In its 2026 UUA GA report, the Commission on Appraisal states it will be “sharing … how the issues with which the Association has been concerned in the past have or have not been resolved, and how they continue to echo in the present.”

Widespread concern about the SWANA region crisis is an unresolved issue that echoes in the present.

Our Association has no formal structure for addressing SWANA region concerns other than its membership in the coalition of Churches for Middle East Peace. No GA 2026 reports mentioned Churches for Middle East Peace, Palestine, or Gaza. While UUs hold the line against Christian Nationalism’s deadly impact in the US, we recognize that its foreign policy is also deadly. It intersectionally impacts people here and in other lands. US faculty were beaten and fired, and students arrested, imprisoned, and deported for speaking about the genocide in Gaza. Palantir services ICE and overseas aggression. Many UUs have ties to bombarded lands. Many UUs are in deep grief. Younger generations expect progressive institutions to be vocal.

We ask the commission to include engagement with how the UUA can better include and respond to morally injured UUs regarding crises in the SWANA region.