VOICES FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE!


Friends of Justice for Palestine,
 
I write to bring an important update on several developments in our ongoing work for a just and lasting peace in Palestine/Israel.

On May 19, 2020, the Coalition for Peace with Justice (CPWJ) and the Abrahamic Initiative on the Middle East (AIME) united to form a new organization, VOICES FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE (VJP). Our re-energized core mission is justice, freedom, and equal rights for the Palestinian people. We will be ramping up our work in education, legislative advocacy, media, and intersectional partnerships. 

A new logo and new VJP website is in the final stages of construction. Stay tuned for the live launch in July. 

Allow me to introduce myself. It is a great privilege to be the Executive Director of Voices for Justice in Palestine. I bring a long history of passionate involvement in the issue of justice for the Palestinian people. I lived in Beirut,Lebanon in the 1960s and traveled widely in the Middle East. Over 50 years ago, I personally witnessed a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut in 1962. That experience left an indelible mark on my conscience, and I have been on a journey of personal and intellectual discovery about the Palestinian experience ever since then. I was part of an international, fact-finding delegation to the West Bank and Israel in 2013 sponsored by Friends of Sabeel North America and the Tree of Life and made possible by grants from the Coalition for Peace with Justice and the New Hope Presbytery Peacemaking Committee.

I was a panelist at the national conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement in Durham in 2004, defending the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) decision to begin the process of divesting from companies such as Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola Systems, which were profiting from the Israeli occupation. In 2006, I was a commissioner to the Presbyterian General Assembly in 2006, appointed to the writing team which protected divestment from being scuttled by critics. I rejoiced with many activists in Detroit in 2014 when the PCUSA voted to implement divestment. 

In 2012, as Pastor of the Church of Reconciliation in Chapel Hill, working with Salaam-Shalom Committee activists in the congregation, we joined the national bus ad campaign of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, and mounted a 1-yr. bus ad campaign in Chapel Hill-Carrboro buses that carried the message to end US military aid to Israel. Amid fervent cries to take down the signs in the buses, the ACLU intervened on our behalf. The bus ad controversy sparked a sustained conversation about peace, justice, and equality in Palestine/Israel like nothing else has. 

I am retired from pastoral ministry, but certainly not from the ongoing work of what Dr. Martin Luther King,Jr. called "The Beloved Community." We are in an extraordinary historical moment when the veil has been ripped off, exposing tragic divisions and long-standing systemic racism in our society. This moment is also revealing amazing new opportunities to effect bold structural changes. Voices for Justice in Palestine stands in solidarity with Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities, and all marginalized people, and pledges to be active in working for change in our own Triangle communities, state, and nation. Indeed, it is the same "Domination System" at work in our streets and in Gaza and the West Bank. Palestinian activists have painted George Floyd on the Apartheid Wall in Palestine because he is their brother in the struggle against injustice and brutality. Linking local and global liberation struggles will be an essential aspect of our work going forward. 

I look forward to connecting with you and inviting your critical participation in this vital work for peace and freedom, justice and equality. We are building a broad-based intersectional movement, and your voice, your support and partnership are needed now more than ever.

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