Rachel is Weeping for Her Children

Matthew 2.13-18

Tuesday on the church year calendar was the commemoration for the Holy Innocents, Martyrs, December 28. The day reminds us that throughout history, children have been the victims of the struggle for power. God’s command to Joseph is clear, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” (Matt 2.13)

As Joseph, Mary and Jesus fled to Egypt, they would most likely have traveled the road through what is now Gaza. Today in Gaza, children are routinely wounded and even killed by Israeli soldiers when they gather gravel to sell. During Christmas week, four people were injured, including a fourteen-year-old boy was shot in the head, as they gathered gravel in the northern part of Gaza, near the border with Israel. (Read the story: http://www.france24.com/en/20101223-israeli-gunfire-wounds-four-gaza )

In May, in Beit Ummar, just south of Bethlehem, I met the parents of a 14-year-old boy, Ibrahim, who had been arrested the week before for “throwing stones” (which he denied). His uncle and aunt had invited our Compassionate Listening group to their home. They were all part of a group called Wounded Crossing Borders, which brings together people on both sides of the conflict (Jew and Arab) who have been wounded or suffered the loss of loved ones. At the time, Ibrahim was still in detention and his parents had great difficulty being able to see him. (Read more about his story in a previous blog entry – Ibrahim was released and charges dismissed in mid-December, with the help of the Israelis in Wounded Crossing Borders.)

The statistics are alarming: According to Israeli police, 1200 Palestinian children have been arrested, interrogated and imprisoned in the occupied city of Jerusalem alone this year. The youngest of these children was seven years old. Children and teen-agers were often dragged out of their beds in the middle of the night, taken in handcuffs for questioning, threatened, humiliated and many were subjected to physical violence while under arrest as part of an ongoing campaign against the children of Palestine. Since the year 2000, more than 8000 have been arrested by Israel, and reports of mistreatment are commonplace. Further, based on sworn affidavits collected in 2009 from 100 of these children, lawyers working in the occupied West Bank with Defense Children International, a Geneva-based non governmental organization, found that 69% were beaten and kicked, 49% were threatened, 14% were held in solitary confinement, 12% were threatened with sexual assault, including rape, and 32% were forced to sign confessions written in Hebrew, a language they do not understand. Minors were often asked to give names and incriminate friends and relatives as a condition of their release. Such institutionalized and systematic mistreatment of Palestinian children by the state of Israel is a violation international law and specifically contravenes the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which Israel is supposedly a signatory. (source: http://www.al-awda.org/alert-children3.html )

Gracious God, you protected your son from the brutality of empire. Help us continue your work by protecting the children who are endangered in our world today, including the children who live today in the land where your son Jesus walked. Help us bring Jesus’ healing touch to those who suffer. Amen.

Use the action alert below to protest the treatment of children by the Israeli military:

Petition - Free The Children of Palestine!
December 17, 2010

ACT NOW!

Please take a moment to read and sign the online petition at: http://www.gopetition.com/petition/41467.html

This petition demands that President Barak Obama direct Israel to release all Palestinian children detained in its prisons and detention centers immediately, and to end all forms of systematic and institutionalized abuse that it practices against the children of Palestine.

Please ask your friends and contacts to do the same.

Until Return,

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-918-9441
Fax: 760-918-9442
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://al-awda.org

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC) is a not for profit tax-exempt educational and charitable 501(c)(3) organization as defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States of America. Under IRS guidelines, your donations to PRRC are tax-deductible. To donate, please go to http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the instructions. To become a member, go to http://al-awda.org/membership.html