Sunday 8 June: A60-year 'human
clock' in Manger Square, Bethlehem will
commemorate six decades of Palestinians living
as refugees and uprooted people.
We
invite all those having the opportunity to
participate in the Living Clock event on June 8
(at sunset, around 19:30). Please contact AEI:
aei@p-ol.com
or 02-2744030.
See
for full information about the worldwide action
week led by the World Council of Churches:
The Living Clock is part of
a week of advocacy and action for a just peace
in Palestine and Israel. WCC member churches and
related organizations will contribute to a
common international witness for peace on 4-10
June 2008.
Jerusalem's churches and related organizations
in Palestine and Israel are at the centre of the
initiative, including the
Ecumenical
Accompaniment Programme of the WCC. A
growing circle of participants - so far,
churches and specialized ministries from
Australia, North America, Europe, South Africa
and the Middle East have signed up - has
committed themselves to:
1. Pray
with churches living under occupation, using a
special prayer from Jerusalem
2. Educate
about actions that make for peace and about
facts on the ground that do not
3. Advocate
with political leaders using ecumenical policies
that promote peace with justice
4.Take
up Public Action - in order to
stress the depth of church concern.
The action week's message is that now "It's
Time for Palestine": It's time
for Palestinians and Israelis to share a just
peace; time to end 60 years of conflict; time
for freedom from occupation; time for equal
rights; and time for the healing of wounded
souls.
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.
