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Abuse greets church service for peace in Palestine

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi | 09.12.2009 22:01 | Anti-racism | Palestine | Repression

Zionists hurled abuse at Christians, Jews, Muslims and people of no faith attending an alternative Christmas event in a central London church on December 8th. Organised by Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG), the concert/service combined poetry, prose and theatre with the singing of traditional carols altered to draw attention to the injustices Israel is inflicting on the modern-day residents of the Holy Land, the Palestinian people.

ABUSE GREETS CHURCH SERVICE FOR PEACE IN PALESTINE

Inside St. Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, on Tuesday December 8m 2009, a rapt congregation of Christians, Jews and Muslims sang and prayed for justice and peace in Palestine.

Outside, raucous protesters waving Israeli flags accused them of wanting to kill Jews.

“It’s unfortunate these people did not come inside and hear Baroness Jenny Tonge read a bereaved Israeli mother’s plea for understanding of Palestinian suffering,” said event organiser Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, secretary of Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG). “They might then have regretted their hostility towards the church for allowing an oppressed people to hold centre stage for once.”

The event, titled Bethlehem Now, Alternative Lessons and Songs of Protest for Palestine, featured poetry, prose and drama reflecting the Palestinian experience since the foundation of the Israeli state in 1948.

New lyrics for traditional Christmas carols called for an end to the injustice which is at the root of the conflict in Israel/Palestine. A key theme was world leaders’ indifference to Israel’s illegal expropriation and settlement of Palestinian land, underpinned by an apartheid-type system of segregation and discrimination.

A verse from O Little Town of Bethlehem reads:

O morning stars together,
Look down upon this crime.
The people sing to God the King
But justice, who can find?
Will no-one hear the outcry as
More settlements are built?
While meek souls muse, apartheid rules,
Speak up or share the guilt.

Israel’s assault on the besieged population of Gaza a year ago, resulting in 1,400 Palestinian deaths, featured in several of the new lyrics.

Away in a Manger is transformed into Away and in Danger with the final verse:

It’s time to raise our voices, end the violence and hate,
For people of conscience can no longer wait.
The siege must be broken and justice appear,
So the children of Gaza can live without fear.

One of the event's supporters, Dr Stephen Leah, a Methodist Local Preacher in York, said:

“As Christmas approaches it is right that we not only remember the events of 2000 years ago, but stand with the suffering people of Palestine today. The imprisonment of communities behind Walls and the siege imposed on the people of Gaza is something that all Christians should abhor.”

See below for the full programme, readings and carol texts.


PROGRAMME

BETHLEHEM NOW
ALTERNATIVE LESSONS AND SONGS OF PROTEST FOR PALESTINE

7.30pm, Tuesday 8th December 2009.
The Actors’ Church, St. Paul’s, Covent Garden

Opening remarks by Father Simon Grigg, Rector of St Paul’s, Covent Garden.

LESSON 1 - Father Simon reads from the Book of Micah, 4: 2-4
CAROL 1– THE OLIVE AND THE ARMY

LESSON 2 - Ghada Karmi reads the Prologue from her book In Search of Fatima – A Palestinian Story

CAROL 2 – WE THREE WOMEN

LESSON 3 - Lauren Booth reads a poem by Palestinian poet Rafeef Ziadeh, resident in Canada after fleeing refugee camps in Lebanon
CAROL 3 – DING DONG MERRILY ON HIGH
LESSON 4 – Linda Tabar of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) reads from On dance, identity and war, by Omar Barghouti, published in Al-Ahram in 2002
CAROL 4 – O LITTLE TOWN

LESSON 5 – Jenny Tonge reads a speech written in 2001 by Nurit Peled Elhanan, the Israeli mother of a 13-year-old girl killed by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem in September 1997
LESSON 6 – CIRCLE OF SHOES
From the play by Justin Butcher and Ahmad Masoud, Go to Gaza, Drink the Sea, performed by the original cast, Nizar Al-Issa, Alia Al-Zougbi, Amir Boutrous, Fisun Burgess, Damian Kell and Rupert Mason

LESSON 7 – Members of the Go To Gaza cast read a poem by Fadwa Tuqan

CAROL 5 – AWAY AND IN DANGER

LESSON 8 - Bruce Kent reads the Palestinian Psalm 23, by Dr Stephen Leah

CAROL 6 – GOD REST ALL YE WHO TALK OF PEACE

Closing remarks from Father Simon



During the proceedings there will be a collection on behalf of the Free Gaza Movement ( http://www.freegaza.org/), the Bethlehem-based Palestinian Conflict Resolution Centre (Wi’am -  http://www.alaslah.org/) and Interpal ( http://www.interpal.info/our-work)

Afterwards enjoy refreshments in exchange for donations:
David’s Tower dry red wine from the Cremisan Vineyards in Bethlehem, plus white wine and soft drinks; Olive oil and other products from the Zaytoun cooperative and Palestinian crafts.

Singing led by Deborah Fink, soprano. Organist - Miriam Walton

Carol lyrics by Sue Blackwell, Mike Cushman, Deborah Fink, Alan Goater, Stephen Leah and Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi

We Three Women, by Sue Blackwell, is based on real stories. More detail can be found as follows: Hala Sakakini ( http://www.alnakba.org/testimony/hala.htm), Na'imah Muhammad Na'im Nu'man Sayyed Ahmad ( http://www.btselem.org/English/Testimonies/), Berlanty Azzam: ( http://www.bethlehem.edu/archives/2009/2009_063.shtml) and ( http://www.gisha.org/)

Production, administration, media, publicity: Naomi Wimborne Idrissi and Deborah Fink.
Leaflet design: Devra Wiseman www.wizartsite.co.uk
Cartoon by Polyp www.polyp.org.uk, available on Christmas cards from War on Want
Event management: Eleonore Kofman, Bruce Levy, Mike Cushman

Supporting organisations:
AMOS TRUST -  http://www.amostrust.org/
Promoting human rights and nurturing local responses to situations of injustice.
BRICUP (British Committee for the Universities of Palestine)  http://www.bricup.org.uk/ An organisation of UK based academics, set up in response to the Palestinian Call for Academic Boycott. Its twin missions are to support Palestinian universities, staff and students, and to oppose the continued illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. BRITAIN PALESTINE TWINNING NETWORK -  http://www.twinningwithpalestine.net/ “promoting twinning and friendship links”
CAABU (Council for Arab-British Understanding)  http://www.caabu.org/ CAABU works to promote a positive approach to Arab-British relations, providing a forum for politicians, journalists and others to co-operate on issues relating the Arab world. FRIENDS OF SABEEL-UK,  http://www.friendsofsabeel.org.uk/Home.shtml Sabeel works for a just peace for the people of Palestine and Israel. Started by Palestinian Christians, Sabeel promotes non-violence and reconciliation. INTERNATIONAL JEWISH ANTI-ZIONIST NETWORK,  http://www.ijsn.net/home/ An international network of Jews committed to struggles for human emancipation, of which the liberation of the Palestinian people and land is an indispensable part. JUST PEACE FOR PALESTINE,  http://www.justpeaceforpalestine.org/ A new interfaith initiative committed to justice for Palestine and peace and security for Israel and Palestinians. WAR ON WANT,  http://www.waronwant.org/ War on Want fights poverty in developing countries in partnership with people affected by globalisation. We campaign for human rights and against the root causes of global poverty, inequality and injustice. ZAYTOUN,  http://www.zaytoun.org/ A cooperative founded in 2004 to create and develop a UK market for artisan Palestinian produce. A member of the International Fair Trade Association.

Above all the organisers, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG), would like to thank Father Simon Grigg and his team at The Actors’ Church, St Paul’s, Covent Garden, for standing firm in the face of intimidation and harassment and allowing the people of Palestine to take centre stage.


ALTERNATIVE CAROLS

THE OLIVE AND THE ARMY

(Solo)
The olive and the army
When they are both full-grown,
Every olive tree on the West Bank
The IDF cuts down.

Chorus (Soloists):
O the rampaging of settlers
And the rolling of the tanks;
The grinding of the bulldozers
As the olives fall in ranks.

(Solo)
The olive bears a berry
As green as any grass;
When the owners go to pick the fruit
They're not allowed to pass.

Chorus (All)

(Soloists)
This oppression bears a berry
As red as any blood,
As the owners see their livelihoods
All trampled in the mud.

Chorus (All).

(Soloists)
If you want to buy the olives,
You'll find it very hard.
For those that make it to checkpoints
Still the way outside is barred.

Chorus (All)

Repeat first verse (All)
The olive and the army,
When they are both full-grown,
Every olive tree on the West Bank
The IDF cuts down.

WE THREE WOMEN TRAVELLERS ARE

Soloists
We three women travellers are;
Bearing tales and many a scar,
Always yearning for returning,
Though we are scattered far.

Chorus (Soloists)
Star of Israel, weep in shame,
Star adorning tanks that maim.
War, oppression, dispossession:
You dishonour David’s name.

Hala (Solo) Jerusalem - Ramallah
Nineteen years of exile and pain,
Till we saw our old house again:
Filled with pity for our city,
Still we could not remain.

Chorus (All)

Na'imah (Solo) Hebron H2 - Hebron H1*
How can children study or play
When they’re hit and harassed each day?
Settlers stopped our power and water:
We could no longer stay.

Chorus (All)

Berlanty (Solo) Bethlehem University - Gaza
When the army governs your plight,
Education isn’t a right.
Held in silence, bound and blindfold,
Dumped in the dead of night

Chorus (All)

(Soloists)
Sisters, you have opened our eyes:
Help us now to make others wise.
We will join you to bear witness
To struggle and sacrifice.

Chorus (All)


DING DONG MERRILY ON HIGH
First three verses soloists only
Ding Dong! merrily on high
The F-16s are winging
Drones appear from out the sky
Their deadly cargo bringing
Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis
Ding Dong merrily on high
In Europe there's a quand'ry
Dingdong verily the Zi-
Onists want their own country
Gloria, they've taken someone else's

E'en so here below below
With guns and bricks and mortar
Israel's colonies do grow
But they need much more water
Gloria, they've taken someone else's


(All)
Pray ye dutifully prime
Your policies and spokesmen
Surely now must be the time
To act for peace and freedom.
Gloria, Hosanna in excelsis
O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM
O little town of Bethlehem
Imprisoned how you lie.
Above thy deep and silent grief,
Surveillance drones now fly.
And through thy old streets windeth,
A huge illegal Wall.
The hopes and dreams of peace, it seems
Are dashed, in pieces fall.

(All)
O morning stars together,
Look down upon this crime.
The people sing to God the King
But justice, who can find?
Will no-one hear the outcry as
More settlements are built?
While meek souls muse, apartheid rules,
Speak up! or share the guilt

O ye who care for Bethlehem
Give strength to us, we pray.
Cast out our fears, reward our tears.
O hear our voice today!
We stand against injustice,
Oppression now must end.
May justice rule the Holy Land,
May peace at last descend.

AWAY IN A MANGER

Away and in danger, no roof over head,
Their homes were destroyed in Operation Cast Lead,
The bombs in the bright sky, rained down where they lay,
And for three hundred children ‘twas their very last day.

The bombing and shelling came time after time
Is the most moral army ashamed of this crime?
The settlers on hilltops applaud every blast.
World leaders stay silent, their people aghast.

(All)
It’s time to raise our voices, end the violence and hate,
For people of conscience can no longer wait.
The siege must be broken and justice appear,
So the children of Gaza can live without fear.


GOD REST ALL YE WHO TALK OF PEACE

(Soloists)
God rest all ye who talk of peace
Let nothing you dismay.
A new administration
Has come to save the day;
To put an end to settlements
That keep the peace at bay.
Oh tidings of comfort and joy
Comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy!

(All)
From every Western nation
A stream of envoys came;
And played with Netanyahu
A long time-honoured game.
We’ll tell you what you must not do
And you’ll go on the same;
Oh tidings of falsehood and lies
Falsehood and lies,
Oh tidings of falsehood and lies!
(Soloists)
"Fear not, then," said the envoys
"Let nothing you affright;
Your Western friends won’t let you down
Because you have the right
To seize their land, destroy their homes
And utilise your might.

(All )
Oh tidings of falsehood and lies Falsehood and lies,
Oh tidings of falsehood and lies!
From Lebanon to Negev
The iron wall extends
Dividing people from their schools,
Their families and lands.
We’re told “it’s for security,
We know you’ll understand.”
Oh tidings of falsehood and lies
Falsehood and lies,
Oh tidings of falsehood and lies!

(Soloists)
Take heed you military men,
The world must have its say.
Return the farmers’ dunams
Your soldiers took away.
For stolen dates and oranges
We do not wish to pay

(All )
Bring us tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy,
Bring us tidings of comfort and joy!


* Hebron H2 is the Old City of Hebron from which extremist settlers, defended by the Israeli army, have driven many Palestinian families, forcing them to flee to another area of the city known as Hebron 1.







Father Simon Grigg reads Lesson 1 from Micah 4: 2-4

And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths; for the law shall go forth of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks:

Nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid.


Lesson 2

Ghada Karmi reads the Prologue from her own book “In Search of Fatima – A Palestinian Story”

April 1948

A mighty crash that shook the house. Something – a bomb, a mortar, a weapons’ store? – exploded with a deafening bang.

The little girl could feel it right inside her head. She put her hands to her ears and automatically got down onto the cold tiled floor of their liwan with the rest, as they had learned to do.

Shootings, the bullets whistling around the windows and ricocheting against the walls of the empty houses opposite, followed immediately.

“Hurry up! Hurry up!”

The danger in the air was palpable. The taxi stood waiting outside, its doors open, to take them away to where she did not want to go.

The little girl wanted to stay right here at home with Rex and Fatima, playing in the garden, jumping over the fence into the Muscovite’s house, seeing her friends return, even restarting school, now closed since Christmas. Doing all the familiar things, which had made up the fabric of her young life. Not this madness. Not this abandoning of everything she knew and loved.

“Get into the car! Quickly!”

A brief lull in the fighting. They must pack their two cases and eight of them somehow into the taxi. The driver kept urging them to hurry. He was frightened and clearly anxious to get out of their perilous, bullet-ridden street.

Rex could not come with them. He must stay behind. She held his furry body tightly against her and stroked his long soft ears. She wanted to say, “Please don’t worry. It’s only for a week. They said so. You’ll be fine and we’ll be back.”

But she knew somehow that it wasn’t true. Despite her parents’ assurances, a dread internal voice told her so.

“Ghada! Come on, come on, please!”

Rex inside the iron garden gate, she outside. The house with its empty veranda shuttered and closed, secretive and already mysterious, as if they had never lived there and it had never been their home. The fruit trees in the garden stark against the early morning sky.

Every nerve and fibre of her being raged against her fate, the cruelty of leaving that she was powerless to avert. She put her palms up against the gate and Rex started barking and pushing at it, thinking she was coming in.

Her mother dragged her away and pushed her into the back seat of the taxi onto Fatima’s lap. The rest got in and Muhammad banged the car doors shut. She twisted round, kneeling, to look out of the back window.

Another explosion. The taxi, which had seen better days, revved loudly and started to move off. But through the back window, a terrible sight which only she could see. Rex had somehow got out, was standing in the middle of the road. He was still and silent, staring after their retreating car, his tail stiff, his ears pointing forward.

With utter clarity, the little girl saw in that moment that he knew what she knew, that they would never meet again.



Lesson 3 – Lauren Booth reads a poem by Palestinian poet Rafeef Ziadeh, now resident in Canada after fleeing refugee camps in Lebanon.

'Tonight in a Montreal subway they picked up Ahmad. Repeat x 3

Guilty of being here when there is no there for him to go to.

He's guilty of being here when there is no there for him to go to

Refugee camps are not our homes. Repeat

Tired of the limbo. Waiting for sixty one years for another deportation order and another detention cell.

Tonight in a Montreal subway they picked up Ahmed. Repeat

Where is Mahmoud Dawish tonight. Wake him up.

Ask him to write a poem about Ahmed La Arabi, Ahamed Azatar Ahmed Jenin Ahmed Elehelway

Let these words fill every immigration office with anger.


You don't want us here and they don't want us there. And there is occupied by them and them won't let us return and you don't want us here and they don't want us there and there is occupied by them and them won't let us return.

Don't send him anywhere.

But Palestine.

If you dare.

And I see them. I, I see them confused. I see them wondering why are these Arabs so angry?

Don't they get it? Don't they get it?

We talk about food here and we talk about multiculturalism here and they have such fine Hummus and Burgagamuj

Let the falafel go

It's Israeli now.

So confused they ask us to give up they ask us to give up and collectively lift our heads towards the F16's, raise peace signs and sing 'Imagine all the People..'

Imagine- all the people- in deportation cells tonight. Where the hell are the people,

Where are the people when hundreds of Ahmed's

Beat at the bars of open air prisons? repeat

A rhythm for all of you to hear

they beat at the bars of open air prisons, refugee camps and detention cells.

And if you don't want us here, and they don't want us there and there is occupied by them. Where are we supposed to be returned to?

Tonight, tonight in a Montreal subway they picked up Ahmed repeat

Were you sleeping were you sleeping, were you sleeping?




Lesson 4 – Linda Tabar of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) reads from On Dance, Identity and War by Omar Barghouti, published in Al-Ahram in 2002.
In the middle of our regular dance rehearsal, our second since the end of the latest Israeli assault, a group of Belgian artists sauntered quietly into our studio in Ramallah.
Most Westerners cannot hide their bemusement when they see a group of Palestinian dancers -- of both sexes -- going through the elaborate choreography of a new Palestinian dance. They apparently find the scene surreal. Dance in the midst of "war"!
During the brief rehearsal break after two hours of hard, sweaty work, one of the visitors, a filmmaker, asked hesitantly: "After all this war and destruction of basic infrastructure, how do you convince yourself and the dancers to persevere in doing what you are doing? Isn't dance a very low priority in time of war?"
I had never asked myself that question. Do we have to stop creating dance, music, art and literature, I wondered, to join in reconstruction of devastated buildings, roads and water pipes? How about shattered dreams and shaken identities, don't they need reconstruction as well?
John Stuart Mill's definition of humans as unique, creative, culture-bearing individuals leapt into my mind.
During the latest punishing re-occupation of Ramallah (March 29 - April 21), days had passed without electricity or running water and with food shortages. But I had listened (on battery-operated cassette players) to Fairuz, Vivaldi and Munir Bashir. My wife had listened to Asmahan, Abdel-Wahab and Umm Kulthoum -- yes, we do have substantial pluralism in our music preferences in the family. My elder daughter still had to practice the violin daily. The parents of neighbourhood children still urged them constantly to allocate daily time to study.
During the unpredictable hours of curfew we argued over every imaginable political issue. We joked, shouted at times, rationed the precious little water we had between our desperate plants and ourselves. We shared rare moments of intimacy and mutual vulnerability; in short, we lived as "culture-bearing" beings do.
Even where roofs fell on top of the inhabitants of the houses, as in the atrocious devastation of the Jenin refugee camp and the Nablus casbah, a nagging concern of parents and community leaders was to make sure that schools, in particular, were rehabilitated quickly to be able to function normally.
Understanding this Palestinian obsession with learning as a means of identity formation requires an insight into the innermost scars of Palestinian refugees.
The "Nakba generation" -- the Palestinian generation that suffered the brunt of the initial dispossession in 1948 -- is haunted with guilt for what it perceives as its mortifying failure to resist the Zionist onslaught.
A key culprit in their mind has always been their "limited consciousness" at the time, understood as a combination of ignorance, illiteracy and being deficient in necessary skills, as well as lacking a clear sense of identity.
Culture -- of which learning is a vital part -- is therefore venerated as the key to their salvation from repeated victimisation and exile.
In the context of colonialism, cultural expression acquires particular eminence in shaping the collective identity. The process of de-colonising our minds assumes crucial precedence.
Restoring our humanity, our dreams, our hopes and our will to resist and to be free, therefore, becomes even more important than mending our infrastructure. Thus, we dance.
In response to all the attempts to circumscribe our aspirations, we must push on, dreaming and being creative, boundlessly. So we dance.


Lesson 5 - Jenny Tonge reads a speech written in 2001 by Nurit Peled Elhanan, the Israeli mother of a 13-year-old girl killed by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem in September 1997.

Over the last week we have seen many photographs of dead children, . . . (including one) who took his own life along with (the others), as though he was Samson declaring, let me die with the Philistines.
But neither they nor he were Philistines. . . . The Philistines are those who - for more than 40 years - have been sending children to their death ... to satisfy the murderous ambitions of the Philistines and their greed for land that is not theirs.
The Philistines are those who leave mothers like myself bereaved, in the useless wars that our children are forced to fight for them. Wars that are waged supposedly for the love of the country, the love of God, and the good of the nation. But the truth is that these wars are waged for no other reason than the insanity and megalomania of the so-called leaders and heads of state.
For them children are no more than abstract notions: You kill one of mine, I will kill 300 of yours and the account is settled.

But I, who lost my only daughter, know that the death of any child means the death of the whole world. "Satan has not yet devised a Vengeance for the death of a young child" said the Jewish poet Bialik, and that is not because Satan has no means to do so, but because after the death of a child there is no more death for there is no more life. The child takes the war and the future of the war into his little grave to rest with his little bones.

When my little girl was killed, (and) representatives of Netanyahu's government came to offer their condolences, I took my leave and would not sit with them. For me, the other side, the enemy, is not the Palestinian people.

For me the struggle is not between Palestinians and Israelis, nor between Jews and Arabs. The fight is between those who seek peace and those who seek war.

My people are those who seek peace. My sisters are the bereaved mothers, Israeli and Palestinian, who live in Israel and in Gaza and in the refugee camps. My brothers are the fathers who try to defend their children from the cruel occupation, and are, as I was, unsuccessful in doing so.

Although we were born into a different history and speak different tongues there is more that unites us than that which divides us.
I wish to revive two slogans that were misused by the Israeli right wing. The first is that "Brothers are not to be forsaken". Our brothers and sisters in the refugee camps and under occupation, who are deprived of food and livelihood and of all their human rights, should not be forsaken now.
The other slogan is, "The uprooting of settlements tears the nation apart". Uprooting of olive groves and vineyards, the demolition of houses and confiscation of land will tear apart our already endangered species of peace-seeking people and will bring it to extinction. And when this species no longer exists, there will be nothing left to write, nothing left to read, nothing left to say except for the muted story of slain youth.


LESSON 6 – CIRCLE OF SHOES

From the play by Justin Butcher and Ahmad Masoud, Go to Gaza, Drink the Sea, performed by the original cast, Nizar Al-Issa, Alia Al-Zougbi, Amir Boutrous, Fisun Burgess, Damian Kell and Rupert Mason



Lesson 7 – Members of the Go To Gaza cast read a poem by Fadwa Tuqan, 1917-2003.
I ask nothing more than to die in my country
لا اسال عن شيء اكثر من اموت في بلدي

To dissolve and merge with the grass
أن اذوب والتحم مع العشب

To give life to a flower
لاعطي الحياة للزهر

That a child of my country will pick
تلك التي سيقطفها طفل من بلدي

All I ask
كل ما اسأل

Is to remain in the bosom of my country
ان ابقى في صميم بلدي

As soil
كتراب

Grass
عشب

A flower
زهرة


Lesson 8 – Bruce Kent reads Dr Stephen Leah’s Palestinian Psalm 23

This poem takes Psalm 23 as it's inspiration and was written by Dr Stephen Leah, a Methodist local preacher in York, as a celebration of the work of the International Solidarity Movement, Christian Peacemaker Teams and other Peace Observers who accompany and protect Palestinians in their homeland from illegal settlers and foreign soldiers.

The Lord is our Peace Observer,
We shall be protected.

He comes with us as we harvest in our fields.
He stays with us to report any violence against us
His presence guarantees our safety.

He escorts our children to and from school
For they are the future, our treasure.

Even though we walk in the shadow
Of the illegal Apartheid Wall
We will fear no violence, for you are with us.

Your pen and your email, they defend us
You report the truth to the world.
You give us hope, despite the presence of the occupiers.
You show that our lives are important, that people do care

I pray that freedom and peace may soon be ours,
All the days of our lives
And we shall dwell in the Holy Land forever.
















































































































Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi
- e-mail: jews4BIG@googlemail.com
- Homepage: http://www.bigcampaign.org

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