[Episcopal News Service] On Sept. 27, the Provincial Standing Committee of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa adopted a resolution declaring Israel an apartheid state.

The Provincial Standing Committee includes the Archbishop of Cape Town, the bishops of the province and one clerical and one lay representative of each diocese.

The preamble to the resolution notes that a variety of organizations, including the South African Council of Churches, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch already have made similar declarations about the state of Israel.

“As people of faith who are distressed by the pain of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza – and who long for security and a just peace for both Palestine and Israel – we can no longer ignore the realities on the ground. We are opposed not to the Jewish people, but to the policies of Israelis’ governments, which are becoming ever more extreme,” Archbishop Thabo Makgoba wrote in a statement posted here.

The resolution also calls for future Christian pilgrimages to Israel to include an interfaith component, a discussion regarding the current situation of Christians in the Holy Land, meetings with Palestinian Christians where possible, and visits to the sites of events in Jesus’ life, including those that are in territories controlled by Israel.