The leaders of the three largest Orthodox communities in Syria have issued a statement regarding the current situation in their country. The two files attached here show the letter, translated from Arabic.

For the several years it has been in existence, the Peace Not Walls campaign of the ELCA has been focused primarily on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The events of this year have shown, more than ever before, that the conflict cannot be comprehended apart from its regional context.

Please keep the people of Syria in your prayers, the Christian communities among them. Additionally, pray that leaders around the world seeking to intervene in the conflict brewing there — including leaders in the United States — will receive the gift of discernment.

This is the season of hope. Amen, come Lord Jesus.

At least two mainstream American Jewish organizations have issued statements critical of the ‘Bethlehem Call’ and the decision of some mainline denominations in the United States, including the ELCA, to draw attention to the document. Neither the ELCA Peace Not Walls campaign nor other elements of ELCA leadership have offered comment on the content of the ‘Bethlehem Call.’

B’nai B’rith: “The Bethlehem Call” Document Promotes Division, Not Peace
This piece from B’nai B’rith offers a critique of the document itself. Read more here.

AJC Disheartened by UCC, Disciples of Christ and ELCA Embrace of Palestinian Document Delegitimizing Israel
Although critical of  the document itself, this press release from AJC is focused primarily on the apparent promotion of the statement by mainline denominations. Read more here.

A Message from Bethlehem: Voices of Hope

A Statement from an Ecumenical Delegation of Women Bishops

“We came to the land of Jesus to stand in solidarity with women working for peace.  We heard their voices, listened to their stories and came away disturbed yet hopeful,” said Bishop Deborah L. Kiesey, head of a delegation of 10 ecumenical women bishops who recently traveled to Israel and Palestine.

The pilgrimage of peace and solidarity on November 12-21, 2011 was sponsored by the General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church and The United Methodist Church Council of Bishops. Episcopal leaders from four denominations participated in the pilgrimage: United Methodist, Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal and Christian Methodist Episcopal. We met with Christians, Jews and Muslims, listened to stories of despair and hope and witnessed the realities of life experienced by the people in the land.

Highlights of the pilgrimage were meeting with women throughout Israel and Palestine who are working to empower women, building bridges to new relationships and nurturing and caring for children.  In Galilee we met with Arab women and Jewish women working together to empower women and build a better future in a community called Sindyanna of Galilee which teaches women how to weave baskets, make soaps and create other Fair Trade products for sale, all the while building relationships and friendships with one another.

In Nazareth we met with a Jewish rabbi who seeks through her ministry and her life to nurture diverse relationships and provide a role model for her community and her children. In the Negev, we met with Bedouin women who are building libraries including a mobile library for children in the outlying villages. They are also providing educational opportunities for women and teaching women how to do embroidery, a skill that brings them income and builds on a traditional form of art. In Jericho, we met with women at the YWCA who are offering child care and parenting support in one of the refugee camps, as well as teaching women commercial cooking skills and hairdressing. They also offer English language classes and computer courses.

All of the women we met sought to empower other women within their communities by building on their strengths, enabling them to name and address the needs of their context and making a difference in the world. These women, by their stories, challenge and inspire us as women to find ways to work for a better future for women, children and men everywhere.

Ironically, in the land where the words for peace: peace, shalom and salaam are spoken as greetings and/or farewells, this land is certainly not at peace.  Bishop Sarah F. Davis, Episcopal leader in the African Methodist Episcopal denomination writes:

“If peace is to be realized anywhere, we, the people of God, can no longer be satisfied with listening to our own stories and believing only in our interpretation of the issues. Our passion for peace at home and abroad must be born out of our conviction to live as people, who, created in the image of God, understand the need to listen to the stories of others and admit there may be viewpoints on issues we have not yet seriously considered. We must pray for peace to become a universal priority of the church.”

“The beauty of the historic Holy Land remains as it must have been in biblical days – olive groves and fruit trees prolific amidst the rocky desert terrain.  The realities of this land are similar, a land of promise and hope for some, and a rough and oppressive place for others,” writes Bishop Teresa Snorton with the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. 

“The Holy Land that is to embody the peace of faith and religion is also the place of almost constant war.  It is hard to describe the pain, despair and oppression that is apparent in this modern Israel, which in reality is an occupied land, its ownership still in dispute.”

“The tragedy is that everyone suffers in this environment. The Palestinian people face daily indignities, injustices and experience oppression familiar to the Jim Crow South of the United Statesand apartheid ofSouth Africa. The Jewish people, in their quest to assure their covenant promise of the land, live in a constant state of fear and with the impact of an economy driven by a prevailing military presence and readiness for combat.  The Church must speak to these injustices in more direct ways in the ensuing days if there is to be any possibility for an end to this conundrum that subverts rather than promotes peace for all the people for whom this is the ‘Holy’ land.”

 A Pledge for Action

In addition to listening to stories, we pledged to gather facts that would equip the delegation as educators and advocates for peace upon our return to theUnited States.  We recognize, as Episcopal leaders, we have the ability and responsibility to teach and preach about the critical issues of the day.  Therefore, we pledge to take the following actions in our respective Episcopal areas:

• Maintain a continual discipline of prayer for the peoples of Israel and Palestine by setting aside specific day or days for prayers by our churches (a suggested time: first Wednesday of each month). During Holy Week 2012, we will urge people in our Episcopal areas to pray for the people of Israel and Palestine.  Prayers will be written by our team for Holy Week and shared with the churches.
• Stand in solidarity with women in Israel and Palestine and in our communities who are working for peace.
• Identify ways our churches and country are complicit with oppression in the region.
• Organize a pilgrimage of young adults, ages 20-30, to the region in 2013 so they may anticipate similar experiences to our own. We will work with the young adults to develop a mission statement and projected outcomes.
• Implement a ministry of education by sharing our leadership and insight with our constituents.
• Speak truth to power through advocacy on justice issue related to Israel and Palestine by taking the following steps:

(A)  We will invite our Council of Bishops/House of Bishops to prepare letters to President Barack Obama and respective Members of Congress regarding our observations and findings such as:

• the need to encourage political leaders to listen to and involve more women in the peace process;
• a two-state solution is essential for peace and would benefit both Israelis and Palestinians; such a solution must include:

1. A sovereign, viable and contiguous Palestinian state along the 1967 borders
2. Universal recognition for the state ofIsraeland protection of her security
3. The sharing of the eternal city of Jerusalem as the undivided capital of two sovereign states, with universal access to the holy sites for people of all faiths;
4. An end to Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem
5. A fair solution to the problem of Palestinian refugees.
6. Agreements for the equitable sharing of water resources; and
7. The protection of minority rights both within the state of Israel and a future Palestinian state.

(B)   Engage our respective church constituencies in dialogue and work so as to reach common ground on issues related to Israel and Palestine.

“We came to the Holy Landwhere one finds holy sites and we met living stones.  We heard their stories and now want to share their stories with others in hopes of seeing all people in Israel and Palestine experience abundant life.” (Bishop Mary Ann Swenson, United Methodist Church)

A Gift to the Church

We found ourselves in Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Nazareth—all places where Jesus walked.  Because we were in the Holy Landjust prior to Advent, we offer the litany below as a gift to the Church for use in local congregations during this Advent season.  (Preferably this can be used on the Third Sunday in Advent, when Luke 1:46-55 is an appointed text—or any other time in Advent as desired)

The Gospel of Luke describes Mary as overshadowed by the power of God.  For God, nothing is impossible!  Mary responds to God, “I am your servant; let it be to me according to your word.”

It is Advent, and we wait and hope for peace and love.

WE ARE ON OUR WAY TO BETHLEHEM, WHERE JESUS WILL BE BORN.

Mary, overshadowed by God, says, “I am your servant; let it be to me according to your word.”

WE ARE ON OUR WAY TO BETHLEHEM, WHERE JESUS WILL BE BORN.

Mary and Joseph travel and arrive weary and unwelcomed.

WE ARE ON OUR WAY TO BETHLEHEM, WHERE JESUS WILL BE BORN

Bethlehem this Advent is weary and anxious in the shadow of the high dividing wall.

WE ARE ON OUR WAY TO BETHLEHEM, WHERE JESUS WILL BE BORN.

We in the world have lost our way.  We need a Savior and Shepherd and Healer.

OVERSHADOW THIS WORLD, O GOD, WITH YOUR POWER AND LOVE.

Come, Lord Jesus, and bring peace in Israel and Palestine, and in every broken place.

WE PRAY FOR YOUR BIRTHPLACE AS WE MAKE OUR WAY TO BETHLEHEM.

Shatter darkness with your light as you come to gather, heal and save us.

COME, LORD JESUS, PRINCE OF PEACE.

(Litany written by Bishop Hope Morgan Ward, The United Methodist Church)

Members of the Delegation:

Bishop Laura Ahrens (The Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut)

Bishop Sarah Davis (African Methodist Episcopal Church)

Bishop Violet Fisher (United Methodist Church)

Bishop Carolyn Tyler Guidry (African Methodist Church)

Bishop Deborah Lieder Kiesey, Chair (United Methodist Church)

Bishop Vashti McKenzie (African Methodist Episcopal Church)

Bishop Jane Middleton (United Methodist Church)

Bishop Teresa E. Snorton (Christian Methodist Episcopal Church)

Bishop Mary Ann Swenson (United Methodist Church)

Bishop Hope Morgan Ward (United Methodist Church)

The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), the Israeli Committee against Home Demolitions (ICAHD) and many other groups are working to keep the Palestinian Sumarin family of 12, including 5 children, in their home of 30 years. They have received notice that they will be forcibly evicted on or after November 28 if they do not vacate the property.

The home is in the controversial neighborhood of Silwan, right next to where the settler group Elad – which is also involved in this affair – is expanding the archeological site of the City of David. Elad built the visitor’s center of the “City of David” tourism site next to the Sumarin family’s house. Therefore, the house is a strategic site for settlers, as it would give them a large contiguous area at the entrance of Silwan.

The Custodian of Absentee Property took control of the property, following the passing of the house owner Musa Sumarin in 1983. At the time, his sons resided in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and according to the Abandoned Property Law (established to expropriate property from Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons, following the 1948 war and 1967 occupation of the West Bank), the house was confiscated by the Custodian that ultimately transferred possession to Himnuta, a subsidiary company of the Jewish National Fund (JNF). A 2006 Jerusalem Magistrate Court decision, in the absence of the family, granted the JNF appeal to forcefully evict the family, and levy a 2 million ILS (roughly 500,000 USD) fine. Some two months ago the family was served with an order by the State Bailiff’s Office to vacate their home by November 28th, 2011, or face forcible eviction.

Ahmed Sumarin doesn’t know what to do.

“I don’t know what to do if they come with force. This is our home. My grandfather still lives here. Where will we go? If they take your home away, you can only go onto the street.” 

As the occupier, Israel is responsible for providing for the care and shelter of the occupied population, and is forbidden by international law from moving its own population into occupied territory. Israel claims this is not occupied terrritory because they annexed this part of East Jerusalem in 1967, a move that hasn’t been recognized by an other country.

For more information about home demolitions, see No Place Like Home from ICAHD.  For more information about the most recent practices in East Jerusalem, see this presentation by ICAHD  or this summary about a new publication “No Home, No Homeland: A New Normative Framework for Examining the Practice of Administrative Home Demolitions in East Jerusalem.”

 

Palestinians who boarded a segregated Israeli bus in the occupied West Bank to travel to East Jerusalem were arrested for taking action reminiscent of the Civil Rights Movement’s Freedom Rides

Earlier today, seven Palestinian Freedom Riders were violently arrested while attempting to ride on segregated Israeli public transportation transporting settlers from inside the West Bank to occupied East Jerusalem in an act of civil disobedience inspired by the Freedom Riders of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.

Inspired by the Freedom Rides of the Jim Crow American South and asserting their own aspirations for freedom, justice and self determination, six Freedom Riders boarded a settler bus at 3:30 pm in the occupied West Bank near the illegal Jewish-only colony of Psagot.

In a scene reminiscent of the early U.S. civil rights movement, border police and army surrounded and shut down Jerusalem Bus 148, blocking the Freedom Riders at the Hizmeh checkpoint. The action clearly highlights the injustice and dispossession that Palestinians face under Israeli occupation and apartheid. The six freedom riders who boarded the bus originally as well as an additional rider, were arrested and are currently at the Israeli Atarot police station.

Badee’ Dwak from Hebrom, who was arrested during the ride ,said: “The companies operating Israeli buses, like Egged and Veolia, are directly complicit in Israel’s violations of our rights. They transport settlers in and out of our occupied land, on roads that we often can’t use into places that we can’t reach, including Jerusalem.They need to be divested from and boycotted. Not just here, but around the world. It is a moral duty to end complicity in this Israeli system of apartheid.”

Human Rights Watch in December 2010 released a 166-page reportⁱ on the “two-tier” system that Israel administers in Area C and East Jerusalem.  It makes clear that Israel’s legal system enables and facilitates the theft of Palestinian land and openly discriminates against Palestinians.  West Bank Palestinians are prohibited from driving on certain roads and are limited in their housing choices.  Police and army brutality are a fact of life.

Huwaida Arraf also among those arrested, stated, “The US. Congress repeatedly claims it is for the rights of people around the world facing oppression and injustice. But when it comes to Palestinian rights and Israel’s decades-old denial of them they are notably silent.  In fact, they continue to provide Israel with the most deadly weapons, money and diplomatic cover to maintain its oppression and protect it from international sanctions. Too many lack the courage to even criticize Israel for the racism on display here today.”

Basel al-Araj commented prior to his arrest: “The settlers are to Israel what the KKK was to the Jim Crow South – an unruly, fanatic mob that has enormous influence in shaping Israeli policies today and that violently enforces these policies with extreme violence and utter impunity all over the occupied Palestinian territory, especially in and around Jerusalem.”

Hurriyah Ziada, one of the event’s organizers said: “Israel’s occupation and apartheid system must end and all of Israel’s Jewish-only colonies that sit on stolen land must be dismantled. As the Arab Spring spreads across the region, rekindling hope for freedom, social justice and democracy to replace tyranny and repression, we struggle on the ground for the basic, comprehensive rights of the entire Palestinian people. We call on people of conscience around the world to compel Israel into complying with international law by applying creative, sustainable, and context-sensitive boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) initiatives. We too deserve freedom and justice.”

Among prominent international figures who have endorsed the Palestinian Freedom Riders campaign, best-seller Alice Walker wrote:

“Board the buses to Everywhere.  Sit freely.  Go into Jerusalem with my blessing. Like many of my country people, I have witnessed this scenario before and know where it can lead.  To a straightening of the back and a full breath taken by the soul. Some of us have shed blood, others have shed tears.  Some have shed both. All sacred to the cause of the dignity we deserve as beautifully fashioned citizens and Beings of this Universe.”

Renowned US. Civil Rights activist and former Black Panthers leader Distinguished Professor Emerita Angela Davis wrote:
“Palestinian Freedom Riders poised to collectively resist Israeli apartheid are inspired by the fifty-year-old legacy of U.S. Freedom Riders, whose bold defiance of Jim Crow laws in the South helped to dismantle legal structures of racism.  All those who celebrate the achievements of the Civil Rights Era should be prepared to stand in solidarity with our Palestinian sisters and brothers today.”

Background
Several Israeli and transnational companies, among them Egged and Veolia, operate dozens of lines that run through the occupied West Bank (including East Jerusalem), many of them subsidized by the state. They run between different Israeli illegal settlements, connecting them to each other and to Israel. Some lines connecting Jerusalem to other cities inside Israel, such as Eilat and Beesan (Beit She’an), are also routed to pass through the West Bank.

Almost no limitations are imposed on the freedom of movement of Israelis in the occupied Palestinian territory. On the contrary, the Israeli government allows and even encourages its citizens to settle in the West Bank (especially in and around East Jerusalem), in violation of international law. Palestinians, in contrast, are not allowed to enter Israel without procuring a rarely granted special permit from Israeli authorities. Even Palestinian movement inside the Occupied Territory is heavily restricted, with access to occupied East Jerusalem and some 8 percent of the West Bank in the border area also forbidden without a similar permit.

While it is not officially forbidden for Palestinians to use Israeli public transportation in the West Bank, these lines are effectively segregated, since many of them pass through Jewish-only settlements, to which Palestinian entry is prohibited by military decree. This is one aspect of Israel’s regime of occupation, colonialism and apartheidⁱⁱ against the Palestinian people.

The buses that the Freedom Riders boarded are operated by Egged, the largest Israeli public transportation company. Another prominent public transportation company in the Occupied Territory is the French transnational company Veolia. Both companies are complicit in Israel’s violations of international law due to their involvement in and profiting from Israeli’s illegal settlement infrastructure. Palestinian Freedom Riders endorse the call for boycotting both companies, as well as all others involved in Israel’s violations of human rights and international law.ⁱⁱⁱ

In July 2011, an Egged subsidiary won a public tender to run bus services in the Waterland region of the Netherlands, north of Amsterdam. The company makes money from trampling on the rights of Palestinians and has been a target of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign, which is endorsed by an overwhelming majority of Palestinian civil society. The Freedom Riders call on the people of the Netherlands to sever all dealings with companies, like Egged, involved in human rights violations.

Veolia has been a target of an international divestment campaign for running bus lines through the West Bank connecting illegal Israeli colonies to Jerusalem and for its involvement in the Jerusalem Light Rail which connects illegal settlements in and around occupied East Jerusalem to the western part of the city, thereby directly servicing the settlement enterprise.^iv

Israel has laid its military control over 42 percent of the occupied West Bank for the building of illegal Jewish settlements and their associated regime^v (including the wall which was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004), depriving local communities of access to their water resources as well as agricultural lands. Settling Israelis in the occupied Palestinian territory constitutes a war crime according to the Fourth Geneva Convention^vi and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.^vii

Settlements’ infrastructure includes hundreds of kilometers of segregated roads that are forbidden for Palestinians to use. They carve deep into the West Bank further separating Palestinians and their cities and villages from each other.

Notes
i HRW report: Israel/West Bank: Separate and Unequal; Available at: http://www.hrw.org/news/2010/12/18/israelwest-bank-separate-and-unequal

ii In its most recent session in Cape Town, South Africa, the eminent jury of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine concluded that, “Israel’s rule over the Palestinian people, wherever they reside, collectively amounts to a single integrated regime of apartheid.” http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/sessions/south-africa

iii Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS, available at: http://www.bdsmovement.net/call.

iv http://www.bdsmovement.net/activecamps/veoliaalstom#.TsDEckOGXxQ

v B’tselem Report: “By Hook and By Crook, Israeli Settlement Policy in the West Bank, July 2010; summary available at: http://www.btselem.org/publications/summaries/201007_by_hook_and_by_crook.

vi See “Israel’s settlement policy is a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention,” The Palestinian Center for Human Rights, Gaza, highlighting the relevant articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention to support the determination that settlements are a war crime, at http://www.pchrgaza.org/Intifada/Settlements.conv.htm; see also “Demolitions, new settlements in East Jerusalem could amount to war crimes – UN expert,” UN News Centre, June 29, 2010, at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35175&Cr=Palestin&Cr1.

vii Article8(2)(b)(viii) of the 2002 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court prohibits “[t]he transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”

According to a September, 2011, report by the Palestinian Ministry of National Economy in cooperation with the Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem (ARIJ), the Palestinian economy would be about twice what it is now were it not for occupation policies including restrictions on Palestinians using their own resources, movement restrictions, damages to infrastructure and agriculture and other factors. From the The Economic Costs of the Israeli Occupation on the Occupied Palestinian Territory:

 

Today these restrictions have deepened further and according to our estimations in 2010 they are almost equal to the value of the entire Palestinian economy. The total costs imposed by the Israeli occupation on the Palestinian economy which we have been able to measure was USD 6.897 billion in 2010, a staggering 84.9% of the total estimated Palestinian GDP.

In other words, had the Palestinians not been subject to the Israeli occupation, their economy would have been almost double in size than it is today.  Table E1 below summarises these costs split by the main types of restriction. In line with the colonial paradigm of the Israeli occupation, the majority of these costs do not have any relationship with security concerns but rather come from the heavy restrictions imposed on the Palestinians in the access to their own natural resources, many of which are exploited by Israel itself, including water, minerals, salts, stones and land. Over USD 4.5 billion per year, a full 56% of GDP, is the cost (in terms of both foregone revenues and higher costs of raw materials) for the Palestinians for not being able to access their own resources.

Four Christian denominations have issued a statement in support of the Palestinian bid for membership in the UN.  Officials from the Presbyterian Church, the United Church of Christ, The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society signed the statement, which also urges negotiations as a necessary step to resolution of the conflict. 

From the statement:

We understand the view expressed by United States and Israeli representatives that international recognition by the UN is no substitute for two-party, two-state negotiations. But the reverse is also true, given the prolonged and undeniable failure of the negotiations between parties of vastly different power. Membership for Palestine does not preclude either the need for or the possibility of negotiations. Outstanding issues including an end to the occupation, final borders, the status of Jerusalem, settlements, and the right of return would remain to be resolved through negotiation. We believe that UN membership for Palestine would increase the likelihood of fair and transparent negotiations on these issues, as those negotiations would then take place between two members of the United Nations.   

Read the full statement in this Presbyterian News Service story

Today, church leaders in the United States made public their response to the communique issued by the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem regarding the current status of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Both documents were produced in September.

In their statement, the U.S. heads of churches, in the context of the Arab Spring, “recognize the complex and difficult situation regarding the current and future realities of the Middle East.” Beyond developments in the region, however, the church leaders voice their dismay “that the Obama administration has actively opposed Palestinian efforts to achieve a just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through appeal to the United Nations.”

Click below for the full text of each communication (in PDF format):

Sept. 12, 2011 – Communique from the Heads of Christian Churches in Jerusalem

Sept. 30, 2011 – Response to Communique by Heads of Churches in the United States

The following action was passed by the 2011 Churchwide Assembly (CWA) at its meeting in Orlando by a vote of 868-73. This action is in line with the original strategy for engagement in Israel and Palestine adopted in 2005. It is a call to receive, share and prayfully consider the voices of our Palestinian brothers and sisters and contained in the Kairos Palestine document.

Action of the ELCA Churchwide Assembly
Passed August 18, 2011

To receive with gratitude the memorials of the Northeastern Pennsylvania, Lower Susquehanna, and Metropolitan Washington, D.C., synods related to investment for positive change in Palestine;
To encourage members, congregations, synods, and agencies of this church to:

1. seek ways to achieve a deeper understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the perspectives of other faith communities, and receive, read, and discuss the Kairos Palestine document as an “authentic word from our brothers and sisters in the Palestinian Christian community” that “warrants our respect and attentiveness”;
2. affirm this church’s commitment to non-violent responses to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the Peace Not Walls campaign’s efforts toward strengthening accompaniment, awareness-building, and advocacy; and
3. consider making positive economic investments in those Palestinian projects and businesses that peacefully strengthen the economic and social fabric of Palestinian society;

To commend the policy, “ELCA Economic Social Criteria Investment Screens,” to the members, congregations, synods, and agencies of this church; and

To decline to undertake a review of the investment of funds managed within the ELCA but to commend these recommendations to the Office of the Treasurer, the Office of the Secretary, the Congregational and Synodical Mission unit, the Mission Advancement unit, and the ELCA Board of Pensions for consideration.

Response of Bishop Munib Younan to Churchwide Assembly Action

Dear friends in the ELCA,

Thank you for your continued and reaffirmed commitment of the ELCA to justice in Palestine and Israel. The ELCA has been a faithful accompanier on the journey, and the passionate work and witness of our companions strengthens us.

As the ELCA moves forward from this Assembly action, I urge the ELCA to remain careful in its decisions as to how it chooses to promote peace. As you know, it is not always the loudest voice that elicits the greatest change. Sometimes it is the patient and perseverant who bring about great change through diligent but quiet work.

I encourage the ELCA to invest in clear and accessible resources for ELCA congregations that encourage awareness-building, accompaniment and advocacy at the individual and personal level.

I encourage the ELCA to continue to advocate for synodical, congregational and personal visits to the Holy Land to witness the situation first-hand, to visit with us, their Lutheran sisters and brothers and to be a part of the deep roots and broad mission of the ELCJHL.

I also encourage the ELCA to continue its support of the ELCJHL, its ministries and its mission, and to continue its investment in education through the ELCJHL Schools.

So that, together in awareness-building, accompaniment, and advocacy, we continue our work toward lasting peace based on justice for all.

Your Brother in Christ,

Bishop Munib A. Younan
Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land

The UN Security Council holds monthly debates on the situation in the Middle East, with particular focus on the situation between Israel and the Palestinians.  This month’s debate on the topic this week was possibly the last one before September, when the Palestinians will possibly be asking for full membership in the UN, which would necessitate a security council vote.  The conversation got quite heated, with both those opposed and those in favor of the Palestinian move taking time to air their opinions.

To read about the debate and learn more about the situation, check out the following links:

• NY Time Article, “Security Council Debate Offers Preview of Palestinian Bid”
• UN Overview of Meeting
• US Remarks at Meeting
• Video of the Debate