Mark Braverman, a powerful Jewish advocate for a just-peace in Palestine/Israel, is speaking at a meeting in Edinburgh (12.30pm, 23 May 2012) sponsored by the Scottish Palestinian Forum in association with the Church of Scotland’s World Mission Council.
Mark Braverman, a powerful Jewish advocate for a just-peace in Palestine/Israel, is speaking at a meeting in Edinburgh (12.30pm, 23 May 2012) sponsored by the Scottish Palestinian Forum in association with the Church of Scotland’s World Mission Council.
The meeting is taking place at St Columba’s by the Castle, Johnston Terrace, EH1 2PR, during the Presbyterian Kirk’s General Assembly, its governing body. Its full title is ‘When politics fails: the role of the churches in bringing a just peace to Israel/Palestine.’
Braverman (http://markbraverman.org/) is author of the influential book Fatal Embrace: Christians, Jews and the Search for Peace in the Holy Land. The discussant will be Simon Barrow, co-director of the theological think tank, Ekklesia, and the chair will be the Very Rev Dr Andrew McLellan, Convener of the Church of Scotland’s World Mission Council.
Mark Braverman’s roots are in the Holy Land – his grandfather, a fifth generation Palestinian Jew, was born in Jerusalem, emigrating from the US as a young man. Growing up in the United States, Braverman was reared in the Jewish tradition, studying Bible, Hebrew literature, and Jewish history. Trained in clinical psychology and crisis management, Braverman devoted his professional career to working with groups and individuals undergoing traumatic stress. Returning to the Holy Land in 2006, he was transformed by witnessing the occupation of Palestine and by encounters with peace activists and civil society leaders from the Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities.
Since then, Braverman has devoted himself full-time to the Israel/Palestine conflict. He is a co-founder and Executive Director of Friends of Tent of Nations North America, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to supporting Palestinian land rights and peaceful coexistence in historic Palestine. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions-USA, the advisory committee of Friends of Sabeel North America, and the advisory council of the Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace. He is a charter member of American Jews for a Just Peace.
Representatives of Christian Peacemaker Teams (www.cptuk.org.uk/) and the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme for Palestine and Israel, EAPPI (www.quaker.org.uk/eappi), will also be there.
Admission is free. Further information available from www.scottishpalestinianforum.org.uk/