English 16th of March 2023

 

Sabeel Wave of Prayer

March 16th

Next week Kumi Now will focus on the water scarcity in the West Bank, as we remember World Water Day on Wednesday, the 22nd of March. Palestine is generally rich in water resources, but those water resources are being exploited by Israeli interests while being denied to the Palestinians on the land. 

• Lord, we pray for an end to the Israeli obstruction to the access and use of Palestinian natural resources and especially their water resources.
  Lord in your mercy..

For the past ten weeks large protests have been taking place across Israel against the judicial reforms proposed by the new right-wing Israeli government. The protestors are focused on the government plans to politicise the judiciary. However there are few Israeli voices raised in protest against the escalating violence that is being unleashed by the Israeli authorities and the illegal settlers against the Palestinians. Last week hundreds of Israeli settlers torched Palestinian homes in four occupied villages.

• Compassionate and merciful Lord, we cry out to you as we see Israeli forces and settlers attacking Palestinians in the occupied territories with apparent immunity. We pray for an end to the occupation and the cycle of violence and turmoil.
  Lord, in your mercy..

International runners from more than ninety different countries joined Palestinian runners for the Ninth International Palestinian Marathon held in Bethlehem on Friday, the 10th of March. The Palestinian Olympic Committee sponsored the event to raise greater awareness about the circumstances of the Palestinians. Competitors aiming to run the full marathon have to complete the 11km stretch four times over to avoid having to pass through Israeli checkpoints.

• Lord, we give thanks that runners from so many different countries participated in this year’s Palestinian Marathon. We pray that they will have been impacted as they followed the track along the separation wall, through crowded refugee camps and surrounded by hilltops covered with illegal settler housing units.
  Lord, in your mercy..

Last week the Palestinian Ministry for Education made an appeal to international human rights and humanitarian organisations to defend the rights of Palestinian children to an education. The Jibb al-Deeb School in the Bethlehem area, which serves forty primary school pupils, is once again under threat of destruction. It was demolished and rebuilt in 2017.

• Lord, we bring these young Bethlehemite children and their families before you as they wait to see if their school is going to be demolished. We pray that international organisations will challenge the Israeli government’s plan to raze the school.
  Lord, in your mercy..

A report entitled, ‘Can’t even be a widow’ has just been published by Euro-Med Monitor. It is based on interviews with family members of missing Palestinian migrants and asylum seekers who have attempted to leave the Gaza Strip. Some grieving relatives have been contacted by gangs claiming to have information about the missing persons and demanding large sums of money to release it.

• Lord, the pitiless blockade of Gaza over the past seventeen years has led many Palestinians to risk their lives by trying to escape. We pray for an end to the Israeli blockade which is condemning Palestinians to poverty, unemployment and despair.
  Lord, in your mercy..

Pope Francis welcomed participants from the Palestinian Commission for Inter-religious Dialogue to the Vatican last week. The delegation focused their discussions on the spiritual significance of Jerusalem. The Pope expressed his hope that the city would remain a place of encounter and a symbol of peaceful co-existence for the followers of the three monotheistic faiths.

• Lord Jesus, we remember how you wept over Jerusalem. We echo the prayer of Pope Francis,‘How many men and women, Jews, Christians, and Muslims, have wept and in our day continue to weep for Jerusalem. At times, we too are moved to tears when we think of the Holy City, for she is like a mother whose heart cannot be at peace due to the sufferings of her children.’
  Lord, in your mercy…

• We join with the World Council of Churches in their prayers for the countries of Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden.
  Lord, in your mercy..