Displaying items by tag: Palestine

Sirens blare, the ground shakes and many now spend the night in bomb shelters as rockets launched in Gaza rain down nonstop. Clashes between Israel and Hamas puts them on the brink of full-blown war. Previously Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) only fired rockets into southern Israel. Now they are sending dozens of rockets into the heart of Jerusalem. In response, Israel launched a military campaign in the Gaza Strip, demolishing Hamas news outlets, targeting Hamas headquarters, and killing PIJ and Hamas commanders. Hamas and PIJ have fired 1,000+ rockets at Tel Aviv and central Israel. The international airport has had to relocate to Eilat. Israel signed normalisation agreements with Arab states last year including the UAE, which has called on Israel to stop the violence and respect ‘the Holy al-Aqsa Mosque.’ Tensions began when Israeli police cracked down on Palestinians protesting at the mosque - followed by Hamas’s call to bomb Tel Aviv and kill Jews.

The 23 March election will be unique in Israel's modern history. One of the most important variables is the number of people in isolation or tested sick with Covid, who will forgo their right to vote at the last minute, in spite of stringent measures to protect their health. Also, an outbreak of infection in specific areas (Arab or Haredi communities) could sharply reduce turnout and affect votes for specific parties. Three of the top four parties are right-wing. Many are concerned about Israel's lack of progress toward peace with the Palestinians. They blame it on Israel's right-wing leaders and the Israelis who have shifted rightward because of the persistent ‘Palestinian failure to accept Israel's overtures for peace’, which has led to increased terrorism. Today most Israelis do not see the Palestinians as truly wanting peace. See

President Mahmoud Abbas has guaranteed that at least seven seats of a new legislative council will go to Christians in the elections in the occupied territories to be held on 22 May. Hanan Ashrawi, a Christian who recently resigned her position on the PLO’s executive committee, said she is uneasy about reserving seats for specific communities. However, the president of Bethlehem Bible College said, ‘This is an important and long-awaited opportunity for young Palestinian Christians to participate in this public process, whether as candidates or as voters’. Emigration due to violence has produced a huge drop in the Palestinian Christian population. Many believe the way to fight emigration is to give them reasons to stay. What is needed is a system that protects people and provides for their rights, not allow churches to become museums.

Palestinians have resumed launching incendiary and explosive balloons towards Israel. Israel has responded by bombing Hamas military sites in the Gaza Strip, closed the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing, stopped all fuel imports into Gaza, and reduced the fishing zone off the Gaza Strip from 15 to 8 nautical miles. Pray for the safety of innocent Palestinians living in the vicinity of Hamas military bases, underground infrastructures, and observation posts that are being targeted. Hamas said the latest Israeli actions amount to ‘a dangerous act of aggression and an uncalculated step for which the occupation will not be able to bear the consequences.’ Many believe fire balloon tactics are a way to force Israel to implement truce understandings reached through Egyptian, Qatari and UN mediation in 2018.

‘Annexation’ is actually Israel extending its civil rule over areas that are under its military rule. Whether Israel does this over a small area of what is in President Trump's peace plan, or over all of it, makes no substantive difference to nations and international organisations who are angry about what Israel might do. As this process drags on, it gets more confusing and the headlines become more depressing. Lord, guide Israel to know how you want them to pray and act so that You alone receive the glory (Psalm 115:1-3). The IDF and Israel's other security forces are preparing for an increase of violence over annexation. It is not known if this will lead to another intifada with many deaths, or just a brief display of anger followed by a let's-go-back-to-work attitude from the Palestinians. Currently the security forces are stopping an average of three terror attacks a day.

A woman leads the fight against coronavirus in the Palestinian territories, while at the same time it has brought more violence and suffering to women. Umm Iyad travels to the northern West Bank to follow up on emergency procedures as part of the efforts to stem the outbreak of coronavirus. She has been heading the village council since 2017, and is now head of the emergency committee. She is also working on a community initiative to cultivate land and grow vegetables to achieve self-sufficiency for the villagers. However, during lockdown, statistics showed social workers across the Palestinian governorates have been dealing with increased victims of domestic violence. 40% of women have been subjected to emotional and mental abuse, and 31% to physical abuse. 60% of the victims have fled their houses, and 21% attempted suicide.

Ministers pledged urgent action after it emerged that tens of millions of British foreign aid cash is funding schools in Gaza and the West Bank where textbooks on martyrdom and radical Islamism are used in school lessons. The money goes via a UN agency that some other nations have stopped financing because of concerns. The textbooks include a reading exercise for six-year-olds with the words 'martyr' and 'attack', poems for eight-year-olds include phrases such as 'sacrifice my blood' to 'eliminate the usurper from my country' and 'annihilate the remnants of the foreigners'. Teaching on Newton’s Second law for eleven-year-olds uses pictures of a boy with a slingshot targeting Israeli soldiers during the Palestinian uprising and nine-year-olds learn maths by adding the number of martyrs in Palestinian uprisings in textbooks illustrated with pictures of their funerals. Ten-year-olds learn that the most important thing is giving their life for 'sacrifice, fight, jihad, and struggle'.

On 12 November the Israel Defence Forces killed a senior commander of a Jihad terror group responsible for firing dozens of rockets out of the Gaza Strip. This prompted a massive retaliation of over seventy rockets fired at Israel’s civilian districts. The UK’s foreign office advised visitors that attacks could be indiscriminate, including places frequented by foreigners, and on public transport. Most embassies in Tel Aviv have heightened caution or have temporarily closed. Palestinian Islamic Jihad declared that it was preparing for war with Israel. By 13 November, 220 rockets had been fired as far north as Tel Aviv, with 90% intercepted by the army. Schools in the south and much of the centre were closed, keeping 1 million students at home, and a commando unit was deployed to secure border communities from possible infiltration. On 14 November a ceasefire was achieved, but just hours later five rockets were launched from the coastal enclave, with two of them intercepted by Israel’s army. See also

In Algeria and Sudan, peaceful protesters are continuing to demand genuine change, but the military - the most powerful institution in both countries - resist the calls. Both countries know that ousting an authoritarian leader is no guarantee of reform. In each case, Christian communities have added their voices to the calls for greater democracy and transparency. In the Holy Land, recent violence saw Islamic militants from Gaza launch 600+ rockets into Israel, and Israel responding with a heavy bombardment. Both sides eventually agreed a ceasefire, which is currently holding, but the UN envoy to the Middle East warned on 13 May that the risk of another war ‘remains imminent’. Half the Christian population has returned to Iraq following the collapse of IS, but they are returning to broken towns and Iran-backed militias in the Nineveh area. The search for peace, good governance, fairness, justice and dignity continues.

Donald Trump’s ‘Peace to Prosperity’ summit in Bahrain will mark the first phase of the roll-out of US plans for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But a Palestinian Authority spokesman has said that they will not be sending a representative. Some reports indicate that private Palestinian representatives will attend. Bahrain and the United States are hosting the economic leadership ‘workshop’ to share ideas, discuss strategies, and galvanise support for potential economic investments and initiatives that could be made possible by the upcoming US peace agreement. Although the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are sending delegations to participate, the spokesman said that any Palestinian who takes part will be nothing but a collaborator for the Americans and Israel.