Submitted by Dave Szollosy, Toronto

INTRODUCTION

We are members of a small group of Canadian Catholics called Catholics for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land (CJPHL). We were formed about 10 years ago as response to the Kairos Palestine Document issued in 2009 by leaders of the Christian churches in Palestine calling for an end to the occupation and for Christians around the globe to advocate for Palestinians. Many groups were formed as a response to this call including a Canadian ecumenical group called the Forum. Many Canadian Christian denominations are members of the Forum. We are the Catholic group.

Since October 7, there has been advocacy from many individuals and groups in Canada calling on the Canadian government to demand a cease-fire, end shipments of arms to Israel, release all hostages and political prisoners and allow necessary humanitarian aid into Gaza. In fact, several Canadian Christian denominations have issued such statements. Unfortunately, there have been few specifically Catholic voices.

CJPHL has created a statement relevant to the Canadian context which we will send to the Canadian Catholic Bishops and the Canadian Government.

We invite you to sign on to this statement and to send it out to your networks. The statement can be found at the following URL bit.ly/PaxPalestine for signature.

We invite any and all Catholics in Canada to sign on to this letter, and join us in issuing this plea for action to the Canadian government and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

We, Catholics in Canada, express our grief and dismay over the horrors being committed in Palestine-Israel over the last nine months. We also bear witness to and speak out against the decades of injustice that have plagued the Holy Land. As Pope Francis has said, “without justice, there is no peace.” The inherent dignity of all persons and their right to life is the basis of our concern for all Palestinian and Israeli lives. Our hope remains for a just resolution in which systemic injustices are addressed and the rights of both peoples are upheld.

With this Open Letter, we continue to call for an immediate and permanent cease fire in Gaza and adherence to international law by all parties, without exception. We believe the desire for a cease fire is strong among Catholics in Canada. As of this letter’s publication, over 37,000 Palestinians in Gaza––the majority civilians, most of whom are women and children ––have been killed by Israel’s military assault marked by indiscriminate bombing. We mourn each life lost. Tens of thousands more are severely injured without access to adequate medical care; half of Gazans are facing famine; and most have been displaced from their homes, 70 per cent of which have been destroyed. We are also deeply concerned about the recent increase in attacks and killings of Palestinians in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers and armed settler terrorists.

We also call for the release of all captives. This includes Palestinian political prisoners forcibly taken, tortured and imprisoned unjustly by Israel, and Israeli hostages held by Hamas, including children and the elderly, who were forcibly taken from their homes in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. We mourn for the nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, who were killed and the many others who were brutalized and traumatized during Hamas’ attack.

We recognize Canada’s complicity in the present violence and to the ongoing systemic injustices in Palestine – Israel. We appreciate the stand taken by the government of Canada in voting for a cease fire at the United Nations in December of 2023. Canadian and international leaders must do everything possible to ensure a permanent end to what the International Court of Justice has referred to as “a plausible genocide”, the release of all captives, and the immediate distribution of robust humanitarian aid to Gaza.

We specifically call on the Canadian government to take the following steps: terminate two-way trade in military technology and arms with Israel, including cancelling all permits previously approved by Canada; comply fully and robustly with the rulings and decisions of the (International Court of Justice) ICJ and the (International Criminal Court) ICC; and fully protect, promote and respect the right to peaceful protest and freedom of expression in Canada in support of Palestinian human rights.

We call on the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops to demonstrate greater leadership and courage to ensure the following: that Catholic media, Catholic institutions and parishes do all they can to increase awareness of the ongoing suffering, highlighting the plight of Palestinian Christian siblings, and create space for reasoned, fact-based analysis and discernment. We applaud the courageous efforts of Canadians of Jewish and Palestinian heritage to increase understanding and dialogue in our own conflicted communities here in Canada.

We acknowledge that we have not paid enough attention to the situation in Palestine and Israel. For many Catholics across Canada, there has been an unspoken and false perception that Palestine-Israel is not really our problem—that it is a Jewish-Muslim issue. But this attitude was a mistake and is based on a false understanding of the root cause of the injustice, which is the seven decades of military occupation of Palestinian territories and the 17-year blockade of Gaza.

The militarised pursuit of the land without the people drives the Israeli occupation and has resulted in the dispossession and displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their land. We cannot forget that Christians, most of whom are Palestinian, are an integral part of the Holy Land. Palestinian Christians, indigenous to the Holy Land, have long pleaded that Christians around the world listen to their experiences and support their struggle for full equality and rights.

Christian Zionism, a distorted and dangerous interpretation of the bible, continues to play a central and devastating role in perpetuating the injustices inflicted on Palestinian Christians in particular and on Palestinians in general.

We are equally concerned about the well-being of Muslims, Jews, and others who suffer in Palestine – Israel. As Catholics, we have a responsibility to oppose any action that threatens human life and dignity, and to be attentive to both Palestinian and Israeli fears and traumas. We also recommit ourselves to opposing antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism. Christians have often failed in this regard, both in the past and today.

We recognize that even before the current crisis in Gaza, the situation in Palestine and Israel has been fundamentally unjust and marred by repeated cycles of violence. Sometimes, those of us in Canada misperceive the Israel-Palestine situation as a conflict of equally-matched sides.

In reality, though, there is a great power imbalance, with Israel holding the overwhelming balance of power. The State of Israel denies many basic rights to stateless Palestinians and governs much of their daily lives through military occupation, discriminatory laws, illegal settlements (in the West Bank and East Jerusalem), blockade (in Gaza), and other oppressive measures of control.

Some of us have had the opportunity to visit the Holy Land and witness some of these realities firsthand. We pray that in Palestine and Israel, where seven million Jewish Israelis and seven million Christian and Muslim Palestinians live, a political solution can be achieved which ensures justice, equality, peace, security, and freedom for two peoples and three faiths.

As followers of Jesus, guided by our faith, the signs of the times, and our personal capabilities, we Catholics are called to pray, speak, and work for justice and peace, united with other faith groups including Pax Christi USA who authored the document signed by thousands of U.S. Catholics, and which inspires this one. As people of God, the Church, we join together in the hope that the land where Jesus lived, died, and rose will soon see an end to bloodshed and know true justice, peace and reconciliation.

To the Government of Canada and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops: we appreciate your consideration of the concerns expressed here by Catholics. We want Catholic voices to be heard, opposing this abhorrent violation of humanity and look forward to your response to this situation.
Signed:
Wendy Gichuru, St. Catharines, Ontario
Rev. Paul Hanson CSSR, Toronto, Ontario
Rev. Robert Holmes CSB, Toronto, Ontario
Matthijs Kronemeijer, North York, Ontario
Dwyer Sullivan, Kitchener, Ontario
Dave Szollosy, Willow Beach, Ontario
Sylvia Skrepichuk, Whitby, Ontario