Global Ministries

Insanity housed
upon atrocity
generations ago
so nothing should show
so no one would know
when those who witnessed are gone.

Randa Hamwil Duwaji

A massacre occurred in Palestine on Monday, the 14th of May. Sixty one Palestinians were killed by the Israeli forces in one day, as reported by the Gaza Ministry of Health. Among those who died were eight children.
Over the period of two days of protest, 2771 Palestinians were injured by the Israeli forces, including 225 children and 86 women, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The people of Gaza have reached an unbearable level of hardship and despair, on top of which, came the moving of the US embassy to Jerusalem which coincided with the 70th anniversary of Al Nakba.

Lord, we confess that we feel overwhelmed with anger. We pray that your Spirit will work in our hearts to help us continue working for justice and to persevere in our efforts to call for peace and reconciliation. Dear God, we ask that you would grant your mercy and comfort to those grieving for their loved ones. Lord in your mercy…Hear our prayer

Israel Kills Dozens at Gaza Border as U.S. Embassy Opens in Jerusalem The New York Times

Israeli soldiers killed nearly 60 Palestinians on Monday during demonstrations at the Gaza border while Israeli and American leaders celebrated the opening of the new American Embassy in Jerusalem. Read the New York Times’ coverage of the day’s events.

The 2017 General Council of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) affirmed:

“that, with respect to the situation of injustice and suffering that exists in Palestine, and the cry of the Palestinian Christian community, the integrity of Christian faith and praxis is at stake”

It encouraged member churches to examine their mission, education and investment relationships with Israel and Palestine in light of the witness of Palestinian Christians and to respond as they understand the Reformed Communion’s commitments to human rights and the protections of international law;  and encouraged the Executive Committee to seek to strengthen initiatives for dialogues, civil peace services, mediation, conflict prevention and transformation.

May 15 is known to Palestinians as Nakba (“catastrophe”) Day; it comes the day after Israelis celebrate their Independence Day. This year will mark 70 years since the state of Israel was created and 750,000 Palestinians were displaced and dispossessed, resulting in a Palestinian diaspora and refugee population that now numbers over 5 million.

Since March 30, thousands of Palestinians have participated in planned nonviolent demonstrations in Gaza near the fence separating it from Israel. The demonstrations are called “The Great March of Return,” and they are expected to end on Nakba Day. At the time of this writing over one hundred demonstrators have been killed and thousands more have been injured by Israeli forces. Many of the deaths occurred on the day the U.S. opened its embassy in Jerusalem, a move widely condemned by the international community.

We in the Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees of the Middle East Council of Churches meeting in our first biannual Central Committee meeting wish to share with you our grief over what transpired in the last few days on the Gaza border, in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, all Israeli occupied territory. We were shocked about the number of innocent casualties and the hundreds of people injured as they protested nonviolently on the Gaza border with Israel. It pains us that this tragic episode could have been avoided if the Israeli policy makers would have opted for a peace plan with the Palestinians and adopted a vision of peace. Unfortunately, the alternate position in the present Israeli government is insistence on a path that pits Israelis against Palestinians and that negates the rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination and freedom from a relationship based on occupation and the exercise of brutal force to one that sees an end to occupation and that promotes eventual healing and reconciliation.

An Appeal from World Student Christian Federation and the Palestine Youth Ecumenical Movement

Since March 30th, the people of Gaza have been exercising their right to protest by marching for the right to return to their homes. The homes from which they were forcefully expelled to make room for the state of Israel. These land grabs were used to create Israeli settlements as a result of population transfers which under article 7 of the Rome statute constitutes as ‘crimes against humanity’, resulting in an ethnic cleanse of Palestinians from the land. In 1948 the UN passed resolution 194 agreeing that
refugees should have the right to return to their villages, a resolution which Israel continues to ignore.

On Monday, May 14, the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem assumed formal status as the American Embassy in Israel. Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) voices our most vigorous opposition to the Trump Administration’s decision to relocate the embassy and recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel without equally acknowledging Palestinian claims. The timing of this dedication--coinciding with the 70th anniversary of Israel’s independence and coming the day before both Palestinian Nakba Day and the start of Ramadan--is insensitive at best, and offensive at worst. We express our outrage at this administration for refusing to acknowledge the role this decision played in escalating violence in Gaza, which resulted in the deaths of more than 60 people and injury to over 2,200 Palestinians during the week.   

"If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they" (Ecclesiastes 5:8)..

On Monday, May 14th 2018, in Gaza, 60 people were killed and 2771 wounded among crowds walking unarmed towards their villages, from which they had been compelled to leave. They were killed in cold blood and posed no threat to anybody.

At the same time, the American embassy was relocated to Jerusalem in violation of international law. The transgressor is the great power that should call on others to respect international law.

Thus, the situation in which we are living is not one of rejoicing and the inauguration of a new embassy. We live in an inhumane situation that must be changed.

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit condemned use of excessive violence by Israeli forces against civilian protestors in Gaza during last week in which many have lost their lives or lost their loved ones, and is particularly worried that some Christians are celebrating the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem as a gift from God, despite the disruptively provocative nature of this move.