Following a discernment process that stretched over multiple years, Northside Friends Meeting on September 20, 2026 approved joining a coalition of religious denominations and other organizations in a commitment to freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people.

Northside Friends joins 70 other Monthly Quaker Meetings and two Yearly Quaker Meetings as members of the Apartheid-Free Communities coalition. The coalition currently includes 216 faith-based communities, as well as 193 congregations including Northside. At the denomination level, coalition members include the Alliance of Baptists, the Disciples of Christ, the United Church of Christ, and Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) and South Central Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Altogether there are over 1300 communities that have signed the Apartheid Free Pledge to date, including businesses, unions, educational groups, solidarity organizations and even 16 municipalities.

Joining the Apartheid-Free Communities was not a trivial decision. We are united in our Quaker values, but we each seek the truth of God in our own way. This means even among people of good faith and similar values, we reach different conclusions. We also find conflicts within ourselves. Is this action the right one to take? If the decision is this hard, if it causes conflict and friction in our community, maybe we should do something else instead. Something bigger, more impactful, something that will matter more. Something that will just - fix it.

But that’s not how progress works. Homes are built (and rebuilt and rebuilt) brick by brick. Every seed planted is hope for a better harvest. We do not know how long the path is as we take another step. The minute reads as follows:

Northside Friends Meeting approves joining the Apartheid-Free Communities coalition. Some Friends feel that the language of the Apartheid-Free Communities pledge does not fully align with Quaker faith and practice, and one Friend stands in opposition to the pledge as a matter of conscience. Nevertheless, the sense of the Meeting is to proceed over that Friend’s objections. Therefore,

WE AFFIRM our commitment to freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people and all people;

WE OPPOSE all forms of racism, bigotry, discrimination, and oppression; and

WE DECLARE ourselves an apartheid-free community and to that end,

WE PLEDGE to join others in working to end all support to Israel’s apartheid regime, settler colonialism, and military occupation.

Approved Minutes of Northside Friends Meeting for Business, September 20, 2026

Gaza is a narrow strip of land pressed against the Mediterranean Sea, a carved out corner where Israel borders Egypt. The Palestinian territory has the same number of people as Chicago living in an area half the size. Or at least, it used to.

In June of this year, Google maps updated its satellite imagery of Gaza for the first time since this latest war began. Words are wholly inadequate to describe the devastation. Cities, culture, hospitals, homes, all literally wiped off the map. Imagine if half of Chicago’s buildings were just gone. Laid to waste not by an act of God, but by the malice of man. Policies of oppression and violence enforced by soldiers and guns and tanks and bombs. Supported by the United States and your money and mine through our taxes. In billions of dollars of unrestricted military aid to Israel, in the dismantling of US AID and sanctioning of international aid organizations, in the deep entanglement of the US government with military contractors. Those who benefit from war are doing very well indeed.

It can be paralyzing to face horror on such a scale. It is reasonable to not know what to do, how to respond, to be confused or afraid or uncertain. To despair. What we face is so big and we are so small. No single action we take, nothing we do here, in our Quaker community in Chicago, half a world away from Palestine, will fix this.

Two years ago, Northside’s Ministry on Racism committee joined the Apartheid-Free Communities coalition with direction to continue to engage our Meeting in this ministry. This engagement has taken many forms, from education, discussion, and reflection, to participation in protest and direct action. We now join that coalition as a community. Joining the coalition enables our Meeting to take more impactful actions, such as endorsing the divestment of publicly funded Illinois state pensions from Israeli bonds. The work does not stop at joining this coalition and we will continue in our steadfast organizing to achieve Palestinian liberation.

In the face of huge, horrific atrocities, it is reasonable to despair. But it is not the only option. There are many paths to walk and every step forward is progress. Come, friend, walk with us.

Actions You Can Take

American Friends Service Committee has actions you can take to help the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Attend public, silent worship with us with Love as Action.

Follow the Illinois Divest Network for actions relating to divestment from Israel and companies that benefit from the genocide and apartheid: https://www.instagram.com/illinoisdivestnetwork/

Illinois is a focal point in repealing Anti-BDS laws, find more information and ways to support here: https://www.ilchr.org/ichr