A Palestinian Christian peace activist urges churches to tell the truth

From here:

Nora Carmi, a Palestinian Christian peace activist, came to Canada with a challenge for churches to “dare to tell the truth” about Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and to “stand with those who are oppressed.”

Dressed in black with a silver cross at her throat, Carmi, 64, visited the national office of the Anglican Church of Canada at the beginning of her 12-day speaking tour. She was hosted by Canadian Friends of Sabeel, an ecumenical liberation theology movement and a long-time partner.

“Oppression against the Palestinians includes violation of all forms of rights,” Carmi said in an interview. “Access to sites of worship, revoking residency rights, denying family reunification—everything that is basically human is being denied at this point to the Palestinian people.”

There are some aspects of the truth that Nora Carmi isn’t daring to tell, though. Things like: Israel is the only true democracy in a region awash with despots who routinely proclaim that Israel shouldn’t exist; if Israel stopped defending itself and relied on the good will of its neighbours, it would cease to exist; Palestinians Arabs constitute 20% of the population of Israel and according to polls, most would prefer to live in a Jewish than a Palestinian state.

Let’s hope that Canadian churches do “dare to tell the truth” about Israel.