(Jerusalem 19.02.2010) - As described by town residents, Ha’aretz, Ma’an News, and other sources in recent days, Israeli soldiers and bulldozers arrived on February 10 at a family recreation park in Beit Sahour – a town slightly east of Bethlehem in the West Bank, and the site of the former army base Osh Grab, which was abandoned by the IDF in 2006 – and declared it a closed military zone.
Kairos Palestine condemns this action and calls upon churches worldwide to advocate for the Christians and all residents of Beit Sahour and intervene in the damage, present and projected, wrought upon their home.
Since 1967, Beit Sahour, one of the last Christian majority towns in the West Bank, has repeatedly lost land to the Jerusalem municipality and to the nearby settlement of Har Homa. Much of the remaining land was occupied by an Israeli military base, Osh Grab. After the army evacuated the base in 2006, the Beit Sahour municipality regained control of the land (although it has remained part of what Israel calls Area C, keeping it under harsh regulation by the Israeli State), renovated it, and built a recreational park and playground – the “Peace Park.”
Over time, fanatical Jewish settler groups have often threatened to take over the site, protested there as part of their aggressive claim as its “true” owners, and even physically vandalized the park, as they did last month. As it stands, Israel’s stated intention is to build a new watchtower: a troubling reassertion of a military presence in Beit Sahour. The other worry is that this could pave the way for a new settlement, which nearby settlers have been demanding for years. As Amira Hass writes in Ha’aretz, “The Beit Sahour residents have no reason to doubt either the settlers or the Har Homa neighborhood committee chairman, who declared that ‘This could become a reality, just as Har Homa spilled beyond what was planned and expected.’”
Either way, this new display of control on the part of the State – arriving with bulldozers, excavating the site around the park, prohibiting the entry of the Beit Sahour residents and various internationals who came to protest, declaring the land a closed military zone – is a grave affront. It is painful and unjust for some reasons of specific import to Christians (who form 80% of Beit Sahour); others are simply questions of humanity and legality, crucial for both Christians and Muslims.
First, the park area lies between two sacred sites: “Shepherds Field” and the place, as told in the Bible, where Boaz fell in love with Ruth. These are places of immense spiritual significance, and the State’s commandeering of the land is profoundly distressing. (As we wrote in the Kairos Document, “freedom of access to the holy places is denied under the pretext of security.”) Second, the takeover is yet another example of the way Israeli occupation displaces us, divorces us from our basic rights of mobility and autonomy, and enforces a divisive view of human interaction that perverts the Word of God and the love and compassion it calls us to.
We request the solidarity of churches in the international community: to support us, to intervene in this latest encroachment on Beit Sahour and prevent it from continuing, and to speak out against the occupation in all such instances. We ask individuals and communities worldwide to contact Israeli officials and condemn their actions, to write the mayor of Beit Sahour and express support, and engage in other such forms of outreach and network-building. As we make these requests, we quote again from the Kairos Document itself to remind ourselves and each other of what is at stake and what we must call for:
“Our connectedness to this land is a natural right. It is not an ideological or theological question only…[w]e suffer from the occupation of our land because we are Palestinians.”
And finally: “We also declare that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land is a sin against God and humanity because it deprives the Palestinians of their basic human rights, bestowed by God…and distort[s] the divine image in the human beings living under both political and theological injustice.”
Please join Kairos Palestine in condemning these shameful events in Beit Sahour and working to restore the justice that is both our calling and our right.
We ask you to call and write to Israeli officials in order to protest this action, call upon them to stop the construction of the watchtower, prevent settlers from attacking the park, and cease any idea of building a settlement in the site.
Please make appeals to:
[Ehud Barak] Minister of Defence, Ministry of Defence,
37 Kaplan Street, Hakirya, Tel Aviv 61909, Israel
Fax: +972 3 691 6940
Email: minister@mod.gov.il
Salutation: Dear Minister
Israeli Ambassador in your respective country
Copy to the
[Mr. Hani Alhayik], Mayor of Beit Sahour
Email: bsmuni@p-ol.com
Kairos Palestine: www.kairospalestine.ps
Email: Kalimatuna@gmail.com
Kairos Palestine is a group of Palestine Christians who authored “A Moment of Truth” – Christian Palestinian’s word to the world about the occupation of Palestine, an expression of hope and faith in God, and a call for solidarity in ending over six decades of oppression – and published it in 2009.
Monday, February 22, 2010
A Lenten Geography--Reflections on Israel and Palestine
As we prepare for Holy Week and Easter, join me in listening to the Lenten texts through the stories of the "living stones" -- the Christians, Jews and Muslims living in the ancient land of Palestine who are working to bring the good news of peace to that land today. The lessons are from the Revised Common Lectionary: www.alentengeography.blogspot.com
Monday, January 18, 2010
Lutheran Volunteer Held in Israeli Custody, Deported
Lutheran Volunteer Held in Israeli Custody for 48 Hours, Deported
Faith Rowold (Polson High School '00, Washington University ‘04, University College of Dublin, ‘07), daughter of Pastor Paul and Donna Rowold of Polson, is in Prague after being denied entry to Israel, where she had been a volunteer with the Lutheran Church in Jerusalem for the past two years.
Ms. Rowold, 27, was returning to Israel from the Czech Republic with her partner, Jared Malsin, 25, who is the chief English editor at the Ma'an News Agency. They were detained at the Prague airport by agents of Israel's El Al airline after going through preliminary screening, but were eventually allowed on their flight back to Tel Aviv after they were interrogated and given full body searches.
They were detained again by Israeli airport security when they presented their passports at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, and held and interrogated in the airport for 8 hours before being transferred to the Immigration Detention Center on the airport grounds. There, they were placed in separate cells and were unable to communicate with each other until just hours before Ms. Rowold was deported back to Prague on Thursday morning.
A lawyer for Ma'an had filed an injunction against the deportation order for Mr. Malsin, who is still in detention, awaiting a court hearing on Sunday.
This is the latest incident in what appears to be an escalation of Israeli government activity against foreign church and non-governmental organization (NGO) workers in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It has recently been reported that approximately 100 church and NGO workers who had previously held work visas from Israel have been denied renewals.
Ms. Rowold commented from Prague that the reason Israel denied her entry was because of her connections to Palestinians.
"Of course I'm connected to Palestinians," she said. "I work for a church body that includes hundreds of Palestinian Lutherans. There are 172,000 Palestinian Christians in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. The Israelis are making it really difficult now for church and NGO workers who work with Palestinians or in the Palestinian Territories. It's so hard to get proper visas these days. Lots of us are on tourist visas, leaving every three months and praying to get let back in so we can do our jobs."
"Israel knows these people have proper jobs with registered organizations, and you can't legally work on a tourist visa, so Israel is making illegal workers out of a whole class of people, including some senior staff people. Anyone who looks at this situation can see that Israel is discriminating against organizations that work with Palestinians or in the Palestinian Territories," she continued.
Ms. Rowold has been a volunteer with the Lutheran Church in Jerusalem, where the offices of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) are located. The ELCJHL has six member congregations in the Palestinian Territories and Jordan. Palestinian Christians, who made up 20 to 30 percent of the population of Israel and the Palestinian Territories before 1967, now make up less than two percent of the population. Outside observers are quick to blame Christian-Muslim tension for the high emigration rates that caused this dramatic demographic shift, but Palestinian Christians themselves blame the increasing restrictions and hardship of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories.
Ms. Rowold first went to the Holy Land in 1992, at the age of 10. She says her father leads trips there nearly every year, and she and her two younger sisters, Katie and Stephanie, occasionally traveled with their parents to visit the holy sites and meet with Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem.
"It really opened my eyes, traveling at such a young age and learning about people living in such a different place. Also, I think a lot of people don't realize that there are Palestinian Christians, and that they are among the original Christians of Pentecost Day, not recent converts from Islam. When I got older I knew I wanted to support the ministries of these local congregations, and I'm really blessed to have gotten that opportunity. Insha'Allah, which means 'God willing' in Arabic, I will be able to go back soon."
For more information please contact Faith Rowold at faith.rowold@gmail.com
Faith Rowold (Polson High School '00, Washington University ‘04, University College of Dublin, ‘07), daughter of Pastor Paul and Donna Rowold of Polson, is in Prague after being denied entry to Israel, where she had been a volunteer with the Lutheran Church in Jerusalem for the past two years.
Ms. Rowold, 27, was returning to Israel from the Czech Republic with her partner, Jared Malsin, 25, who is the chief English editor at the Ma'an News Agency. They were detained at the Prague airport by agents of Israel's El Al airline after going through preliminary screening, but were eventually allowed on their flight back to Tel Aviv after they were interrogated and given full body searches.
They were detained again by Israeli airport security when they presented their passports at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, and held and interrogated in the airport for 8 hours before being transferred to the Immigration Detention Center on the airport grounds. There, they were placed in separate cells and were unable to communicate with each other until just hours before Ms. Rowold was deported back to Prague on Thursday morning.
A lawyer for Ma'an had filed an injunction against the deportation order for Mr. Malsin, who is still in detention, awaiting a court hearing on Sunday.
This is the latest incident in what appears to be an escalation of Israeli government activity against foreign church and non-governmental organization (NGO) workers in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It has recently been reported that approximately 100 church and NGO workers who had previously held work visas from Israel have been denied renewals.
Ms. Rowold commented from Prague that the reason Israel denied her entry was because of her connections to Palestinians.
"Of course I'm connected to Palestinians," she said. "I work for a church body that includes hundreds of Palestinian Lutherans. There are 172,000 Palestinian Christians in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. The Israelis are making it really difficult now for church and NGO workers who work with Palestinians or in the Palestinian Territories. It's so hard to get proper visas these days. Lots of us are on tourist visas, leaving every three months and praying to get let back in so we can do our jobs."
"Israel knows these people have proper jobs with registered organizations, and you can't legally work on a tourist visa, so Israel is making illegal workers out of a whole class of people, including some senior staff people. Anyone who looks at this situation can see that Israel is discriminating against organizations that work with Palestinians or in the Palestinian Territories," she continued.
Ms. Rowold has been a volunteer with the Lutheran Church in Jerusalem, where the offices of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) are located. The ELCJHL has six member congregations in the Palestinian Territories and Jordan. Palestinian Christians, who made up 20 to 30 percent of the population of Israel and the Palestinian Territories before 1967, now make up less than two percent of the population. Outside observers are quick to blame Christian-Muslim tension for the high emigration rates that caused this dramatic demographic shift, but Palestinian Christians themselves blame the increasing restrictions and hardship of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories.
Ms. Rowold first went to the Holy Land in 1992, at the age of 10. She says her father leads trips there nearly every year, and she and her two younger sisters, Katie and Stephanie, occasionally traveled with their parents to visit the holy sites and meet with Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem.
"It really opened my eyes, traveling at such a young age and learning about people living in such a different place. Also, I think a lot of people don't realize that there are Palestinian Christians, and that they are among the original Christians of Pentecost Day, not recent converts from Islam. When I got older I knew I wanted to support the ministries of these local congregations, and I'm really blessed to have gotten that opportunity. Insha'Allah, which means 'God willing' in Arabic, I will be able to go back soon."
For more information please contact Faith Rowold at faith.rowold@gmail.com
Friday, January 8, 2010
Israeli Attacks on Gaza Continue -- International Protests Draw the World's Attention to Continuing Gaza Suffering
From Gaza, Thursday, January 7—Israeli attacks against residents of Gaza continue. Al-Jezeera reported yesterday on several Israeli F16s attacking areas of Gaza, and soldiers attacking Palestinian families in Hebron in the West Bank: http://www.aljazeerah.info/News/2010/January/7%20n/Israeli%20Occupation%20Army%20Carries%20A%20Series%20Of%20Airstrikes%20on%20Gaza,%20%20Attacks%20Raba'ey%20Palestinian%20family%20in%20Hebron.htm .
Over the past week, you may have seen news reports of two international efforts to draw the world’s attention to and support the people who are still suffering in Gaza. The Gaza Freedom March and the Viva Palestina aid convoy, planned for the end of December, both met with roadblocks from the Egyptian government, which blocked their entrance to Gaza through Egypt. Two updates:
• AAPER provides a good summary of what happened as more than 1300 international protesters (almost as many as were killed in the attack on Gaza a year ago) gathered in Cairo to make the trip across the desert to Gaza, and the Viva Palestina humanitarian aid convoy: http://www.aaper.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=quIXL8MPJpE&b=5492577&content_id=%7bC8DDC9E1-EB5B-4DD3-8B35-829C707C1F5C%7d¬oc=1
• A 6-minute video from the Free Gaza movement shows how people around the world demonstrated their concern for the suffering that continues in Gaza. The famous song you hear, "Va pensiero" by Giuseppe Verdi was first performed in 1842 when the Northern part of Italy was under the thumb of the Austrian empire, occupied as Palestine is today. It is a song about the plight of the Jews as they are assaulted, conquered, and subsequently exiled from their homeland by the Babylonian King Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar). The song has become a plaintive cry for freedom for all occupied people and is dedicated to the Palestinian fight for justice, from the Occupied West Bank to besieged Gaza. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8osR2BtQZs
Over the past week, you may have seen news reports of two international efforts to draw the world’s attention to and support the people who are still suffering in Gaza. The Gaza Freedom March and the Viva Palestina aid convoy, planned for the end of December, both met with roadblocks from the Egyptian government, which blocked their entrance to Gaza through Egypt. Two updates:
• AAPER provides a good summary of what happened as more than 1300 international protesters (almost as many as were killed in the attack on Gaza a year ago) gathered in Cairo to make the trip across the desert to Gaza, and the Viva Palestina humanitarian aid convoy: http://www.aaper.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=quIXL8MPJpE&b=5492577&content_id=%7bC8DDC9E1-EB5B-4DD3-8B35-829C707C1F5C%7d¬oc=1
• A 6-minute video from the Free Gaza movement shows how people around the world demonstrated their concern for the suffering that continues in Gaza. The famous song you hear, "Va pensiero" by Giuseppe Verdi was first performed in 1842 when the Northern part of Italy was under the thumb of the Austrian empire, occupied as Palestine is today. It is a song about the plight of the Jews as they are assaulted, conquered, and subsequently exiled from their homeland by the Babylonian King Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar). The song has become a plaintive cry for freedom for all occupied people and is dedicated to the Palestinian fight for justice, from the Occupied West Bank to besieged Gaza. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8osR2BtQZs
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Life in Bethlehem, Christmas 2009
From Mazin Qumsiyeh in Bethlehem…..a video of Christmas in Bethlehem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbTTx6T54mM He describes the video and some other sources of information below.
9 Minute Video I just put out on life in Bethlehem area during Christmas. It starts with a Jewish guy who joined the demonstration in Al-Masara asking that the soldiers disobey orders and not join in oppressing the Palestinians. Picture attached is of me in my red Christmas sweater speaking to the same soldiers explaining how they are committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. In addition to the usual struggles against the occupation, we did have celebrations. The video shows the lighting of the Christmas Tree, home parties, and 3 nights of activities for everyone (Muslims, Christians, Internationals, locals, children adults) and with a theme of support for Jerusalem. We called it the Shepherds' Nights.
Watch video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbTTx6T54mM
Video from AlJazeera: Bethlehem in Christmas: Many tourists but no economic boom http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/12/2009122461113232638.html
UN Report: Only 13% of the land in Bethlehem available to local use, more than 85% has been swallowed by colonial settlements, space for their future use, their infrastructure, and the apartheid barriers. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=30731&Cr=palestin&Cr1
UN expert urges pressure on Israel to end blockade of Gaza, and the implementation of the Goldstone Report
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EGUA-7YZRCX?OpenDocument
Steps to create an Israel-Palestine by Jonathan Kuttub
Los Angeles Times December 20, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-kuttab20-2009dec20,0,3289579.story
Jerusalem – An Inexorable Trajectory by Anat Biletzki | Fri, 11/27/2009 http://www.envisioningpeace.org/discussion/featured/jerusalem-%E2%80%93-inexorable-trajectory
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home
http://www.qumsiyeh.org
http://www.pcr.ps
9 Minute Video I just put out on life in Bethlehem area during Christmas. It starts with a Jewish guy who joined the demonstration in Al-Masara asking that the soldiers disobey orders and not join in oppressing the Palestinians. Picture attached is of me in my red Christmas sweater speaking to the same soldiers explaining how they are committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. In addition to the usual struggles against the occupation, we did have celebrations. The video shows the lighting of the Christmas Tree, home parties, and 3 nights of activities for everyone (Muslims, Christians, Internationals, locals, children adults) and with a theme of support for Jerusalem. We called it the Shepherds' Nights.
Watch video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbTTx6T54mM
Video from AlJazeera: Bethlehem in Christmas: Many tourists but no economic boom http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/12/2009122461113232638.html
UN Report: Only 13% of the land in Bethlehem available to local use, more than 85% has been swallowed by colonial settlements, space for their future use, their infrastructure, and the apartheid barriers. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=30731&Cr=palestin&Cr1
UN expert urges pressure on Israel to end blockade of Gaza, and the implementation of the Goldstone Report
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EGUA-7YZRCX?OpenDocument
Steps to create an Israel-Palestine by Jonathan Kuttub
Los Angeles Times December 20, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-kuttab20-2009dec20,0,3289579.story
Jerusalem – An Inexorable Trajectory by Anat Biletzki | Fri, 11/27/2009 http://www.envisioningpeace.org/discussion/featured/jerusalem-%E2%80%93-inexorable-trajectory
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at home
http://www.qumsiyeh.org
http://www.pcr.ps
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