Real Talk: Church of England Boss Pulls Up to the West Bank and Calls Out the Whole System
Archbishop Sarah Mullally isn’t sugarcoating the struggle, demanding an end to the occupation after seeing the blockades, locked-up youth, and stolen land firsthand.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, just wrapped up a five-day run through the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, and she isn’t holding back. Alongside the Anglican Archbishop of Jerusalem, Hosam Naoum, Mullally dropped a joint letter calling for an immediate end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine. No cap—she’s calling out the whole system and telling global politicians they need to stop dragging their feet and make a real two-state solution happen.
Mullally pulled up to the frontlines to see exactly how the state is squeezing everyday people. She talked about the "immense hardships" and the literal "web of checkpoints" that make life in the West Bank a daily struggle. Lambeth Palace let it be known that this trip was all about showing love to the Palestinian Christians who are getting violently pushed off their own blocks while illegal settlements keep expanding around them.
To make it real, the Archbishop went out to plant an olive tree with the Nassar family. These Palestinian Christians have been fighting the system in court since 1991 just to keep the state from seizing their land, all while dealing with constant settler attacks on their home. Mullally called their fight a prime example of "Christian resistance to injustice," pointing out that while many Christians are packing up and leaving because the pressure is too high, those olive trees show who really has deep roots in the soil.
She also met with the youth who have been caught up in the system. Mullally sat down with Layan Nasir, a 26-year-old Anglican community worker who was locked up by the military, and the parents of Natalie Abu Dayeh, a Christian student who’s been held behind bars without even being hit with a formal charge. It’s the same old story—young people getting swept up and detained with no trial and no way to fight back.
Over in Gaza, the letter reports that the health system has hit a "catastrophic collapse." The archbishops made it clear that the rest of the world has a moral duty to stop looking the other way, step up, and help rebuild the community from the ground up.
But the letter kept it 100 on both sides. It acknowledged that over in Israel, the trauma from the "horrifying atrocities of 7 October" has people living in a constant state of high alert. With conflicts cracking off on multiple fronts, the fear of danger has completely warped the country’s politics and social life, making everyone hyper-sensitive.
At the end of the day, Mullally said this whole mess is just a symptom of a much deeper spiritual and political breakdown. She called out the global leaders for abandoning international law and trying to solve every single problem with military force instead of treating people with basic dignity.


