An ACTION STEP and `Windows into Palestine'

Windows into Palestine - May 17-19

If you're in the Twin Cities area, don't miss Windows into Palestine - A Festival of Palestinian Art & Culture, starting today.

There's so much offered... exhibition of visual art by Palestinian artists, musical performances and workshops, film: shorts and feature length (discussions follow each film); Palestinian cuisine, including demonstrations and samples from renowned chefs; Authentic Spice & Craft Market.

The "Windows of Hope" Exhibition is an illuminating exhibit of paintings and photography, all from Palestine. From a people living under oppression in a holy, war-torn land, comes art that speaks of hope. The exhibition presents the reality of life on the ground for artists who paint and make photographs and tells the poignant story of their life in Palestine. It runs May 17 – June 24.

It's all at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1200 Marquette Ave, Minneapolis, Minn.

See the website for lots more info - click here. 

[Graphic above: Qasamat, by Mohammad Joulani, oil on canvas, 2010, Westminster Collection]

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Take action! 

Tell Congress: 70 years of suffering is enough! Stop the lethal Israeli response to Gaza protests, hold Israel accountable, and support human rights for all.

Send a message with this easy sample letter - click here. 

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WCC calls for just peace and an end to impunity in the Holy Land

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit condemned use of excessive violence by Israeli forces against civilian protesters in Gaza during last week in which many have lost their lives or lost their loved ones. He expressed particular concern that some Christians are celebrating the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem as a gift from God, despite the disruptively provocative nature of this move.

See the full news release at this link - click here.

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ELCA presiding bishop's pastoral message on situation in Gaza

The Rev. Elizabeth Eaton writes:
Like so many here in our country and around the world, I am appalled and saddened by yesterday's escalation of Israeli military action against protesters in Gaza. Many reports indicate that at least 60 Palestinians, including six children, have died and more than 2,000 have been injured as a result of Israel's disproportionate use of force. Our church will support a planned medical mission from The Lutheran World Federation's Augusta Victoria Hospital in Jerusalem to Gaza to assist the wounded.

I join Bishop Sani-Ibrahim Azar of our partner church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL), who today said:
We mourn with the families of the dead and dying and pray for the recovery of the injured. We believe that violent actions against the Palestinian civilians will hinder the potential for peace and reconciliation efforts between Israel and Palestine and will only lead to more violence and bloodshed. 

For the full statement from Bishop Eaton, click here.

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Kairos Statement on Gaza and Jerusalem

On Monday, May 14th 2018, in Gaza, 60 people were killed and 2771 wounded among crowds walking unarmed towards their villages, from which they had been compelled to leave. They were killed in cold blood and posed no threat to anybody.

(...) We urge the international community to shoulder its responsibilities. We call upon it to exert every pressure, even sanctions if necessary, to force Israel to follow the path of peace and justice, to lift the oppression from the people of Gaza and all the Palestinian people, to prevent death in the Holy Land, abandon its apartheid practices, and comply with international law.

We call on churches in our Holy Land and throughout the world to be courageous and faithful to their mission, to assume their responsibilities towards the Holy Land and all those who live in it, to bring through their prayers awareness of what is going on in the Holy Land, and to take effective steps towards justice, equality and peace in this land where the roots of their faith lie.

Read the entire statement at the Kairos Palestine website - click here.

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Short Walk Home - Long Walk to Freedom

It is being reported that the demonatrations at the Gaza border are related to the US Embassy moving to Jerusalem. Here's the real background:
Every year on March 30, Palestinians commemorate the events of Land Day, when the Israeli government killed six unarmed Palestinians who were protesting the state’s expropriation of land in Galilee.

On Land Day 2018, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip initiated the Great Return March, a recurring demonstration at the barrier between Gaza and Israel.

More than 40 Palestinians have been killed by Israel during these demonstrations. A majority of those were refugees, displaced from their homes during the 1948 Nakba - the expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians from territory which became Israel. This poster highlights their villages of origin. 

In contravention of international law, Israel has consistently refused to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in present-day Israel, because their presence there could challenge the state’s Jewish demographic majority. Quite simply, according to Israel, they are from the wrong ethnic group.

In fact, due to Israel’s devastating blockade, Palestinians in Gaza cannot even leave the densely populated coastal enclave, except in rare cases with Israeli permission.

Great Return March demonstrators are calling for Israel to allow Palestinian refugees to return to
their villages of origin, and to end the blockade. The demonstrations are slated to continue until May 15 - the day on which Palestinians commemorate the 1948 Nakba.

[Thanks to Visualizing Palestine for this graphic. Here's their website: visualizingpalestine.org/]

Windows into Palestine - May 17-19

If you're in the Twin Cities area, don't miss Windows into Palestine - A Festival of Palestinian Art & Culture

There's so much offered... exhibition of visual art by Palestinian artists, musical performances and workshops, film: shorts and feature length (discussions follow each film); Palestinian cuisine, including demonstrations and samples from renowned chefs; Authentic Spice & Craft Market

Westminster Presbyterian Church
1200 Marquette Ave
Minneapolis, Minn.

See the website for more info - click here.  


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To receive regular bulletins from Ann Hafften, sign up at my blog - A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/

Nakba tragedy 70 years on

Palestinians are commemorating the Nakba today, May 15th. This date reminds them of the catastrophe that began 70 years ago, in 1948, when 530 Palestinian villages and towns were destroyed and over 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly driven out of their homes. A whole generation of Palestinians has now been constrained to live out their lives as refugees.

• Lord we cry out for mercy even as we mourn the injustices suffered by the Palestinian people. We pray that you will keep hope alive in the hearts of those who suffer. So many living in occupied territories and abroad under very difficult circumstances need to come back home. We pray that Palestinians will persevere in their work for peace and that they will remain steadfast in the face of oppression. Lord in your mercy... Hear our prayer. (Sabeel's Wave of Prayer) 

Take Action

Palestinians have the right to protest without paying for it with their lives. Email your Members of Congress now to demand the US open an investigation into Israel’s unlawful killing of Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza. Take Action: Tell Congress to hold Israel accountable. 

Dozens killed by Israel While Protesting ... Gaza's Bloodiest Day Since 2014 War 

Speaking to Newsweek, USCPR Executive Director Yousef Munayyer condemns US complicity in and silence around Israel’s use of lethal and excessive force against Palestinians participating in the Great Return March.

“Once again, Israel has responded to protests in Gaza by using lethal sniper fire, killing scores of Palestinian protesters and wounding many, many more. Had any other country done this, it is hard to imagine Washington remaining quiet,” Yousef Munayyer, executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, a Washington, D.C.-based coalition of organizations that oppose Israel’s policies toward Palestinians, told Newsweek.

“Instead, as this is happening, the United States government is well represented in Jerusalem, where it is opening its embassy to Israel as the Israeli military sheds Palestinian blood in Gaza. This should only be seen as a rubber stamp of the killings and a total abdication of any responsibility to lead on issues of human rights,” Munayyer continued. Click here for the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights

Noura Erakat responds to CBS News on Gaza

"We have tried almost everything. And everything we do, we're told that it's our fault that we can't be free. That's the problem.

Why don't we start shifting the conversation and ask Israel why...it doesn't want to recognize [Palestinians'] right to exist?'

Do yourself a favor and listen to Noura Erakat as she brilliantly responds to CBS News on Gaza and the U.S. embassy move.   Click this link for video

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The Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center's 10th international conference is underway in Bethlehem under the theme: Jesus Christ - Liberator Then and Now. The event recognizes 100 years since the Balfour Declaration, the 1917 letter indicating the British government's favorable view toward "...the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people..." Publication of the Declaration had long lasting consequences and was a key moment leading to the Arab-Israeli conflict that remains unresolved today. 

Vera Baboun, mayor of the Bethlehem suggested amending the theme to "Jesus Christ - Liberator Then and Now and Ever!" She spoke at the Bethlehem Hotel on March 7.

Baboun said, "The legacy of Jesus Christ is a legacy of justice. He showed us that justice starts with just one individual who is a liberator." She said, "Now Jesus' city is walled, constrained and strangled. The nativity of peace is walled; peace itself is walled." Bethlehem's population is severely hemmed in by the separation barrier constructed by Israel in the occupied Palestinian lands.

"Bethlehem is all about the message," Baboun said, "and the messenger, who asks us to open our minds and hearts. Bethlehem is part and parcel of Palestine's context. We still have much work to do. Don't lose the message: our liberation is for love."

Nour Odeh, CEO of Connect Consulting, described Balfour's legacy, "... that denied the existence of a nation, of the Palestinian  people."

Odeh said, "We were the anonymous, the others living here, the tribes, the scattered people. As if we did not have an identity, when we did. We had a thriving society, cultural, economic, a life that we know about and that the world ignored or denied later out of political, convenience." 

"The world does not see our beautiful society with its colors and nuances; we are not just 'Arabs.'" Odeh said. Public discussion about our situation "is all about Israel and fulfilling Israel's aspirations," she said. 

"We want a conversation between equals, a reality set by equals on the ground of justice," Odeh said. 

Odeh pointed to "a connection among those who are united on the principle of our shared humanity... principles of respect and dignity and freedom and justice." She urged participants to avoid fragmenting Christians and Muslims, Gazans and Jerusalemites. These are all Palestinians, she said, "Don't play into fragmentation."

The Rev. Naim Ateek, founder of Sabeel, opened the conference with worship at the Roman Catholic Church of St. Catherine at the nativity site in Bethlehem. "You, our friends... have come anxiously to search for peace and wellbeing for the children of God who live in this land."

He said, "you have come to stand with us, your sisters and brothers in Palestine. We are here together to witness to peace that must be based on truth and justice."

Despair and resilience

Friends, the news from the West Bank and especially Jerusalem is very grim right now. I hope a few of these resources will provide a glimpse of both the despair and the resilience among the people there. 

It's the Occupation
A 90-second video is circulating that is pretty helpful for folks who tell you that the situation in Palestine and Israel is just too complicated and hopeless. It's called "Violence in Israel and the Palestinian Territories: It's the Occupation." 

The video looks at the question: "When you think of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, you probably think of clashes, rockets, checkpoints and Gaza – but what's really at the heart of the violence in Israel and Palestine?" Check it out and share it with your family, friends and church members. You'll find it at this link: It's the Occupation.

Jerusalem: the Cost of Despair
The Foundation for Middle East Peace has published important analysis from Mitchell Plitnick and Matthew Duss. 

"When you think of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, you probably think of clashes, rockets, checkpoints and Gaza – but what's really at the heart of the violence in Israel and Palestine?

"In recent weeks, an upsurge in violence in Jerusalem has brought the embattled city back into the headlines. According to Danny Seidemann, founder of Terrestrial Jerusalem and one of the leading experts on the city, this violence, boiling at a level unseen in Jerusalem since 1967, actually began over a year ago, and it is not just another spoke in the `cycle of violence.'

"`Usually there’s a tendency to overstate the instability of Jerusalem,' Seidemann said at a meeting of journalists and analysts in Washington this week. `But Jerusalem is normally a far more stable city than its reputation. What we are seeing now are significant developments that go well beyond tomorrow’s headlines.'

"Seidemann described a dangerous confluence of factors, with the political stalemate creating an atmosphere of despair in which the conflict, which has always been political, will finally become the religious conflict that many have believed, until now incorrectly, that it is. The current conflict centered on the Temple Mount is only the tip of the iceberg. According to Seidemann, 'The entire fabric of this conflict has changed.'”

There is more. Please give this piece your attention. Find the link here to Jerusalem: the Cost of Despair. Mitchell Plitnick is Program Director at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. Previously, he was Director of the US Office of B’Tselem: The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. Matt Duss is the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. 

Palestinians Are Fighting for Their Lives; Israel Is Fighting for the Occupation
I don't like to send you to the Ha'aretz website because it's so cluttered with ads and difficult to read. However, this week's op ed by Amira Hass is very clear and important. I oppose violence yet Hass provides excellent insight into violence occurring in Jerusalem and other parts of the West Bank.

Hass writes, for starters, "That we notice there’s a war on only when Jews are murdered does not cancel out the fact that Palestinians are being killed all the time."

And, "The war did not start last Thursday, it does not start with the Jewish victims and does not end when no Jews are murdered. The Palestinians are fighting for their life, in the full sense of the word. We Israeli Jews are fighting for our privilege as a nation of masters, in the full ugliness of the term."

And, "Young Palestinians do not go out to murder Jews because they are Jews, but because we are their occupiers, their torturers, their jailers, the thieves of their land and water, their exilers, the demolishers of their homes, the blockers of their horizon. Young Palestinians, vengeful and desperate, are willing to lose their lives and cause their families great pain because the enemy they face proves every day that its malice has no limits." Please read the entire piece at this link: Palestinians Are Fighting for Their Lives.

Now for some resilience and hope.  A number of short videos are available from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. In one Bishop Munib Younan explains the importance of ministry with children and youth through the schools and congregations of the church: "We believe the priority is to give our children education...education that molds their identity, that helps them understand the other, and to help them live with the other who is different - by religion, by thought, by ideology, by race, by color. Or to learn how to use the muscles of the brain and not the muscle of the arm in dealing with conflict resolution." Find it at this link: The ELCJHL's Work With Youth and Children.

If You Could Tell People About Palestinians
In the second wonderful video teenage students of the Lutheran schools tell us what they want people to know about their lives as Palestinians. They are so articulate and winsome. Show this in your congregation as a good discussion starter. It's at this link: If You Could Tell People About Palestinians... 

Bright Stars Blog
Finally, three young Bright Stars of Bethlehem interns, Julianna, Hannah and Eva, enjoyed working side-by-side with people in Palestine this summer. A delightful blog that chronicles some of their experiences is at this link: Bubbles and Blondie go to Bethlehem. For more about Bright Stars, see the website.

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To receive regular bulletins from Ann Hafften, sign up at my blog - A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/

World Week for Peace and ELCA bishop's statement

World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel
The 2015 World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel is underway (Sept. 20-26) with the theme "God has broken down the dividing walls." The special week is organized by the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum (PIEF) of the World Council of Churches. Member churches, faith-based communities, and civil society organizations around the world have been encouraged to join together this year for a week of advocacy and action in support of an end to the illegal occupation of Palestine and a just peace for all in Palestine and Israel. Congregations and individuals around the globe who share the hope of justice have been uniting during this  week to take peaceful actions - together - to create a common international public witness. Click this link for information and resources. It's not too late to join this effort. 

ELCA presiding bishop calls for end to incursions onto Palestinian land, demolition of Palestinian property
The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), has urged chairs and ranking members U.S. Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs Committees to call upon the Israeli government to halt the ongoing incursions onto Palestinian land and demolition of Palestinian property.

In a Sept. 10 letter to U.S. officials, Eaton wrote to express her distress about actions of the Israeli government that make prospects for peace between Israelis and Palestinians "more difficult in the short- and medium-term and threaten further the realization of a just two-state solution which so many of us seek."

As ELCA presiding bishop, Eaton said that she follows closely the situation in Israel and Palestine, "because the events there directly affect the situation and ministries of our companion church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, and the lives, livelihoods and security of Israelis and Palestinians."

"We join our sisters and brothers of the Roman Catholic tradition in expressing in the strongest possible terms our outrage over the resumption of construction of the separation wall in the Cremisan Valley in the West Bank," wrote Eaton, who visited the Cremisan Valley this year. "I could see the existing and then-potential threats that the planned path of the wall would have on the Palestinian communities there," she wrote. The Most Rev. Oscar Cantu, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace, sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, urging the Israeli authorities to stop work on the separation wall in the Cremisan Valley. Lutherans and Catholics in the United States have been in dialogue for the past 50 years.
Read the full news release at this link.

A petition seeking to `Stop the illegal Separation Barrier!'
Recently the shocking situation in the Cremisan valley and Bir Ouna has come to the attention of the world. Israeli forces have been uprooting hundreds of olive trees in order to clear space for a new section of the Separation Barrier. This new effort to annex occupied Palestinian territory directly affects Palestinian wellbeing. These developments have been distressing for the entire Palestinian community. It has a direct impact especially on Palestinian Christians, who are made more vulnerable by these actions from the Government of Israel. This is a clear violation of international law.

The construction of the wall on occupied land is a breach of international law – the Cremisan Valley is only the latest victim. Local Palestinian Christian communities urge you to put pressure on Israel to:
- immediately stop the illegal construction of the Separation Barrier on occupied land,
 - dismantle the sections already constructed on all occupied territory, and
 - replant the uprooted olive trees and compensate farmers who have lost their trees.

Sign the petition at this link and please share it with others.

ELCJHL provides resources for worship
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land now provides a web page featuring worship resources to share with US congregation.  All resources, liturgies, prayers and hymns, are in transliterated English unless otherwise noted. Hymns are available for listening! This page will be updated periodically.  Check back frequently for new resources.
Link to worship resources here.

Uh oh Jerusalem 
Here's a blog post by Emanuel Shahaf. His analysis of the injustice and turmoil in Jerusalem is an Israeli's perspective: "...the Palestinian parts of Jerusalem have been systematically neglected over many years, their infrastructure has deteriorated (or not been built), the supply of basic utilities is not assured at all times of the day and thousands of students remain without adequate space, being taught in poorly equipped school buildings.

"In addition, the construction of the security wall to separate the West Bank from Jerusalem, a Jerusalem united in words only, has severely affected the life of Palestinian Jerusalemites who have been separated from easy and direct access to the eastern suburbs of the city. They need to travel an inordinate amount of time to travel even short distances since the security wall has only a few passages placed for security considerations, not convenience of the local inhabitants.

"At the same time, the rightwing coalition forming Israel’s government is under considerable pressure to change the rules on the Temple Mount to permit Jews to pray there, in contravention of the status quo. Indeed it’s not easy to explain why Jews should not be allowed to pray on the mount while Muslims are, but as long as the conflict with the Palestinians is not settled, this issue is unlikely to be resolved. The Palestinians are scared that permission to pray is only the first step on the path to change the rules on the Mount in favor of the Jews even further, a fear that cannot easily be discounted when listening to the voices in the government."

I don't agree with everything Shahaf says in this column, but I think it's worth a look. Read the Shahaf blog post at this link. 

Folks Art Mavens products on sale now
My friend Jan Hayden runs Folk Art Mavens, and she's having a sale right now. Jan writes, "Get your glass and ceramics now. First for the bad news: Folk Art Mavens decided that it was not feasible to reorder glass and ceramics this year.  We hate to disappoint our customers, so we're letting you know to encourage you to order the glass and ceramics that remain before the pre-Christmas rush. It's going fast!

Now for the good news:  We have been busy replenishing our embroidery, cards, and olive wood, have added beautiful wheat and olive branch baskets to our line-up, and now offer three traditional Palestinian foods.

Check out Folk Art Mavens at the website. Here's a link. 

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Advocate for U.S. funding for Augusta Victoria Hospital

Ask Congress to meet an urgent humanitarian need of the Palestinian people for Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH).  Encourage the U.S. government to support Augusta Victoria Hospital by helping to cover the cancer treatment costs of Palestinian patients from the West Bank and Gaza treated at AVH. And, ask your U.S. Representative to visit Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem.


Earlier this spring, the message from congressional staffs to the ELCA was clear:  The voices of ELCA members are being heard on this issue and are making a difference!

Nonetheless, the costs for patients referred to Augusta Victoria Hospital continue to mount at the rate of between $2 million and $2.5 million per month and another U.S. Agency for International Development payment is needed in 2015. Toward the end of 2015, it is hoped that USAID will make a large payment to the Palestinian Authority benefiting the hospital, at least $12 million to cover nearly the first six months of 2015. 


Therefore, advocacy in Congress is needed now just as much as before, maybe more, to ensure that the U.S. government through USAID releases that large payment. The funding is crucial to avoid any interruption of treatment for West Bank and Gaza cancer patients and other patients served at AVH and other East Jerusalem hospitals.

Click this link for more details and advocacy how-tos.


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World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel, Sept. 20-26
There is still time to get involved in World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel Sept. 20-26.

We will join together for a week of advocacy and action in support of an end to the illegal occupation of Palestine and a just peace for all in Palestine and Israel.

Congregations and individuals around the globe who share the hope of justice shall unite during the week to take peaceful actions, together, to create a common international public witness. World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel is sponsored by the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum (PIEF) of the World Council of Churches.

The theme for World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel is: "God has broken down the dividing walls." Congregations and individuals around the globe who share the hope of justice will unite during the week to take peaceful actions to create a common international public witness.

Lots of information is at this link: World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel.


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Israel’s Civil Administration steps up efforts to expel Area C Palestinian communities

B'Tselem reports that in August Israel demolished the homes of 228 people, 124 of them minors, leaving them with no shelter.

The Civil Administration and the military went on a demolition rampage in 29 villages and communities throughout Area C. Israeli authorities demolished 101 structures in these communities, including 50 residential structures which were home to 228 people, 124 of them minors. Many of these demolitions were carried out in small shepherding and farming communities where residents are constantly subject to threats and ongoing Israeli attempts to drive them out of their homes and also remove them from Area C, as part of the Israeli policy aimed at minimizing Palestinian presence in Area C. 

B'Tselem is the premiere Israeli human rights organization.
Click this link for an important report.


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Hope for Peace?
Rabbi Amy Eilberg, Rabbi, Peacebuilder, Writer

A Review of: Ronald Kronish (ed.), Coexistence and Reconciliation in Israel: Voices for Interreligious Dialogue (NY: Paulist Press, 2015)
In my work as a religious peace activist, I am often asked how I can possibly continue to hope for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Over the years, I have often returned to the answer that my colleague Rabbi Ron Kronish gives to this question. On the level of diplomatic efforts, things seem quite hopeless. However, hope -- and a vision for the future -- is to be found in the work of grassroots peacebuilders who labor every day on the ground in Israel and in Palestine to build more peaceful, just and democratic societies, and especially, to build a web of relationship between religious and political "others."  Read the entire review at the Huffington Post.


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To receive regular bulletins from Ann Hafften, sign up at my blog - A Texas Lutheran's Voice for Peace: http://www.voicesforpeace.blogspot.com/