Sep. 15th, 2020

World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel, September 14- 21.

Join us in educating, advocating, strengthening solidarity and praying for an end to the occupation and a just peace in Palestine and Israel.

Through our joint work, we are also correcting injustice suffered, affirming the rights of the marginalized and oppressed, and bringing out the voices and cries of the voiceless. Our Lord says, “whatever you do for the least of my sisters and brothers you are doing it for me”.
Your healing and steadfast love, your empathy and compassion strengthen us in our every walk and talk. Your support and empowerment enhance our hope, casts out our fear and fights to build resilience against the feeling of hopelessness and helplessness.
Zoughbi Zoughbi, Director, Wi’am: Palestinian Conflict Transformation Centre

During the third week in September, KAIROS joins churches around the globe in the World Council of Churches’ call for a World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel (WWPPI). This is a time for people of faith and conscience to join together to educate, advocate and pray for an end to the occupation and for just peace in Palestine and Israel. During this week, we will highlight the work of our partners in Palestine and Israel, particularly women’s organizations, whose daily struggle to build a just, inclusive and sustainable peace informs and inspires our work.

This year’s theme, “Creative Solidarity in Common Fragility” reminds us that peace is not determined by agreements between governments and powerful interests that exclude the very people who are affected by the conflict. Peace must be grounded in solidarity with peoples who share a common commitment to equality and justice and who are working to build conditions for peace from the ground up. Partners like Yusef Daher, Executive Secretary of the Jerusalem Inter-Church Centre who told us: Equality is the roots of justice and peace will be the fruit.

Join us from September 14- 21 in educating, advocating, strengthening solidarity and praying for an end to the occupation and a just peace in Palestine and Israel. Here are some resources you can use and share:

EDUCATE yourself and others

Listen to and share the videos of partners and members of the KAIROS Palestine and Israel delegation from the webinar – “Annexation, COVID19 and Palestine.” We have separated the different interventions into short videos that can be watched and shared. Choose from 15 videos ranging in length from 3 to 10 minutes each.

Read and share the following background documents:

ADVOCATE

Listen to the video Policy and Advocacy Priorities in Canada – the need to take urgent and prophetic actions.

Canadian churches and ecumenical bodies have a long history of advocating with our government for just peace in Palestine and Israel. Recently, KAIROS and member churches wrote letters of alarm regarding the US Peace and Prosperity Plan, and later we sent an ecumenical letter asking Canada to speak up against the Annexation Plan. In our messages, we continue to call for respect for international human rights and an end to the occupation. The current agreement between Israel, the US and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) does not represent an end to annexation, nor does it offer peace. It is another plan that excludes the Palestinians and allows for ongoing human rights violation and annexation under occupation.

The call to support international human rights and end occupation for just peace in Palestine and Israel, remains urgent and more relevant than ever. We need you to continue to take action by contacting your MP and asking them to:

Speak out in support of international human rights and against occupation
Denounce plans of the Government of Israel to annex any and all parts of occupied Palestinian territory 
Work with like-minded countries to take all diplomatic and political actions to protect the human rights of Palestinians, including the right to self-determination

Please continue to highlight the advocacy asks in the KAIROS delegation report, calling on the Canadian government to:

support local women’s peacebuilding efforts by increasing long term funding to grassroots women-led organizations in Palestine and Israel.
appoint a special envoy to monitor and report on the Israeli military arrest, interrogation and detention of Palestinian children.
increase its financial assistance to UNRWA to $50 million annually, including a dedicated fund providing schools, hospitals and services for children in Gaza.

BUILD SOLIDARITY

Support partners

Learn about the work of KAIROS and member agencies’ and churches’ partners, including Wiam: Palestinian Centre for Conflict Transformation;
Listen to and amplify their voices (find them in the playlist)
- The Work of Restorative Justice in a Context of Occupation, with Zoughbi Zoughbi, Director, Wi’am: Palestinian Centre for Conflict Transformation
- The Impacts of Annexation, with Tarek Zoughbi, Project Officer and Youth Coordinator, Wi’am: Palestinian Centre for Conflict Transformation
- The Impacts of COVID19 and Annexation on Women, with Lucy Talgieh, Women’s Program Coordinator, Wi’am: Palestinian Centre for Conflict Transformation
- Strategies to Help Women Speak Out, with Lucy Talgieh, Women’s program coordinator
Donate to partners work through KAIROS or your own denomination
One-Time Donation
Support and share a Cry for Hope: A Call for Decisive Action
- Join the over 300 church leaders, theologians, ecumenical officers, lay and clergy, civil society partners, people of faith and other advocates of justice, human rights and international law across continents and cultures who have already endorsed the Cry for Hope, an urgent call to end the oppression of the Palestinian people. Kairos Palestine and Global Kairos for Justice, a broad network of allies including Palestinian Christians and international friends of Kairos Palestine, issued this cry on July 1, 2020. In our response we said: KAIROS Canada remains committed to sharing this call with members and our network:

We will engage our communities in discernment and study on the pressing need for justice for Palestinian people, including by reflecting critically on theologies and biblical interpretations that have created barriers in our churches to the robust engagement in justice-seeking for Palestinian people.

PRAY

Join member churches, organizations, congregations, and people of faith and conscience throughout the world in collective prayer for just peace in Palestine and Israel.

Worship resources:

World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel | WCC
Background, study, and worship resources from the World Council of Churches.
A message to the churches in Canada and Canadians for this World Week of Prayer for Peace, a reflection from Zoughbi Zoughbi, Director of Wiam | video or transcript
Prayer for Peace with Justice in Israel/Palestine
A prayer inspired by Psalm 23 and A Moment of Truth: Kairos Palestine, section 3.

The WWPPI is an opportunity to highlight the urgent need for action for human rights and peace in Palestine and Israel and to strengthen our call to end the occupation. This week, we amplify the everyday work of partners to build conditions for inclusive, equitable and just peace.

Thank you for taking action through education, advocacy, solidarity and prayer.