The UN: Problem or Solution is a short statement from Sabeel to help friends understand what might happen in the UN after September 20, 2011.
Dilemmas and Opportunities Facing the Palestinian People is a much longer version offering our friends a more detailed background material about the pros and cons of what might transpire.
Every Thursday in Jerusalem friends of Sabeel, the ecumenical liberation theology center, gather for prayer. Here's the focus:
The 21st of September is the day the UN General Assembly starts its new session for 2011. Let us keep this date in our thoughts and prayers, especially that the Palestinian Leadership will be submitting its bid for the recognition of Palestine as a member state. We pray that all UN decisions will be made on the basis of Justice, and that the powerful will refrain from applying double-standards that discriminate against the weaker states.
Israeli settlers on the West-Bank have accelerated their aggression in the past two weeks. They set fire to three mosques in villages around the city of Nablus. They also painted graffiti abusive to Islam and the Prophet Mohammad on the walls of the mosques. In the West-Bank town of Bir-Zeit, settlers sprawled abusive graffiti on the walls of Bir-Zeit University and one of the mosques in town. Israeli settlers also physically attacked a Bethlehem University lecturer and a female student on their way to University. We pray that the Government of Israel will take measures to put an end to such attacks, and that the settlers would realize that they cannot continue to occupy another people's land forever.
The Human Rights organization, B'tselem, draws the attention to the way the Israeli army, violently, deals with peaceful demonstrations on the West-Bank, especially most recently, in the West-bank village of Nabi-Saleh near Ramallah. B'tselem fears that this is an indication of the way the Israeli army plans to deal with further peaceful demonstrations the Palestinians may hold to express the affirmation of their rights to statehood and self-determination. We pray that the Israeli government will itself recognize Palestinian rights and the right of people to demonstrate peacefully.
Sabeel's founder Rev. Naim Ateek took part in a conference in the Netherlands last week, organized by the Netherlands Kairos Palestine Group. The event was to discuss, promote and spread the "Kairos Palestine- Document "A Moment of Truth." We pray for all those who attended the conference - speakers and participants - that they will speak a word of truth for the glory of God, and for the sake of peace in Palestine and Israel.
Click this link for a short video with Naim Ateek and Stephen Sizer in the Netherlands.
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