The Colombian social organizations led by women are always the most vulnerable and least heard.  Sometimes I wish God's justice came swiftly and unquestioned the way Jesus dispensed it in Mark 5:21-29.  I see women who denounce the perverse and announce that which gives life, that which is to be enjoyed and shared with others.  Others today may be touched by the mantle that thousands of years ago reached out to a woman condemned by doctors and society to remain sick and excluded all her life.  We cannot ignore this story in our culture that silences women's voices—a society that chooses to isolate women because women don't live up to its standards.  It is a culture that constantly represses and trivialises the work of hundreds of mothers, sisters, sisters-in-law, and daughters.  At end of the day we hear these voices calling, "There is only one hope to see a different tomorrow."

We have learned that some of our reporting on the conflict here in Kurdistan could be used to justify military action against Iran.

Our  team in recent months has included Canadian, European, Kurdish, and U.S. members. From our CPT family and from world news, we are aware that no one beats the drum of war louder and with such zeal as the U.S. media and their allies, including Israel and certain members of the European Union. 

We do not wish to be a part of this.

PRAYERS FOR PEACEMAKERS, Feb. 1, 2012

Pray for Claire Evans, long-time CPT member, as she begins hospice care. Give thanks for her faithful work for peace and justice.

The multicolored van wove its way along the rocky dirt road, and gently up a hill. Looking ahead I could see them -- twenty five or so young children dressed in their school uniforms, standing in front of the building, swarming about their two teachers. As they spied our vehicle (not terribly hard to do), they began to jump up and down, jog in place, and wave to us.

PRAYERS FOR PEACEMAKERS, Jan. 25, 2012

Pray with CPT for all First Nations people in Canada taking leadership in stopping the Tar Sands project. Oil production from the sands would sacrifice land, ecosystems, human health, and cultural heritage.

Undeterred by heavily armed border police at the Qitoun checkpoint that CPTers monitor because schoolchildren and teachers must walk through it, the teenager who sells ka'ak (a chewy sesame bread) argues with soldiers every morning until they finally unlock the gate to the checkpoint and let him and his cart through. On Martin Luther King Day, however, they were ignoring him, so he finally walked back over to the gate, picked up a rock, broke the padlock, and pushed his cart through. The Border Police pushed him back and locked the gate. Another day, another time, they could have beaten him up or arrested him as has happened many times to young men his age in Hebron, and he must have known that, but he was literally determined to go about his business.

Bombing of the border areas and completion of the opinion survey.

The team completed its survey of public opinion regarding Turkish and Iranian bombing of the border with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) area, and distributed it to media, government officials, political groups, universities, non-governmental organizations, the Suleimaniya mayor’s office, and the embassies of Iran, Turkey, France and the USA. On 5 December, Thiessen, Firla and Mohammed Salah held a news conference at the Culture Café to publicize the survey, which then received considerable attention in local media. The team also held vigils outside the KRG parliament in Hawler (Erbil) to highlight the bombings. On 21 December, the team, border villagers Mr. Bapir and Mr. Khidr, and the Federation of NGOs, met with the parliament’s Human Rights Committee (HRC) to present the survey and a detailed report done by the Federation on the damage to life and property from the bombing. The HRC promised to visit the villages to see the damage, and the villagers asked CPT to join them to witness the visit if it happens.

PRAYERS FOR PEACEMAKERS, Jan. 18, 2012

Pray with CPT for all living near an Israeli outpost settlement demolished Jan. 11 in the Al-Khalil (Hebron) area. The Israeli military has previously destroyed nearby Palestinian homes following outpost demolitions, while settlers have attacked Palestinian civilians and Israeli soldiers.

By today's standards it is difficult to justify the morality of the conquest and subsequent colonization of Africa, much of Asia, and the Americas, by predominantly white, militarily-superior, European powers during the previous millennium. What was once assumed as evidently being God's will--"Manifest Destiny" as it was called at the time--is no longer a politically acceptable justification for the invasion, genocide, dispossession and colonialization of other peoples' countries and other peoples' lands. 

On the night of 11 January 2012, the Israeli military demolished the outpost settlement that overlooks the neighborhood of al-Bowereh on the northeastern edge of al-Khalil/Hebron. Often in the past, when the Israeli military has demolished outposts (including this particular outpost), settlers have attacked Palestinian civilians, their homes, and animals in what Israelis refer to as “price tag” attacks.  In recent months, settlers have also attacked Israeli soldiers tasked with carrying out the dismantling of outpost settlements, the building of which is illegal under both Israeli and international law.