English May 16 -2019

Sabeel Wave of Prayer

Thursday 16th May 2019

The Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege protests continued this week, with organizers emphasizing the importance of keeping the protests non-violent and away from the fence. Abdullah Abed al-Ail, 24, was killed by Israeli live ammunition, while 30 others, including four children and a paramedic, were injured.

·         Lord, we continue to pray for the safety of the Palestinian protesters and for their rightful demands to be answered. We pray that those who have been injured may soon recover and that grieving family of Abdullah may find solace. Lord in your mercy…hear our prayer.

This week, Palestinians commemorate 71 years since Nakba. Our Kumi Now initiative focuses on the work BADIL Resource Centre for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights. BADIL is an independent, human rights non-profit organization committed to protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs).

·         Lord, we pray for the work of BADIL and for their work with refugees and IDPs. Grant to us all the graciousness to show hospitality to the stranger especially to those suffering from trauma. Lord in your mercy…hear our prayer.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that in the past two weeks alone, Israeli occupation forces demolished 41 Palestinian-owned structures in occupied East Jerusalem and Area C of the occupied West Bank, displacing 38 Palestinians and affecting 121 others.

·         Lord, we continue to pray for the people of Palestine as they live under Israeli occupation. We remember the families that have lost their homes, especially the children. Lord in your mercy…hear our prayer.

For the past 14 years, an Israeli group, Combatants for Peace, have organized an alternative Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Ceremony that aims to “acknowledge the pain of those living on the ‘other side,’” and brings together Israeli and Palestinian families bereaved by the conflict. Israel’s Supreme Court on Monday ordered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, following his refusal to grant Palestinians permits, to allow 100 Palestinians from the West Bank to attend the joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony in Tel Aviv.

·         Lord, we pray for all people of conscience in both Palestine and Israel who work for Justice. we give thanks for all the initiatives that aim to shed light on the suffering of the innocent victims of the Israeli military occupation. Lord in your mercy…hear our prayer.

Palestinians are commemorating the Nakba on May 15th. This date reminds them of the catastrophe which began seventy-one years ago, in 1948 when five hundred and thirty Palestinian villages and towns were destroyed and over seven hundred and fifty thousand Palestinians fled for their lives. A whole generation of Palestinians have now been constrained to live out their lives as refugees.

·         God of love and justice, as we commemorate the Palestinian Nakba (May 15) this week, our hearts break with the grief of 71 years of different forms of injustice and suffering in Palestine. Though our hearts break, we remain steadfast. Keep our courage and resilience strong and renew within the Palestinian people the will and the hope for strategic peaceful resistance to on-going abuses. Lord, we cry out that the continuing Nakba of Palestinian dispossession and suffering must end! We pray for all Palestinians at home and abroad, especially refugees driven from their homes in 1948, they still long to return to their rightful homes. How long, O Lord, will this continue? Lord, in your mercy…hear our prayer.

Two Palestinian prisoners Odeh Hroub, 32, and Hasan Awawi, 35, held in Israeli administrative detention, without a charge or trial, completed on May 12th, 41 days of hunger strike protesting their unfair detention.

·         Lord, we pray that the spirit of the Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike remains strong specially as their health continues to deteriorate. We remember the mothers of the Palestinian prisoners and their pain. Lord in your mercy…hear our prayer.

·         We join with the World Council of Churches in prayer for the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal. Lord in your mercy…hear our prayer.