Women and children in Gaza are bearing the heavy brunt of the ongoing war, according to reports from the United Nations, with close to a million women and girls displaced and 12,882 women and children already perished in a war that has now raged for more than 100 days.
Marking 75 years since Al-Nakba—the Arabic term for the events of 1948, when many Palestinians were displaced from their homeland by the creation of the new state of Israel—religious leaders reflected on what Al-Nakba means today.
Here comes the bride. Donned in a wedding gown, Ribhieh Rajabi is walking over a pile of rubble in the Silwan neighborhood of Jerusalem. She’s surrounded by family, friends, journalists, and even strangers who came to show solidarity.
It’s not easy to be a youth leader in the Holy Land. “Our youth have a need to recognize God’s calling in their lives,” explained Nadine Bitar, general secretary of Christian Youth in Palestine, a group that supports youth leaders in the homeland of Jesus.
World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca visited Syria, alongside the Middle East Council of Churches secretary general Dr Michel Abs, the general secretary of ACT Alliance Rudelmar Bueno de Faria, and WCC senior advisor on peace building Michel Nseir.
As a six-year-old boy, Abu El Walid Dajani began helping his father manage the New Imperial Hotel near Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem. The historic property is owned by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, and leased before 1967 to the Dajani family to run as a hotel. Now 77, Dajani has become the manager. But the threat of eviction is derailing a way of life his family has known for generations.
Jack Munayer, coordinator for the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (WCC-EAPPI), recently visited the South Hebron Hills area with diplomatic delegates from eight different countries, as well as Israeli activists. The visit was organized by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The group visited families and listened to their stories with the goal of discerning the nature of hardship and trauma that the occupation continues to cause.
(Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI))של מועצת הכנסיות העולמית )(World Council of Churches (WCC) משיק יוזמת מזרח-ירושלים, באמצעותה ה-WCC-EAPPI מלווה – גם ללא נוכחות פיזית – משפחות העומדות בפני פינוי ועקירה, כמו גם אנשים העומדים בפני הפרות אחרות של זכויותיהם.להלן, מנהל ה-WCC בוועדת הכנסיות לעניינים בינלאומיים, פיטר פרוב, מסביר את היעדים וההיסטוריה שעומדים מאחורי יוזמת מזרח ירושלים.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) is beginning an East Jerusalem Initiative, through which the WCC-EAPPI is accompanying—even without a physical presence—families facing eviction and displacement, as well as people facing other violations of their rights. Below, WCC director of the Commission for the Churches on International Affairs Peter Prove explains the goals and history behind the East Jerusalem Initiative.
On Sunday 27 June, WCC central committee member the Very Rev. Fr Hrant Tahanian from the Armenian Apostolic Church (Holy See of Cilicia)attended Divine Liturgy in the Cathedral of the Holy See of Cilicia, in Lebanon.