'God loves Gaza': US Christians gather in rare display of solidarity with Palestine

It’s the early afternoon of 11 September in the small midwestern American town of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, some 24 miles west of downtown Chicago. At Parkview Community Church, at least 550 people have gathered inside the main auditorium to pray. 

The musicians on stage have everyone up on their feet. They are all singing a Palestinian hymn together.

“Yarabba ssalami, im la’ qulubuna salam”: Oh God of peace, fill our hearts with peace.

Many have Palestinian keffiyehs draped across their shoulders, but few here are Palestinian at all. They are white, Black, Asian, Hispanic, Arab - Christians of all denominations who denounce the loud, mainstream Christian Zionism that permeates US society and now openly dictates government policy, both domestic and foreign. 

This is day one of the inaugural Church at the Crossroads conference, designed to heed the call from Christians who want a space that can be an antithesis to, among others, the annual Christians United For Israel (Cufi) conference, which draws thousands of people whose religious priority is the defence of Israel, as they believe that only in protecting it will the second coming of Jesus Christ materialise. 

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