Sabeel Wave of Prayer
15th of June 2023
Next Tuesday, the 20th of June, marks
World Refugee Day and on that same day Kumi Now will consider the plight of
Palestinian refugees. In 2021 there were 5.9 million Palestinian refugees
registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency and about one third
of them live in 58 refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and the West
Bank, including East Jerusalem.
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Lord, we pray that Palestinians will be granted the right
of return to their homeland, the right affirmed to them by the United Nations
over seventy years ago. Lord, in your mercy..
The Rev. Ann Coburn died on Wednesday,
the 7th of June, in Oakland, California. Ann was ordained in Danbury,
Connecticut in 1977, just one year after the Episcopal Church opened the
priesthood to women. She was a strong advocate for Palestinian rights and
travelled to Palestine linking with Sabeel on numerous occasions. This year she
received the Cotton Fite award, in recognition for her services as Director of
Fundraising for the Episcopal Peace Fellowship Palestine Israel Network.
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Lord, we give thanks for the life and service of Ann Coburn
and pray for her family and friends as they mourn her loss. Many friends of
Sabeel expressed their sorrow at her passing at the weekly Sabeel Online
Service. They particularly paid tribute to her kind and thoughtful nature and her
steadfast pursuit of justice and peace in Palestine. Lord, in your mercy..
In a strategic partnership between the
We Choose Life group, Dar Al-Kalima University (Palestine), the Civil Influence
Forum (Lebanon), Masarat for Cultural and Media Development (Iraq), and
Al-Sabeel (Palestine), a regional consultative panel on religious and public
affairs was launched on Tuesday, the 13th of June. It took place over two days,
under the title: ‘Stopping the politicisation of religion and the religiosity
of politics’ Twenty-one experts from Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Jordan
and Iraq participated in the discussions.
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Lord Jesus, our good shepherd, you told us that you came to
the earth ‘so that we could have abundant life,’ (John 10:10). We pray that the
recent forum, inspired by the document written by Middle Eastern Christians
entitled ‘We Choose Abundant Life’, (2021) will inform new policies to help
overcome a culture of violent conflict and death. Lord, in your mercy…
Late on Wednesday evening, the 7th of June,
the Israeli army entered Ramallah to demolish the home of a Palestinian accused
of planting two bombs in Jerusalem last November. Hundreds of Palestinians
gathered to protest over the army’s presence in a Palestinian city over which
it has no jurisdiction. A Palestinian
news photographer, Moamen Sumreen, who was wearing a clearly marked Press
jacket, was observing the demolition from a rooftop when he was shot in the
head by an Israeli soldier. Another photographer, Rabih Al-Munir was also
injured, shot in the abdomen.
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Lord, we pray for Moamen and Rabih and for the others
injured in Ramallah on Wednesday evening that they may recover fully from their
gunshot wounds. We pray that the Israeli army would hold their soldiers
accountable for shooting at journalists carrying out their work and other
bystanders. Lord in your mercy…
Two well-known Palestinian activists
were summoned for interrogation by the Palestinian Authority security forces
last week. Azmi Shuaibi and Izam Haj-Hussein run a non-governmental
organisation, (AMAN), focused on accountability. Their latest report has shed
light on Mahmoud Abbas’ Office at the Palestinian Authority. They have produced
evidence which shows that dates produced in illegal West Bank Israeli
settlements were being marketed as Palestinian dates to avoid the boycotts
imposed on settlement goods.
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Lord, we pray that the Palestinian AMAN activists will continue
their work holding those in authority to high standards of integrity and
accountability. We pray that they will be released by the Palestinian Authority
and that any corrupt practices will be stopped. Lord, in your mercy..
The Israeli Prison Services, (IPS) has
summoned Palestinian administrative detainees and put them under pressure to
refuse to participate in hunger strikes. The Committee of Administrative
Detainees has called for hunger strikes to start on Sunday, the 18th of June.
Since the beginning of this year more than 1,300 administrative detention
orders have been issued by the IPS.
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Lord, we pray for Palestinians detained in Israeli military
prisons on administrative detention orders, without charge or trial. We pray
for an end to this inhumane treatment which drives some prisoners to starve
themselves to the point of death. Lord, in your mercy…
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We join with the World Council of Churches in their prayers
for the countries of Botswana and Zimbabwe. Lord, in your mercy..
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