SA Anglicans launch petition condemning Hamas, opposing church’s anti-Israel rhetoric

A group of concerned South African Anglicans have launched a petition in response to the Anglican Church of Southern Africa’s recent declaration that Israel is an apartheid state and ACSA’s refusal to condemn the actions of Hamas in its recent attacks on Israelis. The petition can be supported here.

The petition wording reads:

“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:

• The murder of innocents is never acceptable,
• The desecration of corpses is never acceptable,
• The taking of children as hostages is never acceptable, and
• 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.”

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