‘We hear your voices’: inside the Church of England’s debate over Palestine

A General Synod vote to hear a document describing Israel’s ‘genocidal war on Gaza’ was welcomed by Palestinian Christians, but prompted warnings from Jewish groups

Father Fadi Diab, a prominent Palestinian Anglican priest from Ramallah, watched quietly as the Church of England debated whether to formally hear a document describing Israel as a “colonial enterprise” that had inflicted a “genocidal war on Gaza”.

The motion passed overwhelmingly among bishops, clergy and laity – all three houses of the General Synod – last week.