In this issue:

In lieu of our usual UCC PIN E-News format, we have streamlined this July issue to feature and promote two important resources: (1) our upcoming July 20th webinar on the Defund Racism Campaign, and (2) "A Dossier on Israeli Apartheid," just released this month by Kairos Palestine and Global Kairos for Justice.

The three webinar panelists are:

Bana Abu Zuluf: Researcher and community activist with the Good Shepherd Collective, playing a crucial role in developing the Campaign to Defund Racism, helping organize across Palestine to stop the flow of charitable money to Israeli settler organizations.

Jonathan Brenneman: Defund Racism organizer in NY, a Palestinian American Christian and graduate of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, working in Palestine advocacy, human rights monitoring, and grassroots organizing.

Mahmoud Zwahre: A Palestinian grassroots activist and academic from Al Ma'sara village, 10 km to the south of Bethlehem, a co-founder of nonviolent resistance network the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee (PSCC).

Michael Spath, founder and executive director of the Indiana Center for Middle East Peace and moderator par excellence, will be facilitating the conversation.

Register for the webinar here  

On Friday, July 1, in Bethlehem, Kairos Palestine and Global Kairos for Justice released a powerful new resource in the struggle for liberation and justice, "A Dossier on Apartheid: A Pressing Call to Churches Around the World."

"A Dossier on Apartheid" consists of five parts: 

Part 3 of the Dossier refers to the 2021 UCC General Synod resolution "Declaration for a Just Peace Between Palestine and Israel," quoting from the text of the resolution and describing it as a 'status confessionis.' Here is what the Dossier says:

When at their 2021 General Synod, the United Church of Christ (UCC) declared that Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people is “a matter of theological urgency and represents a sin in violation of the message of the biblical prophets and the Gospel, and that all efforts to defend or legitimate the oppression of the Palestinian people… represent a fundamental denial of the Gospel,” the church effectively declared a status confessionis. The UCC Declaration links the obligation to reject the oppression of the Palestinian people with fundamentals of the Christian faith, saying, “Therefore, we reject any theology or ideology including Christian Zionism, supercessionism, antisemitism or anti-Islam bias that would privilege or exclude any one nation, race, culture or religions within God’s universal economy of grace.” 

You can access and download the full Dossier here.