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MennoPIN Monthly Update: July 2018
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MennoPIN Monthly Update: June 2018
June 2018 Monthly Update
In This Issue
Intersectionality
Update on Esther Koontz and Ahed Tamimi
Congressional Bill to Apply Israel-Centric Definition to Antisemitism on Campuses
Cities for Palestine Campaign and Toolkit
MCC Signs Gaza Statement and Offers Action to Take
Christ at the Checkpoint Conference USA
Go HP-Free
Read More
Prayer


Oppression does not occur in a vacuum. The dots connecting injustice cross geographic boundaries and specific issues. Antisemitism, Black racism and Islamophobia have common links in the United States and around the world. Intersectionality is the term increasingly used to describe these threads of connection. Four examples illustrate the intersectionality between the United States and Israel:
3. The building of racist walls of separation in Israel and the planned expansion of walls on the Mexico/US border involve two Israeli corporations: Elbit and Elta play a significant role in building both walls.
4. The Trump and Netanyahu collaboration with dangerous exchange programs bring together police, ICE, border patrol and the FBI from the United States with soldiers, police and border patrols from Israel for training in control and intimidation tactics and the use of lethal force.
Update on Esther Koontz and Ahed Tamimi


Esther Koontz (left) and Ahed Tamimi (right)
Earlier this year, Esther Koontz, a Mennonite school teacher, filed a lawsuit against the State of Kansas when she lost a job opportunity because she would not promise to not boycott Israeli corporations or institutions that participate in the oppression of Palestinian people. Esther told MennoPIN that after the injunction against the Kansas law took effect, “the state of Kansas passed a new law stating that the anti boycott certificate only applies to companies (not individuals) and only those with contracts over $100,000. Therefore, the law no longer applies to me, so I can no longer be a plaintiff. My lawyers will likely be dismissing the case on our terms.” Stay tuned for further developments on Esther’s case.
Also, a parole board in the West Bank Rimonim prison rejected Ahed Tamimi’s request for early release from prison because she has “dangerous ideology” and should remain in prison for deterrence purposes. The teenaged Ahed was sentenced to eight months in prison last March after confronting and slapping Israeli soldiers who shot here cousin in the face. After serving her full term, Ahed is set to be released from prison later this summer. During her parole session, Ahed told the parole board, “I will get out of prison with my head up.”
Congressional Bill to Apply Israel-Centric Definition to Antisemitism to Campuses
US lawmakers from both houses of Congress and both sides of the aisle have introduced legislation to make criticism of Israel on campuses and at other educational institutions equivalent to antisemitism. The current legislation (H.R.6421 and S.2940) is entitled: “Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2018.” While antisemitism is clearly on the rise in the United States and needs to be addressed and condemned, this bill effectively outlaws expression of a political and moral opinion critical of policies and actions by the government of Israel as antisemitic and illegal. Some states are also crafting similar legislation. MennoPIN encourages you to contact your congresspeople to express opposition to these bills.
Cities for Palestine Campaign and Toolkit
The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights has launched a new campaign called Cities for Palestine. Palestinians in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip are beginning their 51st year of brutal Israeli military occupation. As resistance builds across Palestine, the US Campaign is encouraging people in the United States to seize opportunities to organize for Palestinian rights in our cities, towns, counties and states. The municipalities approach has worked before, in the South African anti-apartheid movement and environmental justice campaigns.
Go here citiesforpalestine.org to get eight ideas on how to start a campaign and a toolkit to help implementing a municipal campaign in your community.
MCC Signs Ecumenical Gaza Refugee Rights Statement and Offers Actions to Take
The Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) sign a statement along with fourteen other church and church agency bodies in support of the right of return for the people of Gaza. Referring to the Great Return March, the statement affirms that “the Gaza demonstrations are an assertion of Palestinian rights: the rights of refugees, the right to demonstrate peacefully against injustice, and the right to live in and with dignity, not under closed military confinement or blockade.” Read the entire statement here.
The MCC Washington Memo also offers “Take Action” ideas to “Tell Congress: 70 Years of Suffering is Enough.” Go here and tell your congresspeople what you think!
Christ at the Checkpoint Conference USA
The first Christ at the Checkpoint Conference in the United States will be held in Oklahoma City, OK October 15 – 18, 2018. Since 2010 Palestinian Christians have held an international Christ at the Checkpoint Conference at Bethlehem Bible College in Bethlehem, Palestine every other year. Organizers of the U.S. conference feel “compelled to address the injustices that have taken place in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, particularly the Palestine lands under occupation…We believe that standing up nonviolently to injustice is an acceptable expression of our faith.” For more on the conference and to register, click here.
Support Palestinian Human Rights and Go HP-Free
Reach out to your pastor, church council and congregation to encourage your church to sign the HP Free Church pledge, committing to not buy HP computers, printers, inks, and other products until HP stops profiting from occupation and human rights violations. For more on the HP-Free Church Campaign go here.
Read More
Why Palestine Matters
No Way to Treat a Child Campaign
The Palestinian Portal Resource
HP-Free Church Campaign
Prayer
The “Great March of Return” continues in Gaza. Tens of thousands of Palestinians attended morning prayers for Eid-el-Fitr, the celebration which marks the end of the month-long Ramadan fast. Lord we continue to pray for the Palestinian demonstrators and their commitment to non-violence. We pray that the Israeli government would abide by international law and would allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland. Lord in you mercy…Hear our prayer. Sabeel wave of prayer
MennoPIN May 2018 Monthly Update
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MennoPIN April 2018 Monthly Update
45 Palestinians Killed in the Great Return March
Nabi Saleh Remains Under Siege
Students for Justice in Palestine Activism Grows
Dangerous Exchanges in Durham, NC
MennoPIN Signs Letter Calling for End to the Occupation
Take A Palestinian Liberation Theology Short Course
Go HP-Free
Read More
Prayer

Transporting a wounded Palestinian demonstrator at the Great Return March. (Credit Mohammed Saber/European Pressphoto Agency)
As the Great Return March enters its fifth week, 45 Palestinians have been killed while thousands more have been injured. The nonviolent demonstrations, at the border between Israel and Gaza, began on Land Day, March 30, 2018 with protests against Israel’s refusal to allow refugees the right of return to their lands guaranteed by international law. The march will end on May 15, 2018, Nakba Day. Known as the “day of catastrophe” among Palestinians, Nakba Day this year marks the time seventy years ago when Israel became a state and violently drove hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into exile and killed thousands more. The demonstrations are expected to spread throughout Palestine on Nakba Day.Most Western media coverage of the Great Return March concentrates its attention on the few who have thrown rocks or rolled burning tires. Hamas is often portrayed as instigators of the demonstrations. Nothing could be further from the truth. The protests are intentionally nonviolent, and organizers of the march come from all segments of Gaza’s civil and political society, of which Hamas is one part, but only one player. It is the Israeli military forces, sheltered safely hundreds of meters away, who commit the violence, using sniper fire, teargas and grenades.Despite the continuing suffering, the spirit of Palestinian people remains strong and determined and the role of women at the forefront of peaceful protest is growing. Make sure that your congressional representatives know that you stand for peace with justice in Palestine.
Nabi Saleh Experiences Ongoing Siege
While 17-year-old Ahed Tamimi and her mother remain in prison, their village of Nabi Saleh remains under siege. For the last nine years, many of the village’s 600 inhabitants stage a weekly nonviolent protest following the Israeli confiscation of the main spring of the village for use by the Halamish settlement nearby. Israeli military forces respond to the peaceful demonstrators with teargas, arrests and sometimes bullets. Three people have been killed there and nineteen residents of Nabi Saleh are in prison.

Israeli soldiers shooting teargas in the center of the village of Nabi Saleh (Photo: Activetills.org)
Recent visitors describe their experience. A quiet Saturday in Nabi Saleh was broken by couple of booms: “Live gunfire followed by a stun grenade. Finally, a couple of minutes later we see teargas coming. In seconds, we were gagging, spitting up, coughing, tearing up—eyes on fire, throats chocking.”
Nabi Saleh is not alone in experiencing the Israeli occupation’s persistent violence against Palestinian villages in the West Bank. Many others also know similar unprovoked violence of Israel’s military forces.
Students for Justice in Palestine Activism Grows
Established in 2010, the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) has grown to more than 200 university chapters nationwide. Centering on freedom, justice and equality for the Palestinian people, SJP activists seek to educate and raise awareness among fellow students about the oppression experienced by Palestinians under the Israeli occupation, especially most recently in response to the killing of Palestinians in the Great Return March. But they also seek to pressure their respective universities to “divest its stocks, funds and endowment from companies that profit from the state of Israel’s violations of international law and Palestinian human rights through its ongoing system of settler colonialism, military occupation and apartheid,” as the Barnard College SJP chapter recently put it.
Barnard became the latest student body to approve a referendum, pressuring its administration to divest, with 64% of students in favor. More than sixty university student bodies have approved similar referendums and specifically name offending companies like Hewlett Packard, Caterpillar, GS4, Lockheed, Boeing and Elbit Systems. SJP works further to get their university to also approve of the measure.
Dangerous Exchanges and Durham, NC
Collaboration between the Trump and Netanyahu administrations has gone beyond embassy relocation and taken a deadly turn. The dangerous exchange programs bring together police, ICE, border patrol and the FBI from the United States with soldiers, police and border patrols from Israel for training in control, intimidation and the use of lethal force. In these mutual exchanges, the two countries learn from each other to promote discriminatory and repressive policies in both countries, including extrajudicial executions, shoot-to-kill policies, racial profiling, spying and surveillance, deportation and detention, and attacks on human rights defenders.
A coalition of racial justice and Palestinian solidarity activists in Durham, North Carolina set out to oppose these deadly exchanges between the Durham police force and agents of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Opposition included an interfaith petition to end the exchanges, calling on the city council to cut any police partnership with Israel. The petition was signed by 72 clergy from Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions. On April 17, 2018 the Durham City Council unanimously passed a resolution to oppose international military-style police training. Hopefully, the Durham City Council will not be pressured into rescinding this resolution like the New Orleans City Council did in repealing a divestment resolution it passed, also unanimously.
Does your city have a dangerous exchange? Do you want to organize opposition? Contact MennoPIN for more information at mennopin@gmail.com.
MennoPIN Signs Letter Urging End to the Occupation
MennoPIN has endorsed a letter calling for Palestinian Christians and Muslims to help end the occupation. Signed by 14 groups supporting Palestinian human rights, the letter expresses “deep concern at the increasingly hostile direction of Israeli policies and actions, emboldened by the equally aggressive foreign policy stance of the Trump administration toward the Palestinian people.” To see the entire letter and endorsers, click here.
Take A Short Course in Palestinian Liberation Theology
Join Naim Ateek for a short course in Palestinian Liberation Theology, in person or by live streaming. Ateek is the co-founder of Palestinian Liberation Theology and has been inspiring readers with his ideas about faith, justice and the Holy Land for many years. For more information and to sign up, click here.
MennoPIN encourages you to join Eugene Mennonite Church, Eugene, OR and Peace Mennonite Fellowship, Claremont, CA and become HP-Free. Reach out to your pastor, church council and congregation to sign the HP-Free Church pledge, committing to not purchase Hewlett Packard computers, printers, inks, and other products until HP stops profiting from occupation and human rights violations. For more on the HP-Free Church Campaign go here.Read More
Students for Justice and Peace
Dangerous Exchanges
No Way to Treat a Child Campaign
The Palestinian Portal Resource
HP-Free Church CampaignPrayer
On the fourth Friday of popular protests in Gaza, Israeli forces killed four Palestinians. One of those killed was Mohammed Ayoub, a fifteen-year-old boy who was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper. This incident was caught on film The UN Middle East Envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, express his anger over the killing of the teenager and the European Union has demanded a full investigation into his death. Lord, we give thanks for the non-violent protests which continue to challenge the siege conditions suffered by those living in Gaza. We pray for those who take a stand for justice and raise their voices in protest against the oppression they experience. We pray for an end to the occupation and the liberation of the Palestinian people. Lord, in our mercy…
Sabeel Wave of Prayer, April 26, 2018
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Mennonite Palestine-Israel Network
mennopin@gmail.com | mennopin.org | facebook.com/mennopin | twitter.com/mennopin
Steering Committee:
Tom Harder (Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church, Wichita, KS)
Joy Lapp (Pleasant View Mennonite Church, Mt Pleasant, IA)
Jonathan Kuttab (Palestinian lawyer and human rights activist)
Anita Rediger (Emmaus Road Mennonite Fellowship, Berne, IN)
Joe Roos (Peace Mennonite Fellowship, Claremont, CA)
Rod Stafford (Portland Mennonite Church, OR)
MennoPIN Monthly Update March 2018
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Palestine Advocacy Day Scholarships for Mennonite Students
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MennoPIN Monthly Update: February 2018
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MennoPIN Monthly Update: January 2018
Ahed Tamimi at a non-violent protest march with other Palestinian women.
In This Issue
Ahed Tamimi: The New Face of Palestinian Resistance
Co-founder of Sabeel Challenges Trump
500 Christian Leaders Denounce Anti-BDS Legislation
Nassar Family/Tent of Nations Receive Peace Award
HP-Free Church Campaign
Read More
Prayer Poem
Ahed Tamimi: The New Face of Palestinian Resistance
Some even call her the Palestinian Joan of Arc, the 16-year-old who slapped Israeli Defense Force (IDF) soldiers outside of her home in the village of Nabi Saleh after her 15-year-old cousin was shot in the face with a bullet. At 4 am the following morning, IDF soldiers broke into her home and arrested her along with her mother, father and cousin Nour. Later, an Israeli military judge ruled that Ahed, who had not been charged with a crime, must remain in custody during her trial.
The arrest and detention of Palestinian children like Ahed has become the norm as Israel continues to flout international law. Magdelena Mughrabi, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa for Amnesty International, said of Ahed, her “outrageously excessive” ongoing detention and military court trial are “an example of the institutional discrimination typical of the treatment of Palestinian children who participate in activism against the Israeli occupation and shows how Israel is violating its international human rights obligations toward children.”
You can view short videos of Ahed in detention here and a five-minute video of an earlier interview with her here.
MennoPIN encourages you to join Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA) and Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in taking action to support Ahed and all Palestinian children by supporting H.R. 4391, a bill introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn). See the web pages of FOSNA and MCC for further details on action you can take.
Co-Founder of Sabeel Challenges Trump on UNRWA Funding Cuts
In addition to moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem, President Donald Trump has further crushed hopes for peace between Palestine and Israel by eliminating the US voluntary contribution to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Created in 1949 to carry out direct relief for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA called for Palestinian refugees to return to their home after the being forced out by Israeli Zionist forces in the 1948 Nakba (catastrophe). Alternatively, refugees unable to return would be fairly compensated for their land. From the beginning of UNRWA, Israel has refused to allow refugees to return or give fair compensation. The US has supported Israel’s refusal to cooperate with UNRWA by vetoing every United Nations resolution for compliance.
Samia Khoury is a co-founder of Sabeel and lives in occupied East Jerusalem. After hearing about the cut in UNRWA funding, she wrote the following to the president: “Yes, Mr. Trump, I assure you it is our rights as Palestinians that we are demanding, and not your money. However, once again you seem to support the oppressors and punish the victims, not only by denying them their right of return, but by denying them their basic rights as well: health, education and relief services that are very much needed in the refugee camps where the situation has further deteriorated due to the ongoing occupation; an occupation that should have come to an end with the implementation of the Security Council Resolution 242 which was unanimously adopted on November 22, 1967, and based on the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war.”
You can voice your opposition to the elimination of UNRWA funding and support of Palestinian human rights by calling the White House comment line at 202-456-1111.
500 Christian Leaders Denounce Anti-BDS Legislation
Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, in 2005 over 170 Palestinian unions, political parties, women’s organizations, professional associations and other civil society bodies called for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) as a form of nonviolent pressure on Israel to honor the humanity, dignity and human rights of Palestinian people. They invited support from allies around the world. Since then, BDS has become a global movement of opposition to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and oppression of its people.
In recent years the BDS movement has blossomed throughout the United States. As a result, pro-Israeli and Zionist forces have begun to push back with anti-BDS legislation on both the state and national level. In one attempt to stand with oppressed Palestinians and challenge the threat of our constitutionally protected right to freedom of speech, nearly 500 Christian leaders from across the nation have signed a petition opposing anti-BDS legislation. Add your support here.
Nassar Family and Tent of Nations Chosen for Peace Award
The United Methodist Church chose the Nassar family to receive one of its 2017 Peace Awards. The Tent of Nations lies on the Nassar’s 100-acre farm located southwest of Bethlehem in a highly disputed area of Palestine controlled by the Israeli Government. The family remains on their land and share their story of peace with guests from around the world. The family is not permitted to develop their farm for agricultural purposes, not allowed access to power, water, or sewer infrastructure, nor obtain permits for any new buildings. The family has instead come up with creative and sustainable alternatives. Each summer, children from local villages (Christian and Muslim) participate in a summer camp aimed at giving the children freedom and distraction from the surrounding politics, empowering the children with self-confidence so that they can be a part of a better future for Palestine. The family also established the Bent Al-Reef Women’s Centre to empower women with classes in English, computer, art, etc., and encourage them to play a role in shaping society. Find out more about the Tent of Nations.
Support Palestinian Human Rights and Go HP-Free
Reach out to your pastor, church council and congregation to encourage your church to sign the HP Free Church pledge, committing to not buy HP computers, printers, inks, and other products until HP stops profiting from the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine and human rights violations. For more information on how your church can become a HP-Free Church go here.
Read More
No Way to Treat a Child Campaign
More on the BDS movement
The Palestinian Portal Resource
The Tent of Nations
HP-Free Church Campaign
Prayer Poem
“When the song of the angels is stilled
When the Star in the sky is gone
When the angels and shepherds have found their way home
The work of Christmas has begun!”
(Howard Thurman)
MennoPIN Monthly Update: December 2017
Street artist Bansky has created new Christmas artwork on The Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, Palestine. The familiar message now has a caveat: “Terms and Conditions Apply.” Meanwhile, two angels attempt to pry open the wall with bare hands and a crowbar.
From all of us at MennoPIN, Christmas blessings as we together seek unconditional Peace on Earth, tearing down the walls of hostility that divide the Holy Land today, seeking peace and justice for Palestine and Israel.
The MennoPIN Action/Advocacy Subcommittee has created an Advent bulletin insert to encourage a faithful response to the recent passing of the MC USA resolution: Seeking Peace in Israel and Palestine. You can find the bulletin insert on the MennoPIN website here.Update on BDS and Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard has spun off part of their company, effectively splitting the corporate giant in two. HP has been one of the main targets of the BDS movement because of its complicity in the security apparatus and infrastructure of Israel and its illegal occupation of Palestine. It is unclear which of the two companies is involved with the occupation. Until it is clear, the BDS movement continues to recommend the boycott of HP. BDS appears to be increasing its focus on the tourism sector, especially TripAdvisor and AirBnB. More on that in future updates.Update on the Esther Koontz lawsuit (ACLU vs. State of Kansas).
The ACLU is filing a lawsuit on behalf of Esther Koontz, the Kansas Mennonite who was denied employment in Kansas because she would not agree to abide by a Kansas law to not engage in boycotting companies complicit in the oppression of Palestinian people. In early proceedings of the lawsuit, the judge stated: “This law cannot possibly be constitutional.” Kansas state attorneys did not dispute the judges assertion, but promised to have a defense later. A similar case is being brought by the ACLU in Arizona.Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Central Committee Strategize Support to HR 4391
Jonathan Brenneman, MC USA Coordinator, Israel/Palestine Partners in Peacemaking and Rachelle Lyndaker Schlabach, Director of the MCC US Washington Office are working on a strategy to form a Mennonite delegation to Capitol Hill that would focus on support of HR 4391, Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israel Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act. The bill would require the Secretary of State to certify that American funds do not support Israel’s military detention, interrogation, abuse or ill-treatment of Palestinian children.
US Embassy and Jerusalem
Jonathan Brenneman and Rachelle Lyndaker Schlabach were interviewed in The Mennonite magazine online, TMail, to explain the likely devastating impact of the Trump administration’s decision to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Please read the informative interview here.
Resources
The Mennonite Interview on moving the US embassy to Jerusalem
Palestinian Portal on the embassy move
Palestinian Christian voices on moving of US Embassy to Jerusalem: Sabeel; The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem; The Middle East Council of Churches
Prayer
The U.S. vetoed a UN resolution seeking to reaffirm Jerusalem’s status as unresolved, after 14 UN Security Council members voted in favor of the resolution Monday, in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize it as Israel’s capital.
Lord, the Palestinian people are running out of options leaving only the “stones to cry out”. We give thanks for the brave countries of the world that refused to disrespect international law and challenge the unjust decisions of the United States Administration. We pray that the powerful give up on their useless efforts to maintain the Israeli military occupation. Lord in your mercy… Sabeel Wave of Prayer, December 21, 2017
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Mennonite Palestine-Israel Network
mennopin@gmail.com | mennopin.org | facebook.com/mennopin | twitter.com/mennopin
Steering Committee:
Tom Harder (Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church, Wichita, KS)
Joy Lapp (Pleasant View Mennonite Church, Mt Pleasant, IA)
Jonathan Kuttab (Palestinian lawyer and human rights activist)
Anita Rediger (Emmaus Road Mennonite Fellowship, Berne, IN)
Joe Roos (Peace Mennonite Fellowship, Claremont, CA)
Rod Stafford (Portland Mennonite Church, OR)