“People of Faith with Palestine in Struggle”

PfL’s Palestine solidarity initiative is an evolving project that began with the Interfaith Peace Pilgrimage and Solidarity Visit to Palestine-Israel...  Read more about this project and the Palestine peace mission.

Focus

• War on Gaza (27 Dec 2008 - 18 Jan 2009)
  Links to information and resources

ACTION ALERT

• World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel, 4-10 June 2009 (22 Jan 2009) – WCC invites member churches and related organisations to dedicate a week in June to international church action for just peace in Palestine-Israel
• UNRWA Appeal for Donations (13 Jan 2009) – The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) appeals for financial assistance and in-kind donations for the people of Gaza
• Urgent Appeal: Defence for Children International – Palestine Section (14 Jan 2009) – Calls on the public to send urgent appeals to the European Union, UK, US and Israel to end Israel’s siege of Gaza and provide immediate humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip
• A Call for all Freedom supporters (14 Jan 2009) – A plea from The Popular Committees in Palestine for the public to continue demonstrations and boycott of Israel, and work to indict Israel for war crimes in Gaza
• Letter to WCC member churches in the Middle East (7 Jan 2009) – WCC General Secretary sends word of encouragement to churches in the Middle East and urges others to pray and undertake actions for peace in Palestine

Announcements

• Olive Planting Program (Alternative Tourism Group and Joint Advocacy Initiative) – February 2009
• Fourth Bil’in Conference on grassroots popular resistance (Friends of Freedom and Justice – Bil’in, and the Bil’in Village Popular Committee Against the Apartheid Wall and Settlements) – 22-24 April 2009
• International Cultural Festival Along The Wall Near Rachel’s Tomb In Bethlehem (AEI-Open Windows) – 30 April - 1 May 2009
• The Palestinian Summer Celebration 2009 (Siraj, Center for Holy Land Studies) – 14 June 2009 - 16 August 2009

Statements and press releases

• Pax Christi International letter to UN Secretary General on Gaza – 7 January 2009
• Statement on the Gaza crisis – Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, WCC General Secretary, 29 December 2008
• Statement by the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem on the current devastating situation in Gaza – Jerusalem, 30 December 2008
• IPO Statement on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People – Delivered at a UN special meeting by the International Progress Organization on behalf of the International Coordinating Committee of NGOs on the Question of Palestine, 27 Nov 2008
• An Open Letter to All Feminists: Statement of Solidarity with Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim Women Facing War and Occupation – from P. Chatterjee and S. Maira of the Campaign of Solidarity with Women Resisting U.S. Wars and Occupation, MRZine, 13 March 2008
• A Human Tragedy Called Gaza – Sabeel statement, 4 March 2008
• Message on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People – Statement by Rev. Christopher Ferguson to the UN General Assembly in his capacity as WCC Representative to the UN, 29 November 2007
• PLEDGE OF COMMITMENT: People of Faith with Palestine in Struggle – Declaration of the Amman Conference on Justice for Palestine, sponsored by Peace for Life, 12 November 2007
• THE AMMAN CALL – Issued at the WCC International Peace Conference on “Churches together for Peace and Justice in the Middle East”, Jordan, 18-20 June 2007

Resources

• Gaza children in Christian eyes – reflections on the loss of innocent lives in Gaza, by Yusef Daher, executive director of the Jerusalem Inter-Church Centre. VOX Newsletter, Issue No. 43, Jan 2009
• War on Gaza (27 Dec 2008 - 19 Jan 2009) – Links to information and resources
  • Report on the Humanitarian Situation, 22-23 January 2009 – Released by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) five days after the January 18 ceasefire, 23 Jan 2009
  • Statement by Rev. Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, President of the 63rd Session of the UN General Assembly, to the 10th Emergency Special Session on the Illegal Israeli Actions in Occupied East Jerusalem and the Rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, 15 Jan 2009
  • How the system of occupation and control leads to extreme exposure to violence – Paper released by the Arab Educational Institute (AEI) - Open Windows, 13 Jan 2009
  • Call for creation of United Nations War Crimes Commission – Issued by the Vienna-based International Progress Organization, 8 Jan 2009
  • The Gaza Massacre in Perspective – Article by Chandra Muzaffar, which argues that much of international media has distorted the context of the recent Israeli invasion of Gaza, 31 Dec 2008
  • Statement by Richard Falk, UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in the Occupied Territories, on the crisis in the Gaza Strip, 27 Dec 2008
• Palestine Update – Articles on Palestine, compiled from web sources and circulated by Alternatives-Badayl (Ranjan Solomon, editor)
  • Why Israel went to war in Gaza – Chris McGreal, The Observer, 5 Jan 2009
  • An Experiment in Provocation: Stealing Gaza – Brian Eno, Counterpunch, 4 Jan 2009
  • Why bombing Ashkelon is the most tragic irony – Robert Fisk, The Independent, 2 Jan 2009
  • Nazi Israel... Indeed – Elias Akleh, Countercurrents.org, 24 Dec 2008
  • Gaza: The Untold Story – Ramzy Baroud, 23 Dec 2008
• Open Letter to President-Elect Barak Obama – from Dr. Bernard Sabella, elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, writing from Al Quds/Jerusalem, 9 Jan 2009
• A Code of Conduct for Tourism in the Holy Land – Alternative Tourism Group, Dec 2008
• Seeing Through the Eyes of the Other – PfL Co-Moderator Farid Esack’s reflections and moving account of his recent visit to Palestine-Israel, 12 August 2008.
• Palestine in the Middle East: Opposing Neoliberalism and US Power:
  Part 1 and Part 2, Adam Hanieh, MRZine, 19 July 2008.
• The Apartheid Paradigm – Cornerstone Issue 48 - Spring 2008, a quarterly publication by Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center Jerusalem
• My Palestine Visit – Personal account and reflections by Irfan Engineer, 27 November 2007 to 11 January 2008 (series of 7 articles)
• Letter to an Israeli in Christmas Time – message from Dr. Bernard Sabella, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, 20 December 2007
• Apartheid Wall in Palestine: Voices and Echoes – Poem by Stiaan van der Merwe, November 2007
• Removing the Log of Apartheid in Our Own Eye – Delivered by David Wildman at the Sabeel Conference on “The Apartheid Paradigm in Palestine-Israel”, Boston, USA, 27 October 2007
• Sixty Years of WCC Policy on Palestine/Israel, 1948-2007 (in brief) – 11 points summarising the WCC policy on Palestine/Israel
• More... RESOURCES: Palestine, Iraq and the Middle East

Networks and initiatives

• Abraham Path Initiative – an international NGO aimed at supporting the development of the Abraham Path – a route of cultural tourism that retraces the journey made by Abraham (Ibrahim) through the heart of the Middle East some four thousand years ago. Founded in 2007 at the Global Negotiation Initiative at Harvard University, the initiative honours all cultures and faiths, and is supported by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations. Work is now underway to make the completion of the Abraham Path a reality.
• Alternative Tourism Group – a Palestinian NGO specialising in tours and pilgrimages that include critical examinations of the history, culture, and politics of the Holy Land. Established in 1995, ATG operates according to the tenets of justice tourism, seeking to promote a positive image of Palestine and contribute to establishment of just peace in the area. (Contact: Rami Kassis, Executive Director)
• Defence for Children International – Palestine Section (DCI-Palestine) – a national section of the international child rights NGO and movement, Defence for Children International, established in 1979. DCI/PS is dedicated to promoting and protecting the rights of Palestinian children in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international, regional and local standards.
• Friends of Freedom and Justice Bil’in – a new society initiated in the Palestinian village of Bil’in whose residents have staged weekly non-violent actions, since 2005, to refuse further Israeli incursions into their land, of which 60% has already been annexed by the Apartheid Wall. Bil’in has become a symbol both of the theft of land across Palestine and of the power of non-violent grassroots movements in building local and international resistance to Occupation.
• Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between People (PCR) – a non-religious Palestinian community service center based in Beit Sahour that advocates the Palestinian cause through community service with special focus on the youth, dialogue, nonviolent resistance to the occupation, and media.
• Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center – Jerusalem head office of Sabeel, an ecumenical grassroots liberation theology movement among Palestinian Christians. It runs local and international programs aimed at encouraging people of faith to develop a spirituality of nonviolent liberation that empowers them to work for justice, peace and reconciliation in Palestine-Israel.
• Siraj Center for Holy Land Studies – an NGO based in Beit Sahour, Palestine that aims to create links between Palestinians with people around the globe through travel programs, interfaith/ecumenical dialogue, and culture and youth exchange programs (Contact: George Rishmawi, Coordinator)

News and information sources

• Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) – an independent Palestinian human rights organization based in Gaza City; enjoys Special Consultative Status with the ECOSOC and is affiliated with various international human rights organizations
• If Americans Knew – an independent research and information-dissemination institute focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, U.S. foreign policy on the Middle East, and media coverage of this issue; it aims to provide information that is largely missing from American press coverage of this critical region.
• OCHA-oPt (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Occupied Palestinian Territory) – disseminates humanitarian information and analysis of facts aimed at enhancing coordination between agencies to ensure effective distribution of humanitarian assistance in the occupied Palestinian territory.
• Gaza Siege – an independent online resource for background, analysis and news updates related to the ongoing siege and occupation of the Gaza Strip; includes reports, statements and op-eds by scholars, expert commentators and humanitarian organizations, and first-hand accounts by journalists and people living in Gaza.
• International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC) – Combines Palestinian journalists’ deep understanding of the context, history and socio-political environment with international journalists’ training in non-partisan reporting to provide independent media coverage of Israel-Palestine
• Occupation Magazine – aims to provide information and commentary on the ongoing developments in the Occupied Territories in Hebrew and English. While the editors represent a range of opinions as to the optimal solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, all are united in the belief that a viable solution must be based on the unconditional end to the Israeli military occupation, and on principles of equality, justice and mutual respect.
• Palestine: Home of History – a site project dedicated to the current history of Palestine from 1900 and up to the present; aimed to provide a ready reference site for all information about the land of Palestine and the conflict between Arab and Jews.
• Palestine Monitor – information and analysis based website based in Ramallah; publishes rigorously researched news, information, fact sheets, regular political analysis and first hand eye-witness accounts of life in the occupied territories; recognised as an independent voice of Palestinians living under occupation
• The Palestine Chronicle – an independent online newspaper that provides information and commentary on a variety of subjects, largely focused on Palestine, Israel, and the ‘Middle East’ region. The Palestine Chronicle team consists of professional journalists and respected writers and authors who don’t speak on behalf of any political party or champion any specific political agenda.

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