6/6/13 - English

Lord, to you who mourn with us, we cry out this week in grief and exhaustion as we commemorate the grave losses of the 1967 War and reflect on 46 years of Israeli Occupation. God, we remember before you the thousands of people killed and the injustice done to the 300,000 Palestinian refugees displaced during the war. Moreover, we remember all the land captured by Israel during the war, especially lifting up those who continue under the brutal force of occupation or siege, namely East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights. With 124 settlements now built on West Bank land and 12 settlements in East Jerusalem, we pray for an immediate end to settlement building. God, would you end the unjust control of Palestinian and Syrian lives through the end of occupation and the termination of the siege on Gaza. Lord, in your mercy...

God, we pray also for the Palestinian leaders, especially as newly-appointed Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah begins the three-week process of forming a new government. Lord, would you grant this new government wisdom as they work towards forming a unity government according to the long-delayed reconciliation deal with Hamas. Please grant them success in their tasks of achieving unity among the Palestinian people and peace with Israel. Lord, in your mercy...

Again this week, we witnessed devastating acts of racism and violence, and we pray that you would reverse this frightening trend. We condemn the intentionally offensive, Anti-Christian remarks graffitied across the walls of Jerusalem’s Dormition Abbey last Friday by right-wing Jewish settlers. We pray for all involved in the theme park scandal in Tel Aviv where an Arab school headmaster was lied to about reservation availability. We pray for the West Bank towns of Burin and Madama whose olive groves were torched Monday, destroying at least 50 acres of land and approximately 800 old and beloved trees. God strengthen the victims of these racist acts and heal the sick mentality of those who would perpetrate such violence against others. Lord, in your mercy...

Here at Sabeel, we continue to work towards and pray for the two conferences this year: “Moving Mountains, Reshaping the World,” the global young adult festival to be held July 1-6 and “The Bible and the Israel-Palestine Conflict,” Sabeel’s 9^th International Conference, to be held November 19-25. Lord would you please bless the hard work being poured into these events and bring about meaningful, fruitful outcomes from both conferences. Lord, in your mercy...

Finally, we pray alongside the World Council of Churches for the peoples of Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland. Lord, in your mercy...