Now that I have seen....I am responsible

Over a month ago Michaela, our former Parish Secretary at Sacred Heart Church in Hove, began a very challenging, lonely, potentially dangerous - but very important and worthwhile – role in Palestine.

She is serving a three months’ assignment for the World Council of Churches as a Human Rights Observer with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme, based in Bethlehem; the Observers ‘provide a protective presence to vulnerable communities, monitor and report human rights abuses  and support Palestinians and Israelis working together for a just peace.’     

(The rhetoric may perhaps be a little disingenuous and even-handed for I suspect there are few Israeli communities needing Michaela’s protective presence - but that does not in any way diminish the need to help the Palestinian ones that are suffering).

Read Michaela’s blog and make your own minds up. In ‘Emptying the Breadbasket’ she quotes a (presumably) Israeli resident of (the illegal) Quedar settlement as saying “The Arabs have 22 states that they can live in and there is only one Jewish State. They want to kill us.’ If ever a situation called for communication, negotiation, compromise, goodwill and trust...this is it.

It’s not just the Moslem Palestinians who feel subjugated; when I spent a week in Israel a few months ago those Christian Palestinians that I spoke to shared that feeling. Knowing Michaela, she is going to do what she can to aid all the descendants of Abraham, even if it is just by shining a light on some shameful activities that hide in the darkness of prejudice and oppression.

Pray for her... and check out her blog.

http://beyondthebarrrier.blogspot.com/