MCC works with a variety of partners here in Palestine Israel. Our three main areas of focus are peace work, community development, and relief. Some of our partners do incredibly interesting and effective work, and we want to recognize and highlight two of them in this post.
One of our partners, The Lajee Center, works in Aida refugee camp, which is located directly next to Bethlehem in the West Bank. Lajee means ‘refugee.’ The center works with children from Aida to help provide them with opportunities they normally wouldn’t have. Lajee has a library, computers, and provides an outlet for the children’s creativity through various art programs. One such program is their photography program. Through volunteers, the children are taught about photography and how this can be a means for expressing themselves and telling their stories. Recently one of the children from Lajee won first prize in the Al-Awda Awards festival in the category of ‘Photograph (photographer under 18)’. You can find MCC’s previous profile about the Lajee Center here.
Another of MCC’s partners is Applied Research Institute Jerusalem (ARIJ), headed by Dr. Jad Isaac. ARIJ works in community development through water conservation and geopolitical research. MCC is proud to partner with ARIJ and would like to note that ARIJ was recently recognized as winning an award from UN-HABITAT and the Dubai Municipality in the category ‘Best Practices’ for ‘outstanding contribution towards improving the living environment.’ You can read about the project, ‘Wastewater Management on Household level in Palestine,’ here. Some of MCC’s work with ARIJ can be viewed here, where MCC and ARIJ helped the village of Nahalin build a wastewater treatment plant.
MCC is incredibly proud to be working with so many Israeli and Palestinian partners who do such meaningful work. These are just two examples of some of the many organizations MCC partners with that are working towards the realization of God’s Kingdom for the people that live here.
Tuesday, June 23
Thursday, June 4
An Article about MCC Partner 'Zochrot'
An article about MCC partner Zochrot and some of the advocacy work they're doing in Israeli schools.
Monday, June 1
More than Empty Words
It’s been four months since the Israeli offensive began on the Gaza strip; this military invasion following weeks of aerial bombing left more than a thousand dead, thousands injured, thousands of homes and offices demolished, and thousands living in tents. We at MCC Palestine kept posting entries day after day with facts, figures, personal stories and thoughts related by our partners in Gaza. Then, once the Israeli troops departed from the Gaza Strip, and Hamas rockets towards Israel decreased, it seemed that Gaza would once again return to the shadows of the media, with its infrastructure ruined and its social structure in shambles.
At the Shepherd Society at Bethlehem Bible College, though, relief to Gaza became an enormous project, which I realized would be an ongoing task for months to come if not years. We have received pledges and donations of almost $200,000 to be used in Gaza, even though our work was before the war concentrated mainly in Bethlehem and the surrounding towns. This is a miraculous accomplishment that we thank God for, and pray for guidance in distributing, but it raises additional questions, such as, how can we put to use the money in a way that leads to further development among Palestinians in Gaza? It has been impossible to buy any supplies that would be useful for fixing up homes with damage, due to the Israeli blockade on construction materials, so families still live in squalid conditions and businesses cannot be repaired or reopened.
Surprisingly to me, and contrary to my expectations, Gaza and the Palestinians in general have remained prominent in the news lately—it seems that Obama’s interest in the region has brought the whole world’s eye on the situation here. The effects of the war on Gaza, inter-Palestinian factionalism, and Israeli settlement expansion are top stories. Talking politics is now the order of the day around Bethlehem and people I rarely heard discussing such remote subjects as final status negotiations are debating whether there will be some new approach under the leadership of the current US administration which is seen as being somewhat more favorable to the Palestinians. Still, with not much to show for the international aid promised to Gaza (see ‘effects of the war’ link above), and with settlements expanding daily as discussions continue, it is easy to see how many Palestinians are just fed up with these seemingly empty words.
Israelis too, have reason to be very cynical with the supposed peace talks and negotiations. After all, it has been the same year after year as newly appointed leaders continually promise to bring their insights to this conflict which is in its 61st official year (not including pre-statehood conflict between Jewish immigrants and Palestinian Arabs). So maybe it’s the spring weather, or the fresh vigor of Barack Obama, or maybe it’s the stirring of the Spirit that has brought some vitality and hope into our conversations these days.
As the pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem said on Sunday, good communication is hard to come by in leaders and in relationships, but on Pentecost, we see an example that should serve to inspire us. Suddenly people heard the Good News in every tongue and God’s Spirit arrived to advocate for truth, peace, justice, and mercy. The pastor asked: do we truly believe that such miracles can happen today, here? I do believe that with all the attention and efforts focused on us here and now, we have a chance to work for change in the Holy Land—if we can seize it. Please be praying for the leaders who are working and discussing ways to bring peace and an end to occupation here in Israel-Palestine. Pray for those who daily live in Gaza and the West Bank, struggling to survive in the meantime, that they would receive provision and strength. Pray that we all may be filled with the Spirit of all wisdom and truth to act for mercy and justice.
Wherever you live you have some power to support the work of peace in this land. Contact your representatives in government and tell them they must formulate plans that promote a just peace in the Middle East. Continue supporting the work of MCC, the Shepherd Society, and other groups that seek to be a witness in these times and who provide humanitarian relief even when it is forgotten by other agencies. At this juncture of despair and hope, where there is so much opportunity and yet so much need and lives in the balance, let us strive towards spirit-led solutions that will be more than empty words.
By Kimberly MacVaugh, SALT worker at the Bethlehem Bible College's Shepherd Society
At the Shepherd Society at Bethlehem Bible College, though, relief to Gaza became an enormous project, which I realized would be an ongoing task for months to come if not years. We have received pledges and donations of almost $200,000 to be used in Gaza, even though our work was before the war concentrated mainly in Bethlehem and the surrounding towns. This is a miraculous accomplishment that we thank God for, and pray for guidance in distributing, but it raises additional questions, such as, how can we put to use the money in a way that leads to further development among Palestinians in Gaza? It has been impossible to buy any supplies that would be useful for fixing up homes with damage, due to the Israeli blockade on construction materials, so families still live in squalid conditions and businesses cannot be repaired or reopened.
Surprisingly to me, and contrary to my expectations, Gaza and the Palestinians in general have remained prominent in the news lately—it seems that Obama’s interest in the region has brought the whole world’s eye on the situation here. The effects of the war on Gaza, inter-Palestinian factionalism, and Israeli settlement expansion are top stories. Talking politics is now the order of the day around Bethlehem and people I rarely heard discussing such remote subjects as final status negotiations are debating whether there will be some new approach under the leadership of the current US administration which is seen as being somewhat more favorable to the Palestinians. Still, with not much to show for the international aid promised to Gaza (see ‘effects of the war’ link above), and with settlements expanding daily as discussions continue, it is easy to see how many Palestinians are just fed up with these seemingly empty words.
Israelis too, have reason to be very cynical with the supposed peace talks and negotiations. After all, it has been the same year after year as newly appointed leaders continually promise to bring their insights to this conflict which is in its 61st official year (not including pre-statehood conflict between Jewish immigrants and Palestinian Arabs). So maybe it’s the spring weather, or the fresh vigor of Barack Obama, or maybe it’s the stirring of the Spirit that has brought some vitality and hope into our conversations these days.
As the pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem said on Sunday, good communication is hard to come by in leaders and in relationships, but on Pentecost, we see an example that should serve to inspire us. Suddenly people heard the Good News in every tongue and God’s Spirit arrived to advocate for truth, peace, justice, and mercy. The pastor asked: do we truly believe that such miracles can happen today, here? I do believe that with all the attention and efforts focused on us here and now, we have a chance to work for change in the Holy Land—if we can seize it. Please be praying for the leaders who are working and discussing ways to bring peace and an end to occupation here in Israel-Palestine. Pray for those who daily live in Gaza and the West Bank, struggling to survive in the meantime, that they would receive provision and strength. Pray that we all may be filled with the Spirit of all wisdom and truth to act for mercy and justice.
Wherever you live you have some power to support the work of peace in this land. Contact your representatives in government and tell them they must formulate plans that promote a just peace in the Middle East. Continue supporting the work of MCC, the Shepherd Society, and other groups that seek to be a witness in these times and who provide humanitarian relief even when it is forgotten by other agencies. At this juncture of despair and hope, where there is so much opportunity and yet so much need and lives in the balance, let us strive towards spirit-led solutions that will be more than empty words.
By Kimberly MacVaugh, SALT worker at the Bethlehem Bible College's Shepherd Society
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