A Jerusalem Voice for Justice: an ecumenical witness for equality and a just peace in Palestine/Israel

Jerusalem, November 19, 2025

Another resolution?

UNSC 2803 (17.11.2025), based upon a draft of the United States administration, was accepted by thirteen of the Security Council member states while two (Russia and China) abstained. The resolution seeks to establish a “Board of Peace”, headed by President Trump, that would oversee an International Stabilization Force.

There are some positive aspects to the US brokered ceasefire of October 4, 2025, and this resolution: less genocide, less domicide, less displacement, and less dismantling of the few Palestinian institutions that still remain. However, despite the ceasefire, the destruction of Gaza and its population is ongoing. (About 250 Gazans have been killed and about 650 injured since the ceasefire went into effect.) Will the UN resolution lead to Palestinian self-determination?

It conditions self-determination on Palestinian “reforms”. Are the intended reforms meant to end corruption and bad administration or do they seek to impose the acceptance of Israeli/US constraints on self-determination. A people’s right to self-determination cannot be conditioned, especially not by those who have prevented this self-determination for decades. Moreover, self-determination begins with a free democratic process, without Israeli or US interference.

There are negative aspects to this resolution too. It smacks of traditional colonialism: the administration of Gaza by foreigners, led by the US President. Undoubtedly, the most negative aspect of the resolution is its lack of a global vision. It ignores the realities in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem): the violent dismantling of Palestinian refugee camps and villages, the extreme violence of the Israeli army and police, and especially Jewish settler vigilantes, the ongoing obstacles to the daily life of Palestinians there and attempts to obliterate their identity. Overall, the resolution adopts a problematic perspective: the problem began on October 7, 2023. However, this ignores the true genesis of the conflict.

There is no way forward unless we are willing to rethink the global situation in Palestine/Israel. Since the British Balfour Declaration (1917), discourse has been based upon a division into Jew and non-Jew, establishing the inequality that has emerged since then. The 1947 UN partition plan was in direct continuity with British colonial rule: the enforced establishment of a Jewish ethnocentric state. Jews are connected to this land and are not simply colonial settlers. However, their link with the land is not exclusive, and it does not give them a right to dispossess and displace, repress and occupy, destroy and commit genocide. Dismantling the system of ethno-centricity, discrimination and occupation must seek to integrate Jewish Israelis into a new reality that opens up on the horizon – a multi-cultural and pluralist society that ensures equality, justice and peace for all who live in Palestine/Israel today.

Signatories:

  • His Beatitude Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah (emeritus)
  • His Excellency Greek Orthodox Bishop Attallah Hanna
  • His Grace Lutheran Bishop of the Holy Land Munib Younan (emeritus)
  • Mr. Yusef Daher
  • Ms. Sawsan Bitar
  • Mr. Sami El-Yousef
  • Mr. John Munayer
  • Mr. Samuel Munayer
  • Ms. Sandra Khoury
  • Rev. David Neuhaus SJ
  • Ms. Dina Nasser
  • Rev. Frans Bouwen MAfr
  • Rev. Firas Abdrabbo
  • Rev. Alessandro Barchi
  • Mr. Rafi Ghattas and other members