As we focus on raising children for a just world this month, we would like to take time to remember the children of Palestine. The Palestinian people lost their homes when the state of Israel was founded in 1948 and Gaza, East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Golan Heights have been occupied since 1967. Many generations of Palestinian children have grown up as refugees, either not allowed to return to their homes or living under the control of the Israeli military.
The most recent violence, described as the worst bombing of Gaza yet, resulted in the death of at least 254 Palestinians, including 66 children, in Gaza, and at least 12 people, including two children, in Israel.
Munther Isaac is a Palestinian pastor, author, and professor living in Bethlehem. In a recent article in Sojourners magazine, Isaac noted: “Peacemaking begins by refusing to repeat the common descriptor of what is happening in Palestine and Israel: a conflict. Palestinians are not experiencing a conflict between two parties. We Palestinians are experiencing an occupation; one nation controlling another; the laws, policies, practices, and military of one state oppressing the people of another, controlling nearly every aspect of our lives. Palestinians in Jerusalem are not facing evictions from their homes. They are experiencing ethnic cleansing.”
If you would like to take action, consider the following:
Sign a petition to the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board urging them to divest from Israeli companies identified by the United Nations as complicit in war crimes
Learn more and stay involved by signing up for the Mennonite Church Canada Israel-Palestine Network monthly newsletter
Reach out to Sara Brubacher for further conversation or questions
Read an article from Time magazine about Gaza Photojournalist Wissam Nassar. His evocative images demonstrate life in Gaza.
I’m Your Child
written by Israa Thiab, a Palestinian refugee child in Jordan