Plain and simple. Christians are indigenous to Palestine yet they’re leaving due to economic and political instability and the loss of freedom of movement as a result of the Israeli government’s occupation of Palestine. Not due to Palestinian Muslims. Yet, so many news headlines in the past week suggest that Muslims are to blame for so much…and that promotes Islamophobia. See Amira Hass’ article. Also, see today’s article by Karen Armstrong in The Globe and Mail.

“Palestinian Christians are referred to as the Palestinian embroidery – an interwoven and an integral part of the whole population.” –Jean Zaru

Jean Zaru is the Presiding Clerk of the Friends Meeting House in Ramallah and a founding member of Sabeel, the ecumenical Palestine Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem. I highly recommend her book: Zaru, Jean. (2008). Occupied with nonviolence: A Palestinian woman speaks. Foreword by Rosemary Radford Ruether. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press. Click here for info.

I also invite you to learn more about Palestinian Christians in the recent publication from EAPPI. Click here and then click on the hyperlinked title, “Faith Under Occupation” (the second listing of the title).      **See page 46 for the section that I wrote with my EAPPI team-mate. We had the opportunity to ask a number of Palestinian Christians for their perspectives.

For interest, why not check out the Charter for Compassion (click here), a civil-society movement facilitated by Karen Armstrong. By visiting the Charter’s website, I found the link to the above-mentioned Globe and Mail article by Karen Armstrong.

Plain and simple. We, as Canadians, have an opportunity to live up to our obligations to uphold respect for international human rights and humanitarian law (See Federal Election Kit, 2011, The United Church of Canada, p. 20).  Let’s be compassionate…Canada.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The Cathedral is home today to two congregations: the indigenous Palestinian Anglicans, often called the ‘Living Stones,’ and a community of expatriate English speaking members.

The local Arabic speaking Anglicans are part of the historic Christian presence here since the time of the first Pentecost:

‘Cretans and Arabs – in our own language we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power’Acts 2:11

The Cathedral remains a focal point for theProvinceofJerusalemand theMiddle Eastand the Worldwide Anglican Communion.” (Click here for more info.)