Zoom Event: The Israel-Hamas War in Context

December 10, December 17 6:30-8:00 PM EST

Presenters: Josh, Sally, and Marlin Vis, ChrisDeBlaay

The Vis’s have almost 20 years of experience connected to this struggle between two people groups living a strained and often violent existence. Chris DeBlaay is Josh Vis’s Global Mission co-worker.

Description: Who is Hamas? What do we mean by the term “settler colonialism” and what does this have to do with anything? What sources can we trust with accurate information? And finally, how does this ongoing conflict affect us?

Dates and Times: December 10 and 17, from 6:30-8pm EST. (Two identical 1 ½ hour sessions, limit 20 participants/session)

Registration: Email Marlin Vis at marlinpvis@gmail.com

Cost: $25 donation for Josh Vis and Chris DeBlaay’s Global Mission (Reformed Church America) support.

Kalamazoo Non-violent Opponents of War (KNOW)

Join with our partners at KNOW to encourage our MICHIGAN representatives to call for a complete and permanent cease-fire in Gaza. For residents of Michigan District 4 (Rep. Huizenga) AND / OR Michigan Senators Peters and Stabenow. Sign Here

Bethlehem Cancels Christmas Celebrations

Christmas festivities in the West Bank town of Bethlehem have been canceled “in [honor] of the martyrs and in solidarity with our people in Gaza,” The Telegraph reported on Wednesday, citing local authorities. A spokesman for the municipality confirmed to the British broadsheet that its customary Christmas tree and decorations, including its nativity scene, were being dismantled. The spokesman said it would not be “appropriate at all” in light of “the general situation in Palestine; people are not really into any celebration, they are sad, angry and upset; our people in Gaza are being massacred and killed in cold blood.” He added that Christmas “mass and prayers” would still take place. The Telegraph reported that Bethlehem, a town of fewer than 30,000 people that was the biblical site of Jesus’ birth, was devoid of the Christmastime tourists and pilgrims who usually flock there to celebrate the holiday season.

Link to story

Picture: Traditional Christmas tree in Bethlehem’s Manger Square. Church of the Nativity is center-left.

Who We Are

Kairos West Michigan is an equal rights movement focused on Israel-Palestine but promoting what is best for ALL peoples: equal human rights. Based in the Judeo-Christian principle of shalom (the way God intended this world to be), we believe the only way for peace to reign in the Land, for Israelis to live in security, and for Palestinians to have freedom and dignity, is to promote the vision of two peoples sharing the land, each recognizing the equal human rights of the other.

THE THREE PILLARS OF OUR MISSION

Vision We seek to change the current vision of continued conflict to a vision of Israelis, Palestinians, Jews, Muslims, and Christians all working together to build a joint society based on freedom, dignity and safety. We join with Kairos USA, B’Tselem, Amnesty International, and Jewish Voice for Peace promoting a vision our world needs!

Education We at Kairos bring in activists from all over the world to meet with people right here in Michigan. These activists tell their stories and advocate for a just and lasting peace. Mark Braverman, Elias Chacour, Sami Awad, Jonathan Kuttab, Ali Abunimah, Daoud Nassar, Shaina Lowe and Mae Cannon are just a few of the international leaders who have led our seminars.

Advocacy This past September, working with the Kalamazoo Non-violent Opposition to War (KNOW) we delivered more than 350 signatures supporting equal human rights to a meeting with Alec Daman, our U.S. Representative Bill Huizenga’s foreign affairs advisor. Alec heard us out. He listened. An important first step toward “changing hearts and minds.”

OURCONTINUING CHALLENGE The arc of our road is long, but with Martin Luther King we believe it “bends toward justice.” Is this your vision? Join us in our work! Help us promote this vision, educate our community, and advocate for justice. This is not just for Israel, or Palestine; it is for as all!

Bart Den Boer

Executive Director

Kairos West Michigan

bdenboer@kairoswestmichigan.org

To donate: Kairoswestmichigan.org/donate/

Mark Braverman in Western Michigan

This past week, Oct. 31-Nov. 2, Kairos Wesr Michigan hosted Mark Braverman, a Jewish clinical psychologist, theologian and shalom activist. Groups of students, clergy and community members gathered at Calvin Seminary, Western Michigan University, Hope College and many other community venues to hear Mark’s witness for peace in Israel-Palestine.

KWM Exec. Director Bart Den Boer interviews Mark Braverman at KWM’s Fall Banquet on November 2.

You can hear Mark’s entire Western Michigan University presentation at this link.

Please Donate Now
As we say here at KWM, “Everything we offer is free. Except it isn’t.”  From low-cost zoom opportunities to great national/international speakers like Mark Braverman, everything is no charge to participants. Even our delicious Mediterranean Fall Banquet was FREE!We are a small non-profit, with one partly-paid employee, dedicated to the cause of equal human rights for everyone in Israel-Palestine. We have a BIG challenge doing this important work. Frankly, we need your financial support to continue educating and advocating for peace with justice. We ask for your financial support once per year. This is that time. Thank You!

Whose Ugliness?

Whose ugliness?

Do I HAVE to choose?

One massacres innocents with guns and knives;

The Other with planes and bombs.

The Other slowly chokes life out of a people;

The One resists with rocks thrown at cars.

Musalaha, gathering commoners from the One and the Other

To hear each other’s stories

And marvel at each’s own misunderstanding

Leaving each gathering

Less sure of the “the truth” they knew when they arrived.

Bethlehem Bible College,

Facing war

Yet modeling God’s heart, “who shows no favoritism.”

Roots, and Rabbi Hannan, bringing Settlers and indigenous together

For photography and gardening workshops

At great risk to himself,

And for so much more than pictures and plants

Humanity within horror

Holiness and holocaust

Hope inside insanity

Please, more authentic pleas for peace!

Pleas calling out the injustices

At the root of this war.