Pax Christi USA - PSA e-Bulletin
Pray-Study-Act: End the Violence in Gaza 
In This Issue
PRAY: A prayer for peace and an end to the violence
STUDY: PCUSA's official statement on the violence in the Middle East
ACT: Stop U.S. complicity, support a just peace in Israel and Palestine
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On The Web

Share with others and use this prayer card in your prayers for peace in the Middle East, "A Muslim, Jewish, Christian Prayer for Peace" 

 

 Read Pax Christi International's statement about the escalating violence in Gaza

 

 Read this letter to President Obama initiated by the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns urging an immediate end to the violence in the Middle East

 

Urge Members of Congress to include the occupied territories in their summer visits to Israel

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July 23, 2014

   

 


Over the past few days, we have received many emails expressing the concern, grief, outrage, and heartbreak people are feeling over the violence in Gaza. The death toll rises dramatically each day. The infrastructure which people rely on to live crumbles under the bombing. As one PCUSA member wrote, "When will we ever learn?" 

    The cycle of violence must be unmasked and named and transformed. As people of faith, we engage through prayer, study and action. Below and in the sidebar on the left, you will find some resources for engaging this tragedy. Below is also a link to the new statement we released this morning regarding the violence in Gaza. Additionally, we have set up a special webpage on our site, "End the Violence in Gaza," where you can find a catalog of additional resources for prayer, study and action. Let us--through whatever effort we can make--bring the "peace of Christ" into a situation which is desperately crying out for answers rooted in justice, mercy, understanding and nonviolence.

 

In peace,

 

Johnny Zokovitch

Director of Communications, Pax Christi USA

PRAY: A prayer for peace

and an end to the violence

By Jim Hug, S.J.

 

O Loving God,

We so often and for so long hear about the guns and rockets, drones and bombs
We see the pictures of death in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Congo, Nigeria, Sudan and South Sudan, Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, Central African Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala...

 

Wrap all and each of these your people in your love.

Let them hear: "Come to me you who suffer
and are burdened and I will give you rest."

 

In these few months of 2014, we have heard the weapons and seen the blood of mass shootings and gang violence
In Los Angeles and Detroit, Minneapolis and Miami, in Denver and in 138 other cities, towns and villages across our nation.

 

Wrap all and each of these your people in your love.

Let them hear: "Come to me you who suffer
and are burdened and I will give you rest."

 

The bombs are exploding again in Gaza and Israel.


Wrap all and each of these your people in your love.

Let them hear: "Come to me you who suffer
and are burdened and I will give you rest."...

 

Click here to read the entire prayer.

STUDY: Pax Christi USA's official statement

on the violence in the Middle East

"Peacemaking calls for courage, much more so than warfare. It calls for the courage to say yes to encounter and no to conflict: yes to dialogue and no to violence; yes to negotiations and no to hostilities; yes to respect for agreements and no to acts of provocation; yes to sincerity and no to duplicity. All of this takes courage, it takes strength and tenacity."

~Pope Francis, June 8, 2014

 

As the number of dead and wounded continues to rise in Gaza, Pax Christi USA calls for an immediate cease-fire by all parties in order to open the possibility for negotiations to end the senseless violence and address the underlying causes which fuel the decades-long tragedy in the Middle East.

    Pax Christi USA mourns the loss of life on both sides of the conflict. We stand with all those who have been victimized by violence. Our hearts are broken over the death and destruction which only serves to terrorize hundreds of thousands of civilians in Gaza, those who call this relatively small piece of land home. We join with Pax Christi International members around the world in offering "our sincere condolences to all those in mourning and pray that those who have been killed will be the last to die violent deaths in this escalation of hatred and vengeance."...

 

Click here to read the complete statement.

ACT:  Stop U.S. complicity in suffering, support a just peace in Israel & Palestine


from the Faith Forum on Middle East Policy

 

NOTE: Pax Christi USA is a member of the Faith Forum. This is the "Third Thursday for Israel-Palestine" action for July. 

 

July 9th marked the 10-year anniversary of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion on the legality of Israel's construction of the separation barrier. In its opinion, the ICJ declared that the barrier being built by Israel in occupied Palestinian territory is illegal, that it should be torn down, and that those who have suffered as a consequence of its construction should be compensated. Yet 10 years later, the barrier remains, cutting into Palestinian territory and separating Palestinians from schools, work and neighbors. Given its projected route, it is estimated that, if completed, around 85% of the barrier will run inside the West Bank, de facto annexing West Bank land and water resources to Israel.

    As violence escalates throughout Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank, it is abundantly clear that the underlying causes of this human tragedy must be addressed. All aspects of Israel's illegal military occupation--including the barrier in the West Bank and the blockade on Gaza--will need to end, in order for a just and secure future to result.

    Contact your Members of Congress today and ask them to stop U.S. complicity in the suffering happening in the Middle East, and to support efforts which will result in a just peace for Israelis and Palestinians. 

 

Click here to see this full action alert with a script for contacting your Members of Congress.