EPF PJN INTRODUCES THE PALESTINE-JUSTICE EDUCATIONAL TOOLKIT

The Episcopal Peace Fellowship Palestine Justice Network (EPF PJN) announces a new educational resource. The Holy Land where Jesus lived today comprises the state of Israel and the Palestinian territories, and is the site of the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict”. This region is often in the headlines, but events there are little understood by many of us. To help improve that understanding, we have compiled a diverse collection of up-to-date information that we hope will help fill in some gaps and tell the story fairly and accurately:

• What is this “conflict” really about?
• Who are the Palestinians and what do they want?
• Doesn’t Israel have the right to defend itself?
• Why is understanding this faraway conflict important to baptized followers of Jesus?

We are pleased to offer this Educational Toolkit on our website so that anyone may use its resources. You can find the Toolkit by clicking this link.

We have organized the information to make it “user friendly” by offering materials that can help those just beginning to study these issues, as well as those already knowledgeable. In coming weeks, we will offer additional guidance about the best ways to use the Toolkit.

We offer the Toolkit for your own learning, to help you in telling others about these issues, and/or to use in formal teaching settings; for example, in your church or community group. Feel free to use all the materials or only those that pertain to your situation and setting.

If you visit the Holy Land today, you can walk where Jesus walked and look on the same vistas he saw. Many of the stories that people tell are not so different from the ones he heard, because although the signs of modernization are everywhere, today’s Palestine and Israel continue to witness many of the same themes of Jesus’ time: justice, mercy, compassion, and hospitality.

We hope that this Toolkit will help lead us all to a better way to follow Jesus.