"The ceasefire is not a finish line. It marks the start of a harder struggle against heartbreak, memory, and pain that refuses to fade. If the world does not act decisively, Palestinian life itself could collapse." – Refaat Ibrahim, “When the Bombs in Gaza Stop, the True Pain Starts."

Join in prayer and action

During the uncertain ceasefire, many Christian churches continue their witness for Palestine. The United Church of Canada has been hosting the online gathering, **Pray, Fast, Act: Stand with Gaza**, on Wednesdays throughout October. The final session on October 29 bears the theme: peace and remembrance. As the title suggests, participants assemble online to pray, fast, and act—sharing concrete weekly actions. You can still register here.

Another online option for Wednesdays is **Picket and Pray**, a weekly 30-minute “program of check-in, prayer, and a collective digital action.” Picket and Pray is organized by our US friends at Mennonite Action, Christians for a Free Palestine, and Kirkridge Retreat and Study Center. You can register here.

**Our silent auction is almost here!**

We at CFOS are excited that **Art as Resilience: A Silent Auction for Palestine** opens in just over a week! This silent auction will promote the work of Palestinian artists and allies and raise funds for our ongoing education and advocacy work in support of Palestinian liberation. Bidding takes place November 1–22. Save these dates now and plan to participate! View the auction catalogue here. Learn about how to bid here.
For inspiration, view a poignant video by Omar Haramy, Director of Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, here. Haramy declares that for Palestinians living under sustained oppression, “art becomes our only language; it is how we remember, how we resist, and how we hope.” By participating in the auction, he asserts, “You are joining a legacy of solidarity that says, ‘We see you. We hear you. And we will not look away.’”

Fragile ceasefire, tentative hope

Many Palestinian Christians are holding a tentative hope with respect to the US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza. They also look ahead to the enormous task of healing, reconstruction, and peacebuilding. For example, on October 14, the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem saw the fragile ceasefire as a first inconclusive step forward. They “continue to view with great concern the increasing violence against local communities in the West Bank” and assert the need “to widen the scope of the current negotiations to include an end of the Occupation of both the West Bank and Gaza, leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace with the present State of Israel.” Entire text here.

Rev. Munther Isaac, Lutheran pastor and theologian in Ramallah, West Bank, writing for Sojourners Magazine, argues that a ceasefire is not peace. The so-called “peace plan” is not peace but submission. “It is the illusion of peace; it is a coercive peace where the powerful impose their will, dictate terms, and call it ‘stability.’” Rather, he insists that a true peace requires justice; it requires truth-telling about 75 years of occupation, dispossession, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid, and the will and determination to dismantle those systems of oppression. He concludes, “The ceasefire has given us a moment to breathe. May it also be the moment we awaken to the truth that peace without justice is merely the continuation of war by quieter means.” Read his full reflection here.

**Layan Nasir imprisoned again**

An internationally renowned 23-year-old Palestinian Christian, Layan Nasir, was recently sentenced to eight months in an Israeli prison for charges related to so-called “student activism.” Nasir is a member of St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Birzeit, West Bank, where she is from. This is the third time she has been incarcerated. She was first imprisoned in 2021 and then re-arrested in April 2024 on “administrative detention,” a procedure widely used by Israel to confine people without any evidence presented against them. She is among 9,000 Palestinians currently held in Israeli prisons, often without charge and under torturous and inhumane conditions.

**A moment of truth: Kairos Palestine anniversary and international conference**

**Kairos Palestine** invites global allies and friends to its 16th anniversary with an international conference in Bethlehem, Palestine on November 10–16. The gathering will mark the release of a new Kairos document, "Moment of Truth: Faith in the Time of Genocide.” The original Kairos Palestine document, issued in 2009, was a call to Christians to oppose injustice and occupation with loving nonviolent resistance. The new document will be “a renewed theological and moral plea to the global Church at a time when Christianity itself faces the threat of extinction in its land of origin.” Details of agenda and registration here.

Book launch: *The Cross and the Olive Tree*

CFOS joins with other organizations in hosting an online launch of a brand-new book, ***The Cross and the Olive Tree: Cultivating Palestinian Theology amid Gaza***, on November 15 at 1 pm ET. Edited by brothers John and Samuel Munayer, this anthology lifts up the voices of eight younger Palestinian theologians who offer a crucial and vibrant perspective on liberation, reconciliation, and divine imagination in the context of genocide. Shadia Qubti, a speaker at our CFOS 2024 James Graff Memorial Lecture, is one of the contributors. Register to participate here.

**CBC exposes Canadian complicity**

“**Funding the Occupation**” is an in-depth, detailed television report by CBC’s Fifth Estate. It exposes how Canada’s CRA provides tax receipts for Canadian charities that donate to Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank. Initially aired on October 17, the full documentary is available for streaming here. CFOS encourages our supporters to send notes of appreciation to the lead journalist: ioanna.Roumeliotis@cbc.ca, with a copy to CBC News General Manager and Editor in Chief: brodie.fenlon@cbc.ca.

The lived experience of Palestinian Christians

Mays Nassar, a Palestinian Christian working for Kairos Palestine, reflects on “two years of genocide in our beloved Gaza” and “the ethnic-cleansing war … across the occupied West Bank” in an essay on Cristianisme i Justicia, the website of a Jesuit study centre in Barcelona. She affirms that in terms of oppression, “under Israeli occupation there is no distinction between Christian and Muslim Palestinians.” She calls the global church community to account: “It is one thing to live under an unlawful occupation, overwhelmed with fear, frustration, and anxiety, but it is another, deeper wound to know that much of the world, and many of our fellow Christians, are allowing this to happen.” She ends with a prayer that the churches might “stand where Christ stands: among the oppressed, the wounded, and the crucified of history.” Read the rest of her essay here.

Jack Sara, a self-identified evangelical and president of Bethlehem Bible College, writes of the oppression of Christians within Israel in an article in the Christian Daily International on September 30. He cites “frequent and sustained attacks against clergy, churches, and Christian property,” and “pressure on Christian institutions through municipal tax levies and the freezing of church bank accounts.” He concludes: “The time has come for Evangelical leaders to move beyond a simplistic, uncritical support for the modern political state in Israel based on a narrowly selective reading of prophecy.” Read his entire article here.

Fragile Ceasefire, Tentative Hope

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Fragile Ceasefire, Tentative Hope

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