The Middle East is in transition and the Holy Land has had more than its share of violence and strife. We recognize that our media privileges certain points of view and because of this imbalance our mission to ‘do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God’ requires exploration of the often neglected points of view.
On our journey to understanding, we have developed a partnership with St. George’s Melkite Greek Catholic Church in Zababdeh, Palestine. Zababdeh is situated in the northern West Bank and is one of the few villages in Palestine where the predominant religious affiliation is Christian.
We traveled to Palestine/Israel to learn first-hand about the occupation in Palestine. Some of the highlights of our travels were to:
On a more personal level, we visited Jaffa where the home of one of our members still stands. The property was cut up to form apartments and we were able to visit with one of the tenants. The emotionally moving experience was described in the Daily Record article of Sunday, January 30, 2010 as well as an entry from Nahida Halaby Gordon’s diary of that day.