Global Ministries

Washington, DC — On Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021, the NO BAN Act Coalition celebrated the end of the Muslim and African Ban and called on Congress to take the next step and prevent similar bans from being enacted again. The NO BAN Act Coalition is an alliance of national and local civil rights, faith and community groups who have been working tirelessly to support passage of the NO BAN Act, a landmark Muslim civil rights bill that is included in the U.S. Citizenship Act, the Biden administration’s day one immigration legislation.

On January 20, Joseph R. Biden was inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States. The day marked the end of four unconstructive years of U.S. foreign policy under Donald Trump with regard to Israel and Palestine. President Biden now has the opportunity to round a turning point in U.S. policy, to support a just peace for the people of the region.

Trump’s policies supported the further entrenchment of Israel’s occupation, for example by backing the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied territories, cutting all funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)—the UN agency that supports 5.7 million Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan—and ending assistance to other U.N. and humanitarian actors operating in the West Bank and Gaza.

Gaza was for centuries an important seaport and trade community, endowed with natural beauty and a highly educated, youthful population. Gaza’s wealth is now largely unreachable as a direct result of Israel’s blockade. Most agricultural land is in closed military areas or destroyed during military attacks. Traditional fishing grounds are restricted by the Israeli navy. Movement of people, trade and commerce, are harshly restricted. Military attacks in the last 16 years have destroyed Gaza’s business and industrial base. Gaza’s 1.7 million suffer high poverty rates and 80 percent of the population is now dependent on international assistance for survival.

Christ at the Checkpoint, Kairos Palestine, Sabeel and the East Jerusalem YMCA and the YWCA of Palestine invites you to the launch event of the film “The People’s Patriarch: Reflections with Patriarch Michel Sabbah" at 6 pm Jerusalem time (11 am Eastern US time/8 am Pacific US time) on Saturday, February 6, 2021.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs (OCHA) have reported that Palestinian hospitals have been targeted by the Israeli military in three separate incidents over the past two weeks. Palestinians were injured on the 26th of December, inside hospitals, in Gaza City and on the following day in Ramallah. On the 4th of January Israeli soldiers broke into a hospital in Tulkarm, in the north of the West Bank. They fired stun grenades in the hospital ward and caused panic among the patients.

Lord, we pray that Israeli military attacks on Palestinian hospitals will cease on humanitarian grounds. Lord, in your mercy... hear our prayers.

[The following joint statement, entitled, "Racism and Institutionalized Discrimination in the Roll-Out of the COVID-19 Vaccine," was issued on Jan. 18, 2021 by the Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO), the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC), and the Palestinian National Institute for NGOs (PNIN).  The Middle East Council of Churches, a partner of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and United Church of Christ), is among the signatories.]

The Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO) and the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC) and the Palestinian National Institute for NGOs (PNIN) are concerned that since commencing the roll out of a vaccine against COVID-19 in December 2020, the Israeli occupying authorities have implemented its vaccine policy in a discriminatory, unlawful, and racist manner by completely disregarding its obligations to Palestinian healthcare.

Lectionary Selection: 

Prayers for Lebanon:

We come before you, our God and Creator, with hearts that are bewildered by the struggles and difficulties that continue to overwhelm and pressure us physically, emotionally, economically, and spiritually.

With the start of the new year, and in the season of Epiphany, we find it difficult to see new hope and new beginnings or see changes for the better in the lives of the people of Lebanon, or even throughout the world. Yet we find comfort in knowing that your love for us does not change.

Guide us to open our hearts to you; to open our ears to hear your voice, as you invite us to hear your clear call to follow you.

Make us eager to accept your invitation to repent and believe your Good News. Only in you can we find rest; our hope comes from you alone!

Guide us to trust you in all circumstances. Only through complete trust in you will we find refuge, and be certain of your unchanging love for all, and be willing to share that with the world.

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.