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Submitted
June 11, 2004
Children Are Part of the Christian Voice
By Maria C. Khoury, Ed. D.
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 Palestini an 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)
Note:
Taybeh Church School children went to Jerusalem
with the generous support of PHOSADELPHIA of
Illinois, Ms. Katherine Valone, President. Thank
you!
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