Kairos Palestine Newsletter-February 2016

Kairos greetings from the little town of Bethlehem! Here at the Kairos office we are grateful for yet another month filled with successful and ambitious activities. The hopeful spirit of Kairos is always encouraging us to keep working and fighting for a just and better future for the Palestinian people suffering from the injustice and inhumane acts under the occupation.

Kairos Palestine welcomes the New Year with high hopes and expectations. At the same time we are deeply saddened by the loss of Dr. Geries Khoury, a Kairos Palestine board member and co-author of the document. Dr. Geries was one of the most respected scholars on questions of Interfaith in Palestine. His contributions not only for Kairos Palestine about relations between Islam and Christianity as well as Judaism surely broadened the discourse in these very special times. We are mourning with his family and with Al Liqa Center for Religious Studies, which he was guiding as a director.
 
In times when the Israeli Occupation is continuing its brutish, cold-hearted and cold-blooded acts of killing, confiscating and arbitrating Palestinian lands, lives and souls, we at Kairos Palestine continue to have hope, faith and love. No matter how ugly and hopeless the situation in Palestine is, we shall have hope as it is the gear to a fruitful life ahead.

The spirit of the Kairos Document is reflected in the place where Kairos is implementing its work; the Kairos Office. Located next to the Lutheran Christmas Church, Kairos Palestine Office is based in the International Center of Bethlehem, right next to the market. During the first Intifada, the place was used to host Palestinian Christian families that escaped and fled their houses searching for safety and running away from the Israeli occupation. The spirit in the Kairos Document is the same, a shelter that secures and projects the identity of Palestinian Christians. The document speaks to the soul of every one who cares for justice and peace through love and creative resistance to evil. It shall strengthen the role of the Palestinians (Christians and Muslims) in the face of occupation, injustice and oppression. We are not submissive to pro-longed injustice, occupation and its violence and continued oppression but we shall rise and proclaim our rights and roles. The Kairos Palestine Document is an evergreen document. It is a pillar of hope and a safe haven for all people believing in justice and peace.

Here in Palestine we continue to witness the brutality and hegemonic acts of the Israeli Occupation. Administrative detention without fair trials of Palestinians both old and young is ongoing without deterrent on regular basis. Also ongoing are targeted and extra judicial killings of our youth as is continuous land confiscation denying Palestinian families and owners of sources of income and support, the prisoner’s way of choosing to fight back the senseless occupation by ongoing hunger strikes and many other acts that are humanly unacceptable and internationally forbidden. 

That’s the reason why we should continue our efforts as churches, individuals and organizations to resist evil against God and Man and Act Now to bring occupation and injustice to an end in this aching Holy Land.

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