{"id":512233,"date":"2026-06-26T14:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T14:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/512233\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T14:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T14:40:15","slug":"archbishop-of-canterbury-calls-for-end-to-israeli-occupation-of-palestine-anglicanism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/512233\/","title":{"rendered":"Archbishop of Canterbury calls for end to Israeli occupation of Palestine | Anglicanism"},"content":{"rendered":"

The archbishop of Canterbury has called for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine<\/a> after a pilgrimage in which she met Palestinians attacked by settlers and others detained without trial.<\/p>\n

Sarah Mullally, the head of the Church of England, and Hosam Naoum, the Anglican archbishop of Jerusalem, issued a joint letter on Thursday urging Anglicans around the world to press politicians \u201cto take all necessary measures to establish a credible path towards ending the occupation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis must lead to a viable two-state solution enabling Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace, dignity and security. Jerusalem\u2019s status should be determined through negotiation as a shared capital,\u201d the letter read.<\/p>\n

The pair said they feared for \u201cthe long-term future of the indigenous Christian Palestinian presence in the Holy Land that stretches back to the time when our Lord walked this land\u201d. They also said Gaza\u2019s health system was in a state of \u201ccatastrophic collapse\u201d.<\/p>\n

The letter was published after a five-day pastoral visit in which Mullally spoke of the \u201cimmense hardships\u201d and \u201cweb of checkpoints\u201d Palestinians faced in the West Bank<\/a>, Gaza and East Jerusalem, and preached that Jesus had lived under foreign occupation.<\/p>\n

She also planted an olive tree with the family of Daoud Nassar, Palestinian Christians who have been fighting Israeli attempts to seize their land<\/a> in the West Bank since 1991 and have faced repeated settler attacks.<\/p>\n

Mullally said that \u201cwhen many Palestinian Christians are leaving, olive trees are a symbol of their deep roots in this land\u201d and that the Nassars were an example of \u201cChristian resistance to injustice\u201d.<\/p>\n

Daoud Nassar walks on his land, which overlooks illegal Israeli settlements. Photograph: Alessio Mamo\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Lambeth Palace said the visit had been intended to encourage Palestinian Christians at a time when \u201ccommunities are being violently forced from their land, and illegal settlements are rapidly expanding across the West Bank\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mullally and Naoum wrote in their letter that they had \u201cmet families who feel unmoored and traumatised by endless conflict\u201d across Palestine and Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Israel, the simultaneous fighting of many conflicts at one time, and the deep-seated aftermath of the horrifying atrocities of 7 October, have created a state of intense sensitivity to potential danger that has transformed society and politics,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the West Bank, unchecked settler violence, forced displacement, systemic discrimination and expanding checkpoints have left the Palestinian population impoverished, desperate and powerless to enact change. Annexation is already taking place in all but name.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeanwhile, the profound suffering in Gaza continues. The international community must not look away; it bears a moral responsibility to relieve this agony and help rebuild Gaza\u2019s society.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mullally said the Middle East conflicts were \u201csymptomatic of a deeper political and spiritual crisis \u2013 an abandonment of international law and an increasing recurrence of military force\u201d.<\/p>\n

During her visit, she met Layan Nasir, 26, a Palestinian Anglican community worker freed after being jailed by the Israeli military, and the parents of Natalie Abu Dayeh, a Christian student who had been held without charge.<\/p>\n

In the Christian West Bank town of Birzeit, Mullally told worshippers at St Peter\u2019s church she would use her role as archbishop to seek \u201cthe peace you desire and the freedom you deserve\u201d.<\/p>\n

In her sermon she said: \u201cIn the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is speaking to a community living in fear: his own people living in an occupied land and under foreign rule \u2026 I can only imagine how these words may sound to you today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Church of England\u2019s annual assembly, the General Synod, will debate a motion to review investment policies in the region next month.<\/p>\n

The bishop of Chelmsford, Guli Francis-Dehqani, said the debate would be about \u201cjustice and human dignity for everyone\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The archbishop of Canterbury has called for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine after a pilgrimage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-512233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=512233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/512233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=512233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=512233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=512233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}