"As Christians, we join with our peace-loving Muslim brothers and sisters and non-Zionist Jews, to raise our voices with all the oppressed, calling for peace with justice in Palestine."

"We recognize that in the same way that we fought against apartheid in our own country, we should fight against the scourge of the Zionist state of Israel and its oppression of the people of Palestine."

"We condemn, without qualification, the murderous arms support which countries such as Britain and the USA provide to the state of Israel. We call for sanity to prevail over greed, we call for military support to the state of Israel to stop, in the name of all that is holy."

"We raise high the flag of freedom, and we pray for our suffering brothers and sisters in that land. We join hands with the Gift of the Givers to help raise material support for the suffering people of Palestine. We call on you to do the same."

BUT a group of orthodox Anglicans pushed back and issued the following statement and put out a statement saying "The Celebration of Murder is Never Acceptable."

The put out a petition saying:

WE, THE UNDERSIGNED CHRISTIANS, recognize that Hamas, according to its own Charter, seeks to destroy the state of Israel and commit genocide against the Jews.
We condemn the murder, kidnapping and rape of Israelis, and other foreign nationals, by Hamas militants.
We assert that the Anglican Church of Southern Africa is wrong to conflate the struggle of ordinary Palestinians for greater autonomy and civil rights with the end goal of Hamas which is the destruction of Israel.
We are disturbed that the involvement of Iran as part of their genocidal strategy to destroy Israel is overlooked.
We believe that by avoiding to name Hamas (and Iran) in its resolutions and statements the Anglican church is disingenuous to the cause of ensuring Palestinians gain their freedom in Gaza, because they are under a yoke of religious fundamentalism and ideological totalitarianism.
We state categorically that:
o The murder of innocents is never acceptable,
o The desecration of corpses is never acceptable,
o The taking of children as hostages is never acceptable, and
o The celebration of murder is never acceptable.

We acknowledge that, in every age, the Church has in some way promoted, condoned, or remained silent in the face of antisemitism. Jews were hated for their religion in the Middle Ages, hated for their race in the twentieth century, and are being hated for their nation state in the twenty first century.
We express our pain and sorrow that the Church has repeatedly been complicit in the victimizing of Jews, and that the Anglican church continues to do so.
We affirm how vulnerable Jews feel right now, having experienced the darkest day in Jewish history since the end of the Holocaust.

Earlier Archbishop Thabo Makgoba issued a statement in support of labeling Israel an apartheid state.

"As people of faith who are distressed by the pain of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza -- and who long for security and a just peace for both Palestine and Israel -- we can no longer ignore the realities on the ground. We are opposed not to the Jewish people, but to the policies of Israelis' governments, which are becoming ever more extreme.

"When black South Africans who have lived under apartheid visit Israel, the parallels to apartheid are impossible to ignore. If we stand by and keep quiet, we will be complicit in the continuing oppression of the Palestinians.

"If we are to celebrate peace for Palestinians and security for the Israelis in in our time, we need to pray and work for the land we call holy, for an end to the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank and for full recognition of the Palestinians' inalienable right to self-determination.

Southern African provincial standing committee labeled Israel an apartheid state:

ON ISRAEL AS AN APARTHEID STATE

1. Whereas:

a. Many global human rights bodies including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have now declared Israel an apartheid state;

b. The SACC National Executive Committee has now also declared Israel an apartheid state;

c. The Dutch Reformed Church Western Cape synod has now also expressed its opinion that Israel should be declared an apartheid state and has asked its church's National synod to consider this at its October 2023 Synod;

d. Most Palestinian civil rights bodies consider this to be true;

2. This PSC Resolves to:

a. Endorse the position taken by the SACC national executive committee declaring Israel an apartheid state;

b. Respectfully request the Archbishop to inform the Primate of Jerusalem and the Middle East of this decision;

c. Pray for our Anglican brothers and sisters in Palestine and to express our solidarity with them;

d. Express support for the upcoming global anti-apartheid conference on Palestine to be held in Tshwane in November 2023.

END