English October 8-2020

 

Sabeel Wave of Prayer

Thursday, 8^th October 2020

 

On Tuesday, the 6th of October, the Kumi Now Online Initiative hosted a talk by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, (PCHR). This human rights group was first set up in Gaza in 1995 by Palestinian lawyers and activists, in response to the abuses suffered by Palestinians under Israeli military occupation.

 

•     Lord, we thank you for the work to protect human rights carried out by the PCHR. We continue to pray for an end to the siege and blockade of Gaza and an end to the Israeli military occupation which stifles life in the occupied Palestinian Territories. Lord, in your mercy...hear our prayer.

 

Israel has extended its nationwide lockdown after more than 9,000 new coronavirus cases were confirmed on one day at the end of September. In Palestine there have been 426 new cases confirmed recently.

 

· Dear Lord, we pray for the grave situation in Israel/Palestine with the high rise in the numbers of coronavirus cases and the pressure this will put on the health facilities. We pray for wisdom for those in authority in the decisions they make to try and curb this sudden rise in infections. We pray they will help to protect the population from even higher infection levels. Lord, in your mercy...hear our prayer.

 

Following peace talks in Turkey last week, opposing factions in Palestine have agreed to hold elections within the next six months. This is an attempt to end more than a decade of strife between Fatah, which governs the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas, the ruling party in Gaza. The decision comes shortly after the Israeli normalisation deals with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

 

•     Lord, we pray for the Palestinians that they may come together in a unified stance to enable their people to hold elections and come to consensus decisions. Lord, in your mercy...hear our prayer.

 

In an open letter more than a thousand academics and lawyers have called on government and academic institutions around the world to stop subjecting those who call for justice for Palestine to censorship and reprisals. An offer of employment from the University of Toronto to the international lawyer, Dr Valentina Azarova, was withdrawn when a judge objected to her research into Israeli occupation policies. The University of Toronto denies any official offer of employment was ever made. The letter cites this as just one example of how any criticism of the Israeli government is now being suppressed, at a time when their oppression of Palestinians is being intensified.

 

•     Lord Jesus, you ask us to put away falsehood and ask us to ‘speak the truth with our neighbour for we are members of one another’ (Eph. 4:25). We pray that academics and lawmakers around the world will have the courage to continue speaking truth to the powerful and will not be silenced. Lord, in your mercy...hear our prayer.

 

On Friday, the 25th of September, Egyptian naval forces shot and killed two Palestinian fishermen and wounded and arrested a third man. The fishermen were all brothers from Deir Al-Balah, a city in central Gaza.

 

•     Lord, we pray for the families of the fishermen as they grieve their loss and pray for the third brother in custody in Egypt. So many fishermen from Gaza struggle to provide for their families in a zone imposed by Israel of just a few nautical miles, where the fish stocks are depleted. Lord, in your mercy...hear our prayer.

 

•     We pray for the family of Dana Hasan, a healthy twenty-six-year-old woman who suffered a heart attack and died. We remember too her friends in the Ramallah Christian Catholic Youth Group who have lost two members so suddenly in the month of September. Lord, you are our rock of refuge, please hold Dana’s family and her young friends fast with your steadfast love. Lord, in your mercy...hear our prayer.

·      We join with the World Council of Churches in their prayers for the countries of Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. Lord, in your mercy...hear our prayer.