Filipinos remember 60th year of the Palestine Nakbah

In response to the call of the WCC International Church Action for Peace in Palestine and Israel (ICAPPI), the PfL Secretariat joined other Phiilippine faith-based groups in initiating activities to commemorate the 60th year of the Palestine Nakba.

June 7 : Youth Café

As mentioned in an earlier report on Philippine activities on the Nakba, this gathering dubbed as “Youth Café” was a pre-scheduled activity of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines-Youth Program where the issue of Palestine was added to the original agenda, for which PfL played as co-organiser for the particular half-day session.

It was attended by some 100 participants from youth groups of the member churches of the NCCP and joined in by 20 Muslim youths, members of LKM.

The programme focused on providing basic information about the problems faced by Palestinians starting with 1948 occupation. Discussions (participants were broken down into workshop-size discussion groups) centred on the common problems faced by Palestinians and Filipinos.

There was much enthusiasm among the participants that the group discussions and the plenary reporting needed a time extension. At the end of the session, the Youth Café group joined in the Prayer-Vigil.

June 7 : Prayer-Vigil

The late-afternoon activity was organised by PfL in cooperation with Philippine organisations that included the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), Ecumenical Bishops Forum (EBF), and Muslim-Christian People’s Alliance (MCPA). It was attended by some 230 persons from various Christian denominations, Muslims, and practitioners of indigenous religions.

The liturgy was centred on the WCC issued Jerusalem Prayer, with the accompanying poem, It’s Time for Palestine, adopted for the responsive reading. In appreciation and acknowledgement of the participation of people of other faith groups, the mainly Christian liturgy was adapted to include intercessory prayers not only from different Christian denominations but also from a Muslim representative (who prayed in Arabic) and a ritualistic prayer (with musical accompaniment using traditional instruments) performed by a cultural group that comprise members from tribes of the Cordillera in northern Philippines and the Lumads from Mindanao. The community response was sung with the choir accompanied by euphony of sounds produced by nose flutes, gongs and other signature musical instruments used in rituals of the represented tribes.

Dr. Lee Hong-Jung from Korea (now temporarily based in the Philippines) gave the homily and chose the story of Naboth’s vineyard in 1Kings 21: 15-19. He started with the gist of the entire idea:

Ahab covets Naboth’s possession, the vineyard, and he is sorely vexed at the owner’s refusal to sell it at any price. Naboth can not give Ahab the vineyard as it is the inheritance of his ancestors. Hearing from Ahab, Jezebel instigates a packed communal court to condemn Naboth to death on a trumped-up charge, with the royal confiscation of the property. God commissions Elijah [ilaidzer] to Ahab to denunciate the king and his family. Finally, Ahab’s repentance puts off the evil day for him.

The 60 years of conflict, oppression and fear of the Palestinians can be reflected in the light of the story of the Naboth’s vineyard. The Palestine vineyard, which was the inheritance of Palestinian forefathers for a long time, has been stoned to death and divided, conquered one-sidedly by the State of Israel on the basis of Zionism and Anglo-Saxon-Jewish alliances, which took the role of Ahab, Jezebel, and the elders and the nobles in the story of the Naboth’s vineyard.

The statement was followed by an elaboration of the constantly created myths about the identity of the present-day Israel, how Israel, in close collaboration with the United States use these myths to colonise Palestine and pursue divine-and-conquer policies among the various Arab States in the region. He condemned the “illegal occupation of the Palestine vineyard” and continued with an imperative that “Now is the time to end this unholy conflict in the so-called holy land in order for both Palestinians and Israelis to share a just peace, making freedom from occupation, pulling down walls and fences in others’ property, respecting human lives regardless of their religions and races, sharing their equal rights.”

Dr. Lee ended his homily by invoking that

The Prophecy of Elijah is still alive and relevant to the present situation of Palestine and other places such as where the extra-judicial killings are going on, claiming the Filipino people’s democratic life-giving vineyard; where the division of nation is being constantly abused by the superpowers, claiming the Korean people’s inherited life-giving vineyard; where the conspiracy of the war on terror is going on, claiming people’s security and sovereignty for peace for life; and where the rich is ruthlessly eating up even the daily food of the poor in the context of the economic globalization and the neo-feudal system, claiming the poor people’s God-given right for Life.

The intercessory prayers were followed by a reading in Filipino of the solidarity message of the Moro Christian People’s Alliance (MCPA) and the Liga ng Kabataang Moro (LKM) [League of Moro Youth], which emphasized the common struggles of the Palestinians and the Muslim Communities in the Philippines. It also underscored the necessity of recognising the role of the United States in enabling Israel to continue its brutal occupation of Palestine as well as its role in the perpetuation of exploitative policies in the Philippines.

An excerpt of the Pledge of Commitment, produced by the PfL Conference on Justice for Palestine held in Amman last year, was also read towards the end of the programme.

Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez, a Roman Catholic Bishop and Co-Chair of the Ecumenical Bishops Forum gave the closing remarks and challenge for the faith communities to be instrumental in promoting justice and peace in Palestine.

The ceremony ended at dusk with a candle lighting (which became not only symbolic but a necessity as the liturgy was held under the trees, on the unlighted grounds of the Bantayog ng mga Bayani—a memorial site dedicated to the martyrs of Philippine Martial Law) and the writing of dedications and signing 0f names on the tarpaulin used as backdrop for the ceremony. Members of the organising groups expressed their desire to continue with activities to promote solidarity with Palestinian resistance.

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