by Pamela Olson on April 10, 2013

I've heard this already a couple times on my book tour: "Hey, we shouldn't boycott settlement goods. It'll hurt job prospects for Palestinians!"

To me this sounds exactly like a white Afrikaaner saying, "Hey, if you try to end Apartheid, it'll hurt the black people we're kind enough to allow to leave their Bantustans occasionally and work for us at whatever wages we deem appropriate! (It's not like they have any other prospects... for some strange reason...)"

In June 2011 a group of U.S. clergy, theologians and laypersons inaugurated a new movement for American Christians. The impetus for the formation of Kairos USA was the 2009 call of our Palestinian sisters and brothers in Christ to stand with them in their struggle for their fundamental human rights. In taking a bold, prophetic stand for justice in the Holy Land, we are also expressing our love for our sisters and brothers in Israel who for their entire history as a state have been suffering from the social, psychological and spiritual costs of militarization and war itself. There is an urgent need to support nonviolent resistance to oppression on the part of Palestinian and Israeli civil society and to continue to build the growing international grassroots movement that will break the current political logjam.

We lift up the example of the 1985 South African Kairos document "Challenge to the Church" that called its own government and the church itself to rise up and name the evil of apartheid, signaling the beginning of the end of the system that had so poisoned their society. We recall the central role of the church in the Civil Rights movement in our country, when the courage of African American pastors spread throughout the churches of our land, changing the political and social landscape of America.

15,000 Signatures Gathered In Support of Churches’ Call to Investigate Unconditional Military Support of Israel

WASHINGTON, DC  —  Christian and Jewish leaders gathered at the United Methodist Building in Washington, DC to applaud the courageous action of fifteen heads of major US Christian denominations who called for a congressional investigation into possible violations of the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act and the U.S. Export Control Act by Israel. Rabbi Liz Bolton of the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council, Tom Getman of Kairos USA, Rev. Philip Anderson of the Peace Not Walls network of the ELCA, and others came together to express their support for “the 15” who boldly questioned one of the presumably unshakeable tenets of US foreign policy in the Middle East region.

Dear Church Leaders:

Thank you for your recent letter to the members of the United States Congress asking them to hold Israel accountable in its use of U.S. military aid. We agree that Congress should make the disbursement of U.S. military assistance to Israel contingent on the Israeli government’s compliance with applicable U.S. laws and policies.  We join in your call for Congressional hearings to examine Israel's compliance with such laws.

We gratefully acknowledge that your letter reflects the positions of your respective churches and organizations regarding human rights violations by Israelis against Palestinians, the expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied territory, and the right of Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security. We agree wholeheartedly with your statement that unconditional US military aid contributes to "the deteriorating conditions in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories which threaten to lead the region further away from the realization of a just peace."



Fifteen religious leaders representing many major faith groups in the country have written a letter to Congress seeking to make U.S. military aid to the State of Israel contingent upon its compliance with applicable U.S. laws and policies.

Join these Christian leaders in calling for an end to unconditional military support to Israel.

Dear Member of Congress,