Presiding Bishop Michael Curry delivers a video message on immigration on July 15, 2019. Photo: Episcopal Church, via video
[Episcopal News Service] Presiding Bishop Michael Curry sent a letter to President Joe Biden on July 23 calling on the U.S. government to push for an immediate and sustained ceasefire. He also called for a prolonged commitment to support Gazans as they rebuild; and to hold Israel accountable for human rights abuses, violence and illegal land seizures.
“We have expressed our horror at the loss of civilian life, Israeli and Palestinian, and have urged the U.S. government to use all the leverage it can to call for a permanent ceasefire, humanitarian access, the release of hostages, and an end to the death and suffering of innocent civilians, including children,” Curry wrote in the letter.
The presiding bishop’s letter to Biden coincides with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the United States this week; a visit which has sparked nationwide protests and additional calls for a ceasefire. Netanyahu addressed a joint meeting of Congress in the afternoon on June 24. About 5,000 pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered outside the U.S. Capitol ahead of Netanyahu’s address, prompting Capitol Police to deploy pepper spray.
A man holds a banner as Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest, on the day of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 24, 2024. Photo: Seth Herald/Reuters
“Clarity begins by knowing the difference between good and evil, yet incredibly many anti-Israel protesters, many choose to stand with evil. They stand with Hamas. They stand with rapists and murderers,” Netanyahu said, describing the atrocities Hamas committed against Israeli citizens living in kibbutzim. “These protesters stand with them. They should be ashamed of themselves.”
In his letter, Curry cited several resolutions on Israel and Palestine passed last month during the 81st General Convention in Louisville, Kentucky.
“Our Church recognizes the moral and legal obligations of the United States to the people of Gaza, given the role of the United States in providing military aid and diplomatic support for the war,” Curry wrote. “The Episcopal Church opposes any military aid in violation of human rights (Resolution D012), and we must be prepared join in historic levels of aid and investment to fund the restoration and rebuilding of Gaza (D009). We call for an immediate ceasefire (D056) as well as the release of all unjustly detained prisoners with a future ensuring equal rights and peace (D007).”
Curry also mentioned how the church has “raised concerns again and again” about attacks against Al Ahli Arab Hospital since the war between Israel and Hamas started in October 2023. Earlier this month, the hospital, which is operated by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, briefly closed in response to an Israeli evacuation order. The Diocese of Jerusalem also announced that a hospital ambulance had been fired on and severely damaged by a sniper; the driver was unharmed, and no patients were in the ambulance at the time.
“We recognize your longstanding support of Israel, but call on you to recognize that we cannot continue with this level of impunity, with assurances of change but ongoing violence and killing of civilians, targeting of medical facilities and staff, and bombing of refugee camps, U.N. facilities, and hospitals,” Curry said in his letter to Biden. “Please take this moment and use the power of the U.S. government to ensure Israel makes meaningful changes and to push forward a way of peace in the region.”
The war has resulted in the deaths of nearly 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza and at least 1,200 Israelis, according to the United Nations. On Oct. 3, Hamas took some 255 hostages, 135 have been released. The war has so far displaced almost 2 million Palestinians, or 83% of the population. Israel has allegedly arrested more than 9,700 Palestinians from the West Bank since the war started, according to Addameer, a Palestinian nongovernmental organization based in Ramallah in the West Bank.
Many of the protesters in Washington, D.C., are Jewish, and about 400 of them, including two dozen rabbis, participated in a July 23 demonstration in the House of Representatives office building, which led to 200 arrests by Capitol Police. Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist human rights organization, staged the demonstration.
In the letter, Curry said The Episcopal Church also asks the Biden administration to support funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and to advocate for the release of Palestinians who are being held without charges or trial, as well as to “indicate a willingness” to discontinue U.S. security support to Israel.
The church has made repeated calls for the release of Layan Nasir, a 23-year-old Palestinian Anglican woman held in administrative detention without charge by Israel since April.
— Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service based in northern Indiana. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.