Global Ministries

The Link, published on a bi-monthly basis, is Americans for Middle East Understanding's primary education and information tool. More than 175 issues of The Link have followed since the first issue in 1968.

The Link archive constitutes a body of informed commentary, fact and anecdotal evidence that is all the more valuable for writers, researchers and historians because each issue (for the most part) covers only one subject.

The Israeli regime promotes and perpetuates Jewish supremacy
between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River

 
Today, B’Tselem published a new position paper that details how the Israeli regime enacts in all the territory it controls (Israeli sovereign territory, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip) an apartheid regime. One organizing principle lies at the base of a wide array of Israeli policies: advancing and perpetuating the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians.

On Friday, the 1st of January, hundreds of Palestinians gathered for a peaceful protest in Deir Jarir, northeast of Ramallah. They were objecting to the Israeli settlement expansion which threatens large tracts of Palestinian land near their village. The Israeli military used rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators and one Palestinian sustained a head wound.

On the same day, Palestinian herdsmen were attacked by Israeli settlers in the Masafer Yatta area, in the district of Hebron. The illegal settlers attacked the herders and their sheep with clubs and stones and barred their way to the grazing pasture.

Lord, we pray for an end to the illegal Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian Territories. We pray for a cessation of the violence from the Israeli military against Palestinian protesters. Lord, in your mercy...hear our prayers.

More than 200 olive trees, in the villages of Qusra and Jaloud  in the Nablus area (northern West Bank), were uprooted and stolen by Israeli settlers in the last few days. All these trees were part of the Olive trees distributed by the Keep Hope Alive Olive Tree Campaign of the Joint Advocacy Initiative of the YWCA of Palestine and the East Jerusalem YMCA.

The Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem will hold two recurring different weekly gatherings, and would love for you to join!

The Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, based in Jerusalem, has organized a video reflection on the Christmas story, in words, music, and images.  Click here to watch and listen.  All reflections are made from the traditional sites of the Gospel stories. Music is performed by Al Rua’ Music group from Beit Sahour, in the Church of St. Catherine in Bethlehem.

‘united as One’ is the title of a new song which has been released by 23 young Palestinian refugees to express their faith in the future. With the help of six musicians they have worked together to compose this song. The project was sponsored by the United Nations’ Relief and Works Agency, (UNWRA).

Lord, we thank you for the musical expression of the young Palestinian refugees and we pray that, despite the many challenges they face, they will never lose sight of hope in their lives. Lord, in your mercy… hear our prayers.

[The following op-ed, written by the Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac, pastor of the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem and Dean of the Bethlehem Bible College, appeared in The Jordan Times on Dec. 23.]

Christmas is a time of joyful celebration for the people of Bethlehem, a grateful relief from the day-to-day experience of occupation and isolation. Each year, we welcome hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who come from all over the globe to visit the Church of the Nativity and celebrate where Jesus was born.

Christians, Muslims and pilgrims alike crowd the markets and exchange greetings at religious and cultural events. We give thanks for the world’s embrace. The harsh realities of life behind the annexation wall, the feelings of being forgotten, seem to fade, if only briefly and only in our imagination.

In recent months Israeli settler attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians and their property has peaked, according to the United Nations. Attacks on Palestinian farmers and shepherds are often carried out with the collaboration of the Israeli military. Illegal Israeli settlers destroyed water pipes and trees in al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya village, south of Nablus, on Friday, the 18th of December. The following day Palestinian farmers and shepherds in Masafir Yatta in the southern area of the occupied West Bank were attacked and injured by illegal Israeli settlers.

Lord, we pray that this outpouring violence from illegal Israeli settlers against Palestinians will cease. We pray that the stranglehold of the Israeli occupation, which grows ever tighter on the Palestinians, will be released. Lord in your mercy… hear our prayers.

Dr. Michel Abs, General Secretary of the Middle East Council of Churches, recorded a Christmas message by video, entitled, "A Child is Born, God is Incarnated."  Click here to watch the message, and here to read it.