The gathering in Istanbul was neither ordinary nor familiar. Nothing about it felt routine. On the shores of a city whose history is still being written in blood and in conscience, a priest, a rabbi and a sheikh came together not to debate theology, but to affirm a shared moral position: opposition to Zionism, rejection of genocide, and resistance to ongoing efforts to erase the Palestinian cause.

I was honoured to be among nearly 300 Palestinian, Arab and international figures who gathered under the banner of a conference organised by the Jerusalem International Institution and its partners. Three hundred faces, three hundred lives, three hundred different journeys—yet all guided by a common compass pointing towards Jerusalem, and by a shared sense of responsibility toward Gaza and Palestine.

What unfolded was striking in every sense. Religious leaders from the three monotheistic faiths sat side by side, not to argue doctrine, but to reaffirm a moral covenant. A Christian priest who spoke of Jerusalem as the conscience of faith itself; a Jewish rabbi who publicly rejected Zionism in the name of Judaism; and a Muslim sheikh carrying the trust of the Ummah in both word and bearing. Together, they laid bare a truth too often obscured: this is not a religious war, despite how it is frequently framed, but a struggle between justice and a colonial settler project that instrumentalises religion as cover.

At a pivotal moment, Dr Mohammad Salim Al-Awa read the final statement on behalf of the assembly. Its message........

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