Easter: Sadness Transformed into Joyous Hope

Here is the Easter Message of Bishop Munib Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.  Also video of Pastor Mitri Raheb in a blog post from a traveling Yale group.
Bishop Younan’s Easter Message of Resurrection: Sadness Transformed Into Joyous Hope

“They stood still, looking sad.” - Luke 24:17 

I was recently walking from the Jaffa Gate to my office through the streets of the old city of Jerusalem when I encountered a long-time shopkeeper acquaintance. He was the kind of person always full of energy, always talkative, always with a smile on his face. This day—as we were approaching Holy Week and Easter—he was quiet, just standing there, looking a bit sad. “What’s wrong,” I asked. “Nothing,” he answered. When I pressured him, he said, “Nothing is well in Jerusalem.” The rest of that day, I asked myself, “Why?”  

According to psychologists, sadness is a degree of frustration. Sadness grows out of confusion coming from a disappointing sequence of events. 

On that first Easter afternoon, those two Emmaus disciples stood there on the road, looking sad. They were sad because they were confused. They had heard the proclamation that Jesus was risen, but they were overwhelmed by other events, other factors that led them to question, to doubt, to feel frustrated so much that they could hardly move one foot in front of the other. They wanted nothing more than to sit down in the middle of the road and to cry. 

So why this sadness, this frustration, this confusion? 

First, it was a question of the mass media. In that day, this was the circulation of messages by word of mouth. The dominant message was that the body of the one crucified on Golgotha had gone missing. Now rumors were rampant. “The disciples had come in the night and stolen the body,” some had said. “It was the gardener,” said others. “It must have been the soldiers,” still others suggested. These followers of Jesus were grief stricken and could not think clearly, and now on top of that, their thoughts were pulled first this way and then that by the mass media of the day. 

We all know that the media often presents multiple images, sometimes conflicting, often creating doubt and confusion over what to believe. We all know that the mass media can play a big role in interpreting the message, even creating news from nothing, yes even twisting the truth. When such messages turn blatantly false, we call this incitement, causing people to act in ways we would never have expected. Why is it that our world seems built on such incitement in the realm of public relations? 

These disciples found themselves listening to the mass media of their day, rather than relying on the sure and certain word that Jesus had taught them. 

[Click the link to Easter Message for the complete text.]

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Yales's "Common Ground: Sacred Land?"

Students and others who took part in Yale University's recent Holy Land trip have been posting a blog throughout Lent.  Here is a link to one post, Day 19 – Palestinian Christians: "The Living Stones"

I recommend looking through a number of the blog posts. This one in particular includes two video clips of Pastor Mitri Raheb speaking to the group.

"One of the most memorable persons we met was the Rev. Mitri Raheb, pastor of Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem and founder of the DIYAR  Consortium that includes several institutions that focus their services on education, the needs of women, youth, and the elderly in the Bethlehem area."

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Ecumenical accompaniers in The Lutheran magazine: `They Keep Watch'

Tammie Danielsen from Austin, Texas, spent the winter in Hebron as an ecumenical accompanier with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme for Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).  She walked children to school to be a presence to prevent violence from Israeli settler attacks and lived in solidarity and community with the local Palestinian residents.

I was honored to write Tammie's story for this month's issue of The Lutheran magazine

Hebron has been divided into two zones since 1997. The area under the control of the civilian Palestinian Authority is populated by some 120,000 Palestinians. The zone under Israeli military control is home to 30,000 Palestinians and 500 Israeli settlers.  The settlers – and military stationed there to protect them (!) - have free access to areas. But some 1,830 Palestinian shops in the city center have closed due to restrictions on Palestinian movement, curfews and the sealing off of entire streets to Palestinians by the Israeli military.

EAPPI is an effort of the World Council of Churches, begun in 2002 in response to the Jerusalem heads of churches' request for Christians to “come and see” what was happening in the Holy Land.  Volunteers spend three months in one of seven sites accompanying the local residents as they work for peace and justice and an end to the occupation.  For more information about the US program, see http://www.eappi-us.org.

Especially if you're a Lutheran, please share this note with your networks and with leaders. Feel free to send your comments to the editor and/or place them in the comments section on the web.

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Naim Ateek: For a Just and Lasting Peace in God's Land

Many of my readers have visited Sabeel, the ecumenical liberation theology center in Jerusalem, or they have attended a Sabeel conference here in the USA sponsored by Friends of Sabeel - North America.

Sabeel founder and director Rev. Naim Ateek wrote a piece for the website that was published last week by the Huffington Post: For a Just and Lasting Peace in God's Land.

I urge you all to click the link above and read the entire article.  Ateek explains, "Sabeel is a Palestinian Christian group calling for equality and justice in Israel/Palestine through nonviolent efforts. Its work is ecumenical and interfaith. As the founder, I have now become the primary focus of JCRC (Jewish Community Relations Council) attacks. In recent weeks, JCRC has sent letters to churches throughout Northern California charging me with using "abandoned anti-Semitic Christian theologies" and urging pastors to withhold support from the conferences.

"At the urging of Sabeel's American colleagues in Jewish Voice for Peace, I have decided it is imperative to make a defense against these erroneous, misleading and cruel charges."

The next Sabeel Conference is March 23-24 at Sunnyvale, Calif., under the theme: Breaking the Barriers to a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine.

Here is the balance of Ateek's article:

Two accusations have been leveled against me. The first claims that I said, "Judaism is tribal; Christianity is universal. Judaism is wrong and was superseded by Christianity." The second claims that I said, "Jews killed Jesus."

When I discuss the question of tribalism vs. universalism, I am talking about the lively debate within the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament to Christians). There was a dynamic debate in these Scriptures that moved religious thought from exclusivity to inclusivity, and this phenomenon pre-dated the coming of Jesus Christ by several hundred years. It was not a Christian vs. Jewish construction.

I point out the genius of the Hebrew prophets in understanding God as an inclusive God. These prophets see God as the God who cares not only about the Israelites, but also about other people and other lands. You can find this inclusiveness in the Psalms: "The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it." In this view, no matter where one lives, one is still in the presence of God. 

It is important to point out that Judaism, as it developed, was not superseded by the Christian faith but continued as a living and valid faith worthy of our full respect. Today, this faith is distorted by the exclusivist reading of extremist settlers who say, "We are interested in divine rights and not in human rights." They are selectively reading certain biblical texts that give Jewish people a higher and prior claim to the land and negate the rights of the Palestinians. Such a theology does not lend itself to peace. We choose biblical texts that promote peace for all, and many of these are found in the Hebrew Bible. 

JCRC accuses me of saying that the "Jews killed Jesus," but I never use the word "Jews" in that context. I said that Jesus suffered "at the hands of evil political and religious powers two thousand years ago." This is a careful and precise statement. In all of my preaching on this topic, I have never singled out Jews as killers of Jesus. I always refer to the Roman authorities in collusion with religious leaders. And I certainly have never suggested the abhorrent idea that Jews bear collective responsibility for the death of Jesus.

Likewise, my words that relate the events of the crucifixion to modern reality are clear and specific. I place the responsibility on the Israeli government. There is no mention of "the state of Israel." My words do not delegitimize the state, which is made up of the Israeli people. They critique the "government of Israel" and its policies, which constitute the greatest obstacles to peace.  

I do not believe it is right for me or for any Christian to refrain from using the crucifixion imagery that is part of the essence of our faith and is deeply meaningful for our worship and spirituality. This imagery genuinely informs our involvement on behalf of the oppressed everywhere in the world, and Israel-Palestine is no exception. I believe I need to use the imagery whenever it is appropriate and at the same time oppose anyone who abuses it by invoking it against Jews today.  

The imagery of the cross as an instrument of cruelty, torture and suffering preceded Jesus' crucifixion. When I use this imagery, I am using it in the way Jesus, a Jewish Semitic man, used it. I am not using it in a novel, anti-Semitic way. 

Gustavo Gutierrez, the Latin American theologian, used a picture of the crucifix for the cover of his book on liberation theology. He could not find any better image to express the suffering of his people. To my knowledge, no one has called him anti-Semitic or accused him of using Christ-killer imagery. We can also point to Jewish artist Marc Chagall's paintings of the cross. To him the crucifixion of Jesus symbolized the martyrdom of Jews everywhere.   

It is important for everyone to be exact and careful when speaking about Palestine and Israel, but it is wrong to construe every criticism leveled at the government of Israel as an attack on Jews or Judaism. There are people who want to silence any criticism of Israel, and they force the impression that the state of Israel, the government of Israel, Jews, Judaism, Israelis, Zionists and Zionism are all synonymous terms and an attack on one is an attack on all. This is wrong and dangerous. Israel is a state like any other. When it governs justly, it should be commended. When it does not, it needs to be confronted and challenged.  

Racism, prejudice and discrimination still exist in the world, and the Jews have endured the longest continuous manifestation of this racism. I have written that we, as Palestinians, should face Israel candidly and say that we are appalled by the Holocaust, that we should open our hearts "and with a new, magnanimous attitude we should say to the Jews, 'We will accept you and share the land with you. You have suffered for so long. Come share our land. This is God's land. We will live in it together as brothers and sisters.'" 

I write this response in a spirit of humility and passion to see a just and lasting peace in our land and in every place where oppression and injustice dominate life.

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Two upcoming Sabeel conferences in California

Please share information about two upcoming "Sabeel" conferences with your contacts in California.
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Palestinian Christians will speak at upcoming Friends of Sabeel Conferences in Sacramento and Sunnyvale, Calif.

Sacramento, A Time for Justice: Supporting Human Rights in Palestine & Israel, March 16-17, Click this link for details.

Sunnyvale, Breaking the Barriers to a Just Peace in Israel/Palestine, March 23-24, Click this link for details. 

The Rev Naim Ateek, founder of Sabeel, the ecumenical Palestinian Christian liberation theology center in Jerusalem, will shed light on current realities for Palestinians in the Holy Land at two Friends of Sabeel Conferences next month (see above links). 

Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian Christian, lawyer and human rights activist will present along with a host of other international and regional scholars, theologians and activists.  Arraf just returned from Bahrain where she was invited to witness pro-democracy demonstrations. This past November, she was one of the Palestine Free Riders, who, inspired by the U.S. Civil Rights Freedom Riders of the 1960s, attempted to ride segregated Israeli settler public buses.

Naim Ateek’s personal story includes displacement from his family home as a boy during the creation of the state of Israel.  An “internal refugee,” he is a Palestinian citizen of Israel, an experience about which most Americans know little, if anything. Pastor Ateek is the author of numerous books and articles, including Justice and Only Justice: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation and A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation.  

Each two-day conference provides a unique opportunity for American Christians and others to hear perspectives and insights of the realities of Palestinians in the Holy Land.  Conference attendees will also learn about inspiring work being done in the region as well as the seemingly endless struggle.

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It Doesn't Make Sense: Illegal in Their Own Village

From the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israeli: JE Berg, an accompanier in Bethlehem, filed this report which can be found at the EAPPI International website.

"It doesn't make sense to us either"
28.10.11
By: J E Berg, EAPPI Bethlehem

Mohammed Daoud is 22 and ready to start his adult life. He lives with his brother and 5 sisters in the family home, and like most young men, he wants to move out and spread his wings.

Mohammed is from An Nu'man, a village of 200 on the southern edge of Jerusalem. It is a close community, but it exists in a limbo that affects every aspect of life. After Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, it unilaterally annexed the village to the Jerusalem municipality, along with a large area of the central West Bank. But even though An Nu'man came within the municipal boundaries, Israel refused to give its inhabitants Jerusalem residency cards. Instead it defined them as West Bankers, thus denying their right to live in their own houses. This logic extends to the realm of language: Israeli law refers to the residents as "present absentees."

Like many Palestinians both in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, Mohammed has almost no chance of obtaining a permit from the Israeli authorities to build a house in his own village. Since 1967, the occupying authorities have not given a single building permit to any resident of An Nu'man.

Without a house, Mohammad will not be able to bring a wife to his own home. The Palestinian Arab tradition is that young men start to build a house after finishing school. As soon as they start to earn money, they start to build, and can think about marriage. Mohammad wants to follow this tradition and settle here, in the village of his forefathers.

"I don't want to leave my place to be replaced by an Israeli," he says, but "I do not dare to build a house without permission."

His brother, who did build a house without an impossible-to-obtain permit, saw his home flattened by the Israeli authorities.

"When I see the demolished house of my brother, I know I will not attempt to follow my dreams."

Locals claim that An Nu'man has the highest number of educated people in any village of the West Bank. Mohammad has a degree in Geography from a Palestinian university in Jerusalem. While he was studying he met girls, but says he wants to marry someone from his village.

"I think it will only make problems for you if you marry a woman from other places," he says. "Perhaps the ideas of their family are different from the customs of your own family."

But his choice of wife is more than a matter of tradition. If a local boy wants to marry a girl from another village in the West Bank, he has to move out from An Numan. Only registered villagers can enter through the checkpoint here. Any girlfriend or new wife will not get permission to come here. And although he wants to marry, like most Palestinians Mohammed is attached to his village.

"My dream is to continue my studies, get a job and settle in my own house and start a family," he says.

"I love my village. It is good place to grow up. The 200 villagers all know each other. But the situation in my village is terrible now. We are included in Jerusalem, but we do not hold a Jerusalem ID. This makes us illegal in our own village. I know it is hard for others to understand. It doesn't make sense to us either."nier in Bethlehem, filed this report which can be found at the EAPPI international website.


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For more about EAPPI, including how to participate, see the US website: www.eappi-us.org .

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Human Rights Watch Lambasts Israeli Policies Denying Residency Based on Palestinian Identity

This bulletin comes to us from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Peace Not Walls campaign.

Human Rights Watch Lambasts Israeli Policies Denying Residency Based on Palestinian Identity

Israeli policies on Palestinian residency have arbitrarily denied thousands of Palestinians the ability to live in, and travel to and from, the West Bank and Gaza, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Israel should immediately stop denying or cancelling the residency of Palestinians and close family members with deep ties to the West Bank and Gaza, and end blanket bans on processing their applications for residency.

The 90-page report, “Forget about Him, He’s Not Here,” describes the arbitrary exclusion by the Israeli military of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians since 1967 and documents the impact that exclusion continues to have on individuals and families. The way Israel’s military has exercised its control over the Palestinian population registry – the list of Palestinians whom it considers to be lawful residents of the West Bank and Gaza territories – has separated families, caused people to lose jobs and educational opportunities, barred people from entering the Palestinian territories, and trapped others inside them, Human Rights Watch said. Egypt also has problematic policies on Palestinians trying to enter Gaza that are based on the Israeli-controlled population registry.

From Human Rights Watch

View Forbidden Family, a video of the family of the ELCJHL’s Redeemer Church organist in Jerusalem. He is a Jerusalem resident living with his West Bank wife who has had to deal with these residency issues.

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World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel, May 2012

I'm not very good at thinking ahead, but this memo from the World Council of Churches' calls for some advance planning. Please give it your attention and make some creative plans!

World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel

The Rev. John Calhoun, convener of the World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel (WWPPI) shares plans (below) for the observation May 28 to June 3, 2012. The focus is on the growing dispossession and displacement of Palestinians.

In 2012, Palestinians will have been through 64 years of displacement and dispossession. Israel persists with policies of house demolitions, forced evictions, and multiple counts of displacement close to settlements and the wall. Israel’s actions have resulted in failing standards of food security and livelihood access for Palestinians. Palestinians in East Jerusalem whose residency rights have been revoked have reached unprecedented numbers. Refugees now into the fourth generation are gloomy about their prospects of ever returning to their homes.

Everyone is urged to initiate actions around the World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel, actions that unite the ecumenical family in asserting the dignity and rights of the dispossessed and displaced Palestinians.

World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel
28 May - 3 June 2012
“Pray, educate, and advocate for justice in Palestine”
An initiative of the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum (PIEF) of the World Council of Churches

The World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel invites WCC member churches, faith-based communities, civil society organizations and other agencies working for justice to join a week of prayer, education, and advocacy for an end to the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine and a just end to the conflict. This year our common focus is on the displacement and dispossession suffered by Palestinians under the continuing occupation.

What for? Our aim is to promote an end to the illegal Israeli occupation and a just peace in Palestine. During one week, churches in different countries will send a clear signal to policy-makers, community groups, and local parishes about the urgent need for justice for the Palestinians. The week inaugurates a year-round effort to rally churches, communities, and individuals to work for justice in Palestine.

Who are you joining? Churches, community organizations, specialized ministries, and local parishes on six continents will join together to speak out and act for a just peace. Leadership for this initiative is being provided by:

• Jerusalem’s churches and related church and peace organizations in Palestine
• Volunteers and veterans of the WCC’s Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel
• The Pax Christi International network and church aid agencies in Europe and North America
• Ecumenical networks and civil society groups in South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia

How? Participants are requested to plan their activities around these points:
Pray with churches living under occupation, using a special prayer from Jerusalem and contemporary liturgies to be issued in early 2012.

Educate others, and be further educated, about the crippling effects of the illegal occupation, including displacement, family separation, land confiscation, and denial of basic human rights.

Advocate with political and church leaders, encouraging them to support and enact public policies that will lead to a just end to the occupation.

For further information about World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel 2012, please visit www.worldweekforpeace.org. To share details about your plans for the Week, please contact the Rev. John Calhoun, the convenor of World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel 2012, at calhoun.wwppi@gmail.com.

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