Prayers4Peace: Another resolution?
By: A Jerusalem Voice for Justice
an ecumenical witness for equality and a just peace in Palestine/Israel
Jerusalem, 19.11.2025
UNSC 2803 (17.11.2025), based upon a draft of the United States administration, was accepted
by thirteen of the Security Council member states while two (Russia and China) abstained. The
resolution seeks to establish a “Board of Peace”, headed by President Trump, that would
oversee an International Stabilization Force.
There are some positive aspects to the US brokered ceasefire of October 4, 2023, and this
resolution: less genocide, less domicide, less displacement, and less dismantling of the few
Palestinian institutions that still remain. However, despite the ceasefire, the destruction of Gaza
and its population is ongoing. (About 250 Gazans have been killed and about 650 injured since
the ceasefire went into effect.) Will the UN resolution lead to Palestinian self-determination?
It conditions self-determination on Palestinian “reforms”. Are the intended reforms meant to
end corruption and bad administration or do they seek to impose the acceptance of Israeli/US
constraints on self-determination. A people’s right to self-determination cannot be conditioned,
especially not by those who have prevented this self-determination for decades. Moreover, self-determination begins with a free democratic process, without Israeli or US interference.
There are negative aspects to this resolution too. It smacks of traditional colonialism: the
administration of Gaza by foreigners, led by the US President. Undoubtedly, the most negative
aspect of the resolution is its lack of a global vision. It ignores the realities in the West Bank
(including East Jerusalem): the violent dismantling of Palestinian refugee camps and villages,
the extreme violence of the Israeli army and police, and especially Jewish settler vigilantes, the
ongoing obstacles to the daily life of Palestinians there and attempts to obliterate their identity.
Overall, the resolution adopts a problematic perspective: the problem began on October 7,
2023. However, this ignores the true genesis of the conflict.
There is no way forward unless we are willing to rethink the global situation in Palestine/Israel.
Since the British Balfour Declaration (1917), discourse has been based upon a division into
Jew and non-Jew, establishing the inequality that has emerged since then. The 1947 UN
partition plan was in direct continuity with British colonial rule: the enforced establishment of
a Jewish ethnocentric state. Jews are connected to this land and are not simply colonial settlers.
However, their link with the land is not exclusive, and it does not give them a right to dispossess
and displace, repress and occupy, destroy and commit genocide. Dismantling the system of
ethnocentricity, discrimination and occupation must seek to integrate Jewish Israelis into a new
reality that opens up on the horizon – a multi-cultural and pluralist society that ensures equality,
justice and peace for all who live in Palestine/Israel today.
Signatories:
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah (emeritus)
Greek Orthodox Archbishop Attallah Hanna
Lutheran Bishop of the Holy Land Munib Younan (emeritus)
Mr. Yusef Daher Ms. Sawsan Bitar Mr. Samuel Munayer
Ms. Dina Nasser Mr. John Munayer Ms. Sandra Khoury
Rev. David Neuhaus SJ Rev. Frans Bouwen MAfr Rev. Firas Abdrabbo
Mr. Rafi Ghattas. Rev. Alessandro Barchi and other members