Come and See, Go and Tell: IPMN Delegation to Palestine/Israel
May 28 - June 6, 2024
The Israel Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) organized our delegation in response to a call from our Christian partners in Palestine-Israel. We are mostly Presbyterians, with some ecumenical partners in attendance. The delegation includes ministers, elders, and church members from across the country.
The purposes of the trip are to express solidarity with all who are suffering in Palestine/Israel during this time of immense violence, to demand an end to Israel’s genocidal bombardment of Gaza and an end to Israel’s systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and the release of all Palestinian captives held unlawfully by Israel, and to call for an end to Hamas’ acts of horrendous violence against civilians and the return of all captives held by Hamas.
We call attention to Israel’s increased violence and dispossession of Palestinians in the West Bank – assassinating hundreds of Palestinians in recent months, placing entire communities under military closure, forcibly displacing Palestinian civilians and destroying their homes, and conducting arbitrary detentions of adults and children.
We call on Israel to stop impeding urgently needed relief supplies from reaching the residents of Gaza who have suffered intolerable cruelty, collective punishment, and blatant violations of their human rights under Israeli military occupation for decades, and especially during the past eight months.
We join human rights organizations in Palestine and Israel and throughout the world who assert that the current crisis occurs in the context of seventy-six years of Israel's violent dispossession of Palestinians, ongoing deliberate ethnic cleansing of Palestine, apartheid policies, and denial of Palestinian refugees’ right to return.
We condemn in the strongest terms the U.S. government’s unconditional support of the government of Israel which enables it to maintain its brutal military occupation of Palestine by providing weapons and financial support, as well as diplomatic shielding. Since October 7, the United States has supported Israel’s displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and killing of tens of thousands including thousands of children. We decry the Biden’s administration’s refusal to demand an immediate permanent ceasefire, and the decision to suspend aid to UNRWA, thus denying the entire 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza desperately needed food and relief supplies while under Israeli military assault.
We lift up those Palestinians and Israelis who engage in nonviolent actions to achieve a future of justice, equality, and peace for all Palestinians and Israelis, and pledge to continue to pray for and pursue such a future.