We are overshadowed by the darkest of all days in the Holy Land. Massive destruction is taking place again by the Israeli Army as thousands of people will become homeless from the hundreds of houses that are targeted to be demolished in Gaza today leaving 20 Palestinians dead during the raid. The fear and panic of refugees fleeing their homes is indescribable. The poorest of the poor who have already lost their homes in l948 cannot even have the right to survive as refugees in refugee camps.
Since September 2000 more than 3,000 homes have been demolished and nothing the United Nations or Amnesty International say can stop the Israelis from carrying out this horrific humanitarian disaster. Please Dear God Stop Israel. Your prayers for a just peace are needed more than ever. "I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications." (Psalm 116)
For the people that cannot be labeled as "terrorists" and be shot or have their homes destroyed, the Israeli government has other clever ways to carry out the ethnic cleansing in creating 100% Jewish homeland. One such policy is currently targeting the Christian community in specific and making it impossible to renew proper documents for many clergy and laity to continue their service to the Church in Jerusalem. This tough Israeli policy is affecting how Christian institutions such as schools, hospitals, clinics and humanitarian organizations are being operated in the Holy Land and will not be able to have the appropriate staff and expertise to carry out their particular work which mostly serves the Palestinian communities. And this is the mo st important reason the Church is facing these difficulties since the beneficiaries of their work happen to be Palestinians.
The Christian voice is being diminished because it speaks for a just peace in the Holy Land calling upon the International Community to give Palestinians their human rights. More than ever, clergy and laity who have given many years of service to the Church and have always received permission to work under the Israeli government are currently being denied or delayed getting their visas renewed interpreted as a way to cripple the Church.
The principal at an elite school in Jerusalem who has been working since l975 in providing excellent education has not been able to renew his visa since January and at the moment is forced to stay in Israel illegally because of his obligation to his school and his obligation in overseeing the other Christian schools in Israel and Jordan. This priest who has proper documentation from the Vatican finds it difficult to do his daily work with this mental, psychological and unexplainable harassment from the Israeli bureaucracy. This is preventing him from attending important academic meetings and conferences in coordination with the other schools he oversees eventually affecting the programs and the curriculum. Another former principal of a Christian school in Ramallah, also a Catholic priest, is facing the same problem for over a year now. He cannot leave the country for the fear that he will be denied entry upon return.
The Israelis are intestinally refusing to give the proper documents so that Church workers, volunteers, clergy and other Christians cannot continue their duties who some have been doing for over twenty or thirty years in a variety of services to the Church. It is bizarre to hear the stories that were for a handful of people and now are affecting hundreds.
The hassle and the harassment are not so easy to describe unless you experience it. For example it took five trips to renew the registration of my vehicle last month, with many trips to the American Consulate office, the registry and back and forth so much where you finally hear the little voice in your head saying "It's easier to leave this country than to try and survive under these discriminatory policies that make your daily life so miserable and full of suffering." It is so difficult to be productive and to give of one's self when you are constantly fighting to survive and meet your daily needs.
What is more frustrating is listening to President Bush say that Israel is a democracy and in this democracy if you are a Palestinian, you need a permit to go to school, you need a permit to go to work, you need a permit to go to the airport, you need a permit to go to Jerusalem for prayers, you need a permit to go to the hospital and now the new Separation Wall is going to keep the Palestinians in a prison in their own homeland and, by the way, many people are denied permits even when they bother to go through the crazy process of asking for their basic human rights.
A democratic country should not occupy neighboring territories and terrorize entire populations. What type of democracy is Israeli practicing when civilians are killed indiscriminately while it tries to get militants? I am wondering why 20 Palestinians had to die today and no one seems to care about their life or human value? In the name of security, Israeli is getting away with war crimes.
Note: If you wish to respond to this article or have any feedback, please respond only to khourymaria@hotmail.com Thank you for sharing this news from the Holy Land with your senator and representative, local church or anyone who can pray for a just peace in the Land of Christ's Holy Resurrection.
The entire Christian community in Jerusalem today gathered to witness the greatest of all miracles—the Miracle of the Holy Fire. It was the first time I was not bothered by the soldiers, the police, the large crowds, the noise, the drums of the Boys Scouts and the Girl Scouts anxiously waiting to receive the Holy Fire from the Life Giving Tomb of Christ in the Holy Sepulchre.
It was an exciting day where representatives of many churches from all over the Holy Land come to receive the Holy Fire and carry it back in small lanterns to their particular churches for the Midnight Resurrection Service. Palestinians are not allowed to enter Jerusalem without a special permit thus this year many Christian Palestinians went to the extra trouble of getting permits in order to partake in this centuries old celebration that reflects our Christian heritage and deep roots in Palestine. Unfortunately there were three checkpoints inside the Old City so many people, although got a permit to enter Jerusalem, still got stuck outside the church of the Holy Sepulchre.
It is on this Great and Holy Saturday that the Holy Fire come down from Heaven and was received by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch as it has been done every year, on the same day, in the same manner, at the same time, at the same holy place of Christ's Life Giving Tomb. This is the miracle that allows us to know that Christ is in our midst. This is the miracle that allows us to feel that Christ is truly among us. This miracle is another way that God communicates to us. As we chant in our Midnight Resurrection Service: "Come ye and receive light from the unwaning Light, and glorify Christ, Who a rose from the dead."
My son Canaan was very careful to receive the Holy Fire by lighting his candle and keeping it in a lantern until we reached our small village of Taybeh. A wonderful parade was held to celebrate the Holy Fire entering our village. The priests of all three churches, Fr. Daoud, Fr. Raed and Fr. Jack led the faithful with the choir chanting to meet our cousins Ibrahim and Philip who traditionally go to the city of Ramallah to receive the Light from a patriarchate representative who brings it from Jerusalem to Ramallah for all the Palestinian Christian communities that cannot reach the Holy City including not just Taybeh, but Aboud, Birzeit, Jifna and Ein Arik.
It is one of the most magnificent celebrations in the Holy Land that has been overshadowed and forgotten during the reoccupation of the Palestinian Territories. For the last three years the boy scouts have not carried on our regular tradition of receiving the Holy Fire to the beat of the drums due to the bloodshed and violence. However, living the cycle of death every day, it was refreshing for the Christian community to rejoice in receiving the Holy Fire and celebrate that for us all hope lies in Christ our Savior. Four years of killing, back and forth, surely we have been living in the darkness of all evil. "And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." (John 1:5)
Thus today we all received the Light that proceeded from the core of the stone that covers Christ's Life Giving Tomb and once again celebrated the oldest unbroken Christian ceremony that exists in the world. By the way, many people make fun of me for participating in the ceremony of the Holy Fire but since as Christians we are not of this world, I really do not except the world to comprehend the eternal love and presence of God. It takes faith.
In Luke 16:15 we read that Jesus said: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" We witness the truth and received the Holy Fire today so that all who are not blessed to live in the land of Christ's Holy Resurrection can believe that Christ is the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. (John 1:9)
"And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things." (Luke 24:47)
Our Christian community is small and diminishing but with God's help and your prayers can survive the terrible occupation, dreadful checkpoints, the collapsed economy, the segregation wall that is currently going up and the daily hardships that make life unbearable. Truly the Lord is Risen!
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