Israel/Palestine Resources
We look to our Presbyterian Brothers and Sisters and thank them for a wonderful resource called:
“Week of Prayer and Witness with Christians in the Middle East”. You will find worship, adult study, children and youth resources, travel opportunities, craft fairs and partnership products, and dinner and discussion suggestions.
Children and Teen Projects:
*Children’s Coloring Book: Presbyterians USA
*Hands of Peace: The mission of Hands of Peace is to foster long term peaceful coexistence among Jewish-Israelis, Arab-Israelis, and West Bank Palestinians by bringing young people from the Middle East together with American teens in an interfaith setting.
*International Day of Peace, September 21st Plan a vigil with other houses of worship in your neighborhood
* Middle East Children’s Alliance: supports several youth projects in Palestine, including Playgrounds for Peace, Ibda’a Cultural and Community Center, Palestinian Counseling Center, and scholarships for Palestinian refugees.
Check also Lutheran Schools, Friends Schools in Ramallah (www.palfriends.org/), Mennonites
Ways to Support Peace in Israel/Palestine:
* Olive Tree Campaign, Keep Hope Alive, a project of the YWCA and the YMCA of East Jerusalem. Planting Olive Trees:
*Purchase Holy Land Olive Oil: www.zatoun.com OR www.afsc.org/israel-palestine/Ziyarat-az-Zeitoun.htm OR www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org OR www.sindyanna.com/
*The Seraj Library Project, fonded by Estephan and Laurie Salameh: board of directors chaired by Jim Wall.
*Palestinian Crafts: info@sunbula.org
*Host a Holy Land Craft Fair: Presbyterians USA: www.pcusa.org/worldwide/weekofprayer/crafts.pdf
*Help Rebuild Palestinian homes [Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions: www.icahd.org
*Support Anglican Schools and hospitals in Palestine: Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem (www.j-diocese.com)
Adult Opportunities to visit:
*October 11-20, 2007 Sabeel International Witness Trip: Chicago Diocesan Peace and Justice Commission would love to have five representatives to attend, write to Cotton Fite: cotton.fite@sbcglobal.net
*Palestine Summer Encounter 2007: Middle East fellowship, in partnership with Holy Land Trust
invites you to participate in the fourth annual Palestine Summer Encounter, a one, two, or three
month Arabic-training and volunteer program, starting on May 24th, 2007:
http://www.middleeastfellowship.org/pse2007/dates
*Visit Israel/Palestine with the Christian Peace Maker Teams: May 29-June 10, July 30-August 11,
October 16-28, November 19 - December 1, 2007: http://www.cpt.org/delegations/delegations.php
*Assessing the Prospects for Peace: 40 Years of Occupation, 40 Years of Nonviolent Resistance
Delegation to Israel/Palestine - May 26 – June 9, 2007: American Friends Service Committee: www.afsc.org/israel-palestine/Prospects-for-Peace-Delegation.htm. In the Fall 2007: Olive Harvest Delegation, October 27 – November 10, 2007.
*Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel http://www.eappi.org/
Chicago Speakers:
*Chicago Diocese: Rev. Robert Cotton Fite : (cotton.fite@sbcglobal.net ) Or Newland Smith (n-smith1@seabury.edu)
*Christian Peacemaker Teams: CPT national office is located in Chicago, they will be glad to send out speakers and provide programming- 773-277-0253
*American Friends Service Committee: Jenifer Bing-Canar and Miriam Rashid – 312-427-2533
*Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine: Martha Reese and Rebekah Levin justpeace1@aol.com
*Jewish Voice for Peace/Not in My Name: 312-409-4845
DVD’s
Life in Occupied Palestine: Eyewitness stories and photographs by Anna Baltzer. 1hr 12 min.
This is done by a young American Jewish woman. Excellent, but a bit long. www.AnnaInTheMiddleEast.com.
The Iron Wall, a film by Mohammed Alatar. 58 min. Interviews with prominent Israelis and Palestinian peace
activists including Jeff Halper, Israeli settlers and soldiers, Palestinian farmers. www.TheIronWall.ps
PEACEMAKING IN THE HOLY LAND VIDEO
ISBN:65-9903ea order from Episcopal Books and Resources: www.episcopalchurch.org
Salt of the Earth: Palestinian Christians in the Northern West Bank by Marthame and Elizabeteh Sanders.
In Arabic with English subtitles. Very good interviews with Christians in Zababdeh. www.saltfilms.net
Searching for Peace in the Middle East by Landrum Bollng, President Emeritus of Earlham College. 30 min. www.fmeg.org
Sacred Space Denied: Bethlehem and the Wall by Peter Nagel. Recently distributed by Sabeel.
Available I'm sure from Friends of Sabeel, NA
Journey for Justice done by Joint Action Initiative (JAI) of the YW and YMCA of East Jerusalem.
Liturgical Resources:
*A Season of Prayer for Peace in the Middle East: www.seasonofprayer.org/
*Prayers for Peace: Episcopal Peace Fellowship: www.epfnational.org;
*Worship booklet and bulletin from Presbyterians USA: www.pcusa.org/worldwide/weekofprayer/resources.htm
Links:
*Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Centre: www.sabeel.org
*Friends of Sabeel – North America: www.fosna.org
*Holy Land Trust: http://www.holylandtrust.org
*Churches for Middle East Peace: http://www.cmep.org/
*Diocese of Jerusalem: http://www.americanfriends-jerusalem.org/
*US Campaign to End the Occupation: www.endtheoccupation.org
American Friends Service Committee – Faces of Hope Campaign www.afsc.org/faces-of-hope
*Jewish Voice for Peace recommendations: http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/booklist.shtml
Books and Pamphlets:
* Tolan, Sandy. The Lemon Tree, The title of this moving, well-crafted book refers to a tree in the backyard of a home in Ramla, Israel. The home is currently owned by Dalia, a Jewish woman whose family of Holocaust survivors emigrated from Bulgaria. But before Israel gained its independence in 1948, the house was owned by the Palestinian family of Bashir, who meets Dalia when he returns to see his family home after the Six-Day War of 1967. Journalist Tolan (Me & Hank) traces the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the parallel personal histories of Dalia and Bashir and their families
*Hass, Amira. Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land under Siege. (2000) (An Israeli reporter's extraordinary account of her experiences living in Gaza.) American Friends Service Committee resources: www.afsc.org/israel-palestine/learn/default.htm
*Pentecost Peace Packet complied by the Episcopal Peace Fellowship www.episcopalchurch.org/documents/PentecostPeacePacket.pdf
* Bennis, Phyllis. Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict: a primer. TARI, 2003. This sixty-two page primer in question and answer format with excellent maps provides an introduction to the complex history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by a fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies and one of the leaders of the US Campaign to End the Occupation.
*Chacour, Elias. Blood Brothers / Elias Chacour and David Hazard. Chosen Books, 2003. Chacour describes himself as an Arab, Palestinian, Israeli Christian. Born in 1939 when he was eight he with his family was deported from Biram, a Palestinian village. A priest of the Melkite Catholic Church, in 2006 he became Archbishop of the Galilee. In the early 1980s he began work in establishing the Mar Elias Education Institutions in Ibillin. Blood Brothers is a moving account of his efforts for peace and tolerance among his “blood brothers.”
*How Long O Lord: voices from the ground and visions for the future in Israel/Palestine / Maurine and Robert Tobin, editors. Cowley Publications, 2002. Fifteen articles by Jewish, Christian and Muslim writers including Haidar Abdel-Shafi, Director of the Red Crescent Society of Gaza, Rabbi Michael Lerner, founder of the Tikkun Community, and Thomas Shaw, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. Includes a helpful glossary and “Chronology of the Historic Land of Palestine from the Ottoman Empire to the Present.”
*Wagner, Donald E. Dying in the Land of Promise: Palestine and Palestinian
Christianity from Pentecost to 2000. New updated edition. Melisende, 2003
A very readable account of Palestinian Christianity from its beginnings at the first Christian Pentecost until the beginning of the 21st century and of the “Zionist(Israeli)-Palestinian” conflict by the Executive Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at North Park University. Don Wagner is an ordained Presbyterian clergy person and served for ten years as the Director of Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding.
*Younan, Munib. Witnessing for peace: in Jerusalem and the world / edited by Fred
Strickert. Fortress Press, 2003. A personal account of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by a Palestinian Christian born in Jerusalem and who is serving as the Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. Bishop Younan has spoken several times in the Chicago area and is respected for his advocacy of nonviolence in his conflict ridden part of the world.
News:
*Palestinian News Network http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2053
*Washington Report on Middle East Affairs: http://www.wrmea.com/
*Electronic Intifada www.electronicintifada.net
*Jewish Peace News http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/jpn.shtml
