World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel 2026: Concept Note

Background

The World Council of Churches (WCC) annually designates a week during which educational material, prayers, and actions serve as a reminder of the continuing struggle for justice in the Holy Land and for its peoples. Today, and after the WCC executive committee adoption of a new advocacy strategy for Palestine, the WCC Jerusalem Liaison Office Advisory group, together with close local and international partners, prepared for the World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel 2026, anticipating developing the special week together with another campaign every May to commemorate Nakba.

The WCC executive committee resolution: “Annual Campaign Around 15 May (Nakba Commemoration) Refocus the World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel (WWPPI) and establish an annual global advocacy campaign around 15 May under the auspices of the Palestine Ecumenical Forum (PEF), ensuring coordinated messaging and broad member church participation articulating the focus on liberation from oppression and Palestinian self-determination.”

World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel 2026

The main concentrates on children: children lost in the war, or left without parents, children who are traumatised and afraid. The children who are the beloved of God and the most vulnerable in conflicts.

The latest UN Human Rights Council Independent International Commission of Inquiry report^[i] concluded that “The essence of childhood has been destroyed: Israel’s deliberate targeting of Palestinian children in the Occupied” was something WCC cannot but stop at and reflect.

The development group decided that the focus of this World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel 2026 will be on children, the above-mentioned report, and the theology of child protection. In the same context, this week will focus on the situation in Gaza today where children are totally neglected after all promises of ceasefire and reconstruction. It will also focus on the destruction and division in the families due to the war and the Palestinian families forced to leave their homeland for a better life somewhere else.

From the Bible, we chose Psalms 127:3 to best describe God’s will.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord…

The World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel 2026 will be a reminder for all, that children are gifts from God that we should keep safe, protect and preserve, because God entrusted us with them.

From the Bible, there were also other verses to carry God’s will and love. We will also carry those teachings while we proceed in planning and living this week.

Resource materials

The planning group proposes the following items to be prepared for the week as material to educate, pray, and act.

Educate:

Cite the UN Human Rights Council independent inquiry report in parts for the seven days of the week.
Use social media formats (Facebook and Instagram stories) to focus on the issues of children.
Produce several digital posters with photos and text to be used during the week using some words from the UN report.

Samples:

Physical and psychological harm by the Israeli security forces since 7 October 2023 resulting in the death of at least 20,179 and injury of 44,143 children.
Violence perpetrated by members of Israeli settlers against Palestinian children in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Inhumane and degrading treatment, including sexual and gender-based violence, against Palestinian children, particularly during mass arrests and in detention.
Israel’s targeting of critical infrastructure essential to children, such as healthcare facilities.
The impact of reproductive violence on newborns, resulting in poor neonatal health and birthing outcomes.
How Israeli soldiers mock and weaponize symbols of childhood in Gaza, raising ethical, disciplinary, and legal questions.
Accountability and international enforcement of sanctions – aimed at advancing child-responsive justice.

Pray:

Prepare a sample ecumenical service liturgy with themed biblical reflection to be used locally and internationally during the week.

Actions:

Church congregations to meet with their parliamentary human rights committees to provide briefings about the situation of Palestinian children; and to provide action points that ensure protection, safety, dignity, and that humanitarian needs of children are addressed. Follow-up after the meetings is necessary to provide more information, coordinate together, and to ensure that action is taken. Churches are to organize briefings to their congregations whereby the faithful are encouraged to write letters to their government representatives, op-eds to their media networks, and to ask for protection of Palestinian children.
Use interfaith gatherings to discuss the outcome of the UN report and how we can together protect Palestinian children.
Ask the various partners worldwide to disseminate the "Right to Education in Jerusalem" video through their social media networks and to their mailing lists, and to utilize the video as part of their briefings.
Locally, the Arab Educational Institute will carry out activities with children and youth for the week. Flash mob will be a good idea, if possible, in central locations of the cities with posters focused on the rights of the child. Local and international media will be invited beforehand so they will help raise awareness about Palestinian child rights.
Sabeel and the WCC Jerusalem Liaison Office might also have an ecumenical service in Jerusalem like last year with children. Bible verses should all be focused on children, and children should participate in the mass. Christian media organizations should be invited to over the mass, and they will be provided with a list of persons who can speak to the press about the mass and protection needs of Palestinian children.
Promote the WCC Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel, Kairos Palestine, and other liberation theological material to highlight children and family vulnerability and giving hope for a better future for them. A team of the participating organisations should prepare talking points and information packages, and post them online with plenty of time for partners worldwide to utilize it and to translate to various languages.
The WCC will write feature story about the protection needs of Palestinian children to post on the website and social media. The story should include reference to Christian children in vulnerable populations such as Taybeh, the northern part of the West Bank, or Gaza.

His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, speaking about the urgent need to end conflict and build a reconciled world, said:

“War does not solve problems; on the contrary, it amplifies them and inflicts deep wounds on the history of peoples, which take generations to heal. No armed victory can compensate for the pain of mothers, the fear of children, or stolen futures.”

^[i] https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/…