Justice and Peace
Today has been a quiet day. WE met the Bishop, and then attended an ordination of a young American man here for 2 years as part of the Episcopal church of the USA young adult mission and ministry program. It was nice to be part of it, although is was an ECUSA service transplanted. I sat among several Palestinian priests who sang loudly in Arabic.
I learnt yesterday about Palestinians in East Jerusalem being Jordanians by passport (because of the 1948-1967 occupation of East Jerusalem by Jordan.) But they are not really Jordanians, so are kind of in limbo. It is one of the fuels for wanting to be part of Palestine.
I also learnt that Israeli Palestinians are not called up to military service. On one hand that is good. It is heart breaking to see these kids standing around holding their machine guns, checking travel documents at checkpoints, being placed with such responsibility and fear so young. But because the Palestinians do not serve, they are excluded from mainstream Israeli economic life. Without a military number they cannot even clean Pizza places. It means Palestinians have to create their own economy. It also means they are treated like second class citizens in their own land. To be Israeli means to be a Jew, (Orthodox Jews also do not serve, but are given a military number)
It would be easy to get angry, and I do. Yet the gospel calls for compassion, and it calls for me to take the log out of my own eye first.
It does make me wonder how we treat Maori in our land. Not as extreme, yet by calling "white culture" New Zealand culture, we exclude Maori and treat them like second class people in their own land. Hence they get angry, like Palestinians get angry.
Till tomorrow.
I learnt yesterday about Palestinians in East Jerusalem being Jordanians by passport (because of the 1948-1967 occupation of East Jerusalem by Jordan.) But they are not really Jordanians, so are kind of in limbo. It is one of the fuels for wanting to be part of Palestine.
I also learnt that Israeli Palestinians are not called up to military service. On one hand that is good. It is heart breaking to see these kids standing around holding their machine guns, checking travel documents at checkpoints, being placed with such responsibility and fear so young. But because the Palestinians do not serve, they are excluded from mainstream Israeli economic life. Without a military number they cannot even clean Pizza places. It means Palestinians have to create their own economy. It also means they are treated like second class citizens in their own land. To be Israeli means to be a Jew, (Orthodox Jews also do not serve, but are given a military number)
It would be easy to get angry, and I do. Yet the gospel calls for compassion, and it calls for me to take the log out of my own eye first.
It does make me wonder how we treat Maori in our land. Not as extreme, yet by calling "white culture" New Zealand culture, we exclude Maori and treat them like second class people in their own land. Hence they get angry, like Palestinians get angry.
Till tomorrow.
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