Kairos Palestine

Kairos Palestine is an organization primarily known for its issuance in Bethlehem in December 2009 of the Kairos Palestine document, full title of which is "A moment of truth: A word of faith, hope, and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering", a call by a number of Palestinian Christians to Christians around the world to help fight the Israeli occupation. The chief activity of the group is the promotion of this document.

Kairos is the Greek word for "an opportune or decisive moment".

The document was issued at an international conference in the International Center of Bethlehem (Dar Annadwa). Among the authors of the document were Archbishop Attalah Hanna, Rev. Mitri Raheb, Rev. Naim Ateek and father Jamal Khader. The coordinator and the spokesperson of the Kairos group is Rifat Odeh Kassis the President of the International Executive Council of Defense for Children International and the General Director of its section in Palestine. In discussing the Kairos Palestine document, the drafting of which he oversaw, Kairos Palestine coordinator Kassis explained that its production took about a year and a half because of a difference of opinions. He further said that "more than 3,000 Palestinian Christian figures have signed and adopted it." The document is available in Arabic and several European languages at the website www.kairospalestine.ps.

The document contains the following explanation of its objectives: "As Palestinian Christians we hope that this document will provide the turning point to focus the efforts of all peace-loving peoples in the world, especially our Christian sisters and brothers. We hope also that it will be welcomed positively and will receive strong support. ... We believe that liberation from occupation is in the interest of all peoples in the region because the problem is not just a political one, but one in which human beings are destroyed."

The document's drafters describe it as "the Christian Palestinians’ word to the world about what is happening in Palestine." They express a desire "to see the Glory of the grace of God in this land and in the sufferings of its people," and add that in this spirit they are calling on "the international community to stand by the Palestinian people who have faced oppression, displacement, suffering and clear apartheid for more than six decades." They call the document "a cry of hope, with love, prayer and faith in God," and say that it is addressed "first of all to ourselves and then to all the churches and Christians in the world, asking them to stand against injustice and apartheid, urging them to work for a just peace in our region, calling on them to revisit theologies that justify crimes perpetrated against our people and the dispossession of the land."

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