ANGLICAN leaders have repeated their appeals for an instantaneous ceasefire in Gaza, as international attention stayed fixed on Israel’s military presence in Rafah.
On Tuesday evening, the Archbishop of Canterbury appealed to the Israeli government to “consider the likely atrocious human cost of an incursion into Rafah”.
In a post on social media, he asked people to affix him in “urgent prayer that the protection of civilians, central to international and humanitarian law, is honoured”, and once more urged an instantaneous ceasefire and the discharge of all hostages.
“This war cannot achieve the goals either of security for Israel, or a free and secure Palestinian state,” he wrote.
Archbishop Welby’s comments echoed those of the Bishop of Chelmsford, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, who spoke to the Church Times last Friday after a three-day visit to Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.
“I feel that we must be way more vocal and assured in calling for a everlasting ceasefire . . . [the war] must stop and it must stop now,” she said, calling for all hostages to be released, and for “unrestricted aid allowed into Gaza”.
On Monday, the Middle Eastern regional lead for World Vision, Eleanor Monbiot, warned of the worsening situation in Rafah.
“Countless children stand on the brink, facing the peril of death, injury, and the harrowing prospect of yet one more forced displacement,” she said, and called for greater access for the delivery of humanitarian aid.
As of Wednesday, the Rafah crossing had been closed for greater than per week, after the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) took control of the Gaza-side of the border. Israeli and Egyptian government figures have blamed one another for continued closure of the crossing to assist vehicles.
According to the UN, almost 450,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah up to now week. The secretary-general, António Guterres, said that he was “appalled by the escalation of military activity in and around Rafah”.
A full-scale incursion into town, where the pre-war population of 250,000 has been swelled by tons of of 1000’s displaced from the north of Gaza, has been cited by governments world wide, including the UK and US, as a red line for his or her continued support of Israel’s campaign in Gaza (News, 10 May).
IN AN interview for the Church Times podcast, Dr Francis-Dehqani emphasised the importance to each side of bringing the war to finish: “This isn’t only for the Palestinians: it’s also for the Israelis. I don’t see any advantage on this war for Israel. Violence only begets violence, until at some stage the violence stops, and other people begin to speak.”
Church leaders within the West needed to be “more forthright in being a part of the answer”, she said, and acknowledged that Palestinians hadn’t all the time felt heard.
In the primary month of the war, Archbishop Welby was criticised by members of the Anglican community within the West Bank, who said that his public statements didn’t articulate the context of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory (News, 27 October 2023).
Last Friday, Dr Francis-Dehqani said that a fear of being considered anti-Semitic was stopping people from speaking out. “We have to seek out a way of distinguishing between anti-Semitism, which is abhorrent and flawed, and proper criticism of the State of Israel. It’s a extremely difficult thing to say that, and I say it really cautiously and thoroughly,” she said.
There was a danger, she warned, that “we change into paralysed because we don’t know what to say, for fear of claiming the flawed thing; so we are saying nothing.”
Overcoming this reticence was vital, though, to avoid hypocrisy; and she or he cited the contradiction of calling for a ceasefire while still supplying weapons to Israel.
She also highlighted the quarter of 1,000,000 people living in illegal Israeli settlements within the West Bank, and the 1000’s of Palestinians — including many young people — who were currently in “administrative detention” for gratis or trial.
Layan Nasir, a 23-year-old Anglican from Birzeit, within the occupied West Bank, has been held for greater than a month without explanation. Archbishop Welby has called for her release (News, 3 May). During her time within the West Bank, Dr Francis-Dehqani met Ms Nasir’s family.
She told Ms Nasir’s mother that she would pray day by day for her daughter and all those “who’re held illegally and unjustly”.
For Dr Francis-Dehqani, the encounter had resonances of her family history, of growing up as a part of a Christian minority in Iran and the murder of her brother, Bahram, within the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution.
The anniversary of his murder fell during Dr Francis-Dehqani’s visit, and she or he lit a candle for him within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Her father, the Rt Revd Hassan Dehqani-Tafti, was the Anglican Bishop in Iran. He survived an assassination attempt before the family fled to the UK, where he led the Iranian Church in exile.
The war was prone to destroy the last vestiges of the Christian community in Gaza, Dr Francis-Dehqani warned. The humanitarian situation there was “like hell on earth”, she said.
A land dispute over a portion of the Armenian Quarter within the Old City of Jerusalem (News, 12 April) also had significant implications for the continued Christian presence within the Holy Land, she suggested.
Listen to an prolonged interview with Dr Francis-Dehqani here or search the Church Times Podcast on any major podcast platform.
