For the first time in four years, the Church school children of St. George Greek Orthodox Church of Taybeh took a bus ride to Jerusalem to venerate Christ’s Holy Tomb. Some have never gone out of the village since their birth. Michel, the oldest altar boy said this was the best trip he has taken in his life. He was in awe as he also visited the tomb of the Mother of God and the Garden of Gethsemane. With the new Separation Wall currently being built it might be the last trip he takes. Simply you can just say that Palestinians will be in an open area prison causing more frustration and aggravation than already exists.
For the first time in four years, the Church school children of St. George Greek Orthodox Church of Taybeh took a bus ride to Jerusalem to venerate Christ’s Holy Tomb. Some have never gone out of the village since their birth. Michel, the oldest altar boy said this was the best trip he has taken in his life. He was in awe as he also visited the tomb of the Mother of God and the Garden of Gethsemane. With the new Separation Wall currently being built it might be the last trip he takes. Simply you can just say that Palestinians will be in an open area prison causing more frustration and aggravation than already exists.
The Christian community in the Holy Land sometimes remains silent when it comes to practicing our traditions and teachings of Christ. These children need to hear a louder voice that promotes non violence and peaceful resolutions to the terrible conflict that has left the Holy Land trenched in blood the last four years. I am turning to the Heads of Churches in the Holy Land for answers to gaining a stronger Christian unity and voice from Jerusalem.
The answer to the current conflict is an end to the occupation and His Beatitude Michel Sabah, the Latin Patriarch in Jerusalem believes any government represented by its own people is better than the current occupation. Even if it means being treated worse under an Arab government, His Beatitude strongly believes Palestinians should be in charge of their own destiny and work to create a democratic moderate government.
Question: What is the future of the Christian community in the Holy Land?
His Beatitude: We will remain as we are now in small numbers.
Question: How to you see the Christian-Muslim relationships in Palestine?
His Beatitude: They are good. We have our reality. We must live with the reality before us. I have no choice except to accept the reality.
Question: Are Christians suffering in the Holy Land?
His Beatitude: Everyone is suffering. We have to suffer as everyone else is suffering.
Question: What can local Christians do to have a stronger voice from Jerusalem?
His Beatitude: We have to have a strategy of non-violence and we need people who think and not people who just talk. We need thinkers.
Question: What can others do to help the Christian community in the Holy Land?
His Beatitude: Foreigners can act to stop the conflict but no one is allowed to speak in our own name. We are allowed to speak in the name of the Christian community only. No one has a right to speak for me, the local Palestinian Christian.
Question: Where do you get your strength when you are depressed?
His Beatitude: We believe in God. God is strong.
His Beatitude makes every effort to operate quality Christian schools throughout Palestine and Jordan that promote peaceful resolutions however the reality of our situation is that children are exposed to violence every single minute. On the first day of June while some children across the world were celebrating their birthdays or going to after school activities, the children of Rafa (Gaza) could not even have the right to a regular school day.
An Israeli military tank stationed on sand dunes several hundred meters from UNRWA’s Al-Umariye Elementary Boys’ School opened fire on the Tel Es-Sultan district of Rafah. Several shots hit the school building and one hit the window frame of a second-floor classroom. The bullet, or shrapnel from the window, entered the classroom where it struck two ten year old boys. The Israeli’s army indifference to the sanctity of schools and the United Nation flags flying over them is an outrage. The Israeli army is violating all humanitarian norms and we have not been able to create a strong enough voice from the Holy Land to tell the world about it. !
A prominent Christian leader who wishes not to be identified insists that we need to learn from the Jewish community how to be organized. He said that even if there is a little attack on a Jewish cemetery in France immediately the whole world will know about it. The president of France will rush to say sorry and many international leaders will be interviewed to express their sorrow. So how is it that Jewish people in France have more rights than Palestinian people in Rafa?
This devoted leader also said that we need to work on the international level to recover some basic rights for Christian people in the Holy Land. Right now there is a hidden target in the Holy Land and it is the Church. Therefore a stronger voice must come from Jerusalem that Christians have a place in this Holy City since our Lord was crucified, buried, resurrected and ascended to heaven from the City of Peace. It is ironic however that this city has never had peace. However, this sacred land is the birthplace of Christianity and we have to fight the mentality that Christians do not need Jerusalem since they have Rome.
As concerned citizens can you please call your local leaders today and remind them that all children in the world including Palestinian children living in Rafa have the right to have access to schools and education and the right to feel secure in their classrooms. It is through a just peace that the violence in the Middle East will stop not through war and more weapons.
May the Lord help us to teach our children “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength and with all your mind and our neighbor as yourself.” (Mark 12:30-31)
