with the South African people who had been suffering for many years under the clutches of the apartheid regime, drawing inspiration from their struggle for liberation and against apartheid.
Kairos Palestine delegation also praised South Africa’s moral commitment to the Palestinian cause and its full and unconditional support for the Palestinian cause, and its brave step in going to the International Court of Justice to prosecute Israel for the crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The visit included several meetings, beginning with a meeting with the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, followed by fruitful meetings with both Muslim and Jewish groups that encouraged interfaith dialogue, as well as a unique visit to Masjidul Quds Gatesville mosque, which was draped with Palestinian flags welcoming Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac and the accompanying Kairos Palestine delegation.
The meetings expressed the urgency to redouble efforts to combat the hate speech, violence, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism, warning of the importance of confronting Christian Zionism, which uses biblical texts in a colonialist manner to serve the Zionist project. The visit also included speaking in seminars at the Desmond Tutu Center and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, as well as giving lectures at Stellenbosch University, Nelson Mandela University, University of Pretoria, University of South Africa, and sharing the testimonies of the Kairos Palestine delegation about the injustices in Palestine and what daily life is like for a Palestinian living under the occupation and Israel’s apartheid system against Palestinians.
On the sidelines of its visit, the Kairos Palestine delegation participated in the first Global Anti-Apartheid Conference, which was held in Johannesburg from May 10th to May 12th, and aimed to strengthen the global solidarity movement for Palestine and intensify action to dismantle the policies of apartheid, settler colonialism and genocide practiced by Israel against the Palestinian people. The conference also emphasized the international support for the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, as well as the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
Kairos Palestine delegation also expressed its gratitude and appreciation to the South African people for their commitment to fight the injustice and oppression of the Palestinian people, stressing that they will continue their work for a just peace based on inalienable rights, calling on other civil society organizations that attended and people of good conscience to exert pressure on their governments to impose boycotts and sanctions on Israel, and the need to continue peaceful punitive measures until the latter fulfills its obligations to recognize the right of the Palestinian people, end the occupation and the apartheid regime on the occupied land of Palestine, recognizing the fundamental right and full equality of its Palestinian Arab citizens, and respecting, protecting and supporting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and recover their property, as stipulated by international law.
The Palestinian Christian Initiative - Kairos Palestine is a Palestinian Christian movement based on the Kairos Palestine document: A Moment of Truth, launched in 2009, which is the word of Palestinian Christians to the world about what is happening in Palestine. The document affirms that Palestinian Christians are an integral part of the Palestinian people. The document was signed by important and historically recognized Palestinian Christian organizations and was endorsed by the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem.
The document represents a theological, political, religious and national position on Palestine and the arbitrary practices of the occupation on its land, directing it to Churches and the international community and demanding that they take a rightful stand towards the injustice, displacement, suffering and clear apartheid that the Palestinian people have been facing for more than seven decades, under sight of the international community, who is silent and timid in the criticism of the Occupation. The document aims to mobilize Christians around the world and the international community to support the Palestinian cause and adhere to all the provisions proposed by the document to pressure governments towards ending the occupation and the apartheid regime on the land of Palestine, calling for just peace and an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination, based on the values of faith, hope and love.