Israel’s occupation of Palestinian areas called sin

GENEVA, Switzerland — The outgoing general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) said Aug. 26 that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories should be declared a “sin against God.”

“Occupation, along with the concomitant humiliation of a whole people for over six decades, constitutes not just economic and political crimes but, like anti-Semitism, it is a sin against God,” Samuel Kobia said in his final report to the WCC’s Central Committee.

He noted that at its founding assembly in Amsterdam in 1948, the WCC had declared that anti-Semitism is a “sin against God.”

Kobia said, “Are we ready to say that occupation is also a sin against God?” The WCC groups 349 churches, principally Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox. The Roman Catholic Church does not belong to the WCC but has members on some of its committees.