Sabeel Wave of Prayer: Week of June 19, 2023
Next week’s Kumi Now will look at Israel as a nuclear power. Israel neither denies nor admits to owning nuclear weapons, but is thought to have 80-90 nuclear warheads. It has declined to sign the Treaty for the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, (NPT) and has never allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency, (IAEA), to supervise its nuclear production.
• Lord, we know that nuclear weapons are so powerful and could unleash untold damage in our world. We pray that Israel would admit to its nuclear power industry and sign up to international agreements to limit its production and supervise its handling of weapons. Lord, in your mercy…
The Israeli army has stated that the soldier who fatally wounded two-year-old Mohammad Tamimi in Nabi Saleh, on the 2nd of June, will not face any disciplinary action. Nor will the soldiers who bound and gagged eighty-year-old Palestinian/American Omar Asad at a temporary checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, in January 2022. Omar suffered a cardiac arrest brought on by the stress of physical violence. The Israeli soldiers who detained him left him unresponsive on a construction site, claiming they assumed he had fallen asleep.
• Lord, we pray for the families of Mohammad and Omar as they mourn their violent deaths. We pray for these Palestinian families and many others who face their bereavement, knowing that those responsible for their sorrow will not face any consequences for the crimes they have committed. Lord, in your mercy…
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, (UNRWA), is struggling to fulfill its mandate to provide services to 5.9 million Palestinian refugees living in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Cuts in donor funding and rising costs are throwing the agency into crisis. Staff teams across the West Bank have just returned to work after a month-long strike over salary reductions.
• Lord, we cry out to you as we watch the world turn away from the gathering crisis of more and more Palestinians born into refugee status, living their lives as refugees and dying as refugees. We pray for an end to their confinement and the implementation of a just solution to their problem according to UN resolution. Lord, in your mercy…
A growing number of children living in Gaza are suffering ‘ongoing trauma’ according to a recent Save the Children report. In less than eighteen years they have experienced Israeli bombings and attacks during fifteen military operations. Thousands of people have been killed in the enclave and there is no escape for those who remain. Children make up almost half the population in Gaza and many of them experience high levels of anxiety leading to frequent bedwetting, lapses in concentration and difficulties in communication.
• Lord, the lives of children in Gaza are blighted by poverty, warfare and trauma.
- We pray for an end to this suffering and the inhumane Israeli blockade of the Gaza strip. Lord, in your mercy..
Weekly protests have been held by the Armenian community in Jerusalem over alleged secret land sales by their Patriarch Archbishop Manougian to Israeli investors in East Jerusalem. The disputed land sale would make up about 25% of the Armenian Quarter in the Old City and would result in loss of property to the population of several thousand Armenian Christians who live in the area.The Palestinian Authority and the Jordanian government have now intervened to try and revoke the disputed contract and protect the Armenian community.
• Lord, we pray that any secretive deals over Armenian community land in the Old City may be cancelled. We pray that attempts to drive out Christians and Moslems from the Old City will be resisted and that Jerusalem will remain a place where Christians, Jews and Moslems can continue to live and worship at their holy sites. Lord in your mercy…
Last week the Russian Embassy in Israel announced that it will be building a branch office in West Jerusalem to serve its consular section. About 15% of Israel’s population is made up of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Israel welcomed the announcement as it is keen to increase the number of foreign missions in Jerusalem, hoping other countries will recognise it as its capital.
• Lord, we pray that international leaders will consider carefully before opening foreign missions or embassies in Jerusalem, lending credence to establishing it as Israel’s capital city and threatening any future peace process with the Palestinians. Lord, in your mercy..
Sabeel is meeting with a partner organisation to discuss setting up a year-long review of the Palestinian educational curriculum. It carried out a partial review in 2018 and passed on its findings to the Palestinian Ministry of Education. The new project will assess the inclusiveness of the curriculum and will propose ways in which education could draw communities together in mutual respect and understanding.
• Lord Jesus, you came to the earth to bring us abundant life and to bring it to us all. We pray that those undertaking the review of the Palestinian curriculum will be guided by your grace to help draw together young people from diverse backgrounds to learn to respect their differences and to be unified in their desire to love and serve one another. Lord, in your mercy…
• We join with the World Council of Churches in their prayers for the countries of Malawi and Zambia. Lord, in your mercy..