On Thursday evening May 22, AEI-Open Windows
organized directly
outside the sumud house, a rehearsal
of the “Living Clock” in which a circle of
Palestinians and internationals carried 60
torches symbolizing the numbers of a 60-year
Naqba “clock”. A beautiful prayer developed
by the World Council of Churches was
pronounced during the event. See the text of
the prayer below.
The Living Clock is part of a global week of
action led by the World Council of Churches
(WCC), 4-10 June 2008, to mark 60 years
since the partition of Palestine and 41
years of occupation.
Churches in 17 countries, plus two
international ecumenical organizations, are
planning various education and advocacy
activities. A common prayer and message for
peace in Palestine and Israel is ready for
use in about 100 countries.
The Living Clock is an initiative of local
Palestinian Church-affiliated organizations
including the AEI, and will be shown in its
final form during the evening of Sunday June
8, 19:30 – 20:30, at Nativity Square in
front of the Peace Center in Bethlehem.
It's Time for Palestine
It's time for Palestine.
It's time for Palestinians and Israelis to
share a just peace.
It's time to respect human lives in the land
called holy.
It's time for healing to begin in wounded
souls.
It's time to end 60 years of conflict,
oppression and fear.
It's time for freedom from occupation.
It's time for equal rights.
It's time to stop discrimination,
segregation and restrictions on movement.
It's time for those who put up walls and
fences to build them on their own property.
It's time to stop bulldozing one community's
homes and building homes for the other
community on land that is not theirs.
It's time to do away with double standards.
It's time for Israeli citizens to have
security and secure borders agreed with
their neighbours.
It's time for the international community to
implement 60 years of United Nations
resolutions.
It's time for Israel's government to
complete the bargain offered in the Arab
Peace Initiative.
It's time for those who represent the
Palestinian people to all be involved in
making peace.
It's time for people who have been refugees
for 60 years to regain their rights and a
permanent home.
It's time to assist settlers in the Occupied
Palestinian Territories to make their home
in Israel.
It's time for self-determination.
It's time for foreigners to visit Bethlehem
and other towns imprisoned by the wall.
It's time to see settlements in their
comfort and refugee camps in their despair.
It's time for people living 41 years under
occupation to feel new solidarity from a
watching world.
It's time to name the shame of collective
punishment and to end it in all its forms.
It's time to be revolted by violence against
civilians and for civilians on both sides to
be safe.
It's time for both sides to release their
prisoners and give those justly accused a
fair trial.
It's time to reunite the people of Gaza, the
West Bank and East Jerusalem.
It's time for all parties to obey
international humanitarian and human rights
law.
It's time to share Jerusalem as the capital
of two nations and a city holy to three
religions.
It's time for Muslim, Jewish and Christian
communities to be free to visit their holy
sites.
It's time in Palestine as in Israel for
olive trees to flourish and grow old.
It's time to honour all who have suffered,
Palestinians and Israelis.
It's time to learn from past wrongs.
It's time to understand pent-up anger and
begin to set things right.
It's time for those with blood on their
hands to acknowledge what they have done.
It's time to seek forgiveness between
communities and to repair a broken land
together.
It's time to move forward as human beings
who are all made in the image of God.
All who are able to speak truth to power
must speak it.
All who would break the silence surrounding
injustice must break it.
All who have something to give for peace
must give it.
For Palestine, for Israel and for a troubled
world,
It's time for peace.
For the song on “It’s Time for
Palestine,” developed by the Vision Music
Centre in Abu Dis.
