Dear Friends and Colleagues,  

Highlighting World Water Day: The Presiding Bishop's model interfaith pilgrimage in January met with a representative of EcoPeace Middle East whose work includes rehabilitating the polluted Jordan River.  Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities are invited into its work.  The Episcopal News Service article appeared the week before the UN's World Water Day 22 March 2015.  

One of the comments posted quoted from Who Profits? 2014 report on agricultural exports from the Occupied Territories: "The inequitable division of water under the Oslo II Agreement means that Israelis were allocated four times more water than Palestinians from the shared Mountain Aquifer. This unequal access to water leaves Israeli farms in [illegal] settlements well-irrigated while Palestinian farmers and communities are largely dependent on purchasing expensive water tanked in by Israeli companies."

The Institute for Middle East Understanding shared an infographic on water use.  Rehabilitating the Jordan River is only one piece of the work that needs to be done.

Meanwhile in Massachusetts on World Water Day, "Demonstrators urged the Commonwealth not to be complicit with Israel's theft of Palestinian water and policies that have been widely denounced as 'Water Apartheid.'  The UN had declared that water is a human right, and Massachusetts should respect that right without exception."  Read more here.

And in Palestine, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and the Palestinian Water Authority released a statement for World Water Day.  Read more about it here.

Take action: Many individuals and groups are still debriefing the 17 March elections in Israel.  The US Campaign to End the Occupation has organized a petition to President Obama encouraging him to no longer use the US's veto at the UN to protect Israel and to sanction Israel by ending "military aid that makes us complicit in Israel's human rights abuses of Palestinians."  You can sign on here.

Preparing for General Convention: The Dioceses of California and Hawaii have sent on to General Convention resolutions on divestment from US companies complicit in the Israeli Occupation. AFSC offers this resource to guide individuals, groups, denominations, to make responsible investment/divestment decisions.

A Lenten Appeal for Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza: (Deadline Easter Sunday for contributions) During the season of Lent EPF/PIN is seeking funds for Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza, an institution of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem. EPF has set up a designated fund in order to make all donations tax deductible. Donations to Al Ahli Hospital can be made online or checks, made payable to EPF and designated for the "Al Ahli Hospital Fund", may be sent to EPF, PO Box 15, Claysburg PA 16625. One hundred per cent of the donation will go to the hospital. A group from PIN will deliver donations received through Easter Sunday to the hospital when they visit Gaza in April.  In a place where hardship is commonplace, Al Ahli Arab Hospital generates a beacon of peace and hope for the people it serves. 

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Episcopal Peace Fellowship
PO Box 15, Claysburg, PA 16625

312-922-8628

epf@epfnational.org

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