English October 21st , 2021

 

Sabeel Wave of Prayer
21.10.21

 

The Kumi Now Online gathering looks at who is profiting from the Israeli occupation on Tuesday, the 19^th of October. Next week’s Kumi Now online gathering, October 26^th, will consider the intolerable levels of violence which many women and children in Palestine experience as they live out their lives under Israeli occupation. Many women see their families torn apart as their husbands and children face long terms of imprisonment; they live through repeated night raids, home demolitions and relentless violence from Israeli forces and settlers. Others become victims of domestic violence as their partners struggle to cope with the pressures of conflict all around them.

 

•              Lord, we bring before you the women and children of the world trying to survive in societies facings high levels of violence and conflict. We pray that they will draw strength from one another and work together to bring about change and more peaceful communities for their children. Lord, in your mercy…hear our prayers.

 

This week the Israeli forces arrested thirteen Palestinians, including three young boys, across the occupied Palestinian Territories. The soldiers arrested Mohammed Zaiton, 13 years old and Jihad Rajabi, 10 years old, in Silwan village on Tuesday, the 12th of October. Ayham Hadra, 13 years old, was  arrested outside his school in the al-Tur neighbourhood of Jerusalem.

 

•              Lord, the Israeli authorities are arresting and imprisoning so many Palestinians, some without charge or trial. We pray especially for the three young boys, Mohammed, Jihad and Ayham as they undergo coercive interrogations in Israeli military detention centres. Lord, we pray that these young children will soon be released and restored to their families. Lord, in your mercy…hear our prayers.

 

On Sunday, the 10th of October, Palestinians came out to protest the demolition of the graves of Jordanian soldiers in Al-Yusufiyah Cemetery carried out by the Israeli authorities on the previous day. The graves commemorated the Jordanians who had fought to defend the Old City of Jerusalem in the 1967 war. The cemetery has been a Palestinian burial site for centuries. It lies close to Jerusalem’s ancient north-eastern wall and Israel plans to turn the area into a biblically themed park.

 

•              Lord, we pray for an end to the desecration of holy sites and the oppression of work being carried out by the Israeli authorities in and around the city of Jerusalem. Lord, in your mercy…hear our prayers.

 

Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken announced on Wednesday, the 13th of October, that the US will be re-opening its consulate in East Jerusalem to restore links with the Palestinians. It had been shut down in March 2019, under the Trump administration. President Biden intends to keep the US Embassy in Jerusalem, which was moved from Tel Aviv in 2018.

 

•              Lord, we pray for governments around the world that they may seek to challenge the Israeli government over the oppressive and divisive policies they pursue in the way they rule the Palestinian people. Lord, in your mercy…hear our prayers.

 

The Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, has announced that his government plans to expand its settler population in the Syrian Golan Heights by building two more illegal settlements in the area. Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981 but the area is still considered part of Syria by the UN. The 20,000 Syrian Druze still remaining in the area are protesting over the encroachment of their land by vast Israeli settlements.

 

•              Lord, we hold the people of Syria before you in prayer. Many Syrians have suffered and died in the civil war which has engulfed their land. We pray for the Syrian Druze on the Golan Heights who now face being pushed away from their land by  Israeli settlers. Lord, in your mercy…hear our prayers.

 

Families from Palestinian villages which were depopulated by the Israelis in the 1948 Nakba are asking for a Day of Prayer on Saturday, the 23rd of October. Family members who used to live in the mainly Christian village of Kufr Birim are now living as internally displaced Palestinians in Israel. Like the five million UN registered Palestinian refugees living across the Middle East they dream of their right of return. Some go back to their ruined villages to camp each year and to reconnect with their Palestinian heritage.

 

•              Lord, we pray for an end to the injustice which has lasted for more than seventy years. We pray that the Palestinian refuges and displaced Palestinians, where ever they may be, to be granted the right of return to rebuild their homes and their heritage. Lord, in your mercy…hear our prayers.

 

•              We join with the World Council of Churches in their prayers for the countries of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. Lord, in your mercy…hear our prayers.