In November 2025, Kairos Palestine – which describes itself as a “Christian Palestinian movement” – published a second theological-political manifesto, “Moment of Truth: Faith in the Time of Genocide.” The document was unveiled in the context of a conference held in Bethlehem. According to Kairos Palestine, the conference was intended to commemorate the 2009 launch of the original Kairos Palestine Document and to serve as a platform for a “renewed theological and moral plea to the global Church.” The event brought together faith-based advocates, theologians, church leaders, and activists, with the stated aim of standing in “prophetic witness” and mobilizing anti-Israel activism. 

In connection with the release, three Christian NGOs – Presbyterian Church USA, United Methodists for Kairos Response, and Friends of Sabeel North America – are preparing a congregational study guide, to be launched in February, to “invite[] congregations into a sacred dialogue with the Kairos Palestine II document” in particular during Lent. 

The document reflects a continuation, and intensification, of the problematic language and narratives that characterize Kairos Palestine’s antisemitic approach to Israel. The text repeats inflammatory terminology, advances a one-sided account of events following the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel, and reiterates theological justifications for “resistance” while failing to clearly address or condemn terrorist violence. The report is consistent with Kairos Palestine’s longstanding pattern of politicized advocacy presented through religious framing, and reinforces concerns regarding faith-based engagement with issues surrounding the Arab-Israeli conflict. 

The newest document exemplifies Kairos Palestine’s continued role in advancing narratives that erode meaningful engagement to prevent antisemitism while promoting highly politicized and delegitimizing discourse toward Israel and Jewish self-determination.

Background on Kairos Palestine 

Kairos Palestine is a “Christian Palestinian movement, born out of the Kairos Document.” It “supports the global campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions,” claiming that “by advocating for BDS, Christians worldwide should be mobilized to engage in, at least one or more of BDS activities and objectives, and to investigate the investment funds of their churches in order to put nonviolent pressure on companies and governments through adopting advocacy campaigns for BDS.”

The first Kairos Palestine Document, written in 2009, denied the Jewish historical connection to Israel in theological terms and rationalized, justified, and trivialized terrorism, labeling it “legal resistance.” 

Many organizations have widely denounced the Kairos Palestine Document for its overt antisemitism. The Central Conference of American Rabbis explains that the Document “echoes supersessionist language of the Christian past, since rejected by most mainstream Christian denominations, referring to the Torah absent Christian revelation as, in the words of the Christian Scriptures, ‘a dead letter.’” The Simon Wiesenthal Center describes it as “a revisionist Document of hatred for Israel and contempt of Jews.”

Yet, the Kairos Palestine Document continues to be used by numerous NGOs as a tool to target Israel and bolster BDS campaigns worldwide.

Key Concerns in A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide

October 7 and Resistance Rhetoric

Kairos Palestine’s 2025 document advances a narrative in which the violence of the October 7 attacks is framed as an inevitable and understandable consequence of perceived historical injustice and occupation. Kairos Palestine asserts that “Israel commits these crimes by invoking the events of October 7, 2023, claiming that its actions are an act of self-defense — forgetting that the Hamas attack of that day was itself born out of decades of injustice, oppression and displacement since the Nakba of 1948, and more than sixteen years of an immoral, suffocating blockade on Gaza” (emphasis in original). 

The document then claims, “To point to these historical realities — and to the right of a people under occupation to resist their occupier and oppressor — is to acknowledge that the events of October 7 occurred in a particular context. Mentioning the context does not justify the killing or capture of civilians, the violations of international law and norms, and war crimes. The claim of ‘self-defense’ cannot stand. How can a colonizer defend itself against those it has colonized and expelled from their land? International law — if it still retains any moral weight — refutes this claim.”

While the document includes the caveat that it does not justify civilian killings, Kairos Palestine consistently portrays resistance not merely as a political response, but as a faith-driven act rooted in divine calling and religious conscience. The text emphasizes that Kairos Palestine acts “through the lens of theology” and “fundamental religious, theological and moral principles…responding to the voice of the Holy Spirit deep within us.” 

Moreover, Kairos Palestine equates acts of faith with acts of resistance. The document states, “This is a time for resistance embodied in costly steadfastness on our land in the face of every attempt at displacement, annexation and genocide, a resistance lived out in our unity, cooperation and commitment to our faith, national principles and all our rights. To hold on to faith and hope is resistance. To pray is resistance. To safeguard the holy places is resistance. To preserve social peace is resistance.” 

The document further emphasizes the universal and morally imperative nature of resistance: “At a time when Palestinian resistance and global solidarity movements are criminalized, we reaffirm the right of all colonized peoples to resist their colonizers.” 

Antisemitism and the Delegitimization of Antisemitism Claims

Kairos Palestine devotes explicit attention to antisemitism, but does so to shield itself from the consequences of its own antisemitic rhetoric and advocacy. (This reflects the NGO’s longstanding pattern of dismissing, denying, reframing, and politicizing concerns about antisemitism.) The document presents accusations of antisemitism primarily as an insincere tool of political manipulation, asserting, “We condemn all who exploit and support the charge of antisemitism to silence the Palestinian voice of truth.” This framing casts Jewish victims of antisemitism and their allies as bad-faith actors engaged in deliberate suppression, rather than as stakeholders responding to antisemitic language and advocacy  – including from Kairos Palestine.

The document goes on to reject “every attempt to conflate antisemitism with opposition to apartheid and with pressure to hold Israel accountable under international law — particularly through the use of definitions and documents designed to serve Zionist ideologies and interests under the guise of combating antisemitism.” This language reflects direct hostility toward widely adopted frameworks for identifying antisemitism, including internationally recognized definitions such as the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition. The IHRA definition addresses contemporary manifestations of anti-Jewish hatred, including cases in which criticism of Israel crosses into antisemitism – and which clearly implicate Kairos Palestine.

The document also refers to “genuine antisemitism,” positioning Kairos Palestine as an arbiter of which forms of antisemitism are legitimate and which are not. 

The document further advances a problematic framing of “Zionist ideology” and Jewish identity, alleging  that “Not every Jew is a Zionist and not every Zionist is a Jew. This confusion has done great harm to Judaism itself and to its image worldwide.” This passage assigns responsibility for antisemitism and confusion about Jewish identity to Jews themselves, effectively shifting blame away from antisemites. This rhetorical maneuver reflects a recurring antisemitic trope that casts Jewish collective identity as inherently deceptive or destructive.

This approach is consistent with Kairos Palestine’s earlier publications, including the original 2009 Kairos document, which rejected Jewish historical and religious claims to the land while framing Zionism as a theological distortion and moral injustice. Over time, the organization has repeatedly engaged in discourse that denies Jewish peoplehood, delegitimizes Jewish self-determination, and treats Jewish concerns about antisemitism as obstacles to political advocacy rather than as legitimate expressions of vulnerability rooted in centuries of persecution.

Promotion of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)

A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide explicitly endorses BDS as a strategy for international engagement. Kairos Palestine states that it “value[s] the global movements of resistance, advocacy and popular pressure that work to hold governments and international bodies accountable.”

The text calls directly on churches and religious institutions to operationalize this agenda, “repeat[ing] and emphasize[ing]” its appeal to “pressure their governments to isolate Israel, hold it accountable, impose sanctions, boycott it, and to ban the export of arms until it complies with international law.” 

Kairos Palestine also advocates for political and social isolation, urging churches to sever engagement with individuals and groups it labels as Zionist: “boycott dialogue with Zionist voices that have supported and continue to support occupation, apartheid and the genocide of the Palestinian people.” By directing religious actors to implement BDS measures, the document frames these political and economic actions as a religiously mandated duty, presenting opposition to Israel as a moral obligation of the global Church.

By urging isolation, sanctions, and the exclusion of “Zionist voices,” the document advances a framework that rejects dialogue, entrenches polarization, and further blurs the line between political advocacy and religious discourse, reinforcing Kairos Palestine’s role in delegitimization campaigns against Israel.

Use of Demonizing Terminology

The 2025 document employs extreme and demonizing language to portray Israel as uniquely and inherently criminal, repeatedly accusing it of “ethnic cleansing,” “genocide,” “colonialism,” and “apartheid.” These terms are not used as part of a serious legal or factual analysis, but rather as instruments of moral condemnation designed to depict Israel as a religiously and morally illegitimate state. Far from limiting these accusations to specific policies or territories, Kairos Palestine applies this language to Israel’s very existence, referring to the Jewish state, regardless of borders, as “settler colonialism” and “apartheid.” 

This delegitimization is made explicit in the document’s treatment of Israel’s founding, which it describes as intrinsically criminal: “Genocide is a cumulative process… We consider the State of Israel, established in 1948, to be a continuation of that same colonial enterprise built on racism and the ideology of ethnic or religious superiority” (emphasis in original). By defining Israel’s establishment as an ongoing act of genocide and racial supremacy, the document denies the legitimacy of Jewish self-determination and portrays the existence of a Jewish state as morally indefensible. 

By framing Israel as uniquely genocidal and inherently racist, Kairos Palestine advances a narrative in which the Jewish state is cast as a singular moral evil, rather than as a state engaged in a complex and protracted conflict. This framing renders all Israeli actions, including responses to attacks such as those of October 7, 2023, automatically criminal and unjustifiable, eliminating any possibility of lawful self-defense or moral agency.

Previous Problematic Publications

On July 1, 2022, Kairos Palestine and Global Kairos for Justice, part of the worldwide network of “Kairos Palestine partner movements,” jointly published “A Dossier on Israeli Apartheid – A Pressing Call to Churches Around the World.” The document presents itself as a “theological study for Christians” to learn about “the crime of apartheid and why Palestinians and a growing number of churches and human rights organizations are using the word to describe Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.”

The dossier compares Christian Zionists to both Christians in Nazi Germany and the white Lutheran Reformed Churches in apartheid South Africa,“likewise twist[ing] the biblical notions of justice, peace and reconciliation.” The dossier also draws comparisons between the Church’s calling of a status confessionis (a denunciation of a certain policy as inherently against the teachings of the Church) against Nazi policies to statements by the United Church of Christ (UCC), World Council of Churches (WCC), and the Lutheran World Federation among others, claiming that “Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people” is “a matter of theological urgency and represents a sin in violation of the message of the biblical prophets and the Gospel.” 

The dossier also employs a theological argument – “the land belongs to God, not to any nation, ethnicity, or religion” – in order to delegitimize the Jewish people’s historic connections to the land of Israel. In essence, Kairos Palestine simultaneously justify Palestinian national claims and privilege Palestinian entitlement, while denying Jewish self-determination.