Responding to Ceasefire
“To decolonize hope means to strip it of false positivity, to allow it to hold both light and shadow…. This ceasefire moment demands such a complex hope.” – Shadia Qubti (see below)
Responding to the ceasefire
We at CFOS are grateful that, as of this writing, the first phase of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has brought at least a temporary reprieve from the killing, injuring and endless destruction of the past 15 months, even as we know that the suffering will continue for years, if not decades. With our partners, we are deeply concerned about the increased violence in the West Bank by the IDF, the Israeli settlers and the occupation regime. Here are statements from key partners and friends about the ceasefire.
Kairos Palestine released a Statement about the Ceasefire on January 20. The statement counts the cost of Israel’s war on Gaza up to this point:
more than 47,000 Palestinians killed,
over 115,000 injured,
70% of structures damaged or destroyed, including over 250,000 homes,
more than 30 hospitals destroyed,
50 million tons of rubble, with rebuilding potentially extending to 2040.”
It notes that the Ceasefire is only a small and temporary first step, and it calls for accountability to the rulings of the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court, “immediate access to Gaza for journalists and international fact-finding missions,” and “the complete lifting of the illegal embargo on Gaza.”
Read the full statement here.
Jonathan Kuttab’s blog entry “Ceasefire Is Not the End” on the FOSNA site reinforces this theme. “The entire deal, even if all stages are agreed upon and implemented faithfully, still leaves a number of important questions unanswered.” These include governance of the Gaza Strip, access to humanitarian assistance, Israeli withdrawal, and vigilance about increased aggressive Israeli action in the West Bank.
Full statement here.
You will be strengthened and enlivened by the words of Daniel Bannoura posted on the CFOS Facebook page. “There’s a ceasefire, but the occupation isn't over. Apartheid isn't over. Systemic oppression isn’t over…. We hope. We pray. We persist.”
Daniel Bannoura is a Palestinian Christian currently working on his PhD in Theology from Notre Dame University and writing an introductory book on the Qu’ran. Together with Shadia Qubti, he was a speaker at our James Graff Memorial Lecture in November. Learn more about this eloquent activist here.
Fear, peace and decolonizing hope
We call your attention to an uncompromising and uplifting sermon by Shadia Qubti, Sunday January 26, preached to the congregation of Trinity-St Paul’s UC in Toronto, via link from Vancouver.
Entitled “Between Fear and Peace: Decolonizing Hope in Times of Uncertainty,” her message drew on Psalm 85 and on James 3.13-18: “The wisdom from above is pure, then peaceable” (3.17). “James reminds us that true wisdom begins with purity, the honesty to name things as they are,” and so to shed the triumphalism that infects Zionism and Christian Zionism. “Among the rubble I find signs of life refusing to be erased,” she said.
The YouTube link is here. The sermon starts at 48:00 and the Q&A at 1:38.20.
More on the November Solidarity Pilgrimage
The latest in an ongoing series of thoughtful and articulate reflections by participants in the Sabeel Solidarity Pilgrimage of last November, is from Elisabeth Raymer. It is entitled, “When I think of Palestine, I like to remember it in springtime.” Find it on the CFOS website, here. “I … think of new beginnings, of what it will take to rebuild Gaza, and historic Palestine; how it will take an international effort to right the hideous wrongs of not only yesterday but today — and of how sumud, and continuing to tell our stories, can help plant the seeds for that.”
Layan Nasir released from prison
Kairos Palestine and the Amos Trust are hosting a webinar with Palestinian Christian Layan Nasir, and human rights lawyer Tala Nasir from Addammeer (the Palestinian Prisoners support organisation). Layan Nasir, recently released after much international attention, was the only Palestinian Christian woman in Israeli detention. Participants in the November Solidarity Pilgrimage met her mother when Layan was still in prison. This Zoom webinar on “the horrific conditions experienced by Palestinians inside Israeli jails” takes place on Thursday, February 4, at 6 pm (UK). Register here.
Issa Amro, promoter of nonviolence
Like our Palestinian Christian partners, CFOS is committed to nonviolence as a moral principle and as a political strategy. Many Palestinian Muslims share that commitment. One of them is Issa Amro of Hebron in the West Bank. Often known as “the Gandhi of Palestine,” Issa teaches nonviolence to local Palestinian residents and volunteers, equipping them with the knowledge and practical tools they need to document frequent human rights abuses, to protect themselves during times of unrest, and to defend their rights during arrest or detention. They also teach English to Palestinian youth to help them share their story with the international community. Read a New York Times article about Issa here.
Some members of the Palestine Solidarity Pilgrimage spent a day with Issa in Hebron in November. They were deeply inspired by his nonviolent witness for Palestinian liberation in the context of constant Israeli settler violence and harassment. In early December Issa travelled to Stockholm, Sweden to receive a 2024 Right Livelihood Award (an alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize) on behalf of his organization Youth Against Settlements. Watch a video about the presentation here.