World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel Monday 16th to Sunday 22nd September
This is another opportunity to pray, advocate and stand in solidarity with people in the Holy Land. The focus chosen by the World Council of Churches for the week this year is Gaza and the theme is ‘whatever you did …. you did for me’.
Photo: MECC Department of Services to Palestinian Refugee
Some things to do during the week :
Seven days – seven themes A reflection for each day of the week here
Pray and Reflect PRAY AND REFLECT. Israel Palestine docx
Wednesday 18th September 7 pm Pax Christi online prayer event Register here
Christian Aid Gaza Appeal here
You can find out more about the week on the World Council of Churches’ website here:
www.oikoumene.org/events/world-week-for-peace-in-palestine-and-israel
Background :
Since the beginning of the war on Gaza, the level of human loss and destruction has been unprecedented in the Holy Land. The statistics issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs are devastating. Most hospitals are out of service with severe shortages of medicines and medical supplies. All the schools have been destroyed, leaving 625,000 school-age children without any education or schooling, and all the universities have been reduced to rubble. People are constantly displaced, with fewer and fewer belongings, to so-called ‘safe zones’ that are then bombed, with huge loss of life, countless severe injuries resulting in amputations and life-long disabilities. It is impossible to imagine the levels of trauma suffered, especially by those whose lives have been dominated by the innumerable Israeli attacks on Gaza over the years. The deliberate denial of aid, water, food, medical supplies, fuel and sanitary provision, have led to starvation, severe dehydration, illness, skin diseases and unimaginable living conditions
Seeing and hearing all of this and the silence and inaction of political leaders can make us feel both angry and helpless. But those suffering and all of those working for justice need us to be alongside them. They need to see and hear us listening, praying and speaking out, denouncing all violence, the genocide, the siege on Gaza, the occupation of Palestine and the apartheid system that has been in place for so long. We need to denounce the UK arms sales to Israel that are fuelling the war on Palestine, the refusal of the UK Government to call Israel to account and to call on them to implement the ICJ rulings.
Many of us have learnt, from our Palestinian friends, the concept of ‘SUMUD’ meaning steadfastness, resilience and perseverance. Some may know this as, ‘To exist is to Resist’, often seen on the Israeli separation barrier that imprisons Palestinians in the West Bank. In Palestine the image of SUMUD is the olive tree, deeply rooted, long-lived and bearing new life of blossom and fruit. Olive trees can live for thousands of years and if damaged can regenerate themselves.
Pax Christi UK