St. George’s Cathedral, Jerusalem

A Liturgy of Penance and Hope

Nov. 2, 2017, 5 pm

Thank you, Amos Trust, for taking this initiative and planning this important service that laments the past and looks in hope to the future. In particular, I would like to thank Canon Garth Hewitt, the founder of Amos Trust, and its present director the Rev. Chris Roseand all the friends that have come from the UK to join usand who had a hand in the planning and organizing of this service.

In a special way, I would like to thank all those who walked all or part of the way from England to Jerusalem — over 3000 miles!  Thank you for the strong message of solidarity which your march conveys.  Thank you for your courageous stand with our Palestinian people and against all the injustice and suffering that the Balfour Declaration has caused to our people.  What you have done as British citizens is an amazing gesture of solidarity and an expression of yourcommitment to exposing the deceptions and lies thathave happened and the need for the implementation of truth and justice now.  I want to assure you that we value what you have done and we thank you.

I am very thankful for your apology.Palestinians have been demanding an apology from the British government.  Sadly, prime ministers and presidents, generally speaking, do not have the humility nor the moral courage and integrity to admit the crimes and wrongs perpetrated by their governments.  I was extremely saddened when President Obama visitedHiroshima,but did not offer an apology to the Japanese peoplefor the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent people when America rained destruction and annihilation through its atomic bomb.  I am reminded when Josef Ben Eliezer came to our Sabeel international conference in 2008 and told us his story, when he,with other Israeli soldiers, in 1948 drove out the people of Lyddafrom their homes, at gun point, beating them and robbing them of even the little money they had.  He told us his story and he apologized and asked for our forgiveness.  Thank you,Chris,for offering an apology.  I know that you represent many British people who feel that the Balfour Declaration reflected an imperial and colonial spirit.The British government failed to see the Palestinian Arabs, the indigenous people of the land, as human beings.  They saw us as less than humans, a lesser breed that they could dispense of.

Thank you for taking a moral and a Christian stand. The apology is not only an expression of your sorrow and lament for the wrongs your country has committed against our people,itarises from your Christian faith that expects us to confess the wrongs and the injustices that have been committed against our brothers and sisters.In a theological sense, the sin of Balfour was his failure to practice the love of neighbor.

The past hundred years have brought unimaginable suffering on our people.  Thousands upon thousands of Palestinians have been killed,and many more injured.  Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been dispossessed from their land and property and made refugees, as my family was, when we were evicted at gun point from our hometown Beisan.  We were stripped of our rights and of our God-given human dignity.  Balfour made it possible for the Israeli government to dominate, dehumanize, and discriminate against the Palestinians.Even today,many conscientious Jews callwhat Israel is doing to the Palestinians a form of apartheid, worse than what was experienced in South Africa.From one perspective,many of the crimes that Israel committed against our people were a ramification of the Balfour Declaration.  Israel’s injusticeslowed Palestinian progress and shattered their dreams.  Yet, thank God that, in spite of it all, the Palestinians have persevered and will ultimately vanquish the injustice through the power of nonviolence and the support of the international community.

One of the great tragedies of the Declarationis the fact that Balfour, as a Christian Zionist, believed that he was doing God’s will by making it possible for Jews to return to their ancient homeland.  He saw himself as a second Cyrus, the Persian king who allowed Jews to return to Palestine from exile.  It seems that that kind of Restorationism, Messianism, end-of-the-world theology, and second coming of Christ theology were largely based on a poor and questionable interpretation of the Bible.

Frankly, I cannot deduce any positive element from the Balfour Declaration.  The second part is as bad as its first part when one studies it carefully through the eyes of its victims, the Palestinians.

Therefore,friends, help us to make the comingyears focus on Palestine.  Help us to put a stop to all Israeli injustice and oppression against our people, the Palestinians.

We ask you to urge the British government to recognize Palestine as a state as soon as possible.  Once that happens, many other countries will follow suit.

Make Britain support the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state in accordance with international law so that Palestinians will have their national and political rights as well as their civil and religious rights protected.

Make the British government stop Israel’s settlement policy and its encroachment on Palestinian land.

Britain needs to make amends to the Palestinians by standing with them and supporting them as they build their state.

You, our friends, need to work diligently against Christian Zionists’abuse and misinterpretation of the Bible.

It is time for Palestine.  Biblically speaking, God is glorified in the work of justice.  Jesus has called us to be peacemakers and when we are engaged in making peace based on truth and justice, we are indeed children of God.

Thank you again for coming.  Let us work together for the achievement of justice, peace, and reconciliation.   Amen

Canon Naim Ateek

Chair of Sabeel Board, Jerusalem

 

 

 

 

Half a Century of Occupation – What Next?

 

On June 5, 2017, Palestinians all around the world will commemorate fifty years of occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Palestinians will remember that these 50 years were only the second stage of the Nakba (catastrophe) of Palestine when Israel conquered the whole land.

 

When we survey the 69 years since the Nakba, we can notice the incremental expansions of Zionist Israel.  Israel can be likened to a bulldozer plowing through Palestine and taking it bit by bit.  In fact, one of the main reasons for failing to arrive at a possible resolution of the conflict is that Israel has never been satisfied with what it had of Palestine and was always craving for more.  Israel has always been ravenous for more land.  It has always found ways to maneuver around the requirements of peace and to thwart it.  It has always found deceptive ways to put the blame on the Palestinians.  It wanted the land without its indigenous people.

 

There are still a few more areas of Palestine that Israel craves.  In fact, the prize of Religious Zionism has not yet been attained.  The heart of Jerusalem is still not totally in Israel’s hands.  It is looking for the opportune moment to grab it.  Israel is like a famished tiger that is waiting for the right moment to pounce at its prey and devour it.  The prize is the Haram area which Israel calls “the temple mount”.  These Jewish religious Zionist fanatics are impatiently waiting for the best prize of all.

 

From a Palestinian perspective, there are two ugly faces of Zionism.  The first was secular Zionism. It stripped the Palestinians of 78% of their land. In the 1970s, it was replaced by an uglier face, that of religious Zionism, which occupied the remaining 22%.  Religious Zionism stripped the Palestinians of the rest of Palestine.  It is probable that after establishing control over the whole land, religious Zionism will turn against secular Zionist ideology and replace it with Jewish religious law (Halakha). If and when that happens, any modicum of Israeli democracy will evaporate and the state of Israel will become, true to its name, a Jewish state not unlike some neighboring countries that it now criticizes where religion has the upper hand.

 

These words might seem to present a pessimistic and negative vision of the future, but if religion (any religion) takes on political power, then there is no room for democracy, equality under the law, or respect for others.  If this seems farfetched, listen to the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, Betzalel Smotrich, of the Jewish Home Party, who dubbed his political agenda “the subjugation plan” (Haaretz, May 16, 2017).  Under his plan, “the Palestinians will be given three choices – to leave the country; to live in Israel with the status of ‘resident alien,’ because…according to Jewish law there must always be some inferiority, or to resist, and then the Israel Defense Forces will know what to do.”  Smotrich was inspired by the Midrash on the Book of Joshua where God commanded the ancient Israelites to annihilate the indigenous people of Jericho. This is Smotrich’s final solution.

 

This face of Zionism has grown uglier and scarier by the day.  The government of Israel has been sure to keep it hidden from western Christians and even western Jews.  But it is slowly becoming more conspicuous to a growing number of people.

 

The Israeli unification of Jerusalem is a farce.  It is true that Israel conquered East Jerusalem but it has not been able to unify it.  The Palestinian people refuse to accept it.  It is occupied territory.  Most Israeli people do not set foot in it.  Most Jewish taxi cabs refuse to come to it.  Even Israeli ambulances do not come without military escort.  In spite of Israel’s Judaization of it, it is still by and large a Palestinian city.

 

What are the challenges ahead?

 

It is important to realize that the struggle for justice will take a much longer time than we have anticipated, and much more effort.  It seems unlikely that the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, the Arab League, or any other local or international body is willing or capable of resolving the conflict.  The Palestinian people became the victims and were sacrificed so that the West could atone for the sin of anti-Semitism.  Israel and its occupation is empowered militarily and economically by the western countries who will continue to defend it politically regardless of its violations of human rights and international law.

 

Our Palestinian people need to invest in alternative power that Israel does not possess, namely, the power of nonviolence.  We need to build a culture of peace and nonviolence.  Daily mass nonviolent rallies need to take place throughout the land until the world community begins to hear again the cry of the Palestinians.  Our people need to discover and believe in the amazing power of nonviolence.    Israel has built its state on the power of violence.  We need to build our state on the power of peace and nonviolence. Nonviolence can take many forms such as political and economic pressure, because Israel will not end the occupation until it becomes costly.  Today it is profitable.

 

For the local and international churches:  Justice and peace is the work of the church.  Jesus was very political when he said, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God.”  Peacemaking is part of the essence of the church’s work.  If the clergy are not engaged, then a very important dimension of their ministry is missing.  The prophetic voice of church leaders must be heard.  It must be undergirded by a clear, nonviolent strategy, and courage.

 

We need the help of the Jewish people:  It is true that the Palestine/Israel conflict is between Zionist Israel and the Palestinians.  But it is also a conflict between justice and injustice, between international law and tribal and nationalist ideologies.  There are an increasing number of Jews who are conscientious about justice for the Palestinians on the basis of UN resolutions and international law.  We challenge them to step up their struggle against injustice and oppression.  They can do much more.  We need their help.

 

There can never be peace without justice, and justice will never die so long as there are people who yearn for it, work for it, and sacrifice for it.  It could, and may take a long time.  In fact, it is time for the Palestinians who cannot even come to visit Jerusalem to adopt the slogan of our cousins, “Next year in Jerusalem.”  Our people must continue to live in the hope of liberation and peace, remembering the words of the Apostle Paul, “[we know] that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5).

 

Naim Ateek

Chair of Sabeel Board, Jerusalem

June 5, 2017

Sabeel Statement on 50 Years of Occupation

Déclaration de Sabeel Jérusalem sur 50 ans d’occupation F

رسالة السبيل بمناسبة عيد الميلاد المجيد 2016

المجد لله في الأعالي وعلى الأرض السلام وبالناس المسرة

 

،إخوتي وأخواتي الاحباء

عيد الميلاد المجيد هو عيد المحبة والفرح والسلام، نحتفل به سنوياً بالرغم من صعوبات الحياة ومآسيها. إن روح الميلاد يملؤنا ويملأ أهلنا وأحباءنا بشعور الفرح والابتهاج. أَلَم تبشر الملائكة الرعاة بفرح عظيم وتنادي بالسلام والمحبة لجميع الناس؟ نعم عيد ميلاد المسيح يبعث فينا الفرح ويجدّد فينا الأمل والرجاء لحياة افضل يعمها السلام والوئام في بلادنا وفي العالم أجمع.

فإذ نتامل بالمعاني السامية لعيد ميلاد المسيح نقارنها بأنانية وغطرسة هيرودس الملك ومن يمثّله في وقتنا الحاضر. فما هي بعض الدروس التي يجدر بنا ان نستنتجها في هذا العيد وعلى ضوء احوالنا الحاضرة.اولاً: إن احصاء السكان الذي فرضه الامبراطور اوغسطس بان يُكتتب الناس في بلدهم الأصلي، أجبر يوسف ومريم ان يسافرا من الناصرة الى بيت لحم (مسافة تبعد اكثر من مائة وستين كيلومتراً) في ظروف صعبة وبينما كانت مريم العذراء في أيامها الاخيرة من الحمل. يذكرنا هذا بالمشقات التي يعيشها شعبنا الفلسطيني تحت الاحتلال. ففي كل مرة تقرّ فيها  الحكومة الاسرائيلية قوانين جديدة تخدم مآربها  الخاصة، فانها تجحف بحق شعبنا الذي يتحمل المعاناة والصعوبات وانتهاكات حقوق الانسان، بينما يجلس المشرّعون الاسرائيليون خلف مقاعدهم المريحة غير مبالين بامتهان كرامة الانسان وحقوق الآخرين

هذا ما حدث عندما اتخذ قادة الحركة الصهيونية ومن بعدهم دولة اسرائيل القرارات ضد الشعب الفلسطيني، وليس هم فحسب بل مسيحيون غربيون صهيونيون امثال بلفور، والذين اتخذوا القرارات بتقسيم فلسطين وتشتيت شعبها وسلبه أراضيه، وبهذا حوّلوا حياة أهلها الى جحيم ظانّين خطأً انهم بذلك يحققون مشيئة الله

ثانياً: نقرأ في قصة الميلاد أنه عندما سمع هيرودس الملك عن مولد المسيح اضطرب هو وجميع سكان القدس معه. يبدو للعيان بان الملوك والرؤساء هم أقوياء ولكنهم يرتعبون من اي أمر او شخص يهدد كيانهم ويُقوّض سلطتهم. فهيرودس اضطرب لمجرد سماعه عن مولد المسيح. إن رؤساء العالم يشعرون بالتهديد من اصحاب الضمائر الحية ومن كل انسان يمتلك الشجاعة ليرفع صوت الحق فينادي بتحقيق العدل. فقوة الحق تتمثل برؤية الأمور كما يجب ان تكون وكما يرضاها الله. هذه الصورة تنطبق ايضاً على اوضاعنا الحاضرة. فالاقوياء الظالمون يخشون من ظهور الحق وتحقيق العدالة. وعندما يخافون ويضطربون كهيرودس يزدادون بطشاً واجراماً كما فعل هيرودس بقتله اطفال بيت لحم

ثالثاً:  رغم هذا كله علينا  أن نتذكر دائما  حضور الله المحب والمخلّص والمحرّر، الذي  يهتم بالفقراء والمظلومين. رسالة الميلاد هي خبر سار عن إله محب وعادل ارسل لنا مخلّصاً ومحرّراً ليقول لنا لا تخافوا، الله معكم ولن يترككم. الله يعمل بواسطتنا لنشهد للحق ولنقاوم الشر ولنساهم في صنع العدل والانصاف

في هذا العيد نضع رجاءَنا في طفل الميلاد، في صاحب العيد، في الرب يسوع المسيح فهو مخلصنا ومحررنا لا بأسلحة البطش والعنف ولا بطمس الحق ودفن الحقيقة وانكار حقوق الانسان. بل بالعمل مع الله لاظهار الحق وصنع العدل وتقديم المجد والاكرام لاسمه القدوس

في هذا يكمن أساس السلام والامن لجميع سكان بلادنا وللعالم أجمع

يتمنى لكم مركز السبيل أخلص تحيات عيد الميلاد المجيد

وكل عام وأنتم بخير

 

القس نعيم عتيق

رئيس الهيئة الادارية

كانون الاول 2016

القدس

رسالة السبيل بمناسبة عيد الميلاد المجيد 2016

Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will towards men and women.

Sabeel Christmas Message, 2016*

Dear Friends,

Christmas is a time of joy.  Amid the sorrows and hardships of daily life, we need the Christmas spirit, the good news and gladness of Christmas. The birth of Jesus Christ gives us joy and hope, “to you is born … a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”  Christmas never fails to refresh and renew us so that we can cope with the difficulties of daily life.

Yet the Christmas story is also full of trauma and tragedy.  The beauty and innocence of the Christ child is juxtaposed with the selfishness and cruelty of Herod and the callousness of the people of power.

As we reflect on the Christmas story this season, what are some of the relevant lessons that we can learn?

First: The census decreed by Emperor Augustus required people to register in their own towns. The Caesars and emperors always pass laws that disrupt and even ruin people’s lives. Joseph and Mary had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be registered, a distance of over 160 Km (100 miles).  It was not easy considering that Mary was due to give birth.

It has been a very long time now, that Palestinians have had to bear the brunt, pay a heavy price and suffer grievous consequences due to unjust laws and regulations decreed by the governments of Israel.  Those who pass laws against the occupied, sit in their comfortable offices and do not care about the consequences of their actions upon the poor and oppressed.  In the conflict over Palestine, not only Zionist leaders and Israeli officials took decisions that negatively affected our Palestinian people, even more drastically, western Christian leaders destroyed Palestine and its people through their outrageous and immoral resolutions such as the Balfour Declaration, the Sykes-Picot Agreement, and the unjust 1947 Partition Plan, to name only a few.  These decisions were taken by foreigners but turned Palestinians’ lives upside-down forever.

Second: “When King Herod heard this, he was frightened” (Matt. 2:3). Seemingly powerful kings, presidents and prime ministers feel threatened by the nonviolent acts of the humble and the meek whose only weapons are truth and justice: the truth about the harsh reality on the ground, and the justice of a new and transformed reality acceptable to God and humanity. The powerful are threatened by whatever they perceive as a threat to their power, interest, and ideology.  It can lead them to violent and cruel action against others.  They can go to extremes in order to do away with the threats.  This is the way King Herod behaved.  He killed the infants of Bethlehem in order to eliminate what he saw as a threat.  In 1991, the western powers went to war against Iraq and killed millions of people in order to eliminate what they perceived a threat to themselves and to Israel. Israel’s intelligence agency, assassinated many Palestinians because it perceived them as threats.  This is the way of empire. This is the way people of power behave.  They do not see human beings, families and children, they only see obstacles that need to be eliminated.

Third: This is not the way the God of love acts.  In the midst of the oppressive military and economic might of empire, God’s concern is for the poor and the oppressed.  The message of Christmas is always “Good news for all the people”. While the powers make decrees to oppress and dehumanize others, it is God who works for their salvation and liberation.  “Do not be afraid”, said the angel.  “God is with us”.  I am sending you a savior, a liberator. These words were spoken to people living under occupation and who were longing for freedom and liberation.  This message is still relevant to our people today.  God works through us to witness for the truth, to take a stand against the evil of occupation and oppression.  Our hope is not in the power of the “Herods” and the “Caesars,” it is in the baby who is “wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.”  It is not in the power of military might, it is in the power of love and nonviolence.  It is not through the oppression of others and the negation of their rights.  It is through giving glory to God and doing justice to the neighbor.  This is the recipe for peace and security for all the people of our land.

Sabeel wishes you all a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

 

Naim Ateek

Chair, Sabeel Board
Jerusalem
Christmas 2016

*Based on a Sabeel Bible Study

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“…to bring good news to the poor… to proclaim release to the captives…

recovery of sight to the blind …to let the oppressed go free…to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Jubilee).”

 

The last fifty years have brought untold suffering upon our Palestinian people.  Our only crime was to say ‘no’ to the occupation of our country and to resist it as an aberration and which is illegal under international law. Since 1967, the Israeli government has been oppressing the Palestinians and denying them their human and political rights.

In 2017, Palestinians will be marking 50 years since the loss of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.  It is a fitting time to lift up the biblical concept of Jubilee when all those who were deeply in debt to others,enslaved by others,had their land forfeited to the stronger others, and were driven out from their agricultural lands by the militarily powerful others – to all those,in a Jubilee year, God expects and demands justice to be done.  Their rightful ownership must be restored.  God is a God of truth and justice; and justice and righteousness must be done in the land.

The challenge before us, at the 10^th Sabeel International Conference, March 7-13, 2017,is to lift high, and focus on,the essence of the message of Jubilee.  It is a message of hope for all the poor and oppressed of the land.  It is a vision for the establishment of truth and justice for all the land and its inhabitants.  It is an inclusive message so that peace and security can be achieved for all.

In its essence, this vision of Jubilee requires the following:

• The Israeli government needs to recognize the reality of the presence of the Palestinian people – Christians and Muslims in their land, Palestine.These inhabitants have been living in Palestine long before the establishment of the state of Israel. They are not here by accident.  God willed for them to be here from time immemorial.  They are the offspring of all the nations that inhabited the land for thousands of years.
• By denying occupation, Israel is putting its head in the sand.The whole world recognizes the illegality of the occupation, and yet Israel says there is no occupation.Israel continues to live the lie that it can create facts on the ground that are irreversible. In fact, honesty and truth constitute the dawn of Jubilee.
• Israel needs to recognize that Palestinians have rights that Israel has taken a way by force. These rights must be returned in accordance to justice in the eyes of God and in line with international law.  These rights must be returned.  This is the essence of the concept of Jubilee.
• The rights of the Palestinian refugees are enshrined and guaranteed by international law and by God’s justice. The Jubilee demands their return and rehabilitation.
• The Palestinian prisoners, detainees, and all those held under administrative detention, must be released so they can return to their families and to their normal way of life. It is a return of their dignity and humanity that they were stripped of by Israel.  This is Jubilee.
• The cancellation of debts is also a sign of Jubilee, especially those debts that have been incurred as a result of heavy fines imposed on Palestinians who are unjustly accused and indicted. This is Jubilee.
• Jubilee calls for the removal of all checkpoints and the tearing down of the apartheid wall and the guarantee of free access of Palestinians to Jerusalem and the rest of the country. It calls for the cessation of all measures to empty Jerusalem of its Palestinian population. This is what Jubilee means.

2017 is a Jubilee year because it allows us, as people of faith, to hear the cry of the oppressed in this land who have been denied freedom and to restore it to them.  It allows the government of Israel to listen to God’s voice, to the voice of the international community and to the voice of human morality and justice.  God has created us free and it is a sin and a crime for Israel to shackle and imprison us.

God has proclaimed a Jubilee year to call us to repentance and responsibility.  God is challenging us to respond to the demands of Jubilee.  God is calling on the government of Israel to seize this Jubilee opportunity, to return to its senses, to take the initiative, and to implement the requirements of Jubilee.  God is calling on the people of Israel to open their eyes and to listen to the voice of reason, morality, and justice.  Above all, to listen to God’s voice and proclaim liberation to all the people of the land for the benefit of all the people of the land. The psalmist wrote, “If you hear his voice harden not your hearts”  (Psalm 95).

Naim Ateek

Chair, Sabeel Board
Jerusalem
November 10, 2017

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Bishop Edmond Browning’s Funeral
Trinity Cathedral

Portland, OR
July 19, 2016

On behalf of SabeeI and Friends of Sabeel I would like to express my deepest condolences and sincere sympathies to Patti Browning and to all the Browning family. We share your grief.  We also loved Bishop Browning; and we give thanks to God for his life and witness.

It is a great honor and privilege to be asked to take part in this funeral service for a person I loved, admired, and respected greatly.

Bishop Browning was the President of Friends of Sabeel North American from its inception in 1966 until he became president emeritus in 2012.  He and Patti visited us in Jerusalem a number of times.  They were both dedicated to the quest for a just peace in Palestine-Israel.  In one of our international conferences, Bishop Browning was the keynote speaker in Jerusalem.  He and Patti were true friends and staunch supporters of Sabeel’s ministry.

When I think of Bishop Browning, two words come to mind:

The first is HUMILITY:  During my high school days in Nazareth, we had to memorize the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling.  One of its stanzas reads, “If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, or walk with kings …nor lose the common touch.”  These words, I believe fit well Bishop Browning.  During his time as presiding bishop, he met with presidents and world leaders and he had a good collection of photos with them.  On a visit to their home in Hood River, I expected to see those pictures displayed in the living room.   To my surprise they were relegated to a lesser visible place in the house.   This is the kind of person Bishop Browning was.  He walked with kings and presidents but did not lose the common touch.  He was reachable, approachable, and accessible.  “God gives grace to the humble.”

The second is COURAGE:  Bishop Browning had a soft voice but a big heart and a great courage.  In the Gospels, Jesus criticized religious leaders for having eyes but could not see.  Bishop Browning’s eyes could see.  He saw the agony of the victims of injustice.  When he visited Palestine, he felt with the Palestinians who were living under the oppressive Israeli occupation of their country.  Like Bishop Desmond Tutu who also visited us, he could see and feel the injustice and oppression.  In 2003, with the help of Bishop Browning, we were able to invite Bishop Tutu to become the international patron of Sabeel.  And he continues in this role to this day.   Bishop Browning took a courageous stand for justice for the Palestinians.  Even when it was not fashionable, he stood on the side of the marginalized.  For Bishop Browning, there were no outcasts.   His stance reflected the spirit of love and compassion for the victims of discrimination.

As we pay our respect for this dear friend and brother, I believe he still has a pertinent message for us all:  “Don’t forget the victims of discrimination and racism in your communities.  Work for their liberation.”  And I would like to think that he has a special word to the leadership of our Episcopal Church, bishops, clergy, and lay:  “Don’t forget the Palestinians.  They too are God’s children.  Champion their just cause, and work for their liberation so that they and their Israeli neighbors may live in security and peace.”

Canon Naim Ateek

Chair of Sabeel Board