Message from Said Aïlabouni
I was the lucky one in my family because I was born in 1950, two years after it all happened.
In 1948, my family lost everything they owned (homes, possessions, property) and ended up being internally displaced from Tiberias to Nazareth, where I was later born.
The family story is long. It includes the forced eviction from Ailaboun, a Christian village in Galilee where my family took refuge, the killing of a 17 year old cousin and many others to scare the villagers who were being evicted, the imprisonment of my father who had done nothing wrong, as well as the traumatization of a host of innocent people including my siblings who were 1, 3, 5, and 9 years old at the time.
As the ELCA Program Director for Europe and the Middle East, from 1997 to 2007, I visited the land we call "Holy" twice a year. I visited with Lutherans and other Christians in the West Bank and heard the stories of horrified people living under occupation. Their stories were filled with pain. They often would ask: Why doesn't anyone care? Why don't our Christian brothers and sisters come see how our land has been taken away from us, our olive trees have been cut down, our desire to worship in Jerusalem or Bethlehem denied, our family and friends now separated from us by a huge wall, our access to schools and hospitals severely restricted, our dignity stripped away at every check-point, and our human rights regularly denied?
The ELCA developed a "Peace not Walls" strategy in 2005 to address the concerns we were hearing from our brothers and sisters in the Holy Land. So far, neither that strategy nor any other effort has made a bit of difference. Should we give up?
In Christ,
The Rev. Dr. Saїd Ailabouni
Former ELCA Program Director for Europe and the Middle East
Message from Nadia Hijab
Dear friends of justice, friends of peace,
I’m writing to you as a Palestinian that has never lived in Palestine. Both my parents were Palestinian, and their parents before them, and theirs, as far back as anyone can remember. But I was born in Syria where my mother’s family took refuge in 1948 and were never allowed to return, losing all their lands.
I grew up in Lebanon, and, having left during the civil war, have roamed the world in search of a home to call my own. Although I am one of the lucky Palestinians to have been welcomed as a citizen in other countries (first by the United Kingdom and, later, the United States) millions of Palestinians remain refugees. And as for me, I still long for my homeland. It is the only place where, once I had the opportunity to visit, I feel I belong. But, because I am not Jewish, I cannot go home. Israel has in place laws and policies that enable any Jew, anywhere in the world, to immediately become a citizen. An American who has had no ties to the land at any point in their lives has more rights than I do.
Worse, Israel is in the process of squeezing out those Palestinians, Christians and Muslims, who remain on their land especially but not only in the territories it occupied it 1967. One of the places where it is concentrating its efforts is East Jerusalem, which it illegally annexed. You don’t hear much about it because Israel uses “silent” bureaucratic measures, including: denying permission to build; imposing very high taxes; home demolitions and evictions; and annulling the Jerusalem residency of Palestinians who are caught studying and working outside the city, even if they do so in neighboring Ramallah.
There is a serious misconception that the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is about religion. It’s not. It’s about land. It’s about who has the right to live in the land of what used to be Palestine until 1948. Some people think they can solve the problem by bringing Palestinians and Israelis around the same table, helping them to get to know each other, and supporting joint projects.
That won’t work, for two reasons. First, we already know each other. Jews are among the closest allies of Palestinians in the quest for justice that is grounded in the human rights of all human beings. Some of the people I personally work with most closely are Jews. And second, it has been the policy of the earliest Zionists to empty the land of Palestine of Palestinian people. This is well-documented, including by Israeli scholars.
The only way forward is to let Israel know, in no uncertain terms, that its policies are unacceptable, and to apply serious pressure for change. Your conference is a very important forum to take such steps. There can only be peace between Palestinians and Israelis – in two states or in one common state – when justice is served.
Sincerely
Nadia Hijab
Director, Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network
Message from Nahida Halaby Gordon
As a voice from the Palestinian Christian Community in the United States, I salute the Episcopal Church and encourage it in its endeavor to form an advocacy program to “further the Church's engagement for a just peace” in Palestine and Israel.
I and my family survived the ethnic cleansing of Jaffa in 1948. In the years since then as a citizen of the USA I have followed with a heavy heart the experiences of my fellow Palestinians as they have been dispossessed of home and land beginning in 1947 and continuing to 1948, 1967 and still going on till today in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
I have just returned from a two week trip to the West Bank and can report only further humiliation, separation, and dispossession of the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli government. An example is the village of Kufr Qadoum which is located 20 kilometers to the north-east of the city of Qalqilia and 12 kilometers to the west of the city of Nablus. Israeli settlers have confiscated village farmlands and built two settlements east of the village and west of Nablus. And even more outrageous, the Israeli occupation forces have closed their access to the main road to Nablus, turning a 20- minute round-trip commute into a 1.5 hour unpaved back-road ordeal. In response, the unarmed villagers demonstrate every Friday in protest but are met with tear gas, rubber bullets, arrests, and attack dogs. Their perseverance in the face of such unequal strength is remarkable and is witness to the Palestinian spirit to live and overcome all hardships.
Sadly, Kufr Qadoum is only one example of the many villages in which the Israeli government is trying to make life so difficult that the residents will wish to leave. Elsewhere the techniques the government is using to induce Palestinians to leave their homes and villages include home demolitions, checkpoints, high concrete separation barriers, kidnapping, imprisonment (almost every household tells of a family member who is in prison or who has been imprisoned), food insecurity, and denial of the most basic human rights many of us take for granted.
It is time that our Churches provide the moral leadership to our government to secure a just peace for the Palestinian and Israeli people. This moral leadership can be instrumental in the removal of the occupation and the system of apartheid practiced by the government of Israel against the people of Palestine. A just peace with compassion for all is the only road to reconciliation between Israeli and Palestinian people.
Nahida Halaby Gordon
Moderator, National Middle Eastern Presbyterian Caucus
Elder, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Wooster, Ohio
President, the Northeast Ohio Interfaith Council for Middle East Peace
Professor Emerita, Case Western Reserve University
Message from Zahi Khouri
Dear Friends:
From the Holy Land I wish you all a successful convention in the spirit of Jesus.
As a Christian Palestinian businessman who has been living in Palestine, again since 1994, I want my fellow Christians to share with the Palestinians their anguish and quest for freedom and above all for dignity.
I realize the amount of pressure you are under, considering what you face daily from certain quarters not interested in peace and the interests of the USA, Palestine and Israel.
I have been since returning to Palestine very involved in building the state of Palestine. Palestinians interested in investing in Palestine, whether residing in Palestine or in the diaspora will all agree with me when I say the Israeli occupation is making it nearly impossible to have and maintain serious, sustainable investment in Palestine.
I hope that your Church will walk the peace and justice rather than talk it; now is the time for the Church to take noticeable action and take the necessary resolutions to promote peace and coexistence.
We all hope, Christians and Moslems alike, that you will take the necessary resolutions regarding:
I wish you all success during your forthcoming convention and pray that you will adopt all the resolutions that call for robust implementation of existing advocacy policies and for an educational program to inform the Church about the conflict in all its complexity.
Respectfully,
Zahi Khouri
Chairman, National Beverage Company, Ramallah
Mr. Khouri appeared on CBS' 60 Minutes report on Palestinian Christians
Message from Tarek Abuata
When I as a Palestinian Christian hear the question “Aren’t there two sides to your story? Shouldn’t we be evenhanded? What I hear is this: “We (whoever the we asking the question are) have to hear the side of the story telling us about the necessity of the Israeli Occupation before we make up their minds on the truth of your case. What I ask is this: Do they mean to say that there were two sides to the African American story in this country? Their story and the story of the American government enforcing slavery and then “Separate but Equal”? Do they mean to say that the evenhandedness that many of the whites in this country took is now advisable? What I know is this: Such questions continue to shut out and shut up Palestinian voices. What I want to tell you is this: Justice delayed is justice denied! It’s been far too long, and the price that my family and my people were forced to pay for the world’s guilt over the Holocaust in having allowed a cancerous Occupation to choke us, is far too high! If you want to be remembered in the history books as the church that stood up with the side of justice, and if you want your next generation to look back with pride on having been a beacon of hope that stood with the oppressed and with the Israeli and Palestinian peacemakers, then I plead with you to make your votes be heard in this assembly, in one voice and for one side, that of justice.
Tarek Abuata
Palestine Support Team Coordinator
Christian Peacemaker Teams
Message from Yousef Munayyer
There are millions of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation or living in refugee camps in surrounding countries. Each of these Palestinians has a unique story and yet each has a very similar story. Despite the gravity of the situation Palestinians face and the many voices hoping to be heard, few if any reach our shores, airwaves or broadsheets. Much of this is due to bias, some also due to the inherent disadvantage a decimated people without a state to advocate on their behalf have. In the United States we are more than familiar with the Israeli story and Israeli voices. But this imbalance of representation in turn creates an imbalance of perspective.
It is imperative then, and incumbent on all those seeking a just and lasting solution to this issue, to work to rectify this in our research, inquiries and discussions on the matter. We must seek out Palestinian voices and hear not simply their side of the story but their story as individuals and as a collective. Only then can we truly understand the nuances and complexities of a situation that demands a fair approach. I urge you to open your ears to Palestinian voices as you explore the questions before you for it is these people, the Palestinians, who understand their needs and desires better than anyone else.
Yousef Munayyer
Executive Director, The Palestine Center, Washington DC
Message from Nora Carmi
As you prepare to go to the 77th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, you are in the minds and hearts of your Palestinian brothers and sisters, the forgotten faithful, who lift you up in prayer asking God’s guidance and blessings upon all decision-makers.
We commend your decisions to work for a just resolution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict by adopting all strategies of advocacy, education and more vigorous and public corporate engagement with companies in the church’s investment portfolio that do business in illegal settlements or contribute to the infrastructures of the occupation. As important as it is to strengthen the economic infrastructure of the Palestinian territories, we find it extremely difficult to keep hope alive in the midst of dominating settlements and increased settlers’ violence against our people. We applaud the conscientious efforts of churches daring to divest as a sign of non-violent creative resistance that will help both oppressed and oppressors live in dignity.
Your Palestinian Christian brothers and sisters, integral members of a population striving for a just peace for all, call in faith, hope and love from the heart of the Palestinian Suffering as expressed in the Kairos Palestine Document in 2009. Since then, the reality on the ground is even worse and none of the increasing oppressive measures in violation of all international laws are conducive to peace. Jerusalem, the symbol of peace and reconciliation is torn apart, homes demolished, residency rights revoked, access to worship, education and medical services denied, and families separated, if not thrown out of their houses or their country.
We call upon you to hear the appeal of the suffering member in the body of Christ. We have confidence that as a church, you stand by the oppressed as our Lord and Savior did. Israel equipped with the silence and support of the international community, mainly the US administration, continues to defy ethical, moral and legal values. We urge you to remember that the decisions that will be adopted at the General Convention will not only reflect your responsible stand as a committed and courageous Church but will greatly affect the destiny of your brethren and the future of a just peace in our region.
As expressed in the Kairos Document (2009), we call upon you to hear our cry, to come and see, and hope that you will help remove the yoke of oppression from our shoulders. May you remain prophetic pioneers, faithful peace-makers and builders so that all peoples will live in dignity and we will preserve humanity in the restored promising land, the Holy Land.
This is your Kairos moment.
Nora Carmi is Project Coordinator, Kairos Palestine
