Want to keep Christ in Christmas? Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, care for the sick, comfort the afflicted, love the outcast, inspire the hopeless.

Yusuf / Cat Stevens #Peace #Gaza #Palestine #Jesus

Photo: A two-year old child in Al-Shati Refugee Camp in Gaza Strip by Ali Jadallah

Yusuf / Cat Stevens

@YusufCatStevens

Child tormentors are damned by the tongue of Jesus (peace be upon him) Jesus invited a little child to stand among them. “Truly I tell you,” He said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” (Matthew 18:2) Photo: A two-year old child in Al-Shati Refugee Camp in Gaza Strip by Ali Jadallah #Peace #Gaza #Palestine #Jesus

 

https://x.com/YusufCatStevens/status/1950812007231541345

 

It should't have got this bad to alert the world to what’s been going on #Peace #Gaza #Palestine #Children    https://x.com/YusufCatStevens/status/1949863843351458277

 

What 60,000+ people looks like - it’s mind blowing... now consider the number killed in Gaza. #Peace #Gaza #Perspective   https://x.com/YusufCatStevens/status/1946188107755253990 

 

 

DO SOMETHING 

Yusuf / Cat Stevens

@YusufCatStevens

 #Peace #Gaza #Compassion #Humanity

https://x.com/YusufCatStevens/status/1939974830192726057/photo/1

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]  

LOVE, DESPITE ALL DIFFICULTIES AND OPPRESSION: We reflected collectively on this theme from the context of our suffering as Palestinian Christian women. We hope to inspire other women around the world to bear with one another in love during troubled times. ...

Art by Halima Aziz created in honor of the World Day of Prayer 2024

 

“I Beg You… Bear With One Another in Love”

Ephesians 4:1-3
March 1, 2024 ​

This program calls us to bear with each other in love, despite all difficulties and oppression. The program was written by a group of ecumenical Christian Palestinian women in response to the passage from Ephesians 4:1-7. We reflected collectively on this theme from the context of our suffering as Palestinian Christian women. We hope to inspire other women around the world to bear with one another in love during troubled times. ​

 https://worlddayofprayer.net/palestine-2024.html

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History & Culture

Who among you has not heard of this tiny spot in the Middle East, that for over 3000 years has been significant to three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

However, the region is much older and has had many names, depending on the many tribes that have settled at different times in the land. The land has been nourished by an unfolding series of civilizations and structures because of its strategic position as a crossroad to three continents: Asia, Africa and Europe. 

In 1967, when Israel occupied the Palestinian territories, Western powers called the region the West Bank, because it was on the west bank of the Jordan River. After the Oslo Accords of 1993-1995, the West Bank was divided into Areas A, B and C. In order to travel between any of the areas in the West Bank, Palestinians must go through checkpoints. 

As of July 31, 2019, 138 of the 193 United Nations member states have recognized Palestine as a state, and the Palestinian flag now flies outside of the United Nations. 

There is a perception/belief around the world that women in the Middle East region are passive, silent, and non-influential. However, the role of women in Palestine (both historically and in modern times) is active and influential. They are steadfast, strong and courageous.

Although Palestinian women have played an influential role in society, there is still room for better conditions. Recently, some Protestant churches have progressed on gender issues, such as ordaining Sally Azar as the first Palestinian female pastor in Palestine.

About the Art & Artist

Halima Aziz (b.1999 in Hagen, Germany) is a passionate Palestinian visual artist and design student based in Germany. She spent her childhood in Palestine. Halima experienced the war in Gaza in 2008 and survived it. In 2009 she moved back to Germany. 

This artwork is made in honor of the World Day of Prayer. Through her artwork, Halima represents three Palestinian women praying together in nature in a peaceful place. In her work, she has different motives and symbols that indicate the origin of these women and their cohesion​.

Olive trees/ branches are a sign of everlasting and abundant life because they can live for thousands of years. 

The golden roots are underlining the fact that the Palestinians will always exist and as they exist, they will always resist for their rights and freedom. Poppy flowers are abundant and meaningful to Palestinians. They remind Palestinians of loved ones who have given their lives for their country. 

The women are wearing traditional Palestinian dresses like the tatreez (embroidery) thobe (dress) or the white scarf. And the keys are a symbol of the hope to return back to Palestine.

Christians for a Free Palestine just shut down the US Senate cafeteria. If our leaders don't let Gaza eat, then they don't deserve to eat lunch.

Christians for a Free Palestine just shut down the US Senate cafeteria. If our leaders don't let Gaza eat, then they don't deserve to eat lunch.

Rev’d Munther Isaac, Pastor of Christmas Lutheran Church, Bethlehem in Palestine: "When churches justify a genocide or are silent...."

Rev’d Munther Isaac, Pastor of Christmas Lutheran Church, Bethlehem in Palestine

 

Growing Gardens for Palestine... Sliman Mansour: The Nazarene (الناصري), oil on canvas, 1993 . Happy Easter from Palestine عيد فصح مجيد من فلسطين

 Sliman Mansour: The Nazarene (الناصري), oil on canvas, 1993 . Happy Easter from Palestine عيد فصح مجيد من فلسطين

The Nazarene (الناصري), oil on canvas, 1993 . Happy Easter from Palestine عيد فصح مجيد من فلسطين

 

Star Street, Bethlehem... In the run up to Christmas across the world, take a look at this picture, this small street where historically pilgrims entered the city of Bethlehem walking towards the Nativity Church, and remember, it all started there....in Palestine

Star Street, Bethlehem...

In the run up to Christmas across the world, take a look at this picture, this small street where historically pilgrims entered the city of Bethlehem towards the Nativity Church, and remember, it all started there....in Palestine...

 

Divestment question before Presbyterians: Firms connected to West Bank dispute would not get funds

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine] 

http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/divestment-question-before-presbyterians-643251/#ixzz1zgOsqgQw

By Benjamin Mueller / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 

In a closely watched vote that followed a day of intense deliberations, the Committee on Middle East and Peacemaking Issues of the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly approved a resolution Tuesday morning to divest from companies whose products are used by Israel to enforce occupation of the West Bank. The vote was 36 in favor, 11 opposed, and one abstention.
The resolution recommends that the church divest from Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions and Hewlett-Packard after an eight-year corporate engagement process yielded no reforms.
The general church body will vote on the resolution this week.

According to Brian Ellison, chair of the Mission Responsibility Through Investment committee, Hewlett-Packard sells hardware used by Israel in its naval blockade of Gaza; Motorola Solutions supplies surveillance technology to Israeli settlements; and Caterpillar provides bulldozers that raze Palestinian homes.

Jim Dugan, a spokesman for Caterpillar, wrote in an email that Caterpillar does not sell machines directly to Israel, but rather through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales Program.

The vote came after a long day Monday during which committee members heard impassioned testimony from American Jews, Arab Christians and Presbyterians. Supporters of divestment said that Christian values compelled them not to invest in companies that profit from an unjust occupation....READ MORE

Waters performing "Comfortably Numb" during The Wall Live in Kansas City, 30 October 2010

Roger Waters,  founding member of the British rock band Pink Floyd: "The waters of this debate will inevitably be muddied, as they always are, by erroneous accusations of anti-Semitism leveled at those who favor selective divestment from companies complicit in Israel's long record of human rights violations. I urge the Presbyterians assembled in Pittsburgh not to be intimidated, but to stand confident with the support of people of conscience everywhere, including tens of thousands of Jewish Americans who support divestment as an ethical obligation to end complicity in the occupation. I urge Presbyterians to adopt their selective divestment motion to make the price of collusion in human rights violations higher, and to send a message of hope to the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation and apartheid."  Presbyterians should support Palestinian aspirations