We hold in prayer everyone whose
life has been affected by the recent wave of violence in the past weeks. We
especially remember all of those injured or killed by the unclaimed bomb in
West Jerusalem last Wednesday, by the Israeli air strike bombings of Gaza, by
projectiles fired from Gaza into Israel, and by the continued settler and
military violence and harassment of Palestinians in the West Bank. We pray for
the time when children can play, students can go to school and people can live
their daily lives without fear.
We pray for the ongoing
nonviolent resistance to Israel's illegal occupation, colonization, and
expropriation of land as people in Israel, Palestine and around the world
commemorate Land Day on Wednesday, March 30, remembering the 1976 general
strike and protests against massive land expropriation in which Israeli
security forces killed six young Palestinian citizens of Israel. We also pray
for equality for all of the citizens inside the state of Israel who suffer from
growing racism and discrimination, most recently evidenced through newly-passed
laws, including a law making it illegal for any body receiving public funds to
commemorate the Nakba (the Arabic word for “catastrophe” by which Palestinians
remember the events of 1948); a law allowing small communities in Israel to
screen potential new residents who do not “fit with the social fabric” of the
community; and a law enabling Israel's Supreme Court to revoke the citizenship
of anyone not considered loyal to the state.
We continue to pray for all those
calling for greater freedoms and reforms, especially for the people of Syria
and Jordan as government responses to protests turn more violent and deadly. We
pray that Jordan's announcements of future reforms and the Syrian cabinet's
resignation on Tuesday will be followed with more serious reforms and
democratic changes.
Ten leaders from Kairos
Palestine, including Rev. Naim Ateek, will be travelling around South Africa in
the coming week in order to inform South Africans about the work of Kairos
Palestine and to share with each other their respective Kairos moments. We pray
for smooth travels to and in South Africa, and that this will be an
enlightening and inspiring time to learn from each other's work for equality in
their own contexts.
No comments:
Post a Comment