Click image or here to open and download resource. | October 11, 2018 Kairos Palestine has produced a Christmas Alert for 2018. It is a thorough and excellent resource from our Palestinian brothers and sisters for the Sundays in Advent. ****************************** Greetings from Bethlehem, Kairos Palestine is pleased to announce the Christmas Alert 2018! This year the Christmas Alert shed light on the importance of restoring a new hope for Palestine, the Middle East and the World. We need new light and hope to come from the hearts of all believers in the Christmas message to encourage churches around the world to act! Let us all together spread the message of Palestinian Christians around the world! Best regards, Muna Nassar |
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WCC invites participation in World Week of Peace in Palestine and Israel 10 July 2018 In a 9 July letter, World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit invited the WCC global fellowship and all people of good will to participate in the World Week of Peace in Palestine and Israel on 16-23 September. When: 16 – 23 September 2018 Resources: “Youth and Children: Raising Hope and Making Change” Invitation to World Week of Peace in Palestine and Israel to the WCC member churches This year’s theme is “Youth and Children: Raising Hope and Making Change”. Held the third week of September each year, the World Week of Peace unites Christian witnesses in peaceful actions around the world to promote a just peace in Palestine and Israel. “We remind world leaders, as well as the public, about a sad, unsolved – and in some ways forgotten – situation, which benefits neither Israelis nor Palestinians,” wrote Tveit. “Youth and children are the ones who suffer the most in conflicts and under occupation.” Young people also hold the future of Palestine and Israel in their hands, reflected Tveit. “Today, too many children in Palestinian territories grow up in fear, poverty and hopelessness, caused by more than 50 years of occupation,” he wrote. “Too many youngsters lack access to proper education and can’t find decent work.” Still, there is hope for a just peace in Palestine and Israel, Tveit concluded. “During this week, which includes the International Day of Peace on 21 September, organizations, congregations, and people of faith are encouraged to bear a common witness by participating in worship services, educational events, and acts of support in favour of a just peace for Palestinians and Israelis,” he concluded. “Through support of its member churches in the region, and interreligious dialogue with other faith-based organizations, the World Council of Churches has a long history of engagement for justice and peace in Palestine and Israel.” Bulletin Insert September 2, 2018 Dear Minister Freeland and Minister Bibeau, I write to you on behalf of the United Network for Justice and Peace in Palestine and Israel (UNJPPI), a network of members and friends of the United Church of Canada, to ask that the government increase funding to UNRWA as a result of the decision by the Trump administration to cut all funding to this agency. I and many members of UNJPPI have visited various UNRWA refugee camps where we have personally witnessed the important work of the UN in supporting this group of refugees who have suffered the most as a result of the creation of the state of Israel. What is of special concern is the basic health and education of children in the camps who are especially at risk because of this callous and heinous move by the Trump administration. Palestinians have waited for 70 years to have their legitimate rights restored. Still, Israel refuses to comply with their obligations under the terms of the Geneva Conventions. It is increasingly important for your government to pressure Israel to negotiate a fair and just peace for Palestinians and an end to Israeli violations of international law. We trust your government will follow the lead of the Germany in offering additional support to UNRWA so they can continue their good work of supporting this seemingly forgotten community of refugees. Peace, Paix, Salaam, Shalom, Rev. Steve Berube, Chair: United Network for Justice and Peace in Palestine and Israel Download letter... The following appeal is shared by UNJPPI in partnership with Defense for Children International - Palestine for the Canadian No Way to Treat a Child campaign. Source: DCI-P August 2018 Newsletter As children around the world head back to school, our thoughts are with Palestinian children who spent their summers locked up in Israeli detention centers and prisons. Many remain behind bars now, unable to join their classmates on the first day of school. » Help us secure the release of Palestinian children locked up in Israeli military detention. Ahmad B., 15, from the southern West Bank is currently in Israeli custody. In mid-July, Israeli soldiers arrested him from his home in the middle of the night. “They kicked me all over my body,” Ahmad said, in his sworn testimony. “They insulted me, my mother, and my sister.” During the course of his detention, Ahmad was physically assaulted and humiliated. He was detained in conditions that would be unsuitable for any prisoner, let alone a minor. He eventually signed a confession document in Hebrew, a language most Palestinian children do not understand. "He [the interrogator] threatened to withdraw my father's work permit if I did not confess," Ahmad said. DCIP lawyers are currently working on his behalf, providing free legal services and defending Ahmad before Israeli military courts. » Support our lawyers so we can defend Palestinian child detainees like Ahmad. In no circumstance should children be detained or prosecuted under the jurisdiction of military courts. However, as a minimum safeguard while Palestinian children continue to be detained and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system, we need your support to help end ill-treatment, physical violence, and other forms of abuse. Sincerely, Brad Parker, Attorney & International Advocacy Officer Defense for Children International - Palestine
We, the undersigned international faith-based, human rights and civil society organizations once again draw the attention of our respective governments to the urgent plight of the Palestinian Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar, and this critical moment in history. Unless the world takes immediate action to uphold international law and hold the Government of Israel accountable for its actions, the Israeli authorities will carry out a demolition order on the entire village of Khan al-Ahmar, including Palestinian homes and the local school, and will forcibly displace the entire population of the village. The demolition order against Khan al-Ahmar is part of a broader, troubling trend in which the government of Israel is systematically demolishing structures and displacing Palestinians in Area C to allow for the expansion of Israeli settlements and, potentially, the full annexation of Area C. Khan al-Ahmar is located in E1, a strategic area linking Jerusalem and the illegal settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. Legal experts explain that demolishing Khan al-Ahmar paves the way for the Israeli government to link Ma’ale Adumim settlement directly to Jerusalem. On August 1, 2018, the Israeli High Court granted the community of Khan al-Ahmar a brief 10-day reprieve, giving the Israeli Government 5 days to propose an alternative site to which to forcibly transfer the community, and an additional 5 days for the community to respond. Nevertheless, the High Court’s decision still allows for what human rights organizations have cautioned constitutes a war crime if the village is demolished, and its community forcibly transferred. The lawyer for the community of Khan al-Ahmar has argued that the village is located on privately-owned Palestinian land and, therefore, the state cannot forcibly remove the residents. The Government of Israel has twice before transferred the residents of Khan al-Ahmar: the first time was in the 1950s, when it transferred them from where they were living in the Negev (within Israel proper). The second time the government transferred them in order to construct the illegal Israeli settlement of Kfar Adumim. Now the Israeli government is poised to expel them from their homes for a third time. We collectively call on our governments to take action to stop the precedent-setting demolition of Khan al-Ahmar and to denounce this potential war crime. We urge our governments to call on the Israeli government to reverse its decisions to demolish the village of Khan al-Ahmar and forcibly evict its residents before it is too late. By silence and inaction, governments have become complicit in this violation of international law, and by extension, make all of us who elected them into office complicit. We trust that when members of the G7 claimed to be committed to holding accountable those who violate international humanitarian law, that they meant every state and every non-state actor, without exception. This is an opportunity to live up to this commitment, declared less than two months ago. We refuse to be complicit. We join the community of Khan al-Ahmar, and all Palestinian villages in occupied territory slated for or in danger of demolition in resisting this violation of their human rights and of international law. We stand in solidarity with Palestinians and Israelis working for a just peace based on international law, even in the face of legislated repression and discrimination. The world is facing a cross-roads in the search for just peace in Palestine and Israel, and history will judge us not only by our actions but by our inaction. The Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar faces a crucial struggle for its very survival. We ask our governments today to take action for a just and lasting peace, and to fulfil their obligations under the IV Geneva Convention Article I to ensure respect by the Government of Israel of its obligations under international law regarding the rights of this vulnerable community. Signed: Act for Peace, Australia Canadian Friends of Sabeel Catholics for Just Peace in the Holy Land, Canada Christian World Service Aotearoa New Zealand Church World Service, USA Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Friends of Sabeel North America, USA Global Ministries of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ, USA Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement pour une Paix Juste, Canada KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives People for Peace, Canada The Presbyterian Church in Canada The United Church of Canada United for Palestine-Greater Toronto Area, Canada United Network for a Just Peace in Palestine and Israel, Canada World Mission Council of the Church of Scotland August 8, 2018
Dear Minister Freeland; I commend you for speaking up for human rights and women's rights activists in Saudi Arabia. This action demonstrates that Canada can be a voice for those who are experiencing abuse of human rights. In Israel, the Palestinian community of Khan al-Ahmar is facing demolition and forced to move to another location so that Israel can join the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim with East Jerusalem, thus separating the north and south parts of the Palestinian Occupied Territory from each other, thereby making a Palestinian state unviable. On August 1, the Israeli court postponed this action. According to The Jerusalem Post, the judges "ordered the state to come up with a third relocation site within five days and gave the village another five days to respond." This means there is still time for you to respond. Therefore, I would ask you to call on the Israeli government to reverse the decisions to demolish the villages of Khan Al Ahmar and Susiya and relocate the people of Khan Al Ahmar. Israel's practice of demolition of Palestinian homes and villages in order to build Israeli-only settlements is a violation of international law. Please use Canada's voice to call on the Israeli government to immediately freeze all settlement activity and demolition orders. Minister Freeland, I urge you to request that Canadian diplomatic missions in Palestine and Israel visit Khan Al Ahmar and Susiya immediately to demonstrate Canada's concern for human rights for these villages. This requires your urgent response. Please act now. Regards, Curtis Marwood United Network for Justice and Peace in Palestine/Israel (UNJPPI) Communications Facilitator, Haaretz July 26, 2018 Haaretz reported that Ahed Tamimi will be released on Sunday, July 29, 2018 "Ahed Tamimi, a Palestinian teenager convicted of assaulting Israeli soldiers, will be released on Sunday after serving her sentence, her family said Thursday. Tamimi, 17, from Nabi Saleh in the West Bank, turned into a protest icon after she was filmed slapping an Israeli soldier. She was detained for three months before being sentenced in March to eight months in jail after reaching a plea deal. As part of the agreement, Tamimi pleaded guilty to four counts of assault, including the videotaped slapping of an Israeli soldier. In addition to the eight month jail sentence, she was to pay a fine of 5,000 shekels ($1,437). " Read the full text of the article published in Haaretz July 26, 2018 Steve Berube, chair of UNJPPI, comment on the news of her release at the meeting of The United Church General Council in Oshawa, reported on the GC43 page. Keep It Up, Ahed TamimiGideon Levy published the following Opinion piece in Haaretz, July 25, 2018
Gideon Levy urged Ahed Tamimi to "Keep up the resistance to the Israeli occupation." He wrote, "one can be an Israeli and support the Palestinians who resist the occupation, like Ahed Tamimi, and wish them success. In fact, one must do so. With her bare hands and impressive appearance, Ahed is the hope for the future, the inspiration to others." Read the full text of the article here. Amos Gvirtz
The Israeli government is planning to demolish the village of Khan El Akhmar, next to the settlement of Kfar Adumim. This is a unilateral act of war by an army against a defenseless civilian population, contrary to the ethics of combat and to international law. It is an act defined by the Fourth Geneva Convention as a war crime. It is an act that has no connection to Israeli security. It is all being done to carry out a political plan to vacate the area of its Bedouin inhabitants in order to create a settlement continuum that would separate the southern and northern sections of the West Bank. In this way, the planners hope to obstruct the chance for peace that would be achieved by the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. They plan to send in soldiers for this mission, which if carried out would turn them into war criminals. If they refuse, they will be charged with refusing a military command. Take Action Bulletin by the United Church The UCC Take Action has been updated to reflect the May 25th Israeli high court decision to demolish Khan Al Ahmar and relocate Bedouins to Abu Dis sometime in June. The United Church is still calling on folks to write to Min. Freeland regarding this. On April 26, 2018, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the people of Khan Al Ahmar must evacuate their homes. The Bedouin villagers (173 people, including 92 children) will be forcibly relocated to Bawabat al-Shams Mount. The so-called Rubber Tire School at Khan Al Ahmar, which serves 150 children from neighbouring villages, will be demolished along with all other structures. The Rev. Steve Berube, chair of United Network for Justice and Peace in Palestine and Israel, has written the letter below to Minister Chrystia Freeland appealing for her to immediately intercede with Israel to stop this action. Download and print letter Letter to Minister Freeland by Rev. Steve Beube on behalf of UNJPPIMay 25, 2018 The Hon. Chrystia Freeland, Minister: Foreign Affairs Dear Minister Freeland, I am writing to you as chair of the United Network for Justice and Peace in Palestine and Israel (UNJPPI), a network of members and friends of the United Church of Canada, to ask you to urgently apply diplomatic and public pressure to stop the imminent demolition of the Palestinian villages of Khan Al Ahmar and other threatened villages in the occupied West Bank. We have just learned that the Israeli Supreme Court has ordered the demolition of the only shelter for dozens of Bedouin families from Khan al-Ahmar and the “Tire School” in which 165 children study, as well as the sheep pens that provide shelter for 850 sheep in Khan Al Ahmar. The panel of judges, headed by settler judge Noam Sohlberg, decided that they were only concerned with the fact that the structures had been built without permits and not Israel’s obligations under international law, humanitarian considerations or that no viable alternative had been offered to the community. It is well documented that Israel does not allow the Bedouin to receive building permits, nor to plan their communities in a way that suits their way of life. Israel is now allowed to demolish the homes and school at any time beginning June 1, 2018. Demolitions and forcible displacement of Khan Al Ahmar, Susiya and similar communities are a gross violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention:
Further, this action can be construed as an act of systematic oppression by the Israeli government committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one ethnic group over a different ethnic group. This is prohibited under the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid: Article II (d). Additionally, there are reports that the village residents will be forced to move to a location near the Jerusalem garbage dump. The stench from the dump is intolerable. The fate of the people of Khan al-Ahmar is at the discretion of the Israeli defense minister. International pressure is crucial for deterring Israel from carrying out this war crime." In 2013, I served as a human rights observer in Palestine and Israel on behalf of the World Council of Churches. On one of my visits to Khan Al Ahmar in 2013, I was privileged to take the First Secretary at our embassy in Tel Aviv, to meet some of the people in the village. Beyond the legalities, demolitions of entire villages leave hundreds of children, like the ones in the pictures from Khan Al Ahmar, and rob them of their traditional life style that is centuries old.
Over the past four years, the settlers' supporters in the Knesset, led by the subcommittee on West Bank settlement issues of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, have increased pressure on Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories to carry out the demolition orders so the land can be used to expand illegal settlements. Morally and ethically, this action by the state of Israel is reprehensible, repulsive and repugnant. Our government, as a High Contracting party to the Fourth Geneva Convention is obligated to do all in its power to prevent this violation of international law. Further, this action flies in the face of SC 2334 by the Israeli government. This represents yet another major obstacle to the peace process. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, you speak eloquently and frequently about the need to protect and defend human rights. Based on our treaty obligations and as a nation that supports international peace, I believe you are duty bound to publicly support the human rights of Palestinians in this instance. I urge you to send representatives of the Canadian diplomatic missions in Palestine and Israel to visit Khan Al Ahmar and Susiya immediately. It is worth noting that in 2015, European Union representatives visited the Palestinian village of Susiya, which was threatened with demolition. International publicity and diplomatic pressure from this visit was vital in halting the planned demolitions at that time. Please take urgent action to stop this imminent violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and to uphold Canada’s tradition of supporting human rights. On behalf of especially the children who welcomed me in Khan Al Ahmar and members of UNJPPI, I look forward to your response. Sincerely, Rev. Steve Berube: UNJPPI Chair 404 Cleveland Ave. Riverview, NB cc. (continued next page) Ask the government to demand an independent investigation into the excessive violence in Gaza5/23/2018 Dear Friend,
We don’t have much time. In about 24 hours, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will have a meeting with his Members of Parliament. The opposition leaders will also meet their MPs. There is something very important that should be at the top of their agenda: the government’s need to demand an independent investigation into the excessive violence in Gaza including the shooting of Canadian doctor Tarek Loubani and other medical personnel as well as unarmed children targeted by Israeli sharpshooters in Gaza. Over 100 Palestinians were killed and thousands wounded during the March of Return. See also the report of UNWRA. We urge you to contact your Member of Parliament to stand with the international community and demand answers when medical personnel and innocent children are shot and killed and basic human rights are violated. Sadly, there are some who are encouraging our government to follow the Israeli military narrative of blaming the victims who were unarmed and posed no serious threat to military or civilian Israelis. Shifting the blame to the victims encourages Israel to continue to further fuel violence against Palestinians, suppress their human rights, make peace with justice harder to reach and deepen the 50+ year old illegal Israeli occupation. Israel subjects Palestinian children as young as 12 to military tribunals. Palestinian homes and schools are regularly demolished. Israel even limits water to Palestinians! Palestinians need to have their rights defended by the international community and the illegal Israeli occupation needs to end. These are some of the things you should tell your MP when you email her/him. Find your member of Parliament. It will take less than two minutes. But you need to act now. Your MP needs to hear from you before their meeting this week. Join thousands of Canadians just like you who have already done their part. Sincerely, Rev. Steve Berube Chair: United Network for Justice and Peace in Palestine and Israel Download Sample letter to use |
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