While I was riding my bike in Iowa, Palestinian Bishop Younan was elected president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF).
Here is a link to the LWF assembly news: http://www.lwf-assembly.org/experience/lwi-assembly-news/news-detail/article/520/8/neste/2/
And the story...
Palestinian Bishop Elected President of the Lutheran World Federation
Bishop Munib A. Younan is a Passionate Campaigner for Peace and Inter-Faith Dialogue in the Middle East
STUTTGART, Germany, 24 July 2010 – Bishop Munib A. Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) has been elected President of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) by the Eleventh Assembly here, a gathering of 418 delegates and others from the LWF member churches.
Three hundred and sixty registered delegates voted, representing 145 member churches from 79 countries. Rt Rev. Dr Younan received 300 votes affirming his election, 23 against; there were 37 abstentions. There were no other nominees.
Younan, 59, succeeds Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, who has been President of the LWF since the organization’s last Assembly in Winnipeg, Canada, in 2003.
Ordained in 1976 after study in Palestine and gaining a degree from Helsinki [Finland] University, Younan was a youth pastor and teacher in his homeland. From 1976 to 1979 he was pastor of the Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem and he has also served parishes in Beit Jala and Ramallah. He studied at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and he holds an honorary doctorate, granted by Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa.
The president-elect has headed his church body since 1998 and was the third Palestinian bishop of the church founded by Germans in the nineteenth century and previously led by clergy from Germany. A member of the LWF since 1974, the ELCJHL has about 3,000 members.
The bishop was the first to translate the Augsburg Confession, a key document of the Lutheran Church, into Arabic.
Younan is a former vice-president of the LWF, is president of the Fellowship of Middle East Evangelical Churches and serves with three Jerusalem patriarchs and nine other bishops on the International Christian Committee of Jerusalem. He is also a co-founder of the Council of Religious Institutions in the Holy Land, made up of the two chief rabbis of Israel, heads of the local churches, the Chief Judge of the Islamic Court in Palestine and other Muslim leaders.
He is the author of Witnessing for Peace, a book about the search for peace in his homeland and numerous articles on churches and the search for peace in the Holy Land.
His wife, Suad, is Director of the Helen Keller School in the Jerusalem suburb of Beit Hanina, which educates visually-impaired children. She is also the chair of the women’s committee of the ELCJHL.
The couple has three children and one grandchild.
-- --
“Who could imagine the Holy Land without Christians?” Younan asked -- see the story at this link: http://www.lwf-assembly.org/experience/lwi-assembly-news/news-detail/article/555/8/neste/1/
“Who could imagine the Holy Land without Christians?”
Pray that Christians not flee the Holy Land, says LWF president-elect
STUTTGART, Germany, 25 July 2010 – In his first sermon as president-elect of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Rt Rev. Dr Munib A.Younan told a congregation today that Christians should be “children of the light,” and urged them to “pray that Palestinian Christians may not lose faith and leave the country.” He was preaching at the Andreaskirche in Uhlbach, a suburb of Stuttgart.
Christ walked in the Holy Land, he said. “Who could imagine the Holy Land … without Christians?” the bishop asked. Younan is bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHC).
“We as Christians and especially as Lutherans have a role to play in the Middle East in reconciliation and interfaith dialogue,” the president-elect said.
“I sometimes ponder the fact that there have been Christians in Palestine since the first Pentecost,” he said, and added, “Now we Palestinian Christians are less than 1.5 per cent of the population.” Palestinian Christians leave their homeland for three reasons: “ the difficulties caused by the political conflict, a lack of jobs and growing political and religious extremism.”
“Even so,” he continued, “Palestinian Christianity has survived 2,000 years. We have never ruled the country, nor were we ever in the majority. We do not have much property, power, money or influence. Yet we have survived.”
That survival, he said, is because “we have carried the death and resurrection of our Lord in our bodies, souls and minds.” Palestinian Christians should be “brokers of justice, instruments of peace, ministers of reconciliation, defenders of human rights including women’s rights and apostles of love,” he said. The bishop has been active in a variety of inter-religious activities in his homeland and has held high positions in local ecumenical and inter-religious groups.
Christian love reaches across religious and ethnic boundaries, Younan told the congregation. He recalled being asked about a Christian woman who had been seen caring for a Muslim child. He had responded, “As Christians we are called to serve every human being regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, religion or political affiliation.”
Younan said that as “children of the light,” a phrase from the biblical book of Ephesians, Christians should work to promote justice, peace and reconciliation and “to eliminate Islamophobia, xenophobia and antisemitism.”
The bishop and several other visitors from the LWF Assembly were introduced to the congregation by Rev. Margarete Goth, pastor of the church situated amid Uhlbach’s famous vineyards and not far from the burial chapel with tombs of Wuertemberg royalty from previous centuries.
Younan’s term as LWF President begins as the Eleventh Assembly ends here 27 July.
--- --- ---
To receive regular bulletins from Ann Hafften, sign up at the blog A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
ELCA Middle East Network Newsletter highlights boycott, divestment and sanctions policies
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Peace Not Walls Campaign has issued its July 2010 Middle East Network Newsletter. There is a lot of information in this edition, including an important memo detailing ELCA policies regarding boycott, divestment, and sanctions and relevant actions from 2005 and 2007 churchwide assemblies. I've posted a few excerpts here, but do go to the link for the entire update.
Middle East Network Newsletter - July 9, 2010 - http://www.elca.org/~/media/Files/Our%20Faith%20in%20Action/Justice/Peace%20Not%20Walls/MENET/MENET%202010-07-09.pdf
ELCA Presiding Bishop meets with staff of National Security Council
Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson met with Denis McDonough, chief of staff of the White House National Security Council, on July 1 to support the current U.S. administration in its efforts to take a principal role in achieving peace. Click
here to read the news story - http://www.elca.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Three-Expressions/Churchwide-Organization/Communication-services/News/Releases.aspx?a=4571
-----------------------------------------------------------
ELCA policies re boycott, divestment, and sanctions and relevant actions from 2005 and 2007 churchwide assemblies
(This summary has been prepared by Dennis Frado, Director, Lutheran Office for World Community, and Pat Zerega, Director for Corporate Social Responsibility, Church in Society.)
Find background and documents for all relevant Churchwide assembly actions, including the 2005 Churchwide Strategy for Engagement in Israel and Palestine and 2007 and 2009 memorials - http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Justice/Peace-Not-Walls/Background.aspx
In 2005, Churchwide Assembly called for: 6. stewarding financial resources-both U.S. tax dollars and private funds -in ways that support the quest for a just peace in the Holy Land; and 7. giving generously to help ensure the continuation of the schools and other ministries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land and the humanitarian work of The Lutheran World Federation through Augusta Victoria Hospital and other ministries.
In 2007, Churchwide Assembly refined the call saying: 5. To call upon the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to underscore the call for economic initiatives by this church and its members in the "Peace, Not Walls" campaign.
Such initiatives, in consultation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, could include:
• purchasing of products from Palestinian providers and
• exploration of the feasibility of refusing to buy products produced in Israeli settlements. Also to be explored is the entire investment activity by this church. Examination of investments would exclude the option of divestiture.
In 2005 the Corporate Social Responsibility program developed a response to the Churchwide Assembly's action urging ELCA members to participate in the Peace Not Walls campaign. After study, the Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility (ACCSR) recommended in November of 2006 (and subsequently adopted in the spring 2007) the following plan of action for the programs work:
+ Continue to exercise our weapons economic social criteria investment screen. + Continue the dialogue with Caterpillar on development of a human rights policy, expressing our continuing concern with the presence of their product in the Middle East hostilities and destruction of Palestinian homes.
+ Continue to review the possibility of approaching other companies on a human rights (resolution) basis.
+ Consider at the ACCSR the opportunities and limitations for fulfilling the mandate of the Peace Not Walls campaign relative to the stewardship of resources, specifically in the area of multinational corporations that have established facilities or operations in the Occupied Territories (as defined by the United Nations).
Whenever possible, this work would be undertaken with our ecumenical partners whenever their strategy is in line with our Churchwide Strategy for Engagement in Israel and Palestine.
In April 2009 the ACCSR approved a guide for congregations, synods and Lutheran institutions on how to develop a Selective purchasing policy. One segment of that guide is around the Middle East - http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Justice/Advocacy/Corporate-Social-Responsibility/SPPG-7-Middle-East-Strategy-and-Selective-Purchasing-Policy.aspx
In addition the Peace Not Walls campaign website describes a variety of possible positive investments in the Palestinian economy that can be made through travel, purchasing crafts and supporting the ELCJHL's Schools, the Augusta Victoria Hospital and Global Mission personnel. The ACCSR has approved a number of social investment criteria screens which provide a way for the ELCA to look at its investments through the lens of faith -
http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Justice/Advocacy/Corporate-Social-Responsibility/CCA-3-Economic-Social-Criteria-Investment-Screens.aspx
All of the screens begin with the social policy of the Church. The ELCA's social statements and social policy resolutions outline the policy of the church on a variety of current issues. This is interpreted for investment practices through the development of a social criteria investment screen. When a screen is approved by the Church Council, it is distributed to a range of Lutheran entities for them to implement. But, we must remember that, regardless of the subject matter, every screen is given for guidance to the bodies that implement them, whether it is a synod, individual congregation or something as large as the Board of Pensions.
CSR recognizes that various investors will implement these screens along a continuum. Some examples include the ability to fund research in an area or carrying out a specific fiduciary duty. Each member and each organization will implement a screen based on their own set of standards. The ELCA has no policy to support or direct a procedure of divestment. Absent such a policy, the ELCA could not make a decision for divestment of investments. It should also be noted that all separately incorporated entities of the ELCA including the Board of Pensions implement ELCA policy recommendations within their own guidelines and fiduciary duties. When it comes to the specific situation concerning the economic activities of the Peace Not Walls campaign, the 2007 Churchwide assembly action specifically excludes the option of exploration of divestment. (see point 5 in 2007 assembly action - http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Justice/Peace-Not-Walls/Background.aspx ) Some of CSR's activities involve dialogues and resolutions.
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility is where the work of CSR traditionally takes place. The ELCA CSR program works at ICCR with partners from a variety of denominations, religious orders and the socially responsible investment community. In 2005 a sub-group gathered to see if there was work around the Middle East that could be done together. The work has centered on the development of corporate human rights policies, equal employment opportunity and a presence of factories in the settlements.
All of the dialogues that ELCA participates in are framed by the Issue Papers which have been developed - http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-action/Justice/Advocacy/Corporate-Social-Responsibility/CCA-5-Issue-Papers.aspx
These are used to guide the internal work of the CSR program as well as give guidance to those voting proxy resolutions throughout the church.
Another topic much discussed is sanctions. These are sometimes defined as punitive or restrictive measures taken, usually by several countries in concert, to pressure a country to change its certain policies. For example, economic sanctions ban trading with a given country, and diplomatic sanctions can result in the withdrawal of relations anddiplomatic representation. ELCA has no specific policy about sanctions.
Lastly, the ELCA has a specific procedure concerning any possible boycott.
A boycott has been defined as a collective effort to abstain from the purchase or use of products or services provided by a targeted firm, government, or other agency. The purpose of a boycott is to persuade the targeted entity to cease certain practices judged to be unjust, and/or to perform certain practices deemed to be just. Boycotts in the faith community have been taken both against an individual company -- such as the Nestlé infant formula boycott which began in the 1970s -- or an industry such as the lettuce boycott of the 1980s. Boycotts only work if there is an economic impact and media coverage. The ELCA's procedure concerning a boycott is detailed and therefore would likely take some time to be considered.
-- --
There is so much more in the July 2010 Middle East Network Newsletter. Find it at this page: http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Justice/Peace-Not-Walls/Resources/Newsletter.aspx
---- --- ----
To receive regular bulletins from Ann Hafften, sign up at the blog A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/
Friday, July 16, 2010
Lutheran youth visiting Israel and Palestine post reflections
There is a wonderful array of pictures, video and personal reports from the the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Holy Land Youth Mission at this website - http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Justice/Peace-Not-Walls/What-We-Do/Travel/Youth-Trips.aspx
The ELCA/ELCJHL Holy Land Youth Mission is traveling in the Holy Land July 7-22 with 11 people, including six high school students and young adults, to develop relationships and a better understanding of the life, faith and realities of our sisters and brothers in Christ and others who live there. This initiative grew out of the Southeast Michigan Synod’s tradition of taking youth to the Holy Land to visit their international companion, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) - http://www.elcjhl.org/
The group is meeting with ELCJHL youth and visiting groups working for peace with justice, learning about peace-building in the realities of occupation and will learn about advocating for justice and peace upon return home. This initiative also is an outcome of the heightened interest in the Holy Land generated by the Bishops’ Academy trip there in January. You can follow the journey here or on Facebook at ELCA/ELCJHL Holy Land Youth Mission - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=127509912072&ref=ts#!/group.php?gid=127509912072
Frequency of posts will depend upon internet capability.
On July 13 Pastor Julie Rowe began her entry this way:
"Unity in diversity. Diversity in unity. Steps away from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where Christians from around the world come to the empty tomb of Jesus, the English-, Arabic- and German-speaking congregations of the Redeemer Lutheran Church celebrated worship together, speaking and singing the same words and songs of faith in their own language. We stood and sang, the same melody, yet different languages, cadences and consonants colliding, finding it difficult yet magical in a way, being able to share favorite words and hymns together yet separately. For some, it was too hard, for others it was interesting and inspiring.
"So it is with us here, Americans in Jerusalem visiting our Palestinian Lutheran companions. We are one faith, one body, one baptism, yet live such different lifestyles and cultures. But united melodies run through us all: when one member of the body suffers, we all suffer. When one member rejoices, we all rejoice. We follow the One who breaks down the walls, the barriers, the hostility, through truth-telling and justice-making, and calls us all to be messengers of reconciliation.
"Yet as one member of the group asked today, "How do we really make peace when people are treated so unequally. How do we make peace when one people is subject to occupation by another? Is it really possible?"
Read the entire post at this web link: http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Justice/Peace-Not-Walls/What-We-Do/Travel/Youth-Trips/2010-Holy-Land-Trip-Reflections.aspx
--- --- ---
To receive regular bulletins from Ann Hafften, sign up at the blog A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/
The ELCA/ELCJHL Holy Land Youth Mission is traveling in the Holy Land July 7-22 with 11 people, including six high school students and young adults, to develop relationships and a better understanding of the life, faith and realities of our sisters and brothers in Christ and others who live there. This initiative grew out of the Southeast Michigan Synod’s tradition of taking youth to the Holy Land to visit their international companion, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) - http://www.elcjhl.org/
The group is meeting with ELCJHL youth and visiting groups working for peace with justice, learning about peace-building in the realities of occupation and will learn about advocating for justice and peace upon return home. This initiative also is an outcome of the heightened interest in the Holy Land generated by the Bishops’ Academy trip there in January. You can follow the journey here or on Facebook at ELCA/ELCJHL Holy Land Youth Mission - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=127509912072&ref=ts#!/group.php?gid=127509912072
Frequency of posts will depend upon internet capability.
On July 13 Pastor Julie Rowe began her entry this way:
"Unity in diversity. Diversity in unity. Steps away from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where Christians from around the world come to the empty tomb of Jesus, the English-, Arabic- and German-speaking congregations of the Redeemer Lutheran Church celebrated worship together, speaking and singing the same words and songs of faith in their own language. We stood and sang, the same melody, yet different languages, cadences and consonants colliding, finding it difficult yet magical in a way, being able to share favorite words and hymns together yet separately. For some, it was too hard, for others it was interesting and inspiring.
"So it is with us here, Americans in Jerusalem visiting our Palestinian Lutheran companions. We are one faith, one body, one baptism, yet live such different lifestyles and cultures. But united melodies run through us all: when one member of the body suffers, we all suffer. When one member rejoices, we all rejoice. We follow the One who breaks down the walls, the barriers, the hostility, through truth-telling and justice-making, and calls us all to be messengers of reconciliation.
"Yet as one member of the group asked today, "How do we really make peace when people are treated so unequally. How do we make peace when one people is subject to occupation by another? Is it really possible?"
Read the entire post at this web link: http://www.elca.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Justice/Peace-Not-Walls/What-We-Do/Travel/Youth-Trips/2010-Holy-Land-Trip-Reflections.aspx
--- --- ---
To receive regular bulletins from Ann Hafften, sign up at the blog A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Bishop Munib Younan holds up the need for `daily bread'
Bishop Dr Munib A. Younan, a Palestinian Christian bishop from Jerusalem points to the need for the “daily bread” of justice across gender divisions, ethnic differences, economic inequities and national boundaries.
The search for justice also means work to protect the integrity of God’s creation.
See the video at the website of the Lutheran World Federation Assembly (and you should scroll down to the bottom of the page):
http://www.lwf-assembly.org/resources/multimedia/assembly-theme-reflections/
Bishop Dr Munib A. Younan
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land
LWF Vice-President, Asia
-- -- --
To receive regular bulletins from Ann Hafften, sign up at the blog A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/
The search for justice also means work to protect the integrity of God’s creation.
See the video at the website of the Lutheran World Federation Assembly (and you should scroll down to the bottom of the page):
http://www.lwf-assembly.org/resources/multimedia/assembly-theme-reflections/
Bishop Dr Munib A. Younan
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land
LWF Vice-President, Asia
-- -- --
To receive regular bulletins from Ann Hafften, sign up at the blog A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/
Thursday, June 24, 2010
`The Light shines in the darkness,' writes Chris Cown
I have become acquainted with Chris Cowan, a seminary student and member of the Third Order of the Society of St. Francis. Chris recently spent some weeks teaching art at Dar al-Kalima in Bethlehem.
She wrote a terrific piece that makes up most of the spring edition of The Franciscan Times - http://www.tssf.org/FTSpring2010.pdf
Please read the whole article. If the link above doesn't work for you, go to the archives and click the link to the Spring 2010 issue - http://www.tssf.org/archives.shtml
Here is a little clip I especially like:
“`The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.' I got a little teary, for this is the text which is needed here and which the Church here proclaims and lives. Ministries like Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, the EAPPI volunteers in the West Bank, and many others are working to move their society toward the Light shining in the darkness. It is a long and uphill road."
Chris's article provides lots of introductions to the people of the region, good analysis and review of the situation in the West Bank, and plenty of helpful links.
Here is another sample:
Many young people have little optimism about their future in West Bank, where there are shortages of water and opportunity and employment and health care. It is a place where, daily, the people experience the oppression of occupation. For every wish, there is a corresponding “You can’t do that because…” and usually the sentence can be completed by the phrase, “you are a Palestinian” or “you are an Arab.” Because you are a Palestinian… you can’t go to Jerusalem…you can’t cross the road to check your olive trees… you can’t pass the checkpoint… you can’t have a playground… you can’t bring your produce to market… you can’t finish college… you can’t find a job… you can’t go to school…you can’t leave the house… you can’t be trusted. The Palestinian people live under a system of institutionalized denigration, humiliation, segregation, and violence. It is a system that has become “business as usual.”
And yet, in this place, I received hospitality that puts our best welcome to shame. I found people who were amazingly generous, even to strangers. I found people who found a way to go on living and hoping and dreaming and working for the good of others, even though they were living behind the apartheid wall. I found people with ready smiles even in the midst of tears of frustration. I found people with faith in the midst of turmoil. I found people committed to peace in the midst of daily challenges to their dignity and their livelihood. And I found a church that intentionally nourishes hope in the promises of a God who loves all people.
The situation in the West Bank is one of dehumanization. As Franciscans and people of peace, we can say that the injustice being done against the Palestinian people dehumanizes both Palestinians and Israelis. It dehumanizes the Palestinians who, living behind the separation barrier (Apartheid Wall), continually suffer obstacles as they seek to live out their human lives, their vocations and relationships. The Wall creates violence and all sorts of poverty. But the perpetrators also suffer dehumanization, because they are led to believe that some people are of less value than others, and to fear their neighbors on the basis of race. Moreover, fear is self-perpetuating, and is ultimately the father of violence.
Chris has a blog, from pen and paintbrush, at this link - http://christiarts.wordpress.com/
For more about Dar al-Kalima, click this link - http://www.college.daralkalima.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=38&Itemid=45
--- --- ---
She wrote a terrific piece that makes up most of the spring edition of The Franciscan Times - http://www.tssf.org/FTSpring2010.pdf
Please read the whole article. If the link above doesn't work for you, go to the archives and click the link to the Spring 2010 issue - http://www.tssf.org/archives.shtml
Here is a little clip I especially like:
“`The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.' I got a little teary, for this is the text which is needed here and which the Church here proclaims and lives. Ministries like Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem, the EAPPI volunteers in the West Bank, and many others are working to move their society toward the Light shining in the darkness. It is a long and uphill road."
Chris's article provides lots of introductions to the people of the region, good analysis and review of the situation in the West Bank, and plenty of helpful links.
Here is another sample:
Many young people have little optimism about their future in West Bank, where there are shortages of water and opportunity and employment and health care. It is a place where, daily, the people experience the oppression of occupation. For every wish, there is a corresponding “You can’t do that because…” and usually the sentence can be completed by the phrase, “you are a Palestinian” or “you are an Arab.” Because you are a Palestinian… you can’t go to Jerusalem…you can’t cross the road to check your olive trees… you can’t pass the checkpoint… you can’t have a playground… you can’t bring your produce to market… you can’t finish college… you can’t find a job… you can’t go to school…you can’t leave the house… you can’t be trusted. The Palestinian people live under a system of institutionalized denigration, humiliation, segregation, and violence. It is a system that has become “business as usual.”
And yet, in this place, I received hospitality that puts our best welcome to shame. I found people who were amazingly generous, even to strangers. I found people who found a way to go on living and hoping and dreaming and working for the good of others, even though they were living behind the apartheid wall. I found people with ready smiles even in the midst of tears of frustration. I found people with faith in the midst of turmoil. I found people committed to peace in the midst of daily challenges to their dignity and their livelihood. And I found a church that intentionally nourishes hope in the promises of a God who loves all people.
The situation in the West Bank is one of dehumanization. As Franciscans and people of peace, we can say that the injustice being done against the Palestinian people dehumanizes both Palestinians and Israelis. It dehumanizes the Palestinians who, living behind the separation barrier (Apartheid Wall), continually suffer obstacles as they seek to live out their human lives, their vocations and relationships. The Wall creates violence and all sorts of poverty. But the perpetrators also suffer dehumanization, because they are led to believe that some people are of less value than others, and to fear their neighbors on the basis of race. Moreover, fear is self-perpetuating, and is ultimately the father of violence.
Chris has a blog, from pen and paintbrush, at this link - http://christiarts.wordpress.com/
For more about Dar al-Kalima, click this link - http://www.college.daralkalima.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=38&Itemid=45
--- --- ---
To receive regular bulletins from Ann Hafften, sign up at the blog A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Budrus: Palestinian Village and Documentary Film
Budrus: A Palestinian Village and Documentary Film
Budrus: A Palestinian Village and Documentary Film
If your NPR radio station airs The Diane Rehm Show, tune in tomorrow (Thurs.) to hear about Budrus. One of the filmmakers, Ronit Avni, presented a workshop at the recent Churches for Middle East Peace advocacy conference.
The story a Palestinian community organizer who united Fatah, Hamas and Israelis in an unarmed movement to save his village from destruction by the Israeli security barrier.
--- --- ---
To receive regular bulletins from Ann Hafften, sign up at the blog A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/
Budrus: A Palestinian Village and Documentary Film
If your NPR radio station airs The Diane Rehm Show, tune in tomorrow (Thurs.) to hear about Budrus. One of the filmmakers, Ronit Avni, presented a workshop at the recent Churches for Middle East Peace advocacy conference.
The story a Palestinian community organizer who united Fatah, Hamas and Israelis in an unarmed movement to save his village from destruction by the Israeli security barrier.
--- --- ---
To receive regular bulletins from Ann Hafften, sign up at the blog A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/
MIFTA report: Barriers, Borders, and Blockades
"MIFTAH seeks to promote the principles of democracy and good governance within various components of Palestinian society; it further seeks to engage local and international public opinion and official circles on the Palestinian cause." - http://www.miftah.org/
Writing for MIFTA, Leah Hunt-Hendrix posits that physical and informational controls exerted by Israel are working against the possibility of peace, and creating barriers between Palestine and the rest of the world.
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=22268&CategoryId=13
Barriers, Borders, and Blockades:
Policing Movement and Controlling Information
By Leah Hunt-Hendrix for MIFTAH
June 23, 2010
To keep some out. To fence others in. To police movement, instill fear, uncertainty, and instability. Palestine is a land cross-hashed with separation barriers, walls, fences and checkpoints. For many people, these structures make one either an exile or a prisoner, barred from returning or unable to leave. But in addition to the policing of movement, these mechanisms correspond to a policing of information, a control of what truths are able to travel beyond the borders of these territories, to reach the world outside.
Crossing borders always leads to new experiences. But one of the first things I noticed upon arriving in the West Bank is the very particular and peculiar transition that takes place when the border one is traversing is Israeli. Before I passed through Allenby Bridge, which provides entrance from Jordan into Israel, I thought I had an idea of the situation here. But until you come face to face with a machine gun-carrying-19-year old, the frightening nature and intense stranglehold of the occupation is hard to imagine. Without the experience, it is hard to understand how, despite complete innocence, one can be made to feel like a criminal, what it feels like to be interrogated, held for hours, and finally cast outside in the darkness of the night. And the experience of a foreigner is nothing compared to the harassment of those with Palestinian documents.
Once you are finally able to cross that border, however, something odd begins to happen. The reality of the situation becomes so obvious, that it is suddenly difficult to remember that there was ever a time when one didn’t grasp the severity of the occupation. It becomes hard to believe that others might not be fully aware of what goes on within Israel’s borders, under its control of Gaza the West Bank and east Jerusalem. But this creates a dilemma, a kind of information gap. For those on the outside, it is almost impossible to wrap one’s head around the fact that this level of oppression can still exist in the modern world. Meanwhile, those on the inside are perplexed at how others don’t seem to understand.
In a world as technologically advanced and information-saturated as ours seems to be, the lack of accurate representations of the conflict in Israel and Palestine in mainstream western media is astounding. As much as the borders and walls around Palestinians lands hinder people’s movement, they also seem to hinder the spread of reliable information. The blockade of goods into Gaza mirrors a kind of blockade on the speech and perspective of Palestinians, a silencing of their voices. Unless one knows where to look and actively seeks out the right websites and news sources, one is otherwise barraged with faulty information and mischaracterizations, which shape public opinion internationally, and become yet further mechanisms of domination.
A recent poll, commissioned by the Israel Project, shows that 56% of Americans think the American government should support Israel, and only 7% think it should support Palestine. This is related to the fact that most Americans think Palestinians are the ones stalling the peace process. At a ration of 2 to 1, Americans think that Palestinian “incitement” is a worse obstacle to peace than settlement-building in Jerusalem.
The claim that Palestinians are engaging in incitement through their media and school curricula, however, is itself, in large part, an Israeli media creation – yet another warping of the perspective that makes it into the public arena.
Palestinian Media Watch is an organization that aims to expose the use of extremist language in Palestinian media, which glorifies terrorism and creates a culture of hostility towards Israel. The organization claims to work in the interest of peace, and its materials are cited by a wide variety of institutions. It is a central informational link on the website of the Israeli foreign ministry and its founder, Itamar Marcus, has testified before the American congress and participated in a conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
While PMW is received as an objective and unbiased resource, however, what goes unnoticed is that it is actually connected to right-wing Israeli funders, and Marcus himself lives in a West Bank settlement. This is highly ironic. For while PMW spreads the message globally that Palestinians are engaging in vicious incitement, the almost unanimous opinion within the borders of the West Bank is that the main obstacle to the peace process is precisely the issue of settlements, like the one in which Marcus resides. Despite the fact that the Middle East Peace Quartet and the international community have declared the building of settlements illegal, Israel persists in the establishment of these communities.
Continued construction of settlements not only undermines trust. It is also, day by day, destroying the possibility of a two-state solution. This is another fact that seems to be inadequately captured in international media. Many abroad see the situation here as the same as ever, just another year in a never-ending struggle. But for a large number of people on the ground, there is a sense of real urgency. With each new settlement, more Palestinian land is illegally claimed, land which may never be returned.
As the walls and fences enclose Palestinian villages and cut them off from their land, they sever the world from the critical voices and perspectives that must be heard. For a moment, it seemed like the Turkish Freedom Flotilla fiasco might penetrate the blockade on public opinion. But as Al Jazeera reported, information was once again confiscated and altered, with only two minutes of film released out of hours of footage, and the world largely buying into the incredible Israeli story of fanatic humanitarians. Like the contrived arguments of PMW, the physical and informational controls that Israel exerts are working against the possibility of peace, and creating barriers between Palestine and the rest of the world that must be rejected.
In the past, the international community rose up and challenged regimes of apartheid. It is unconscionable that in the present, through its inaction and unwillingness to demand accountability from Israel, the international community (in the shadow of the United States) is implicitly supporting the system of separation and segregation here, and is complicit with an ongoing system of apartheid. At some point, the walls will fall, and the barriers will be broken through. The question is whether or not the US and international community can shake off their blindness and be a part of a peaceful solution before it is too late.
Leah Hunt-Hendrix is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.
Article: http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=22268&CategoryId=13
Website: http://www.miftah.org/
--- --- ---
To receive regular bulletins from Ann Hafften, sign up at the blog A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/
Writing for MIFTA, Leah Hunt-Hendrix posits that physical and informational controls exerted by Israel are working against the possibility of peace, and creating barriers between Palestine and the rest of the world.
http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=22268&CategoryId=13
Barriers, Borders, and Blockades:
Policing Movement and Controlling Information
By Leah Hunt-Hendrix for MIFTAH
June 23, 2010
To keep some out. To fence others in. To police movement, instill fear, uncertainty, and instability. Palestine is a land cross-hashed with separation barriers, walls, fences and checkpoints. For many people, these structures make one either an exile or a prisoner, barred from returning or unable to leave. But in addition to the policing of movement, these mechanisms correspond to a policing of information, a control of what truths are able to travel beyond the borders of these territories, to reach the world outside.
Crossing borders always leads to new experiences. But one of the first things I noticed upon arriving in the West Bank is the very particular and peculiar transition that takes place when the border one is traversing is Israeli. Before I passed through Allenby Bridge, which provides entrance from Jordan into Israel, I thought I had an idea of the situation here. But until you come face to face with a machine gun-carrying-19-year old, the frightening nature and intense stranglehold of the occupation is hard to imagine. Without the experience, it is hard to understand how, despite complete innocence, one can be made to feel like a criminal, what it feels like to be interrogated, held for hours, and finally cast outside in the darkness of the night. And the experience of a foreigner is nothing compared to the harassment of those with Palestinian documents.
Once you are finally able to cross that border, however, something odd begins to happen. The reality of the situation becomes so obvious, that it is suddenly difficult to remember that there was ever a time when one didn’t grasp the severity of the occupation. It becomes hard to believe that others might not be fully aware of what goes on within Israel’s borders, under its control of Gaza the West Bank and east Jerusalem. But this creates a dilemma, a kind of information gap. For those on the outside, it is almost impossible to wrap one’s head around the fact that this level of oppression can still exist in the modern world. Meanwhile, those on the inside are perplexed at how others don’t seem to understand.
In a world as technologically advanced and information-saturated as ours seems to be, the lack of accurate representations of the conflict in Israel and Palestine in mainstream western media is astounding. As much as the borders and walls around Palestinians lands hinder people’s movement, they also seem to hinder the spread of reliable information. The blockade of goods into Gaza mirrors a kind of blockade on the speech and perspective of Palestinians, a silencing of their voices. Unless one knows where to look and actively seeks out the right websites and news sources, one is otherwise barraged with faulty information and mischaracterizations, which shape public opinion internationally, and become yet further mechanisms of domination.
A recent poll, commissioned by the Israel Project, shows that 56% of Americans think the American government should support Israel, and only 7% think it should support Palestine. This is related to the fact that most Americans think Palestinians are the ones stalling the peace process. At a ration of 2 to 1, Americans think that Palestinian “incitement” is a worse obstacle to peace than settlement-building in Jerusalem.
The claim that Palestinians are engaging in incitement through their media and school curricula, however, is itself, in large part, an Israeli media creation – yet another warping of the perspective that makes it into the public arena.
Palestinian Media Watch is an organization that aims to expose the use of extremist language in Palestinian media, which glorifies terrorism and creates a culture of hostility towards Israel. The organization claims to work in the interest of peace, and its materials are cited by a wide variety of institutions. It is a central informational link on the website of the Israeli foreign ministry and its founder, Itamar Marcus, has testified before the American congress and participated in a conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
While PMW is received as an objective and unbiased resource, however, what goes unnoticed is that it is actually connected to right-wing Israeli funders, and Marcus himself lives in a West Bank settlement. This is highly ironic. For while PMW spreads the message globally that Palestinians are engaging in vicious incitement, the almost unanimous opinion within the borders of the West Bank is that the main obstacle to the peace process is precisely the issue of settlements, like the one in which Marcus resides. Despite the fact that the Middle East Peace Quartet and the international community have declared the building of settlements illegal, Israel persists in the establishment of these communities.
Continued construction of settlements not only undermines trust. It is also, day by day, destroying the possibility of a two-state solution. This is another fact that seems to be inadequately captured in international media. Many abroad see the situation here as the same as ever, just another year in a never-ending struggle. But for a large number of people on the ground, there is a sense of real urgency. With each new settlement, more Palestinian land is illegally claimed, land which may never be returned.
As the walls and fences enclose Palestinian villages and cut them off from their land, they sever the world from the critical voices and perspectives that must be heard. For a moment, it seemed like the Turkish Freedom Flotilla fiasco might penetrate the blockade on public opinion. But as Al Jazeera reported, information was once again confiscated and altered, with only two minutes of film released out of hours of footage, and the world largely buying into the incredible Israeli story of fanatic humanitarians. Like the contrived arguments of PMW, the physical and informational controls that Israel exerts are working against the possibility of peace, and creating barriers between Palestine and the rest of the world that must be rejected.
In the past, the international community rose up and challenged regimes of apartheid. It is unconscionable that in the present, through its inaction and unwillingness to demand accountability from Israel, the international community (in the shadow of the United States) is implicitly supporting the system of separation and segregation here, and is complicit with an ongoing system of apartheid. At some point, the walls will fall, and the barriers will be broken through. The question is whether or not the US and international community can shake off their blindness and be a part of a peaceful solution before it is too late.
Leah Hunt-Hendrix is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.
Article: http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=22268&CategoryId=13
Website: http://www.miftah.org/
--- --- ---
To receive regular bulletins from Ann Hafften, sign up at the blog A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)