Nine clergy wives met in Beit Sahour at the Melkite Church on April 4, 2014. We started the meeting around 10 a.m. with a Bible study given by Ms. Rula Neimeh, the wife of the Syrian Orthodox priest in Bethlehem. She presented John 20:9, “…for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.”

Ms. Rula mentioned several points, including, “As the annunciation and the passion was on public display, also the resurrection happened in front of the guards.” An interesting discussion then took place regarding this. Another thing she mentioned is the importance of visiting the orphanages, the old age homes and the sick people, saying that such visits are not the clergy’s duty alone; they are our duty as well.

After a short break, the women gathered again to discuss the role of the clergy wives in the ecumenical work. This year all churches are celebrating Easter at the same time, so their discussion focused on the importance of having events with the Christian community as one. Everybody got excited about the idea and we formed a committee from the different denominations to work on a visit to an old age home in Beit Jalla on April 25th.

Each clergy wife will invite others from their community to join. This will be the first time such a program is happening, so we are very proud of the outcome of this meeting.

The clergy wives decided to have an activity every two months. Sabeel has promised to support them in their work as one group. Again, we are so happy to see this result.

We ended the meeting with a wonderful Lenten meal prepared by the women in the Melkite church in Beit Sahour.

An exciting day waited for the Sabeel women on Wednesday, April 2. It was the day that all went to the Negev, a trip that everyone was looking forward to since they first heard that participants of Sabeel’s International Conference (in November 2013) visited this southern area. After the conference, the women started asking to have a Negev trip for them, to witness a part of their country they still had not discovered.They want to go and see and learn about both the ancient past and present struggles of the Negev.
We had 52 women who met at the Sabeel Jerusalem office in the early morning for a bus ride to meet with the Rev. Kamal Farah at the Monastery of Latrun where the women had breakfast and bought organic honey.
Afterwards, we left on our journey to Tel Arad, an area which has been turned into a nature preserve where we could see the archaeological remains from the time of the Canaanites, including two castles of King Solomon and an ancient housing unit.
Later on, we went to Tel Sheva, where we walked to an ancient well from Abraham’s time that was used to give water to families of that village and is now an archeological site. We all had the chance to go down underground to explore this magnificent site by foot.The Rev. Farah, who specializes in archeology relating to the Bible, the Church, and the Palestinian people, explained the history of the sites.
Then we went to Lakiya, a Bedouin village in the Negev where the Women of Lakiya welcomed us and prepared lunch, a traditional meal of Mujadara (lentils and rice).The founder of this women’s association, NimehSanee’, told the Sabeel women how the Bedouins were moved by the Israeli government from their lands in Tel Arad to the urban center of Lakiya, and talked about their traditions and the importance of remaining on their land.
Then a young activist by the name of Ashraf talked about the Israeli government’s Prawer Plan, which is a plan to demolish the unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev.There are 38 villages, and only 11 are recognized by the Israeli government. In these unrecognized villages, the Bedouins– all citizens of Israel – live without secure housing structures, electricity and other essential services. Tens of thousands of people in these impoverished communities, hundreds of years old, are threatened by the Prawer Plan, he explained. This plan would evict them from their ancestral land and relocate them for the benefit of Israeli Jewish citizens. The Prawer Plan was defeated in the Israeli Knesset in November 2013, and temporarily placed on hold.
Time was given to relax, and go to the small store of handmade embroidery done by the Bedouin women. The selling of the embroidery helps the Bedouin women improve their economic situation.
We concluded our time drinking coffee together and reflecting on what we heard and saw. Most of the women considered this an educational trip as well as a spiritual trip, learning about the biblical site from the time of the Canaanites.They enjoyed listening to the women from the Bedouin association and they enjoyed learning from Ashraf, who continued discussing with them and answering their questions.They wanted more time to be spent with the Bedouins.
We concluded our day by thanking them, and the women asked us to take them to similar places so they can learn and affect their community in a better way.

On the morning of Friday,March 28, we took 33 students on a field trip to the Tent of Nations, where the mission is building bridges between people, with people and the land,and bringing people of various cultures together to build bridges of understanding, reconciliation, and peace.
This land is under threat of confiscation by the Israeli military; therefore, we set projects which aim to demonstrate solidarity with the local people and to keep the land productive, keeping the Tent of Nations projects alive.
This educational trip is a link with the program that we are doing with the students to raise awareness in terms of nationality and the importance of affiliation with the land.Due to the fact that March 30 is Palestinian Land Day, the students planted olive trees up on the hill.
Starting with a short hike up to the farm, we had the chance to talk with one another and get to know the area and observe the few settlements around us. They got excited to hear about the Tent of Nations by AmalNassar, one of the siblings of the owner of the land, and she and her brother DaherNassar explained about the importance of the family staying on the land.We then opened a time for discussion where the students had a chance to ask questions and share their ideas.
Afterwards, we had a tour around the land; they showed us the wells, the different kinds of almond trees, and the caves that are still there.This got the studentsintriguedso they asked more questions and befriended Daher, who gave them the tools and the olive trees for them to plant.Each student had their own tree to plant, which was exciting for them, and it was the first time for most of them to plant a tree.
As leaders, we were always around the students during the planting of the trees, trying to explain the difference about the different kinds of soiland how to work with it accordingly; for example, smooth soil is easiest, but with rocky soil, we showed them how to use the area surrounding it instead of just leaving it. We emphasized the importance of keeping the treealive by watering, which also reflects the situation of our lives in order to survive through the conflict, whether it was the political situation or our daily lives. We reflected on these issues in light of the upcoming Land Day.
After some working hours, we got to have Lenten lunch prepared by the Nassarfamily.After lunch we were divided into three groups, and each group chose to sit in a quiet place away from the other groups.We reflected on what we heard, saw and did, and about what they expected and how they felt about it.
We were working with students from different backgrounds, and some of the students had never experienced being outdoors in a wide field.This caught their attention and some of them wanted to explore the area more, and decided to go on a hike for a short period of time after they were done with the program. Because of the sensitivity of the place, surrounded with settlements, we got a little nervous about the attitude of some of the students; but on the other hand, we understand their excitement and their enthusiasm to explore more, and this encouraged us to have more similar programs with them in the near future.
They were really glad that they could make it, and had a memorable experience; they even asked for another educational trip, including organizing a 2-3 day camping in the area.

During March, Sabeel Nazareth had 15 events that included the participation of around 1,150 people.

1. March 8th:
Around 55 people participated in a study and prayer day at the Lutheran church in Beit Jala for the beginning of Lent. The group was received at Abraham Heberge by the Rev. Saliba Rishmawi and members of the Lutheran church for breakfast and sharing. The group then proceeded to the church for an ecumenical prayer service with the Beit Jala community and a meditation in preparation for Lent by Rev. .Rishmawi. The Rev. Mitri Raheb then followed with a very enlightening presentation.

Next, Rev. Rishmawi led a tour through Beit Jala, which included a visit to the Cremisan Monastery where the group was received by the Salesian Brothers who gave a presentation and led a prayer in the church. The day ended with two presentations about the history of Beit Jala and its present-day challenges. The delicious lunch meal at Abraham Heberge added joy to the spiritual and educational day.

2. March 12th
There was a youth group meeting for Lent with Rev. Francois Shamieh
at the Sabeel Nazareth office. About 15 young adults met to pray and reflect with a Bible study.

In addition, the women’s group met at the Sabeel Nazareth office for a Bible study with Rev. Maroun Tannous. As many as 70 women attended.

4. March 26th
In honor of Mother’s Day, 75 women gathered in Akka (Acre) for a spiritual reflection at the Melkite Cathedral in Akka; it was led by Mrs. Aida Khoury, a clergy wife. The meeting was then followed by a tour of the old Palestinian city and the area where Palestinians currently lived. The women were guided by Mrs. Oivia Atrash, who is from Akka. The day ended at a restaurant where the women enjoyed the local food.

5. March 15th and 16th

Sabeel Nazareth held two film screenings of “The Stones Cry Out: The Story of the Palestinian Christians,” by Yasmine Perni. The March 15th event was held in Shefa Amr at the Anglican Church, and was attended by 170 people. Mrs. Perni attended to speak about her film and answer questions.

The following day , 370 people attended a similar film screening event in Haifa
at the Orthodox church hall. Sabeel Nazareth organized the event in cooperation with Mr. Fouad Abou Khadra from the Orthodox Parish Council in Haifa.

7. March 19th
There was a women’s meeting with Machsom Watch members in Nazareth, with 12 women attending. The Christian, Muslim, and Jewish faiths were all represented, and participants met for interfaith activities and a “visioning
of future programs together.”

8. March 1-31
Sabeel Nazareth spoke to eight international groups groups, totaling 270 people. The groups came from different churches in France, Sweden, Germany and North America.

On Wednesday the 26th of March, during the Lenten season, we took the women to Jericho, for a spiritual recharge, education, and entertainment.
Upon their request to continue the yearly ritual, we organized a spiritual trip for them to go to Jericho because that was where Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights fasting and meditating during the temptation by Satan, commemorated at the Mount of Temptation. We started at the Latin Church, where we heard the reflection from Fr. Mario Hadshiti, who spoke of the word of God in the season. It was about how fasting is a way of life, not only for the 40 days of Lent. The 51 participants listened, asked questions, and discussed with him; they said it was spiritually uplifting and that they enjoyed Fr. Mario’s way of teaching.They asked if we could organize more meetings with him in the future.
Afterwards, we all went to the Russian Museum that is on the Russian compound in Jericho, where they have old pictures and archeological remains from the Byzantine and Islamic eras.The women were able to have a tour around the museum and also the garden, as well as having a break and talking with one another.
For lunch we went to a restaurant and all of us shared a Lenten meal of maqlubeh and had the chance to rest, catch up, and reflect about what we heard and saw earlier that day.
After a good meal and relaxing, we had free time during which women went to the YWCA center,where they sell goods made by women of Jericho.It’s an organization that Sabeel encourages others to visit and support,and the women spent their time buying different pastries and herbs and spices. Some of them wanted to do more shopping so they went to the market.The women always ask to go to the YWCA store; it’s their favorite store to go to when they are in Jericho.
We all gathered across the street of the YWCA, so whoever was done with their shopping spree joined us and we enjoyed eating local Palestinian ice cream! All of them agreed that it was a great way to spend a day.

On the afternoon of Thursday the 13th of March, we went to the Terra Santa School for another interesting session. We were not the only ones excited about the session, but the students were as well. After the previous (first) session we had with them, they were so eager to attend again and some even stopped us on the roads of Jerusalem to ask us the date of the upcoming session.

During this session with 20 students, we focused on teamwork and spirit, followed by the importance of trust and communication between group members. Due to the rainy weather, some of the students were not able to come; however, the good news was that new students joined in after hearing about the program from their friends/ classmates who attended before.

We started with the game, “Human Knot,” where they got their hands held to each other into knots and had to use verbal communication and movement to untangle and make a circle (without letting go of hands). We used this game as a warm up for the upcoming activity, which was on “community.” We then split the students into 2 groups and gave them the questions: What are the negative aspects of your society/neighborhood? How can you change it? What is your role to change it?

The students then had a discussion amongst themselves; we joined in as well, but only to facilitate and not to give them answers. We took note of the answers in order to get to know the children more. They discussed the first question and wrote the responses on a flipchart, and then the following questions were answered through a small sketch that the students prepared, the first group chose the issue of the “Israeli checkpoints” issue and how to find a way as Palestinians to organize ourselves, and do something about it.

The second group chose Christian-Muslim relations highlighting some problems they experienced in their communities, and both groups at the end gave a summary about things in reality and how they would like to change it. This method allowed the students more freedom to express themselves.

Afterwards, each group went to an activity: the recycle workshop and the basketball session. Each group had a total of 40 minutes and then they switched sessions.

In the recycling session they made garbage cans out of old magazines and glue. Such crafts, taught by volunteers, required the students to work together in a group. The basketball session was quite challenging due to the fact that it was rainy and we could not use the outdoor court; instead we used the big hall in the school and turned it into an indoor court. The basketball trainers are closer to the children and were able to teach them the game and the message behind it.

We also had debriefing, reflection on the game and on what it helped them realize. Their responses included trust, friendship, and importance of communication between two people and in a group in general.

Through the school program we are hoping that the feeling of belonging and affiliation towards their own community will be enhanced, as well as their awareness with regards to social justice and connection to their society while concentrating on the positive side.

We asked the students for feedback and if they had learned anything. Their answers were:
“We are learning so much, who knew that basketball was more than a game?”
“It’s fun to know that we can use things we already have instead of buying new things.”
“We learned more about society, community, and it helped me realize that I have an important role in change.”
“I can’t wait to see what we will be doing next week.”

Getting into the Lenten season, we did a gathering at the office on March 7th, based on the demand of the youth for more meetings. For them it’s a safe place where they can meet and catch up and be within their small community. For the Lent Season, we found a day where most of our young adults can come and join in for an interesting lecture about Sabeel and Palestinian Liberation theology, based on their interest in knowing about it more.

Twenty four young adults came that evening at 5:30 PM, and brought snacks with them, and they had refreshments and we put aside the food they brought for the after lecture and discussion.

We started our evening with getting introduced to one another, and later on the speaker Mrs. Cedar Duaybis who is also one of Sabeel’s Founders talked about the establishment of Sabeel and its theology, and how it is important for social justice which is one of the main issues that Sabeel works for.

After the lecture, we had a discussion and a time for Q&A’s where some questions were placed inside Balloons, and the participants would pop a balloon, read the question, share it with the group who together answered it, it’s a way of good communication, exchanging thoughts and having an academic discussion.

Later on, we had time to eat and talk together, and collect feedback, about the evening itself and also about our future programs. One of the participants said “we always look forward to coming to these activities, because they are useful, and we meet new people each time”, and another participant said “I can relate to Sabeel and it helps me be more spiritual and also encourages me to look at the positive side of my society, and to be more determined not to immigrate.”

We are proud of our participants; they are interested in attending, becoming more committed, and they are also bringing their friends.

After a long break during which we did not have a meeting, the women of the Sabeel community program asked us for a meeting and discussion on something that interests them. Therefore, in light of the Lenten season, we organized a forum for the community of Sabeel about Lent in our Jerusalem office.

Ms. Gloria Nasser who studied Theology in Italy and currently teaches religious studies at Bethlehem University and is a teacher at St Joseph’s school in Bethlehem agreed to come from Bethlehem to meet our 41 participants (mostly from our women’s group) and discuss with them the importance of fasting. The forum, “Fasting is the Way of God and Human Beings,” started at 5:30 p.m. with Ms. Gloria explaining about Lent and its importance. She was then kind enough to receive questions, and through her answers discussions were started.

It was a fruitful afternoon and afterwards the women joined in for a warm drink and light dinner; they brought their own handmade Lenten desserts, salads, and some savory pastries. They continued to have conversations with one another about the subject as well as positive feedback on the importance of understanding lent in our own present time and in our current situation. They expressed their intension to pass the reflections on to their families and to impress upon them the importance of fasting and observing lent.

The community was encouraged to come to the Sabeel offices where they feel connected, and meet new friends, which reminds them that even through difficult times there is a group of people that is there for them. It reminds them how we come together as one from different churches of Jerusalem, and have common experiences.

In anticipation of the Pope’s May visit to the Holy Land, an Open Letter signed by over 200 bishops, clerics, members of religious orders and theologians from several faith traditions, was delivered today to Pope Francis. The letter asks the Pope to speak out against the Israeli army’s program of kidnapping, detention, and systematic abuse of Palestinian children and to call for an end to the occupation and colonization of Palestine.

The letter, whose signers include over 20 bishops, cites a recent UNICEF report that documents nighttime arrests, blindfolding and shackling of children between 12 and 18 years of age. Based on over 400 sworn testimonies, UNICEF concluded that the “ill-treatment of children who come into contact with the system appears to be widespread, systematic, and institutionalized throughout the process.”

“With this letter, we are raising the profile of the well-documented systematic mistreatment of Palestinian children,” said Rev. Don Wagner. “The Israeli government is purposefully going after children, who are clearly vulnerable, to deeply scare and traumatize them.”

Wagner is the National Program Director of Friends of Sabeel-North America (FOSNA.org), which initiated the letter. FOSNA supports the work of Sabeel, a Jerusalem-based peace and justice organization founded by Palestinian Christians.

The letter notes that similar concerns about the mistreatment of Palestinian children have been raised by Save the Children, the United Nations Commission Against Torture, Military Court Watch, Defense of Children International, and B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization.

“The enthusiastic response to our request for signers to the letter indicates the urgency of these concerns,” Wagner said. “Now that the letter has been delivered, we would like to invite people worldwide to join this appeal to Pope Francis and raise this issue with their media, human rights organizations, and governments until this targeting of children and the occupation are ended.”

The petition to support the letter is hosted at www.endtheoccupation.org/Letter2Pope

Wagner said that FOSNA initiated the letter in the hope that Pope Francis would speak out for the people of Palestine as he has boldly spoken for the poor and oppressed elsewhere.

“During his upcoming May visit, we want the Pope to publicly call upon the Israeli government to end its intentional mistreatment of Palestinian children,” Wagner said, “as well as to end its prolonged military occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip and its punitive and illegal blockade of Gaza, where 51 percent of the 1.8 million residents are under the age of 18.”

The letter is the first step, Wagner said, in a larger campaign to educate and mobilize faith and other communities in an effort to end the abuse of Palestinian children and the occupation that oppresses them and their families.

A recent blog post in the Erasmus blog on The Economist challenged the Zionism study guide recently published by American Presbyterians. The Rev. Naim Ateek responds:

The strongest expression of Zionism in today’s Israel is religious. The way this Zionism has been practiced by the government of Israel reflects a false and distorted Jewish theology. The Palestinians’ experience with religious Zionism in the aftermath of the 1967 war has been oppression, humiliation, and dispossession of the Palestinian people, both Christians and Muslims. Such expressions are in line with the dark side of the Bible and do not reflect the enlightened tenets of the Jewish faith articulated by the great prophets of the Hebrew Bible, namely, truth, justice, mercy, and peace. I, therefore, maintain that the Zionism practiced by the settlers with the active encouragement and support of the right-wing Israeli government is a betrayal of any authentic religious faith, including that of authentic Judaism. This settler form of Judaism dehumanizes the Palestinians, and whatever dehumanizes people cannot reflect authentic religion and needs to be resisted through all nonviolent means.

(http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2014/02/presbyterians-and-israel)