World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel

Every year the World Council of Churches, which the Church of Scotland is a member, runs a programme to support peace in Palestine and Israel.

 

The ‘World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel’ has been running for a number of years and is becoming more established as part of the church year. This year it runs from tomorrow, Saturday 29 May to Friday 4 June.

 

There are three main strands:

 

1. Prayer – to pray for peace, for justice and alongside Christian communities living in the Holy Land.

 

2. Educate – raise awareness about the conflict, the issues, and the situation facing people living in Palestine and Israel.

 

3. Advocate – working in partnership to ask decision-makers to work for a lasting peace.

  

A number of resources have been specially produced for this year, including:

• An information leaflet produced by an alliance of UK churches and Christian organisations
• A worship liturgy produced by Irish churches
• The ‘Jerusalem Prayer’, a special prayer for peace composed by church leaders in Jerusalem that will be used in churches all over the world on Sunday.

 

Lots more is available on the WCC website.

 

One exciting development that I am interested in has been taken up by the UK Ecumenical Council on Corporate Responsibility. They have started a campaign to try to improve the labelling of produce from the Occupied Territories, and asking retailers to stop selling and consumers to stop buying things from Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. These settlements are illegal under international law, have been criticised by the UN and their continued existence is a block to a permanent peace settlement.