Food distribution systems for Palestinians is like “The Hunger Games”, an Archbishop has claimed.

The Most Rev Dr Hosam Naoum, the Archbishop of Jerusalem, addressed the General Synod, the Church of England’s legislative body which is convening in York, to ask what it means to be the Church in a time of war, and for a spotlight to be shone on the “horrifying” situation for Palestinians.

In his impassioned speech, which was met with a standing ovation, he warned about “settler violence in the West Bank” and called for “the end of the occupation”, as well as recognition of a Palestinian state.

Archbishop Hosam described the food distribution system for Palestinians as “horrifying”, with three sites open for one hour a day for two million people, adding: “It looks for me, like The Hunger Games” – a reference is to a dystopian young adult book and film franchise, starring Hollywood actress, Jennifer Lawrence, in which children are forced to compete in deadly televised battles.

He claimed: “The major question that Christians in the Holy Land are struggling to address is what it means to be the church in a time of war, we are battered and bruised, but we are not defeated or crushed in the midst of ethnic cleansing, threats of deportation, violence, war on every side, economic pressure, the absence of pilgrims, the daily devastation on every side.”