On Oct 13, 2023, the United Church of Canada and an group of Canadian churches published an ecumenical statement on the escalation of violence between Hamas and Israel.  The statement is “A Cry to End the Violence and to uphold the rights of all civilians to life and freedom from violence and discrimination.”

Excerpt:

…We join the voices of those in the region and others in Canada and internationally in urging the Canadian Government to support a ceasefire and a negotiated resolution to this violence. The pain and tragedy of the growing numbers of civilian lives, Israeli and Palestinian, lost in the violence to date are evidence of the need for an immediate ceasefire, not an escalation of violence.

We echo the voices of the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem from their joint statement issued on October 8, 2023, lamenting that Palestinians and Israelis are “currently mired in violence and suffering due to the prolonged political conflict and the lamentable absence of justice and respect for human rights.”…

Canada and the wider international community have failed to uphold international law; the international response must comply with international humanitarian law. We urge Canada to take leadership in calling for a corridor to provide humanitarian relief to Gaza…

In addition to condemning the spiraling violence and doing everything in its power for an immediate ceasefire, Canada must work with renewed effort toward peace with justice that upholds the rights of both Palestinians and Israelis to life and to freedom from violence and discrimination, and an end to the occupation.