Protest Against the Ahava ad on the Patheos Platform

Dear friends,

I am, for a few years now, a subscriber to some of your newsletters, which I find very useful and informative.

I am writing to you because of something that troubles me lately on your newsletter.

On the Patheos newsletter, that I receive regularly, there is for some time now a prominent publicity add for Ahava products. As you probably know, these are produced by an Israeli company functioning on stolen Palestinian land, in the occupied West Bank. I find this add questionable from an ethical point of view. I hope you do too, even if you may not agree with a DBS approach on these matters, as I do (remember the way DBS worked in debunking the apartheid system in South Africa)..

Do you think there is anything we could do to have this add removed from the newsletter? Thanks a lot, and sorry to bother with this. It is important for me, as someone who worked for over 16 years for World Vision in the Middle East, and I have witnessed first hand the utter suffering produced by the Israeli occupation in the (not so) holy land.

Yours faithfully

Danut Manastireanu, PdD

Munther Isaac – Palestinian Christians React to Israeli Ambassador’s Claims about Holy Land Churches

Palestinians praying for justice (Source, Sojourners)

Two weeks ago, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, claimed in an article in The Wall Street Journal that the exodus of Palestinian Christians from the West Bank and Gaza is the fault of Palestinian Muslims. The article was full of inaccuracies and even lies, and Palestinian Christians responded with anger and disgust. The Wall Street Journal then featured some of these responses.

This is a serious issue for Palestinian Christians. We are not saying that radical Islam is not a threat. We are not denying that there are some struggles that we face as a minority. We are not denying that there are some incidences in which Christians were attacked by radical Muslims, like in the death of Rami Ayyad in Gaza.

What we are saying, is that for us, the real issue and the core of our struggles is the Israeli occupation. The occupation is real. It has been our reality for the last 45 years. It is the main reason why Palestinian Christians are leaving. Every Palestinian Christian leader and every major Christian movement, Orthodox, Catholics, and Protestants alike, have stressed this. The Kairos Palestine document, which clearly states that the occupation is the core issue for Palestinian Christians, was endorsed by all the heads of the churches. In addition, when one speaks about the exodus of Palestinian Christians from the Holy Land, it must be stressed that almost 50,000-60,000 Christians were forced to leave historical Palestine as a result of the Nakba of 1948.

Munther Isaac: A Palestinian Christian Perspective

Munther Isaak, is a young Palestinian leader teaching theology at Bethlehem Bible College. He is presently reading for a doctorate in theology at the Oxford Centre for Missions Studies.

Palestinian Prime Minister Dr. Salam Fayyad addresses the Christ at the Checkpoint 2012 Conference

Antisemitism?

(Thanks to Sami Awad for this cartoon.)

Palestinian Christians Want A Peace Lamp in Every Church

Taybeh Village, in West Bank, Palestine

PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS WANT A PEACE LAMP IN EVERY CHURCH

By Emma Halgren (*)

Its population may be dwindling, but the Palestinian village of Taybeh is striving to maintain normality in the midst of conflict, and hope in the midst of oppression.

Taybeh, 14 kilometres north east of Ramallah, is one of the few predominantly Christian villages in Palestine. Like villages all over the West Bank, it is suffering as many of its people decide to emigrate, seeing no other choice given the economic and physical hardship they suffer under Israeli occupation.