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Following Jesus in nonviolent struggle for justice and peace, we love our neighbors and enemies as God loves us all, becoming a peace church to share in Gods work to save the world.

Some Thoughts on the Sabeel Conference in Kansas City

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Some Thoughts on the Sabeel Conference in Kansas City by Martin A. Bates

On October 20th and 21st 2006, around 300 people gathered to learn about the Palestinian narrative from members of Sabeel. Sabeel, "The Way" in Arabic, is "an ecumenical grassroots liberation theology movement among Palestinian Christians. Inspired by the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, this liberation theology seeks to deepen the faith of Palestinian Christians, promote unity among them, and lead them to social action." (http://www.sabeel.org/)

As I said earlier, around 300 people were there; among them were Christians, Muslims, right wingers, left wingers, moderates, Palestinians, American and Israeli Jews, and secular humanists. As you may guess, most of the presentations revolved around shining the light of truth on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We heard about this conflict from many angles, which was very helpful and educational, and validated what the speakers were saying. Dr. Jeff Halper, Coordinating Director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, is an Israeli who puts his body on the line to stop house demolitions and rebuild homes in Palestine. Doing a great job of helping us understand how Israelis see the conflict, he explained that many Israelis see the entire area as exclusively Jewish land. They don't call it an occupation, they don't recognize Palestinians as a people, they aren't building a wall but a security fence. I managed to take a moment and imagine myself in their place to feel how difficult it must seem to them to have these angry people running around getting in the way of their master plan. It helped a little, but it’s still hard to imagine how people who have suffered as the Jews did in WWII could condone such dehumanizing behavior toward the Palestinian people.

We heard from Dr. Mubarak Awad, a Palestinian who was arrested many times and eventually deported to the USA for speaking and organizing non-violent resistance in Palestine. Also available were opposing views from a Christian Zionist and a Rabbi, speaking for the Israeli side. We had opportunities to hear from Noam Weiner, a member of Refuser Solidarity Network, and Cindy and Craig Corrie, parents of Rachel Corrie, who was murdered while attempting to prevent a Caterpillar bulldozer from illegally demolishing the home of a pharmacist friend in Gaza. Connections were also made to US complicity in the atrocities happening in the Holy Land, with around $6 billion per year in US taxes, making Israel the fourth strongest military on earth.

Janie and I provided musical interludes for the crowd and what a joy it was to see these wonderful people smiling and singing along. My brother-in-law, Jerry Stein was there to speak about Christian Peacemaker Teams in Hebron. http://www.cpt.org    You can see more of the conference, including images, at the conference website, http://www.kcsabeelconference.org . I believe you can also order a copy of the conference DVD at that same site. At the end of the conference, there was much discussion about how to actively support the work of Sabeel, how to make people aware of the human rights abuses against Palestinians, and Palestinian Christians in particular. Here's a synopsis of some of the advice that resonated with me (the stuff I scribbled notes about.)

     How Sabeel looks to be on God's side, from Dr. Mubarak Awad.
       Seeking God's will in five areas by:
        1. Genuine love for all people in the Middle East.
&nb

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