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
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.
Picture: Traditional Christmas tree in Bethlehem’s Manger Square. Church of the Nativity is center-left.
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/
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?
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.
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.
You can donate to Bethlehem Bible College / Shepherd Society “Gaza Cries Out” relief effort by selecting this link.
https://shepherd-society.org/donations/gaza-donation/
“Gaza Cries Out” Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR6ZW7W_d4U
Today, we received this message from the Abuna, Elias Chacour
It is happening.
The Israel-Palestine world as we knew it is passing away. I thought it might come in my lifetime. I did not foresee it happening this soon. Israel will once again attempt to bomb and siege its way out of this confrontation. They may succeed, temporarily. Soon after however, does anyone doubt that we will be right back where we are today?
Of the 15 million or so people that make up the Israel-Palestine world, about half are Israelis and half are Palestinian. How long can one half of a population suppress the legitimate aspirations of the other half, and expect to “manage” the situation?
The vast majority of Israelis have never been to the West Bank or Gaza. Many are ignorant of their suppression of Palestinians. For them, the “Palestinian situation” was a vague reality they did not need to deal with directly. It was “out there.”
No longer.
Make no mistake.
There are the two significant actors that could bring an end to this insanity. (Insanity: Implementing the same failed policy again and again, yet expecting a different result each time.) Both the State of Israel and the United States hold the “power of empire” and are in positions of enough strength and influence to effect change. Is 75 years too short a time to realize that past policies have not and will not bring peace and justice to all peoples? Do Israelis feel secure today? Do Palestinians enjoy equal human rights? Is American foreign policy served by regional instability?
Settler colonialism, apartheid policies, an oppressive occupation and a siege of Gaza are the core realities in which this violence erupted, and lead to the question, “Which parties are actually interested in peace with justice?” Regional stability, Israeli security, and the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people will come only by addressing these core issues.
Bart Den Boer
KWM Executive Director
Join Us Thursday, Nov. 2
Dinner with Mark Braverman
Event is free, but tickets required.
More Info Here
We at Kairos West Michigan add our voice to the chorus of individuals and organizations condemning Hamas’ violent attack on Israel and proclaiming that violence has not, does not, and will not bring equal human rights for all the peoples of Israel-Palestine. (Churches for Middle East Peace, Jewish Voice for Peace, Amnesty International, Breaking the Silence, B’Tselem, Indiana Center for Middle East Peace…)
We also continue to call out both the State of Israel and the United States government for the extent they have ignored the humanitarian pleas for just and equitable treatment of all peoples in Israel-Palestine. As Americans we bear significant responsibility for the violence plaguing Israel and Palestine. We have allowed and supported the State of Israel to expand its policies of settler colonialism and apartheid, and its continuous oppressive occupation of Palestinian territory. These are the core issues preventing a just peace.
Oppression begets violence, and vice-versa. Therefore, unless the parties, including the United States, address the core issues preventing equal human rights for all, the atrocities of this past weekend will be only a precursor to worse violence to come, including the possibility of wider regional involvement. We strongly encourage all parties to immediately cease hostile acts and begin to seriously address these core issues.
Bart Den Boer
Kairos West Michigan
