On Palestine, Israel, Peace, and Justice …
If you’re looking for a good introduction to the conflict in Israel and Palestine, here it is:
http://www.justpeaceforpalestine.org/
Sadly, in spite of some nods towards peace, unjust harrassment and intimidation of Palestinians by the Israeli government continues on a daily basis. A few weeks ago, I got an email from a friend in East Jerusalem saying that he was watching young Palestinians being taken off a public bus in front of his office … a “routine check” that lets Palestinians know that they are vulnerable at any moment to arrest with no explanation.
Another brutal technique of intimidation and harrassment is the use of house demolitions. A Christian leader in Palestine just sent out this alert:
Today at 2.00 pm in the afternoon, 2 officers from the Israeli Civil Administration guarded by Israeli soldiers came to our farm and gave us NINE demolishing orders for nine ( structures) we built in the last years without a building permit from the Israeli Military Authority. The demolishing orders are for: tents, animals shelters, metal roof in front of both old houses, the restrooms (Shelters) , a water cistern, a metal container and 2 underground renovated cave structures. One officer was writing the demolishing orders and the other was taking pictures with two cameras, Israeli soldiers were following them everywhere and pointing their guns on us.
The demolishing orders were written in Hebrew and I refused to sign receiving them. We have 3 days only to react against those demolishing orders. The timing for delivering the demolishing orders was plant properly and purposely on Thursday, in order to make it difficult for us to try to stop those orders by the Israeli court within 3 days, because of the Jewish weekend (Friday and Saturday). The idea is to make it impossible for us to act quickly. I contacted our Lawyer and he will write an opposition and send it to the military court on Sunday morning. We hope to get a paper from the court through our Lawyer on Sunday morning to stop the demolishing orders.
If you want to learn more about the brutal reality of house demolitions, here’s a good source: http://www.icahd.org/eng/
We can all serve as witnesses, to tell the truth about what is going on, to refuse to remain silent and complacent when innocent people are mistreated … please join me in praying for peace with justice in Palestine, and please stay alert.
