The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted 454 to 15 to call Israel's war on Gaza a genocide.
The vote came Thursday at the denomination's 227th General Assembly in Milwaukee. The same resolution presses the US Congress to impose an arms embargo on Israel and urges church members to boycott Israeli products tied to the war.
It landed on the day the war reached its 1,000th day.
In Washington, a member of Congress marked that same milestone with the same demand. Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian American woman elected to Congress, wrote on X that the day marked 1,000 days "since the start of Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza." She called for "a full arms embargo now" and for perpetrators to be brought to justice.
Palestinians, Tlaib wrote, "continue to be massacred by this apartheid regime with the full backing of our government." She has been among the sharpest critics of US military aid to Israel and has repeatedly called for an end to American arms transfers.
Back in Milwaukee, the church's language was blunt. The Rev. Dr. Fahed Abu Akel, a Palestinian American and a former moderator of the church, told the assembly that members had watched schools, universities, hospitals, mosques, and churches destroyed with American-made weapons and American dollars. The houses of worship Israel leveled, he said, ran across Orthodox, Baptist, and Catholic. He said the church could no longer stay silent.
The genocide resolution was one of several votes. Commissioners also approved, 447 to 21, a declaration issued by Palestine's Christian community in November 2025 that calls for a wider international push of boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel.
Days earlier, on Sunday, the assembly had voted unanimously to pull its money out of two US firms: Palantir, which supplies technology to the Israeli military, and GE Aerospace, which builds engines for aircraft and helicopters the Israeli military flies.
On Palantir, the church pointed to two things. The company works with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on deportations during nationwide immigration crackdowns. And, the church said, its technology helps the Israeli military decide who to kill in Gaza.
None of this is new for the denomination. It has protested Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories since 2004, through divestment from companies operating there and boycott calls against Israeli goods made in the occupied territories.
Marietta Macy, co-moderator of the church's Palestine Justice Network, told the outlet Baptist News that Palestinian partners in both Christian and Muslim communities had been asking the church since 2005 to apply boycott, divestment, and sanctions so they could reach full human rights.
The genocide language sits on ground much wider than one American church. Türkiye's government has called Israel's campaign in Gaza a genocide. South Africa's case at the International Court of Justice under the Genocide Convention is ongoing, and the court has ordered provisional measures against Israel. UN bodies and major human-rights organizations have reached the same finding.
Israel's assault on Gaza has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians since October 2023, most of them women and children. A ceasefire has held on paper since 10 October, yet Israeli attacks and the blockade on Gaza have continued.