Last month, after eight years of legal proceedings, Israeli authorities expelled the 13-member elderly Basha family from their historic family home on al-Wad Street in the Old City of Jerusalem, which their ancestors have lived in since the 1930s.  The house was given over to settlers. Al-Wad Street is the most crowded street in the area, serving as a lifeline for residents and visitors due to its proximity to al-Aqsa Mosque and the Via Dolorosa. Residents fear that the takeover is the first of many to come on a street that is central to Palestinian history and life in the Old City.

Hiroshima Day was commemorated on August 6, and Nagasaki Day was observed on August 9. These two days commemorate the American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The aerial bombings killed 150,000 to 246,000 people, most of whom were civilians. In the decades after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the United States threatened many times to use its nuclear weapons, and over 12,000 nuclear warheads still exist today across the world. In Gaza, a city three times smaller than Hiroshima, Israel has dropped an estimated 200,000 tons of bombs, which is the size of roughly 14 Hirsohima sized atomic bombs.

Israel recently approved construction for a designated area of southern Gaza that will be designed to reshape reality on the ground and permanently fragment Gaza. Dubbed “Green Rafah”, the project is designed to create isolated cantons under total Israeli administrative and security control, forcing Palestinians there to either submit to Israeli policies, be imprisoned, or emigrate.

The Hosanna Preaching Project is a program of the Palestine Justice Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The project was established in 2014 to challenge and equip preachers to engage with issues of Palestinian justice using the best contemporary theological resources. The project will hold a one-day seminar on August 13. The seminar will help participants develop more authentic stories about the realities on the ground and speak to their local communities with honesty and urgency. More information can be found at www.hosannapreachingproject.com.

Last week was the Feast of the Transfiguration, commemorates the moment when Jesus revealed his divine glory to Peter, James and John atop a mountain. Sabeel invited biblical scholar Dr. Sylvia Keesmaat to reflect on the theme of the Transfiguration at Sabeel’s Thursday Service, the recording of which can be viewed on Sabeel’s Youtube channel. Sabeel also created a shareable post on the Transfiguration, which is viewable and shareable on Sabeel’s Instagram account.