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And suddenly out of nowhere, almost as if in a mystical vision, an image appeared on Facebook that takes one’s breath away...
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And suddenly out of nowhere, almost as if in a mystical vision, an image appeared on Facebook that takes one’s breath away...

"...an Israeli tank and a bulldozer entered the territory and chased the rescuers, shooting at them until they dropped the body. Then, in a grotesque scene captured on amateur video, the bulldozer attempted repeatedly to scoop up al-Naem’s body but kept missing, until finally the bulldozer blades caught him by the shirt and drove away with his now-mangled body hanging limply by his clothing." ~Kathleen Christison

read her full reflection below


Kathleen Christison has been writing on the Palestinian situation for 45 years, first as a CIA political analyst in the 1970s and since then as a freelance writer. She has traveled to Palestine more than a dozen times, initially in 1963 and with increasing frequency since 2003. She writes often for Counterpunch.org, and is a member of EPF/PIN, the Episcopal Peace Fellowship’s Palestine-Israel Network. Her books include Perceptions of Palestine (1999 and 2001), The Wound of Dispossession (2002), and Palestine in Pieces (2009), co-authored with her late husband Bill Christison. 

We Are the Body of Christ: A Reflection for Easter and Calls to Action

by Kathleen Christison, on Orthodox Good Friday.

 
On a Sunday in Gaza at the start of Lent, Israeli snipers on the other side of the border fence shot a young Palestinian man named Mohammed al-Naem. Initially, there seems nothing especially significant about the shooting or its occurrence during Lent. The special somberness of Lent means little to Gaza’s overwhelmingly Muslim inhabitants, who live in somber circumstances the year ‘round. The fact of a shooting in Gaza is also not unusual, Israel having shot thousands of Gaza Palestinians and killed hundreds in the last two years of Palestinian protests over being imprisoned and blockaded inside this small territory.  
 
What was unusual on this day was that, as several other Palestinians ran to al-Naem and began carrying him to safety (it is unclear whether he was still alive at this point), an Israeli tank and a bulldozer entered the territory and chased the rescuers, shooting at them until they dropped the body. Then, in a grotesque scene captured on amateur video, the bulldozer attempted repeatedly to scoop up al-Naem’s body but kept missing, until finally the bulldozer blades caught him by the shirt and drove away with his now-mangled body hanging limply by his clothing.
 
No one in the western world paid attention to this atrocity, but Palestinians grieved and, on websites and social media, they raged. And suddenly out of nowhere, almost as if in a mystical vision, an image appeared on Facebook that takes one’s breath away:



We are the Body of Christ.

It is unclear who created this image, or whether the creator quite understood its power. But the parallels are striking: Jesus was a Palestinian Jew tortured and crucified by Roman imperial occupiers; al-Naem was a Palestinian Muslim tortured and crucified by Israeli imperial occupiers. Jesus lived under oppressive Roman rule; Palestinians of all faiths live under oppressive Israeli rule.

The agony of Jesus on Good Friday (which in Arabic translates as Sorrowful Friday) was strikingly corporeal—in the garden, where he sweat blood; in Pilate’s chambers, where he was brutalized with beatings and a crown of thorns; on the way to Golgotha, where he bled under the burden of the cross; and on the cross. Al-Naem’s agony was also notably corporeal. Jesus hung, stripped of all human dignity, from a gross instrument of torture; al-Naem hung, also stripped of human dignity, from a gross instrument of torture. In Palestine, the bulldozer has become a symbol of suffering, just as the cross is a symbol of suffering. The bulldozer is the preeminent symbol of Israeli destruction, used to demolish Palestinian homes, to raze Palestinian agricultural land, to pave over the traces of Palestinian existence, to kill. In 2003, a bulldozer ran over and killed a young American solidarity activist, Rachel Corrie.

It matters not at all that this image showing Jesus in agony was created to symbolize the agony and death of a young Muslim. For Jesus is in each of us, Jesus Christ as God is in each of us. The divine is in all of us, no matter our faith. Jesus enters into and shares our suffering, as we share his. He died on the cross in order to save all of us.

Tarek Abuata, the Palestinian Christian executive director of Friends of Sabeel North America, has said that in Palestine divinity is being revealed in the midst of destruction; like the moon against the darkness of night, we can see divinity more clearly against the darkness of destruction. The image of Jesus hanging on a bulldozer is a glimpse of that divinity in the midst of destruction.

Tell Congress: Restore Funding for UNRWA and Humanitarian Needs, and Urge Israel to End its Blockade of Gaza

Click here to send letter

Every place in the world is in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The disease does not discriminate: people of every race, gender, class, and identity are susceptible and have contracted Coronavirus.  Even so, there is a clear difference in vulnerability based on wealth and privilege which determine access to testing, proper health care, and ability to isolate to reduce the spread.
 
Early in the outbreak, both the Palestinian Authority and the Government of Israel declared states of emergency, severely restricting the movement of people and promoting—even mandating—physical distancing.  Many have given credit to the PA’s actions for curtailing the spread of the virus in the West Bank.  As of Thursday, April 9, 2020, the number of confirmed cases in the occupied Palestinian territories was 263, with 13 in Gaza.  The risk of contagion remains high, due in large part to the lack of access to adequate health care and the reality of high population densities, especially in refugee camps in the West Bank and in general in Gaza.
 
The most advanced Palestinian hospitals are both located in East Jerusalem—Augusta Victoria Hospital and Maqasid Hospital.  Even without circumstances of the pandemic, access for Palestinians not resident in Jerusalem is limited due to Israeli permit systems.  In times of extreme movement restrictions, though, they are not accessible at all.
 

Gaza, with its population of two million Palestinians—most of whom are refugees and depend on the health care services of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)—is especially at risk.  Medical clinics are not equipped to deal with an outbreak, many supplies are prohibited from entry, Gazan Palestinians cannot leave to get care elsewhere, and the high concentration of people means that the virus could spread rapidly with devastating and tragic impact.

 
The COVID-19 pandemic has simply accentuated many key needs Palestinians have, and has brought to the fore aspects of their lives under occupation and blockade that must be addressed to ensure that Palestinians have access to necessary services and care.  In late March, eight senators addressed a letter to Secretary of State Pompeo asking what the Administration’s plans are for safeguarding Palestinian health and humanitarian needs.
 
Call or write your elected representatives in the Senate and the House and ask them to:

  1. Use their good offices to pressure Israel to end the blockade of Gaza so that Palestinians there can move freely to the West Bank and East Jerusalem to gain access to medicine, medical supplies, health care, and other basic requirements necessary in this time of pandemic, and beyond;
  2. Press the US Administration to release the available and approved funds for UNRWA and other humanitarian and health programs in Gaza and the West Bank, funds that are already committed to support Palestinian health and welfare;
  3. Work urgently to support movement toward a just and peaceful resolution to the conflict, based on international law and UN resolutions, that guarantees justice, peace, and rights for all people—Israelis and Palestinians alike.

Lord God, we are filled with hope at the announcement of your Son’s resurrection at Easter. The celebrations of this day remind us that the victory has already been won, and that good will always and ultimately triumph over evil. However, for Palestinians living here, sometimes it is hard to see the light of the resurrection when every day they are surrounded by the darkness of the grave. Instill hope in their hearts, God, and grant them the perseverance to continue on. 
May it be so.

~A prayer from FOSNA, Friends of Sabeel North America

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