Bethlehem, West Bank – Dr. Sarah Nahar, staff supervisor at Mennonite Action, delivered a forceful appeal to North American churches following her visit to Palestine for the launch of the renewed Kairos Palestine Document.

Speaking in a video message, Nahar said she witnessed what she described as intensified military presence, settlement expansion, and growing restrictions on Palestinian communities, particularly around Bethlehem and in the northern West Bank. She recounted frequent military incursions, fortified settlements along the road to Ramallah, and what she called the increasing fragmentation of Palestinian life.

Nahar pointed to the demolition of communities near Jenin. He described what she termed a “gazification of the West Bank,” suggesting that Palestinians fear broader destruction following the war in Gaza. She said residents shared stories of displacement and loss, yet also demonstrated sumud—steadfastness—which she described as both a lived reality and a theological principle.

According to Nahar, the renewed Kairos document, titled “Faith in a Time of Genocide,” represents a unified call from Palestinian Christian denominations to the global church. She said the text “names the reality on the ground without euphemism,” denounces Christian Zionism, and calls for renewed engagement with nonviolent resistance, including boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS).

Nahar emphasized that decisions made in North America directly affect the situation in Palestine and Israel through tax funding, weapons shipments, and political theology. She credited Mennonite activists with increasing public advocacy over the past two years, encouraging church members to speak to elected officials and take visible action.

“The call from the church in Palestine is to come and see,” Nahar said, urging global churches to examine their financial ties and consider divestment from what she described as systems supporting Israeli apartheid.

She concluded by framing Mennonite Action’s work as spiritually grounded activism aimed at countering Christian nationalism and advancing what she called a vision of “a healed Palestine and a healed planet.”

Read Kairo II document below