Pray with CPT for the First Nation of Kitchenuhmaykoosib
Inninuwug. The Ontario government is enabling a mining company to do
exploratory work where the nation's sacred burial grounds are located, in defiance of the
community's wishes.
On the night of 28 November, a Palestinian man threw two
Molotov cocktails at the Israeli military checkpoint in Hebron’s Qitoun
neighborhood. In response, the military and border police fired tear gas,
entered houses in the neighborhood, and forced about fifty men to stand outside
in the cold for almost exactly two hours while they checked their IDs. The
military arrested one Palestinian man and detained three more after they
allowed the residents of the neighborhood to return to their homes.
On 24 November 2011, at 9:00 am, the Israeli army, with more
than five Israeli army jeeps and two bulldozers, drove into the small village
of Um Fagarah and demolished two houses and the village mosque. During the
demolition, they arrested a twenty-one-year-old woman and a seventeen-year-old
woman. They left one hour later.
One of the demolished homes belonged to a widow and her family; the other
housed an extended
family of twenty. The soldiers did not have demolition orders or give any
explanation for the demolitions, but called the village women 'whores' and
entered at a time of day when most of the men were away at work.
Mark wastes no time in telling his readers that God's work
is not happening in the city centers or places of power. It is happening in the
"wilderness," far from the sophisticated temples or important
decision makers. And “all the
people of Jerusalem” knew it then—they were coming from "the whole Judean
countryside." Imagine what
the elite thought about their temples emptied because a man dressed in camel's
hair who ate locusts was baptizing their followers.
And the people know it now. Here in Colombia, too, the people are gathering—not in
places of power but in the campo, or countryside. CPT recently accompanied local partner, ASORVIMM, a victim's
rights organization based in Barrancabermeja, on a trip to facilitate workshops
on communal land titling. They
called out to students, campesinos, indigenous folks, victims of displacement,
young, old, women, men, and children, who gathered in San Lorenzo, a small
village overlooking a beautiful lake. Some people traveled two days to get there. The gathering was anything but the
"center" in the eyes of society.
On Tuesday, 15
November 2011, six Palestinians stood at the bus stop outside the settlements
of Psagot and Migron, and boarded a bus used by settlers to travel to Jerusalem. When CPT’s Hebron team heard about the
action on the internet, they sent three members to accompany the six Freedom
Riders, as the activists referred to themselves.
Although no law explicitly forbids Palestinians from
boarding the Israeli buses in the West Bank, racial and ethnic discrimination
and the fact that Palestinians are not allowed to travel to Jerusalem where the
Central Bus Station is, create a separate system of transportation that is
off-limits to the Palestinians, but open to Israelis.
Give thanks that nonviolent organizing among villagers in
the South Hebron Hills of Palestine has grown. As CPT’s permanent presence
there ends, pray for continued work with the villagers and other partners in
the West Bank city of Al-Khalil (Hebron).
"You will see the coming of the Human
One... in Colombia"
by Alix Lozano
The story of
the coming of the Human One is located in the center of this type of
eschatological discourse [studies of the end of times]. The cosmic shock is typical of
apocalyptic prophecy and used to introduce the great acts of God and give a
twist to the story. The Parousia (presence) is presented as the
day of the great gathering of all the people of God; therefore, it cannot be a
day of fear but of joy.
At Merkagia, the team was welcomed warmly by the old friends, Mr. N. and Mr. G. They told the team that this summer, as
in past years, Turkish fighter jets have bombed or engaged in low-level
flights, which frighten the farmers in the area. On 21 August, a day of religious
celebration, Turkish jets bombed fields in the vicinity, with a substance
similar to napalm. Mr. G. shared
his thoughts about Marxism, Communism, and Christianity. He also told the story of his seven
years’ imprisonment in the 1970s during Saddam Hussein’s regime. He joined a hunger strike in solidarity
with his comrades and other detainees while in jail for political activism.
The CPTers suggested that they return to the village to help harvest
apples when the season comes. The CPTers
left with gifts of two boxes of peaches and apples from the village orchards.
Culture Festival in Ranya: Meeting ethnic groups of Northern Iraq
The team was invited by the Ranya center to attend the 2011 cultural festival
in Ranya. Participants were performers
from several ethnic groups in the northern Iraq, including Turkmen, Yazidi,
Assyrian Christian, Kurdish, Lur, and Hawraman. The Arab group was not able to attend the festival because
of safety concerns. Thousands of
people attended two nights of performances on an outdoor stage. Performers also participated in a dialog
forum. The team had a short conversation
with members of the Yazidi minority and learned about the social class,
religious beliefs, poverty, and violence in the Yazidi area.
A short video of the performance by Assyrian Christians from Mosul (Nineva) is
available here.
The
link to the 15 November 2011 Peacemaker Congress release about Sylvia
Morrison's presentation did not come through in the e-mail. You may
access herpresentation at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV8BEdhvLyI.
Fagarah and demolished two houses and the village mosque. During the
demolition, they arrested a twenty-one-year-old woman and a seventeen-year-old
woman. They left one hour later.
Palestinians are not allowed to travel to Jerusalem where the
Central Bus Station is, create a separate system of transportation that is
off-limits to the Palestinians, but open to Israelis. 