“We have heard the cries”: EPF PJN at General Convention

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EPF PJN member Linda Gaither sets the context for EPF PJN’s work at General Convention 2018.

Our presiding bishop, +++Michael Curry, heard the cries of the people during his Holy Week visit to the Diocese of Jerusalem:

“We have heard the cries of Palestinian Christians throughout the land, who strive only for equal treatment and kindness and justice for all regardless of race or religion…We have heard the cries of people in Palestine, in the West Bank, in Jerusalem, Israeli youth whose longings are the same, to breathe free, safe and secure.”

“We have heard the cries of people in Gaza, where the church here provides an oasis in a hospital, and oasis in the midst of a war zone through a hospital built on the teachings and spirit of Jesus, where healing and care is made available to all regardless of religion, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of politics.”

Since Good Friday, which coincided with the eve of Passover, the whole world has heard these cries and witnessed the agony of a desperate people, trapped in a humanitarian crisis, marching near Gaza’s border.  The hospitals of Gaza have indeed functioned as an oasis in a war zone.  We watch in disbelief as Israeli soldiers let loose a hail of sniper fire using live ammunition and rubber bullets from behind bulldozed earth berms, while tear gas is fired from the skies by drones. The targets are unarmed, thousands of men, women and children, many of them refugees who fled their homes in 1948 in the violence of  Israel’s founding.  As a result of the Good Friday assault, 16 people were murdered, 805 were wounded by live ammunition, 425 suffered tear gas inhalation and 154 were hit by rubber bullets.  As May begins and the weekly demonstrations continue, the death toll has risen to 40 with over 5500 Palestinians wounded.  Not one Israeli has been wounded.  As Human Rights Watch reminds us, using lethal force is banned by international law except to meet imminent threat to life.  

At General Convention in Austin, the Palestine/Israel Network of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship will include among its resolutions a call to hold Israel accountable under international law for its lethal targeting of unarmed demonstrators protesting at the border of what has been called the world’s largest open-air concentration camp. The resolution also calls on Congress and the US Secretary of State to reinstate the full funding commitment of the US government to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip, while at the same time demanding that Israel lift its decades-long siege of Gaza by land, sea and air.

The Episcopal Church has taken a strong first step toward demanding Israeli accountability to international law by joining with 15 Christian denominations and agencies in a call to end the Israeli military’s use of deadly force against unarmed demonstrators. The April 12 Statement included among its recommended actions an investigation into the deaths and injuries resulting from the use of live ammunition against civilians. 

EPF/PJN believes that our resolution on Gaza, along with other resolutions to be submitted on behalf of a just peace, offers the next step forward in our church’s response to the unfolding tragedy in Palestine/Israel.  May the bishops and deputies gathered in General Convention hear and respond, with our Presiding Bishop, to the cries of the people in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Jerusalem and wherever the fundamental human rights of Palestinians are ignored or suppressed. Our church has prayed, our church has studied; now it is time to act.

Voices for Justice: EPF PJN Member Newland Smith reports on his time in Palestine/Israel

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UK and USA Palestine Mental Health Network Study Tour

The ten-day tour (March 25-April 4) with seven nights in Bethlehem and two in Nazareth was led by a woman who has been facilitating tours for internationals for nearly twenty years and this was the third study tour done in conjunction with the UK Palestine Mental Health Network and the first for USA Palestine Mental Health Network.  Participants included four from the UK and eight from the US.  Rebecca Fadil who is a member of the Steering Committee of the USA Palestine Mental Health Network was part of the American contingent.  The 2018 study tour’s special focus was on trauma within families and its impact on women and children.  

More than twenty encounters were arranged so that participants could meet with professional colleagues, primarily Palestinian but also Israeli, and to receive information and understanding about the political reality on the ground.      

It became clear that the situation continues to worsen as settlements grow including the Judaization of East Jerusalem, the fifty year old military occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank continues its draconian control and repression of Palestinians with adverse effects especially on children and women, and the two state solution is no longer viable as the extreme Right calls for the annexation of the West Bank. At the same time we heard from mental health practitioners of their hard ongoing work with Palestinians trapped both in a military occupation in the OPT and second class citizens within the State of Israel. 

Jeff Helper, Co-Founder of the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, took us to the large Jewish settlement of Ma’ale Adummim, which with a population 35,000 and all the amenities of an American city, functions as a suburb of Jerusalem. One of the owners of the Educational Bookshop on Saladin Street, East Jerusalem described the levels of “membership” in Israel/Palestine with Israeli Palestinians living within the State of Israel having the most privileges, then East Jerusalem residents, followed by Palestinians living in the West Bank and Palestinians in Gaza. Gerard Horton and Salwa Duaibis gave a very moving presentation on the impact of the fifty year old occupation of the West Bank on the Palestinian population.  The Israeli military have been very successful in protecting the settlers in the West Bank now numbering 420,000 by dividing the West Bank into military districts each of which has extensive intelligence of any active resistance by the Palestinians.  The Israeli military has also been very successful in building a cadre of informants/collaborators to the extent that Palestinians no longer know who they can trust.  Child arrests in the middle of the night are part of a system of intimidation.  These arrests have a profound impact on families.  Fathers who cannot protect their child, sleep deprivation with health implications, mothers who become numb. “I am afraid of being afraid”.  They are afraid of a tomorrow with their child out of school while nearby settlers are happy and are sleeping at night.  The Director of the Arab Association of Human Rights in Nazareth gave an excellent presentation on how the State of Israel has and continues to treat its Palestinian citizens through over fifty laws that limit their rights.  For example Palestinians are not welcomed in 922 Israeli villages.  The goal is “pure Jewish”.  Palestinians do not fit “culturally” for they are not Jewish.  

At the same time we heard the amazing work being done by social workers and psychologists.  Palestine Counseling Centre emphasizes a “positive direction” as staff work with Palestinians in East Jerusalem, for whom no aspect of their lives is predictable. The staff supports each other in part by sharing in cooking lunch. The work of Physicians for Human Rights -Israel with a staff of 27 and volunteers numbering 3000 includes Palestinian political prisoners and refugees.  Doctors are sent to Gaza monthly.  We learned of the bureaucratic system a patient in Gaza seeking treatment for cancer in an Israeli hospital must endure and of the role PHR plays as a key advocate for these patients.  Faculty at Birzeit University emphasized the need to contextualize mental health practices for excluded people who live in the domain of suffering, violence and uncertainty.  While adhering to high academic standards, the Institute of Community and Public Health works with local Palestinian communities with interventions.  Staff walks with the community, including mothers, and helps kids get to school.  Tomorrow’s Youth Organization in Nablus, founded nineteen years, ago serves children and mothers from the refugee camps in and around Nablus.  Families must apply.   There is a long waiting list.  TYO has classes for children ages 9 to 15, 15-18 and for mothers.  Work also includes parent teacher meetings.  Kids are suffering and some are suicidal.  Kids experience violent soldiers as they pass through checkpoints.  The occupation has become normal. So TYO is a form of resistance.   The Director of TYO had to tell her son how to behave at the checkpoints when he went to Ramallah to have fun.  She added that until we have equality and have equal rights, we will not talk with Israeli Jews as equals.

On the first day of this study tour we met with Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, from the Hebrew University, in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City.  In addition to being a prolific scholar, Nadera is also an advocate for children in East Jerusalem.  Many an early morning she is on the streets observing children who are on their way to school.   She told us of her encounter with a young boy who one morning simply left his apartment to play with his skateboard only to encounter Israeli soldiers on patrol.  The soldiers quickly surrounded him to the dismay of his mother.  Nadera slipped the boy a small piece of wrapped chocolate.  The boy who was sitting on the ground defiantly unwrapped the chocolate and ate it in the present of the soldiers.   Participants in this study tour acknowledge the amazing work of the staff of mental health and human rights organizations with whom we met who cope with limited resources to give hope to a people, especially children and mothers who are living under frightful conditions.  Beginning on Friday, 30 March, we carried with us the news of the terrible indiscriminate shooting by the IDF at the Palestinian demonstrators participating in the Great March of Return.  As we ended our final session on the evening of April 3, our tour leader charged us to be faithful in the work of costly solidarity with the Palestinian people.   

Marching and Standing for and with Gaza

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Many places around the world have been standing with the people of Gaza.  EPF PIN member Harry Gunkel of San Antonio TX tells us about the rally there on 13 April.

4 PM, April 13, 2018 in San Antonio. Midnight in Gaza where most of those demonstrating in the Great March of Return have gone home, while hundreds of them have gone to hospitals because of injuries from the Israeli military, and a few are being prepared for burial, martyrs who will join the dozens of others who have gone before. 

In San Antonio we’re gathering for a rally and vigil at Alamo Plaza to stand up and witness for brothers and sisters in Gaza, and to try to awake awareness of this latest chapter of the genocide of the Palestinian people. Our group is a remarkable gathering who represent the manifold pathways toward justice: teenagers and seniors; T-shirts and hijabs; an American who quit his job in the financial sector to start a permaculture farm in Nicaragua; a scion of a conservative Texas first family; representatives of Students for Justice in Palestine, San Antonio for Justice in Palestine, Democratic Socialists of America, Jewish Voice for Peace, Our Democracy; a family from Ramallah visiting here. 

In mid-April in San Antonio there is bright sunshine and it’s already quite warm. It’s dark at the eastern edge of Gaza – don’t call it a border, it’s not, it’s another apartheid barrier illegally put down against the indigenous people of the land that Israel has stolen. These days, the Israeli military make only desultory attempts to justify their actions – use of poisonous gases and snipers who shoot to kill or maim with outlawed exploding bullets. But you cannot justify injustice; the mission is to kill Palestinians, the evolving legacy of the European colonialists who came to take the land and extinguish the indigenous inhabitants. 

At our rally in San Antonio, speakers remind us that here where we stand, other European colonialists hundreds of years earlier stole land from the indigenous people. Killed some, imprisoned others, took away their languages and cultures and religions. The Alamo behind us is known as “The Shrine of Texas Liberty”, but we know it is a shrine to colonial conquest. 150 miles from here, 3 hours if we get in our cars and drive, is another demarcation line where armed forces are also ready to shoot and criminalize people who seek freedom and better lives. Gaza is not so far from San Antonio after all.

On Alamo Plaza, we hold signs and photos of Gaza’s most recent martyrs. We chant: “From Palestine to the Rio Grande, No More Walls on Stolen Land!” “Gaza! Gaza! Will Be Free!”. Hundreds of tourists and downtown workers stroll and wander nearby, some pause to look and listen, a few offer thumbs-up or Good Job. Police gather; are they here to protect us, or to protect from us? Or to be sure our dissenting voices don’t get too loud or go too far? 

Later, we sit with lighted candles and remember our brothers and sisters so far away in the dark. We share poems by Mohammad Moussa (“For life itself, we march”) and Remi Kenazi. We cry. 

Did our rally change US policy in Israel and Palestine? No. Did some people who saw and heard us learn something, or find courage to step out, or seek to know more? Possibly. Did those of there find succor and encouragement, new vigor to continue the struggle, new friends for consolation and solidarity? Certainly.

Gaza! Gaza! Will Be Free!

In Israel/Palestine Christian Zionism fills Episcopal Church’s Silence

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EPF PIN member Cliff Cutler, Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, reflects on Trump’s decision declaring Jerusalem Israel’s capital.

 
Just one month after a resolution to educate about peace in Israel/Palestine was not permitted to reach the Convention floor of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and announced plans to relocate the US embassy there, reversing seven decades of US foreign policy. This is not to say that a resolution to learn about the call for justice in that place would have had any effect upon the President’s decision, but is merely another instance of the silence of the Episcopal Church on matters of Bible and theology that impacts Israel/Palestine.

This silence has allowed theology in Palestine to be defined by Christian Zionism and Biblical dispensationalism. Dispensationalism interprets scripture as having seven dispensations, the final one being the Millennial Reign of Christ. According to most Christian Zionists this final dispensation began with Israel returning to the land (1948), the return of Jerusalem to the State of Israel (1967), and continues with the recognition by the U.S. of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital (2017). All of this for Christian Zionism heralds the second Coming.

Christian Zionists look for a blockbuster end-time when the church will be raptured, the dreadful war of Armageddon fought, and Christ will return to rule for 1000 years as a victorious God whose reign resembles empire. With this goal in mind, ethical guidance and moral call take a back seat. What do they matter when it is all going to end soon? Hence the support for increasing settlements, exposure of Palestinian school children to high levels of tear gas shot into schools, 45 Palestinian schools facing Israeli demolition orders, olive trees uprooted on Palestinian land, and 206 companies from around the world doing business linked to Israeli settlements built in the occupied West Bank in violation of international law. These things are accepted because after all they yield a “blessing” to Israel.

Christian Zionists see in Genesis 12: 3 a divine mandate to support the modern state of Israel, “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.” The Episcopal Church would see Gen. 12: 3 as God’s promise of protection to Abraham in his situation (not to a secular state in the 20th and 21st centuries). Scholars interpret the meaning of Genesis 12: 3 to assert the faith of Abraham as an ideal to be sought by all nations, and that his privileges would be extended to other nations, such as Palestine. We cannot let our Christian faith be hijacked through our silence.

The Episcopal Church when it finds a voice has a hopeful understanding of life. We believe in partnering with God to transform the world. We participate in society and are invested in the world to make it better. In 2008 I had dinner with a Palestinian Muslim family in Ramallah on the West Bank. Afterwards some of their friends joined us. They knew I was a Christian priest, and asked: “Do Christians believe that the Temple must be rebuilt in Jerusalem?” No, I replied. Jesus’ Second Coming is not about a rebuilt Temple but a rebuilt world. The Christian hope is that Christ will come at the completion of God’s purpose for the world that is the well-being of all, when all things will be made new, truly alive, compassionate, just, at peace. Rebuilding the Temple and the discord that would result seems hardly congruent with that.

Still, Christian Zionists are organized in this country under the leadership of John Hagee as Christians United for Israel (CUFI). Of themselves they say: “With more than 3.8 million members, Christians United for Israel is the largest pro-Israel organization in the United States and one of the leading Christian grassroots movements in the world.” This organization is a significant portion of President Trump’s base, and explains why he would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital when his predecessors would not. Dr. Juergen Buehler leads the global Christian Zionist organization, International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.

As an Episcopal Church our voice, Biblical understanding, and theology need to be heard in the Middle East. They are what give rise to ethical stances and efforts to respond to the moral call that is issued by Palestinians, 4 million of whom (some Christian) are under occupation.

 

EPF PJN Joins Allies and Colleagues in Celebrating the Nomination of the BDS National Movement for the Nobel Peace Prize

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We share the nomination statement.

Statement by Norwegian Parliamentarian Bjørnar Moxnes on Nominating the BDS Movement for Palestinian Rights for a Nobel Peace Prize:

As a member of the Norwegian parliament, I proudly use my authority as an elected official to nominate the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Nominating the BDS movement for this recognition is perfectly in line with the principles I and my party hold very dear. Like the BDS movement, we are fully committed to stopping an ascendent, racist and right-wing politics sweeping too much of our world, and securing freedom, justice and equality for all people.

Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement and the American Civil Rights movement, the grassroots, Palestinian-led BDS movement is a peaceful, global human rights movement that urges the use of economic and cultural boycotts to end Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights and international law.

The BDS movement seeks to end Israel’s half-century of military rule over 4.5 million Palestinians, including the devastating ten-year illegal siege collectively punishing and suffocating nearly 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, the ongoing forcible eviction of Palestinians from their homes, and the theft of Palestinian land through the construction of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. It seeks equal rights for Palestinian citizens of Israel, currently discriminated against by dozens of racist laws, and to secure the internationally-recognized legal right of Palestinian refugees to return to homes and lands from which they were expelled. Palestinian refugees constitute nearly 50 percent of all Palestinians, and they are being denied their right to return, guaranteed by law to all refugees, simply because of their ethnicity.

The BDS movement’s aims and aspirations for basic human rights are irreproachable. They should be supported without reservation by all democratically-minded people and states.

The international community has a longstanding history of supporting peaceful measures such as boycotts and disinvestment against companies that profit from human rights violations. International support for such measures was critical in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and the racist colonial regime in former Rhodesia.

If the international community commits to supporting BDS to end the occupation of Palestinian territory and the oppression of the Palestinian people, new hope will be lit for a just peace for Palestinians, Israelis and all people across the Middle East.

The BDS movement has been endorsed by prominent figures, including the former Nobel Peace Prize winners Desmond Tutu and Mairead Maguire. It is gaining support from unions, academic associations, churches, and grassroots movements for the rights of refugees, immigrants, workers, women, indigenous peoples and the LGBTQI community. It is increasingly embraced by progressive Jewish groups and anti-racist movements across the world.

Twelve* years since BDS’ launch, it’s high time for us to commit to doing no harm, and for all states to withdraw their complicity in Israel’s military occupation, racist apartheid rule, ongoing theft of Palestinian land, and other egregious human rights violations.

Awarding a Nobel Peace Prize to the BDS movement would be a powerful sign demonstrating that the international community is committed to supporting a just peace in the Middle East and using peaceful means to end military rule and broader violations of international law.

My hope is that this nomination can be one humble but necessary step towards bringing forth a more dignified and beautiful future for all peoples of the region.

An earlier version of this statement mistakenly said the BDS movement was launched 11 years ago. It was launched in July 2005.

You can view this statement here.

Voices for Justice: Hebron District, West Bank Special Report 2017

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Abdulhadi Hantash, land surveyor and cartographer for the Palestinian Authority, is a colleague and friend of the editor.  He circulates this report of the effects of the Israeli Occupation in the Hebron District (West Bank) of Palestine during 2017.  While we took in reports of these things with dates and names and places last year, here are the hard numbers.

The area covers 375,000 acres (1.5 million dunams).
The Palestinian population includes 706,000+.
121 types of military occupation attacks are described .

Who claims to be jewel of democracy in the world and leader of human rights? And who says that Israel is the oppressed? Do you have the courage to condemn these crimes or at least to criticize them? If only one word? Shall God judge such a nation?
“Our Lives Begin to End the Day We Become Silent”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. March 8, 1965

A. Martyrs: The number of martyrs during this year: 5

B. Confiscation of lands, dredging and the following:
1. The confiscation and razing of 800 dunums of land, including the declared military orders, and the areas that were razed by the settlers. This operation was concentrated in the areas of Hebron, Yatta, al-Dhahiriya, Beit Aula, al-Urub, Ramadin, Aynna, Kharsa.
2. Uprooting of trees: 900 trees concentrated in Yatta – Dhahiriya – Halhul – House first – Arroub Kharas, these trees were uprooted by the occupation forces and the settlers.
3. Prevention of tillage and labor: 10 cases.
4. Destruction of walls and walls: about 800 meters from the retaining walls.
5. Destruction of agricultural crops: 200 dunams (49 acres) were razed and damaged crops in different parts of the province.
6. Building and residential units and the addition of caravans: 600 new housing units were added, a caravan and a factory and a huge building in the settlements and outposts erected on the land of the citizens in the province.
7. Land surveys: 6 cases.
8. Expansion and expansion of roads: 2 cases occurred in the areas of Bani Naim and Samou.
9. Construction of a section of the apartheid wall 43 KM west of the Hebron District

C. Demolition, house bombing and other attacks:
1. Demolition of houses, barks, agricultural rooms, tents and quarries: 27 cases were concentrated in the areas of Hebron – Yatta – Athena – Beit Ummar.
2. Demolition and detonation of water wells: 10 cases concentrated in the areas of Yatta – Seir – Athena.
3. Demolition and construction notices: 122 notices, most of which are located in Yatta, Beit Ula, Beit Ummar, Hebron, and Sa’ir.
4. Eviction orders: 3 cases concentrated in the town of Surif that requires the evacuation of 11 dunums of the land of the citizens in the town.
5. Destruction and bombing of houses and shops: about 60 cases.
6. The seizure of houses and converted into military barracks: more than 90 houses and converted into barracks and military observation points either for days or for hours.
7. Closing shops at gunpoint: 47 cases and not a shop.
8. Storming shops and tampering with their contents: about 20 cases and not a shop.
9. Confiscation of agricultural machinery and equipment: 12 cases and not mechanism.

D. Military operations:
1. Home raids: More than 1,586 raids were carried out against houses of citizens throughout the governorate
2. Storming houses, establishments, stations, power stations, government offices, radio stations, media production centers, companies, hospitals, libraries, stone saws, presses, colleges and cemeteries: 89 cases
3. Blocking houses: 20 cases. Each case includes several houses in that one
4. House searches: 1500 cases
5. Car searches: more than 530 cases
6. Mixing of food supplies (soldiers raid homes and mix oil, rice, sugar, and wheat together so the family has nothing to eat: 10 cases
7. Destruction of the contents of houses: about 250 cases
8. Robberies of houses: 4 cases involving gold and silver
9. Confiscation of computers and mobile devices: 10 cases
10. Confiscation of cameras and DVDs: about 5 cases during the military operations carried out by the occupation in the province
11. Storming the villages and towns and camps in the province: 1252 incursions
12. Shooting at citizens: 180 cases
13. Shooting at houses: 2 cases
14. Shooting at funerals: 2 cases
15 – Shooting at civilian vehicles and civil defense: 12 cases
16 – Launch of gas bombs: 220 cases.
17. Launch of sound bombs: 159 cases.
18. Light bombs: 3 cases.
19. Detaining and detaining citizens: 570 cases
20. Detention of citizens in one room: 30 cases. The case includes several operations in that one region
21. Remove citizens from their homes: 70 cases
22. Attacks on citizens: 54 cases
23. Assault on citizens beaten: 200 cases. Each case has several citizens
24. Steel citizens on the walls: 33 cases
25. The pursuit of citizens by the occupation forces: 40 cases
26. Attacks on government crews: 5 cases
27. Chasing workers: 150 cases
28. Forcing citizens to take off their clothes: 8 cases in both house raids and checkpoints
29. Driving over citizens with military vehicles: 4 cases
30. Attempts to drive over citizens with military vehicles: 4 cases
31. Preventing citizens from traveling: 20 cases.
32. Assault on worshipers: almost daily.
33. Attacks on students of schools, universities and teachers: 80 cases.
34. Assault on children: 39 cases.
35. Attack on farmers: 70 cases.
36 – Attack on journalists: 20 cases.
37. Attacks on foreigners: 6 cases.
38. Attacks on marches: 39 cases.
39. Detainees: Approximately 1100 detainees, including those who were released after hours of arrest, including those who remained in detention.
40. The use of citizens as human shields: 4 cases.
41. Kidnapping of citizens: 3 cases.
42. Provocations: 20 cases (Soldiers slapping a person so the person will slap them back).
43. Aberrations: 15 cases: soldiers partying with loud noises, music and lewd dancing .
44. Joint attacks with settlers: 8 cases.
45. Intercept of ambulances, firefighters and assaults on their crews: 20 cases.
46. Smashing of glass and windows of houses: 8 cases.
47 – Smuggling and blacksmithing workshops: 16 cases.
48. Closure of roads and entrances to the villages and towns of the province: 130 cases, either by iron gates or berms and concrete blocks.
49. The removal of houses and institutions: 20 cases.
50. The establishment of barriers: 300 checkpoints, and there are permanent barriers erected several years ago.

 

Through the lens of human rights in our work for justice: A sermon from Dick Toll

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EPF PIN member Dick Toll preached this sermon on Advent 2, 10 December 2017.

We are experiencing Advent….the preparation for the coming of Jesus. We hear from John the Baptist during the time when the Roman empire was causing great unrest, torture, killing, and brutality to the people who lived throughout the region but especially in the Galilee. The people were experiencing an occupation that was very cruel and many of the religious thinkers of the day were predicting an end to the world or a messiah that would come and lead an army to vanquish the Romans. Their expectations were many and varied.

But what happened was the most unexpected event that no one was predicting.

What happened was a man by the name of Jesus. Born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth in the Galilee, a person raised in the understanding of what it meant to belong to a tribe, it just so happened his tribe was Jewish. He was aware of the teaching of what we now call The Old Testament. He was aware of the danger of speaking out against the Roman occupation. Every breath he had taken, every step he took, every conversation he had, every person he met, was somehow affected by the cruelty of the Roman occupation. People lived in fear and yet hoped for a future without fear. They were hungry for the words of John the Baptist. And John was aware that a new moment in time was coming. He probably knew Jesus. He had probably heard him. And they were probably friends who disagreed on matters of religion and politics. Jesus would say, “You have heard it said by men of old but I say to you”. And he spoke with authority.

John recognized that authority and was preparing people for the ministry of Jesus. So much happened in the brief ministry of Jesus. No more than 3 years and maybe even less.

One of the most important teachings Jesus made was to equate the love of God, neighbor, and self that had never before been taught. He taught us the Great Commandment, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

We have heard this so many times over the years; we fail to recognize it as a revolutionary teaching in the 1st century and it remains revolutionary today.

At the time of Jesus, love your neighbor means that you love your neighbor within your tribe within your own family…..yet Jesus was revolutionary in teaching that to love your neighbor you were to love your enemies and to give special attention to people who were excluded such as Samaritans and all people could share and know the love of God as well as sinners and unbelievers.

What was so revolutionary about the Commandments to love God, neighbor and self was that Christianity left its tribal heritage in Jerusalem. Under the leadership of the Apostle Paul Christianity became a worldwide religion that has incorporated many cultures, languages, and people of many colors. In fact, every child sees the baby Jesus as a reflection of their own part of humanity. At the Roman Catholic Basilica in Nazareth, Jesus and Mary are artistically celebrated as persons of color whether in India, Africa, Europe, Asia, South America and that is how it should be. The word becoming flesh in the person of Jesus is about all of humanity….at all times and in all places. One of my favorite places to visit in Jerusalem is the Church of the Paternoster where the Lord’s Prayer is on the wall in over a hundred languages. Proof of the way the Spirit has moved in the lives of millions of people over the centuries.

I would like to submit another way as to how the Spirit is moving in our lives today. Sixty-nine years ago today the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations produced a document that needs to be honored by all people throughout the world. But especially by Christians as they reflect the Commandments of Jesus. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, I will read from its preamble.

“Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and unalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscious of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress in better standards of life in larger freedom.

Now therefore, the General Assembly, proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples in all nations, to the end that every individual and every organs of society, keeping this declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observant, both among people of member states themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.”

Following this preamble, there are 30 articles that spell out the meaning of human rights. In your spare time you may wish to read it.

All of us know this past week the disruption that is taking place regarding Jerusalem. I received a letter that I wish to speak to you about as part of human rights regarding Palestinians and especially those who live in East Jerusalem.

Subject of the letter “Still occupied in East Jerusalem”.

The following letter is someone who works for an Israeli peace organization called B’Tselem. He as a Palestinian is employed for purposes of Jewish human rights organization issues.

“My name is Kareem Jubran. I am a Palestinian in East Jerusalem. On Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump “recognized” Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Yet this announcement does not change the fact that East Jerusalem is occupied territory, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are deprived of political rights. We must recognize this reality and work relentlessly to change it.”

He goes on further to say:

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”, states The Unuversal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948 and marked every year on December 10th. Yet, since annexing East Jerusalem unlawfully in 1967, Israel has made it unequivocally clear that Palestinians are unwanted in the city and repeatedly demonstrated how little it values our lives. On a routine basis, Israel authorities wrongfully detain, wound, and even kill us, they deny us permits to build our homes, schools and roads and they bar us from living with our love ones who are not residents of Israel. After more than 50 years of deliberate underdevelopment, the Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem suffer from overcrowding, poverty and substandard infrastructure.” End of letter.

Human rights violations occur in every country throughout the world including our own country. It is our task as Christians throughout the world to challenge these violations and to adhere to the teachings of Jesus especially within the great commandment of love of God, Neighbor and Self. All three understandings of love becomes a focus for spirituality that reflects love to a world that often gives in to evil. We often do not advocate for our own rights much less the rights of others. Witness the explosion of sexual harassment and how women are now dismantling a male dominance over women. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 was a direct response out of the evils of World War II and the Holocaust and the ways in which we mistreat each other. We know there is a way that points us in a direction that leads to healing and hope. That way has been tried and tested and proven by countless pilgrims in their own journey of life in relationship to Jesus Christ. It is a way that leads us to accept and love God, our neighbor and ourselves. It opens doors into relationships, issues of human rights, new learning’s and brings into focus the future. That way is here and now and coming to us always as the future breaks into our lives. God is with us. Oh come, oh come Emanuel.

 

 

Voices for Justice: Speaking Out for Jerusalem 14 December 2017

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Last week’s announcement in which the US declared Jerusalem Israel’s capital and Trump declared the embassy would be moved to Jerusalem in the future, has generated much writing and many public witnesses. EPF PIN member Harry Gunkel attended a rally in San Antonio TX where he heard Moureen Kaki speak out. Kaki is a Palestinian-American student at the University of Texas at San Antonio where she is president of the university’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. She is also a founding member of San Antonio for Justice in Palestine, a local non-profit organization.  We offer her witness here.

Two days ago marked the thirty year anniversary of the first intifada, or uprising. But for forty years prior to that, we have resisted. Today, we continue. Palestinians have fought, suffered and died for our homes, our land, our families, our dignity and our freedom. What we now see is an overt acknowledgment and legitimization by the White House of Israel’s brutal occupation and apartheid. This doesn’t change the home demolitions, or the illegal land theft, or murder, or arrest and detention of Palestinian children. What Trump has done is reignite the resistance. He has emboldened the bigots and occupiers, but he has also fueled the fire of resistance which was ignited 70 years ago when we were stripped of our humanity. In the words of Sheikh Omar Suleiman, “Your recognition means nothing to us. Your maps mean nothing to us. Your embassy is as illegitimate as the occupation it seeks to legitimize. Our land is our land. Our dignity is our dignity. Our determination is our determination. Our Aqsa is our Aqsa. Our Palestine is our Palestine. We never had any expectations of tyrants, dictators or stooges. We bow our heads only to One. We will continue to insist on our freedom, even if the world has ceased to acknowledge it.”

There is no person more resilient than the Palestinian. In the words of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, “Being Palestinian is not a slogan, it is not a profession. The Palestinian is a human being, a tormented human being who has daily questions, national and existential, who has a love story, who contemplates a flower and a window open to the unknown.”  He also said “Palestinian people are in love with life.” We love life, we resist, we fight, we dream for life. To be Palestinian is to be the epitome of life, as we stand in the face of daily threats to our existence with our heads held high and our hearts strong.

My existence is resistance in the face of people who tell me I have no home, no country, no people. To those deniers and liars, I tell them nothing. To those deniers and liars, I owe you no explanation, no badge of authenticity. The resistance is in my heart, Palestine is in my blood, my head, my dreams, my motivations and my inspirations. I am the threat. My power is in my life and in this right here—the union of different people to stand for the humanity of a people who have too long been denied.

Let Trump’s announcement make one thing clear- the only resolution is one that includes Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. One that includes the right of return for all Palestinian refugees. One that includes freedom and dignity for all people who have too long been denied justice.

we are the boat

returning to dock

we are the footprints

on the northern trail

we are the iron

coloring the soil

we cannot 
be erased

_Remi Kanazi

Palestine Resolutions Passed in 2017 at Diocesan Conventions – California, Chicago and Maine

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As we prepare for General Convention 2018, we share three resolutions on Palestine passed at diocesan conventions this year.

California: 27-28 October 2017
A JUST PEACE IN THE HOLY LAND
Resolved, That, in light of the Diocese’s 2014 advocacy of economic pressure as a means of ending Israel’s now fifty-year occupation of Palestinian lands and fostering a just peace in the Holy Land, the 168th Convention of the Diocese of California submits the following resolution to the 79th General Convention of The Episcopal Church:
Resolved, The House of ________ concurring, That the 79th General Convention of the
Episcopal Church direct the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee to identify by
July 1, 2019 those companies that profit from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands or
whose products or actions support the infrastructure of the occupation and to place such
companies so identified on its “no-buy” list; and be it further
Resolved, That the General Convention direct the Investment Committee to divest from any investments it might have in such companies and urge the Church Pension Group (CPG) to take similar action; and be it further
Resolved, That the General Convention direct Executive Council to disseminate to Episcopalians a list of products manufactured in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and marketed in the United States; and be it further
Resolved, That the General Convention encourage Episcopalians to avoid investing in such companies or buying such products.

 

Chicago: 17-18 November 2017
Subject: Palestinian children in Israeli military courts
Sponsor: The Rev. Anthony Vaccaro, Peace and Justice Committee of the Diocese of Chicago
RESOLUTION
Resolved, that the 180th Convention of the Diocese of Chicago submits the following resolution
to the 79thth General Convention of The Episcopal Church:
Resolved, The House of ___________ concurring, that the 79th General Convention of The Episcopal Church calls on the State of Israel to guarantee basic due process rights and exercise a prohibition against torture and ill-treatment of detained children (defined as persons under 18 years old), noting that among the practices in Israel’s military detention system that require change are the use of nighttime arrests in the child’s home, physical and verbal abuse, blindfolds and restraints, strip searches, solitary confinement, coerced confessions and confessions written in Hebrew, as well as the separation of detained children from their parents and legal counselors (including the transfer of Palestinian children to prisons within the State of Israel that their parents are not permitted to visit); and
Resolved, that the 79th General Convention requests the Secretary of this Convention to communicate this call to the Prime Minister of Israel and the Israeli Ambassador to the United States; and
Resolved, that the 79th General Convention calls on the Secretary of State of the United States to certify annually that no funds obligated or expended in the previous year by the United States for assistance to Israel have been used to support the military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill- treatment of Palestinian children in violation of international humanitarian law; and
Resolved, that the 79th General Convention requests the Secretary of this Convention to communicate this call to The Secretary of the State of the United States as well as the United States Senate, the President, and the Vice-President..
The 180th Annual Convention Diocese of Chicago November 17-18, 2017
EXPLANATION
The wording of this resolution and parts of the explanation is taken (with permission of the authors) directly from the much larger resolution, “A Call for the United Church of Christ to Advocate for the Rights of Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation,” approved as amended July 2, 2017 by the General Synod of the United Church of Christ.
The treatment of children in Israeli military courts has been well documented by Defense of Children International – Palestine (Bound, Blindfolded and Convicted : children held in military detention, April 30, 2012 [1]), Human Rights Watch, Separate and Unequal, Israel’s Discriminatory Treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Dec. 2010 [2], and UNICEF, Children in Israeli Military Detention – Observations and Recommendations – 6 March 2013 [3]. Since 2000 at least 8,000 Palestinian children have been caught up in the Israeli military detention system. Arrests of children often occur during night raids on family homes by heavily armed Israeli soldiers, children are often blindfolded, suffered from physical and verbal abuse and transferred in an army Jeep to an interrogation center where they are interrogated without the presence of a lawyer or parents. Interrogations are intended to result in a confession.
Over 90% of West Bank Palestinian children taken to military court are convicted.
In April 2016, Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) published a study of 429 West Bank children detained between 2012 and 2015. Three out of four children had endured some form of physical violence after being detained by Israeli forces. In 97 percent of the cases, children had no parent or lawyer present during the interrogation process. Interrogators used position abuse, threats, or isolation to coerce confessions from some of these children. At least 66 children were hold in solitary confinement for an average period of 13 days. One child was held in isolation for 45 days. (Defense for Children International – Palestine, No Way to Treat a Child, Palestinian Children in the Israeli Military Detention System, 14 April 2016 [4]).
Since 1967, Israel has operated two separate legal systems in the same territory. Israeli Jewish settlers who reside in the West Bank enjoy protections provided by the Israeli civilian legal system. In contract, Palestinians in the West Bank are subject to Israeli military law, which fails to ensure and, in fact, denies basic and fundamental rights. Palestinian children in the West Bank thus suffer abuses and constraints of a military detention system which no Israeli child living in the West Bank ever experiences. The occupation thus creates a system where Palestinians living in the same occupied territory as Israeli settlers have inferior rights and protections under the law – a system where Palestinian children experience an environment of fear, dehumanization and violence that is contradictory to the flourishing of life to which all children, including Palestinian and Israeli children, aspire.
Furthermore the State of Israel ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child on October 3, 1991 – a convention that calls on states to “Treat every child deprived of liberty with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a manner which takes into account the needs of persons of his or her age,” to use arrest and imprisonment
of children “only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time,” to give detained children “prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty” and “the right to maintain contact with his or her family through correspondence and visits,” and in n case to subject children to “torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 37 [5])
The U. S. Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 [FAA] states that no assistance will be furnished to “any unit of the security forces of a foreign country if the Secretary of State has credible information that such unit has committed a gross violation of human rights.” Josh Ruebner in his paper, “US Military Aid to Israel : policy implications and options : November 2, 2016” writes: “Given that US military aid to Israel does not further the advancement of human rights but rather directly contributes to Israel’s systematic human rights violations against Palestinians and that these human rights violations cannot constitute “legitimate self-defense’, and take place not in the context of “internal security”, but in the framework of furthering a foreign military occupation, strong prima facie evidence exists to find Israel is in violation of the FAA and AECA [Arms Export Control Act].” (p. 19) [6]
Adoption of this resolution is not expected to require expenditures that would have in impact on the Diocesan budget.
[1] www.dci-palestine.org/bound_blindfolded_and_convicted
[2] www.hrw.org/reports/2010/12/19/separate-and-unequal
[3] www.unicef.org/oPt/UNICEF_oPt_Children_in_Israeli_Military_Detention-Observations- and-Recommendations – 6_March_2013.pdf
[4] www.dci-palestine.org/Palestinian_children_in_the_Israeli_Military_Detention_System
[5] https://treaties/un.org/doc/publication/mtdsg/volume%20:/chapter%20iv/iv-11.en.pdf
[6] https://www/scribd.com/…/US-Military-Aid-to-Israel-Policy-Implications-Options

Maine: 28 October 2017

Substitute Resolution 7a: Support of the Holy Land’s Children, a resolution submitted by the Episcopal Peace Fellowship was withdrawn and the following Substitute Resolution #7 was presented to Convention. After considerable discussion, it passed.
Resolved, that we of the Episcopal Diocese of Maine, assembled in our 198th Convention, direct the Maine Deputation to General Convention (GC) to propose to the 79th GC of The Episcopal Church that it ask the Israeli Prime Minister and the President of the Palestinian Authority to provide assurances that their Governments will accord those under 18 years of age, i.e., those defined as children under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child, the full range of rights and protections called for under the international agreements to which they have subscribed.
And be it further resolved, that we direct the Maine Deputation to propose that the 79th GC call upon the President and Members of Congress to persuade the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships to sustain their commitments to international law with regard to children’s rights and welfare, and that they ensure that children held in custody will not, as has often been alleged, be subjected to coercion, physical or psychological abuse, or torture.
And be it further resolved, that this Diocesan Convention directs the Maine Deputation to the GC to invite Deputations from New England and other States to sign on to this resolution.

EPF PJN INTRODUCES THE PALESTINE-JUSTICE EDUCATIONAL TOOLKIT

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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.

Voices for Justice: A Word from the West Bank

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In 2014 EPF PIN member Jo Bronson shared a report from Usama Nicola of Wi’am, the Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center in Bethlehem. Jo is back on the ground and we share this update from her:

I am Jo Bronson and currently teaching at the Episcopal Technological Vocational Training Center (ETVTC) in Ramallah, Palestine.  I was visiting with ( for the person’s protection let’s call him) Amir about an insight that I had regarding Palestine and the restrictions.

I had left Ramallah in April.  In July, a Palestinian friend needed to have detached retina surgery and I longed to care for her during the recovery process.  If she lived in any other country, I could freely fly over to her in July and stay for three weeks and care for her.  Then return again in September to teach in the fall.  But because the Israeli government would question the frequency of my visits.  I could not risk being sent back to the US even before I saw my friend.

That was when, I had the realization that all of Palestine is a prison.  I know that Gaza is considered the largest open air prison in the world.  I call Gaza a maximum security prison.  But the West Bank is also a prison.  A minimum security prison.  The residents are not allowed to travel without a travel permit.  They cannot move freely without the permission of the Israeli government – hence a prison.  Every aspect of  Palestinians’ lives are controlled by the Israeli Occupying Forces as they enforce those laws and regulations.  All of Palestine is an open-air prison – just different degrees of incarceration.

Amir said “Yes, it is a prison.  I was born in Jerusalem and I cannot go to the Holy Sepulchre to pray.  I am not allowed into my own homeland to visit my birthplace.”  Every aspect of Palestinian lives is controlled.  Even for my students to travel to and from school is a danger.  They risk their lives each day for an education.

Usama Nicola’s update from 2014 shows how much or how little things have changed since then. You can read it here.

Open Letter from The National Coalition of Christian Organizations in Palestine (NCCOP) to the World Council of Churches and the Ecumenical Movement

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Open Letter from The National Coalition of Christian Organizations in Palestine (NCCOP) to the
World Council of Churches and the Ecumenical Movement

Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. (Isa. 1:17)

Background
As we meet this month in Bethlehem in occupied Palestine, we are still suffering from 100 years of injustice and oppression that were inflicted on the Palestinian people beginning with the unjust and unlawful Balfour declaration, intensified through the Nakba and the influx of refugees, followed by the Israeli occupation of the West Bank including East Jerusalem and Gaza and the fragmentation of our people and our land through policies of isolation and confiscation of land, and the building of Jewish-only settlements and the Apartheid Wall.

We are still suffering because of one political declaration from a Western Empire, based on a twisted theological premise. Even some churches and few Christian leaders supported the establishment of the colonial state in our land, and totally ignored – even dehumanized – the nation, our people that had already existed here for centuries and paid the price for atrocities committed in Europe.
Hundred years later with thousands of lives lost, towns and villages razed from the face of the earth – though not our memory –, millions of refugees, thousands of homes demolished and continued incarceration of prisoners, our Nakba goes on.

Hundred years later and there is still no justice in our land! Discrimination and inequality, military occupation and systematic oppression are the rule. Today, we stand in front of an impasse and we have reached a deadlock. Despite all the promises, endless summits, UN resolutions, religious and lay leader’s callings – Palestinians are still yearning for their freedom and independence, and seeking justice and equality. Humanly speaking – we have reached the “moment of impossible”, as Emeritus Latin Patriarch Sabbah said recently.

Could it be that we have reached this “impossible moment” because things were built from the very beginning – a hundred years ago – on an unjust premise? Should we expect that such an unjust declaration will create anything but strife and destruction?

Today is also an opportunity to remember the Amman Call which was proclaimed ten years ago. We are thankful to those who stood with us back then in costly solidarity; those who stood for truth and justice. We are also concerned that ten years later the situation has been worsening on on the ground and still deteriorating. Like other initiatives advocating end of occupation, the Amman Call did not achieve its goals in building and achieving just peace and we must ask ourselves today – why?

We are also concerned by Israel’s systemic assault on Palestinian creative resistance, and on our partners worldwide who use this method to pressure Israel to end the occupation. Many new laws were issued in Israel and around the world to oppose this creative non-violent resistance unlawfully, and to stop all effort towards peace. Not only is this an attack on the freedom of conscience and speech but it is also an assault on our right and duty to resist evil with good. Israel is even now trying to prevent pilgrims from visiting Bethlehem – the city of Emmanuel!

While we are grateful for the ‘costly solidarity’ articulated in the Amman Call and exercised by many churches around the world, we are concerned that some churches have weakened their positions in the last ten years as a result of this manipulating pressure. Many still hide behind the cover of political neutrality, not wishing to offend their religious dialogue partners.

Finally, we meet in an environment of religious wars and persecution in our region. Religious extremism is on the rise, and religious minorities have paid a heavy and painful price. We thank you for your efforts towards the refugees and towards ending the conflicts in our region. We also thank you for your support of persecuted Christians in places like Iraq and Syria.

Our Call
“God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)
“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness (Justice), for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me”. (Matthew 5:10-11)

As we stand in front of this “impossible moment”, it gives us no pleasure to say that “we told you so” eight years ago when we declared the moment as a Kairos moment! We stand facing the impossible, but we have not lost hope, since as followers of the Risen One, we are the people of hope. However, we need you and we need you now more than ever. We need your costly solidarity. We need brave women and men who are willing to stand in the forefront. This is no time for shallow diplomacy Christians. We urge you to hear our call and adopt the following:That you call things as they are: recognize Israel as an apartheid state in terms of international law and in agreement of what a person like Desmond Tutu said and as the UN ESCWA report said: “Israel is guilty of imposing an apartheid regime on the Palestinian people”. We are disturbed by the fact that States and churches are dealing with Israel as if the situation were normal, ignoring the reality of occupation, discrimination and daily death in the land. Just as churches united to end apartheid in South Africa and whereby the WCC played a courageous and pivotal prophetic and leadership role, we expect you to do the same!

That you unequivocally condemn the Balfour declaration as unjust, and that you demand from the UK that it asks forgiveness from the Palestinian people and compensates for the losses. We ask that churches and Christians to support the Palestinians in their request for justice. It was his infamous declaration, after all that laid the ground for the concept of an ethno-religious state – the very same thing our region is suffering today.

That you take a clear and the strongest theological stand against any theology or Christian group that justifies the occupation and privileges one nation over the other based on ethnicity or a covenant. We ask that you adopt and live the theology suggested by Kairos Palestine and that you organize conferences to bring awareness towards this end.

That you take a stand against religious extremism and against any attempt to create a religious state in our land or region. We ask that you support us in combating the foundations of extremism and that you seek our council when acting against religious extremism so that you do not jeopardize and harm our standing here.

That you revisit and challenge your religious dialogue partners, and that you are willing to even withdraw from the partnership if needed – if the occupation and injustices in Palestine and Israel are not challenged.

That you lead campaigns for church leaders and pilgrims to visit Bethlehem and other Palestinian cities on this side of the wall in cooperation with Palestinian tourist and pilgrimage agencies, in response to recent attempts by Israel. We ask that you publicly challenge any attempt by Israel or other Christians that discourage pilgrims from visiting Palestinian places.

That you defend our right and duty to resist the occupation creatively and nonviolently. We ask that you speak in support of economic measures that pressure Israel to stop the occupation and go further to support sport, cultural and academic measures against Israel until it complies with international law and UN resolutions urging the ending of its occupation, Apartheid and discriminations, and accepts refugees to return to their home land and properties. This is our last peaceful resort. In response to Israel’s war on BDS, we ask that you intensify that measures.

That you create lobby groups in defense of Palestinian Christians. 
We ask that you publicly and legally challenge Christian organizations that discredit our work and legitimacy.

We therefore propose as a matter of the greatest urgency that you create a strategic program within WCC similar to the Program “To Combat Racism” to lead efforts to lobby, advocate and develop active programs towards justice and peace in Palestine and Israel and work on maintaining the presence of the Palestinian Christians through supporting their organizations, church work and peaceful efforts.
As faithful witnesses, we acknowledge, affirm and continue the long standing prophetic tradition, especially the one started by the Amman Call and articulated in the Kairos Palestine document. We fully grasp the pressure church leaders are facing here and abroad not to speak the truth, and it is because of this that we are raising this call.

Things are beyond urgent. We are on the verge of a catastrophic collapse. The current status-quo is unsustainable. This could be our last chance to achieve a just peace. As a Palestinian Christian community, this could be our last opportunity to save the Christian presence in this land. Our only hope as Christians comes from the fact that in Jerusalem, the city of God, and our city, there is an empty tomb, and Jesus Christ who triumphed over death and sin, brought to us and to all humanity, new life.

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. (2 Cor. 4:8-9)

12 June 2017

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