On Monday, a team of researchers presented the results of a three-year study that tried to objectively look at bias in Israeli and Palestinian textbooks directed against “the other.” The results and the responses they engendered were mixed, leaving the State Department, the primary funder of the study, to dance around the results.

While the report found that each side teaches their children little about the other’s religion, culture or economy and most maps on both side ignore the other, the results were not all negative. For years, the debate over incitement in textbooks has fueled accusations that there is no desire for peace. According to the Guardian, “Israel and the Palestinian Authority have both been accused of teaching violence and hatred, demonizing the other, or using excessively negative depictions in children’s education” but the study found these claims unfounded. National Public Radio reports: “there are few dehumanizing references in the textbooks of either side. The research team found few if any references to the other culture as ‘subhuman,’ something they said is common in other tense situations.”

The study was initiated by the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land comprised of the Chief Rabbis of Israel, the Minister of Religious Affairs of the Palestinian Authority, the Greek, Armenian and Latin Patriarchs of Jerusalem and the Anglican and Lutheran Bishops of the Holy Land; and was fully funded by the U.S. State Department.

The reactions to the report were varied. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad welcomed the study, saying it “proves what we have repeatedly affirmed in response to allegations” about Palestinian incitement against Israel. He said he had encouraged the Ministry of Education to adopt its recommendations for improving the Palestinian curriculum.

The Israeli Education Ministry denounced the report’s findings as an attempt to create a parallel between the Israeli and Palestinian educational systems and explained it chose not to cooperate with the study whose members “are interested in maliciously slandering the Israeli educational system and the State of Israel.” In the U.S., the Anti-Defamation League supported the Education Ministry’s criticism, calling the study “distorted and counterproductive.”

Dr. Bruce Wexler, the Yale University psychiatry professor who designed the study, countered those claims to reporters on Monday saying, “Frankly, I think that the minister of education is a great example of the power of these unilateral narratives. That man cannot see beyond the blinders that have come into his mind by developing as a product of a national narrative that can’t understand the types of things we’re talking about here.”

The State Department distanced themselves from the findings of the report, a reaction that The Washington Post said was  “probably owed to ally Israel’s angry reaction.” The spokeswoman told reporters, “The results are not necessarily endorsed by the U.S. government, but we fund NGOs who are seeking to do independent analyses so that parties on the ground can use them in their own evaluation of these things…So you know, we’re not taking a position one way or another on what the study found.”

Sami Adwan of Bethlehem University, the chief Palestinian researcher on the project, says that despite the Palestinian textbooks’ low instances of dehumanization, “How can you teach children to act positive toward the Israelis when they’re creating a much more difficult life? How can you tell them, ‘Be nice to your neighbor’ while you only see your neighbor in bulldozers and at checkpoints?”

Mohammed Dajani, a former Fatah fighter turned peace activist, who served on the advisory board of the textbook study says now is the time to make changes in the curriculum. “We should not let our children inherit our problems.”

Taken from the Churches for Middle East Peace website

Hold a prayer vigil in your local area on the 24th of the month and join the global voice praying for peace.

We are reinvigorating the Ecumenical Prayer Vigil for Peace in the Middle East, in response to a call from the ACT Palestine Forum. This global ecumenical prayer vigil began on Dec. 24, 2012, and will continue across the globe, on the 24th of every month, until the Israeli occupation is dismantled, violence in the Middle East ends, and all can celebrate a just and lasting negotiated resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Please sign your congregation or group up for the prayer vigil here.

You can find prayer resources here.

Many of you have actively participated in the prayer vigil since 2000 — please help us raise awareness about and bring energy to the new prayer vigil. Encourage people to pray together as a family, as office or parish colleagues, or as a congregation, on the 24th of each month as part of this vigil.

Please email Karin Brown (Karin.Brown@elca.org), Peace Not Walls coordinator, with any prayer vigil resources or ideas that you want to share with the wider network.

ELCJHL Bishop Munib Younan, President of the Lutheran World Federation, gives a Christmas video greeting from Jerusalem:

Don’t forget the simulcast Christmas service between Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem and the National Cathedral in Washington, to be broadcast at 10 am EST here.

Children hold hands in Za’atri Refugee Camp in northern Jordan, caring for thousands of Syrian refugees.

Lutheran World Federation President Munib Younan, Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land, released his Christmas message this week, urging people to think of Christmas as a time to remember the refugees among us, even as the Christ child was born to a refugee family.

We can see the faces of the Holy Family today in refugee families forced to flee from Syria into the Za’atri refugee camp in Jordan, in Somali refugee families in the Dadaab complex in northeastern Kenya, and in other refugees throughout the world. In Europe today, we see the Holy Family in the experiences of Roma communities. An ancient nomadic culture, Roma are still exposed to marginalization simply because they do not conform to dominant culture.

Many refugees are uprooted with little hope for a solution. I am one of them, a Palestinian who carries a refugee card. I know what it means to be rejected, neglected and stateless. My heart breaks for every refugee, for every family forced from their home. In this Christmas season, we know that Christ finds his manger in every person who seeks asylum, in each of the nearly 44 million refugees and internally displaced people throughout the world. Forced to escape Herod’s persecution, Christ experienced abuses of power and the effects of armed struggle.

The child of the manger continues to understand the plight of every refugee wherever they are. The duty of the church is to be a safe haven for all refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. To them we say, “Do not be afraid. A Savior is born to you and the whole world.” They must find a place in our inn.

We in the Lutheran communion continue to commit ourselves to accompanying God’s people, especially those who are marginalized and displaced. Our call is to provide refuge from violence and poverty, shelter in the storms, and shade from the heat. Today, the LWF is directly serving nearly 1.5 million refugees throughout the world. That means that each of our 143 member churches is responding to the needs of 10,500 refugees. This generous spirit reflects the strength of our communion working together to respond to God’s call to welcome the stranger.

Read the full Christmas message | Read LWF press release

From Pastor Fred Strickert of the English-speaking Redeemer Lutheran Church in Jerusalem comes a blog post, the Writing on the Wall:

A report “Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds,” was recently released by the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The report sees more hostile divisions within Israeli society between views of openness and exclusion.  It states, “At home Israel faces increasing social and political divisions between those who still cherish a vision” expressed by its 1948 founders versus “the growing demographic weight of the religiously conservative Haredim and settler movement.”

While concerns about the influence of fundamentalism and extremism in the Muslim world is a major topic in the Western Media–and of which we are very much aware and concerned–the following are concerns that confront us daily in the local Israeli press, as can be seen in a selection of Haaretz photos below.

A sign in West Jerusalem says “Lehava only hires Jewish Workers.”

Pastor Strickert takes us from photos wiping out Arab names on signs, to Death to Arab graffiti to a sign posted on the LWF Augusta Victoria property on the Mt. of Olives announcing that people have 60 days to comment on plans that are being fast-tracked to build an eight-story IDF college right next to Augusta Victoria in East Jerusalem.  Leaders of the Mt. of Olives Housing Project, which will serve the community by providing affordable housing, a community center, an elderly center and a sports complex, have been trying for years to get authorization and building permits to build their project, for which they already have significant funds raised.

httpv://youtu.be/TXMOYdNFGp4

Pastor Ashraf Tannous is the newest pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.  He is serving the Lutheran Church in Beit Sahour.  Here he discusses his life and feelings as a Palestinian Christian from a refugee family.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bNqaZwXLVo&feature=share&list=UU9FKTVBng6XeDUEArww1S3g

Pastor Mitri Raheb of Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem shares an advent greeting from the Holy Land. Christmas Lutheran does a simulcast Christmas Service between Bethlehem and the National Cathedral in Washington DC each year.  Find out more about this year’s simulcast on Saturday, Dec. 22 at 10 am EST.   Check out the new website for Bright Stars of Bethlehem, a US organization that supports the work of DIYAR Consortium, begun by Pastor Raheb in cooperation with  the ELCJHL.

In another article, Pastor Raheb reflects on the Christmas story in his hometown of Bethlehem:

Bethlehem at the birth of Jesus was a besieged city. Today Bethlehem is again a besieged city surrounded from three sides by a 25 foot high concrete wall.  So what if Jesus were to be born today in Bethlehem? If Jesus were to be born this year, he would not be born in Bethlehem. Mary and Joseph would not be allowed to enter from the Israeli checkpoint, and so too the Magi. The shepherds would be stuck inside the walls, unable to leave their little town. Jesus might have been born at the checkpoint like so many Palestinian children while having the Magi and shepherds on both sides of the wall.

Full article

On the way to celebrate what happened in Bethlehem 2000 years ago, let us not forget the people who yearn for peace with justice now in Bethlehem and all over the Holy Land. Here are some Advent reflections by various people and organizations to help us remember:

• Kairos Palestine’s Advent Devotions
• The Israel Palestine Mission Network Advent Devotional
• Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) Advent Reflections 2012

Recently, three amendments were proposed in the Senate which would have cut aid to Palestine, including $370 million for budget support for the Palestinian Authority.  This would probably have affected vital organizations like Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem. The amendments were in response to the successful bid by Palestine to become a non-member state in the UN.

Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) sent a letter to the 100 members of the Senate, urging others to do the same. J Street, the liberal Jewish pro-Israel group, rallied against the amendments, with followers sending nearly 15,000 letters to senators and making close to a thousand calls.

Tuesday, the National Defense Authorization Act passed without these amendments. Thanks to those who voiced their opposition to these moves which would have punished the Palestinian people. 

Other amendments favored by pro-Israel groups passed, including one approving additional funding for Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system and one tightening Iran sanctions. Read full article.

Here is CMEP’s letter:

Three amendments have been introduced to S. 3254, The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) namely SA 3171, SA 3139, and SA 3203, that would severely limit or eliminate US assistance to the Palestinian Authority under various conditions. We believe the amendments are ill-advised and should be opposed. This assistance totaling $490 million in FY 2012 is for security assistance carried out in cooperation with the U.S. and Israel; USAID humanitarian and civil society projects, and budget support for the Palestinian Authority.

Reducing or cutting off funds for these would leave Palestinians and Israel less secure, reverse economic, social and civil development in the Palestinian territories, and threaten the Palestinian Authority with financial collapse. These developments would cripple US diplomatic efforts to bring about an agreement to end the conflict and impose great human hardship.

When similar measures were proposed a year ago they were opposed by many groups including Israel’s Ambassador the U.S., Michael Oren. Israeli Defense officials said if cuts to US assistance to the Palestinian Authority were imposed, Israel would suffer. For all these reasons Churches for Middle East Peace urges that these amendments not be brought to a vote or defeated.

In this Haaretz article current plans for Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank are further explained. Check out this article for interactive maps that show settlement expansion over the years in Har Gilo, Har Homa, and Ma’aleh Adumim.

The outline in red shows the expansion of the settlement Har Homa since 2003. See the article link above for the interactive map that shows growth over time.

In a letter to President Obama on Nov. 26, ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson advocates for the US to support the upcoming Palestinian bid for non-member observer state status at the UN in the General Assembly:

With the present Palestinian effort to seek observer state status in the United Nations, the U.S. has another opportunity to demonstrate its support for self-determination and freedom. The U.S. should support these announced plans by the Palestinians when they come before the General Assembly later this month.

Over the past year, we have witnessed efforts to restart talks with the objective of achieving a two-state solution. We have also witnessed worrying developments on the ground which have inhibited those efforts, mainly the continuing expansion of illegal Israeli settlements and the increased displacement of Palestinians from their homes and villages. U.S. support for observer state status at the UN for the Palestinians would be an important signal to the parties that reaching a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement, where both communities may live in peace and security is still the fervent goal of our government.