27th of October 2022
Next week’s Kumi Now will focus on the topic of Islamophobia. Over recent times there has been a rise in hate crimes against Muslims, as well as attempts in the Western media to link all Muslims with violent extremism. Not all Palestinians are Muslims and most Muslims never engage in any forms of violence and yet propaganda in the press is being used to present Palestinians as Muslim terrorists.
- Lord, we pray that we will all show respect for the humanity of those living in our communities who come from a different ethnic background or practice a different religion. Give us the courage to challenge prejudice and racism whenever we hear it expressed. Lord, in your mercy..
Shadi Khoury, a 16-year-old pupil at the Quaker Friends’ School in Ramallah and grandson of Sabeel’s co-founder, Samia Khoury, was kidnapped in the early hours of
Friday, the 18th of October, by Israeli occupation forces. He was beaten, blindfolded and dragged away from his home by twelve Israeli soldiers and security agents. He was taken for interrogation to the ‘Russian compound’.
- Lord God, we raise our voices together with Shadi’s grandmother Samia as she cries out, ’Until when will this grave injustice go on?’. We pray that Shadi may be swiftly released from prison and restored to his family. We pray for an end to the injustices perpetrated daily on the Palestinian people and their children by the Israeli occupation forces. Lord, in your mercy..
- Lord, we give thanks for the newly elected Chairman of Friends of Sabeel, Sweden and remember with gratitude the service of the outgoing Chairman, Kenneth Kimming. Lord, in your mercy..
The Israeli Prison Service imposed a ban on family visits to Palestinian prisoners on Sunday, the 2nd of October. The Prisoners’ Affairs Commission have contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross to ask for their assistance in calling for a reinstatement of family visits for humanitarian reasons. According to Addameer there are currently 4,700 Palestinian political prisoners, including 400 children, and 800 Palestinians placed on administrative detention orders.
- Lord, we pray that Palestinian prisoners will be able to see their relatives again and pray especially for Palestinian child prisoners, those imprisoned for years without charge, for those kept in solitary confinement. Lord, in your mercy…
Last week Father Albert Nolan died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 88 years. He was a Dominican priest and theologian and was fully engaged in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. In 1973 he became the National Chaplain of the Catholic Federation of Students and gave guidance and support to young Catholics committed to opposing apartheid. He was working at the Institute for Contextual Theology in Johannesburg in 1985 when the Kairos document was published, which helped to unite many churches to take a stand against apartheid.
- Lord, we give thanks for the life and testimony of Father Albert. May the courage and commitment he showed through the dark days of the end of apartheid in South Africa remain an inspiration to us all. Lord, in your mercy..
By Thursday, the 20th of October, the city of Nablus had been kept under siege conditions for ten consecutive days by the Israeli army after one of their soldiers was killed near an illegal settlement. The army set up checkpoints at every road leading into the city and closed the roads using iron gates and dirt mounds. There have been calls for Nablus residents to take part in peaceful marches to the Israeli checkpoints to call for the end of the siege.
- Lord, we pray for an end to the Israeli military siege of Nablus. We pray that any peaceful protest marches that are organised stay peaceful and do not lead to any further escalation in violence. Lord, in your mercy..
Last week Israeli settlers attacked the volunteers helping Ibrahim Ibayyat, a Palestinian farmer as he was harvesting his olive crop in the village of Kisan, east of Bethlehem.
The settlers attacked local and foreign volunteers, stabbing one of them in the back and breaking her leg. They uprooted more than three hundred olive saplings and sprayed the mature trees with incendiary chemical pesticides.
- Lord, so many Palestinian families depend on the income from their olives for their livelihood and now have to risk their lives to gather in this essential crop. We pray that international governments and organisations will challenge the Israeli government for supporting settlers who commit brutal attacks on Palestinian farmers and their helpers. Lord, in your mercy…
Don Wagner travelled to Palestine last week to launch his memoir, which is entitled,
‘Glory to God in the Lowest: Journey to an Unholy Land’. The first book launch took place at the Wi’am Center: The Palestinian Conflict Transformation Center in Bethlehem and the second launch was held in the American Colony in Jerusalem.
- Lord, we give thanks for Don Wagner’s life of activism for Palestinian rights. We pray that many people will be encouraged by his memoir to engage with the Palestinian struggle against injustice and to come and see for themselves how Palestinians are forced to live under the Israeli occupation. Lord, in your mercy.
- We join with the World Council of Churches in their prayers for the countries of The Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Sint Maarten, St Kitts-Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago. Lord in your mercy…