The Moment of Grace and Opportunity
The Christmas Alert from Kairos Palestine this year opens with a stirring message from Patriarch Michel Sabbah, who served as the Archbishop and Latin (Roman Catholic) Patriarch Emeritus of Jerusalem from 1987 to 2008. “Those who celebrate Christmas,” writes Patriarch Sabbah, “know that God is love, not a god of armies and wars, nor a god […]
Thanksgiving was approaching and I was looking for a way to observe the holiday free of the sanitized, triumphalist narrative on which I was raised, the story that washes over America’s original sins of racism and genocide, the story that moves so horrifyingly and seamlessly from colonial conquest to ethnic cleansing and slavery. I reached for a […]
Steadfast Witness, Steadfast Hope We bring you four powerful reports of recent visits to Palestine. Now, more than ever, it is crucial that groups journey to Palestine and Israel to connect with the people on the ground struggling to preserve their families, communities and hope. When people return home, they are compelled to bear witness […]
Four years ago I was in Stuttgart, Germany for my first speaking tour in that country. My book had been published in German with the title Fatal Shame: Israel’s Politics and the Silence of the Christians. Several church groups eager to bring a message supportive of the Palestinian cause to German audiences had organized my visit. But […]
Every two years, the German Evangelical Church, which is a federation of the Lutheran and Reformed church denominations in Germany, holds the Kirchentag, or Church Assembly. This five-day congress brings together between 100,000 and 200,000 visitors. This year, dissatisfied with the Kirchentag’s non-acceptance of their program submissions, a coalition of several church-based networks in Germany […]
As the Episcopal Church approaches its 78th General Convention in Salt Lake City this June, a new group has formed to advocate for a just and lasting peace in the Holy Land. The Episcopal Committee for Justice in Israel and Palestine has issued a statement and resolution calling on the church to recognize the new political realities in […]
Our friend Noushin Framke of the Presbyterian Israel/Palestine Mission Network has been sending around her own series of Advent sermons. Each one consists of a single photograph. Shown here is Noushin’s photo for this fourth week of Advent. The caption she includes reads: “I hope my daughter will live in peace.” New mother Safa, 20, with daughter Asil […]
“Many of us worked for so many years for a two-state solution. But the two-state solution is dead, completely dead, and the Israelis have killed it. Our message — especially in the West — must speak this word clearly.” These are the words of Jeff Halper, a Jewish anthropologist from the United States who emigrated […]
I had the good fortune to encounter the Rev. Richard Leon a little over a year ago. Actually, Dick sought me out. That’s who Dick was, a man who reached out to others. Our meeting took place not long after the semi-retired Presbyterian pastor had returned from the Holy Land. While there, he saw for […]
I’ve often called the issue of Jewish-Christian relations the elephant in the room when we’re talking about Israel and the Palestinians. But I’m not sure that’s true anymore. It’s hard to pretend the elephant isn’t there when we’re running into it at every turn. More and more, it seems like it’s become the story itself.
