June 19th, 2024
(Updated) MC Canada PIN statement on Gaza

Mennonite Church Canada Palestine-Israel Network
Statement on the Gaza War, nine months on
Updated June 19, 2023

The October 7, 2023, attack of Hamas militants on Israeli citizens sparked a horrific conflagration of the tension that has defined the Gaza Strip since Israel’s conquest and occupation in 1967. Earlier this year, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s retaliation has amounted to a plausible genocide. At least 37,000 people—two thirds of whom are women and children—have been killed in Israeli military operations; humanitarian aid has been blocked by Israel; and negotiations for a ceasefire have failed repeatedly. Today, the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people are displaced from their homes, and most are facing severe food insecurity.

We lament the loss of all lives, both Israeli and Palestinian. We condemn all violence—whether committed by Hamas militants or Israeli soldiers. We lament the hatred, the dehumanization, the militarization, and the humanitarian catastrophe that has emerged. We lament that the current situation has helped stoke attitudes and actions of antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Palestinian racism around the world and in our local communities in Canada.

We were shocked, but not entirely surprised, when Palestinian militants conducted their attack inside Israel. Two thirds of Gaza’s population are refugee families who were displaced in 1948 and 1967 from what is now Israel—but never granted the right of return as required under international law. Before October 7, Gaza had been under an oppressive blockade by Israel for 16 years. It had come to be known as the world’s largest open-air prison. Israel and the international community had mostly ignored the growing humanitarian needs and violence of Gaza even though they had ample opportunity to address it through the application of international law. Conditions were ripe for the kind of resistance the world witnessed on October 7.

As we lament the horrors of this war, we also acknowledge the larger geopolitical context. At the hands of the Israeli government, Palestinians in general have endured decades of dispossession of homes and land, flagrant disregard for international law and human rights, refusal of the Right of Return of Refugees of 1948 and 1967 (UN Resolution #194), and policies of apartheid.  We acknowledge the complicity of our own government, our own society, and our own churches, for not speaking and acting more decisively to end the injustice.  

We believe that a just peace will only be achieved when Palestinians and Israelis alike are free from injustice and oppression. At minimum, this requires that Israel end its occupation and its repressive policies toward Palestinians, and that all parties who are guilty of war crimes be held to account through the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.

As Anabaptist-Mennonite Christians whose faith compels us to uphold the dignity and value of human lives regardless of ethnicity and creed, and who are committed to nonviolent paths to peace, we call on our Canadian government to support international efforts to:

  • bring about an immediate ceasefire in Gaza;
  • address the urgent humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza;
  • stop settler violence toward Palestinians in the West Bank;
  • secure the release of all hostages taken by Hamas and Palestinians held by Israel in administrative detention (i.e., without charge); and
  • end the Israeli occupation and blockade of Palestinian territories in compliance with international law.

We also commit ourselves to actions of advocacy, in keeping with the 2016 resolution by Mennonite Church Canada:

  • through letters, meetings, and phone calls, urging our government officials to uphold and promote international law in its dealings with Palestine and Israel;
  • promoting economic boycotts, divestments, and sanctions as nonviolent means of holding Israel accountable to international law and human rights standards;
  • explicitly using the language of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, settler colonialism, and plausible genocide in describing Israeli policies and practice in the military occupation and control of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza;
  • promoting education, prayer, and action in Mennonite Church Canada congregations;
  • partnering with Palestinian people and institutions devoted to a biblical vision of nonviolence, justice, and peace; and
  • joining with Jewish, Palestinian-diaspora, and secular groups advocating for a just peace in Palestine.