Lutheran leader calls for Israeli and Palestinian action on education

-24/10/06

A Luth


Lutheran leader calls for Israeli and Palestinian action on education

-24/10/06

A Lutheran leader in the Holy Land, who was shocked to encounter school children begging by the road side, has pleaded for Palestinians, Israelis and the international community to get more than 700,000 Palestinian students back to school – writes Annette Young for Ecumenical News International.

Bishop Munib Younan, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, said in a pastoral letter that the children were staying at home because their schools remained closed due to an international boycott of aid to the Palestinian Authority’s Hamas-led government since it won an election in January 2006.

“As I was driving to Ramallah the other day and stopped at an intersection, a child came up to the car with a towel to try to clean my windshield. I said, ‘What is this?’ He said, ‘Please, for God’s sake, one shekel. I want to eat!’ Other children later started following us when we were walking, ‘Please, a shekel, a shekel.’ I was offended and humiliated to watch Palestinian children turn into beggars.”

The bishop, in his message dated 19 October 2006, also strongly urged Hamas, which advocates the destruction of the state of Israel, and Fatah, the party led by the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, to stop their infighting and avoid a civil war.

“These children have become the pawns of politics between the Palestinians and the whole Western world and between the infighting of Hamas and Fatah,” Younan said. “It’s time that we all – Palestinians, Israelis and the international community -stopped making the children the victims of this political stalemate.

He continued, “Now, as a result of the international boycott against the political leaders, our children are becoming beggars and our teenagers are becoming more embittered by injustice and hypocrisy and driven into the arms of the extremists.” Younan added, “This worries every one of us and should worry the international community.”

Facing an economic catastrophe, both Hamas and Fatah are pressured to agree to a unity government that would meet the world’s three conditions for lifting the boycott: recognising Israel, renouncing violence and honouring previous Palestinian Authority-Israel agreements.

In the meantime, government workers have not been paid their full salaries since March. As a result, about 725 000 schoolchildren out of the more than one million students have been unable to go to classes because their schools are closed.

The rest attend either private schools – such as four run by the Lutheran church – those run by the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox and other churches, or schools run by the United Nations Relief and Work Agency.

With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.


Lutheran leader calls for Israeli and Palestinian action on education

-24/10/06

A Lutheran leader in the Holy Land, who was shocked to encounter school children begging by the road side, has pleaded for Palestinians, Israelis and the international community to get more than 700,000 Palestinian students back to school – writes Annette Young for Ecumenical News International.

Bishop Munib Younan, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, said in a pastoral letter that the children were staying at home because their schools remained closed due to an international boycott of aid to the Palestinian Authority’s Hamas-led government since it won an election in January 2006.

“As I was driving to Ramallah the other day and stopped at an intersection, a child came up to the car with a towel to try to clean my windshield. I said, ‘What is this?’ He said, ‘Please, for God’s sake, one shekel. I want to eat!’ Other children later started following us when we were walking, ‘Please, a shekel, a shekel.’ I was offended and humiliated to watch Palestinian children turn into beggars.”

The bishop, in his message dated 19 October 2006, also strongly urged Hamas, which advocates the destruction of the state of Israel, and Fatah, the party led by the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, to stop their infighting and avoid a civil war.

“These children have become the pawns of politics between the Palestinians and the whole Western world and between the infighting of Hamas and Fatah,” Younan said. “It’s time that we all – Palestinians, Israelis and the international community -stopped making the children the victims of this political stalemate.

He continued, “Now, as a result of the international boycott against the political leaders, our children are becoming beggars and our teenagers are becoming more embittered by injustice and hypocrisy and driven into the arms of the extremists.” Younan added, “This worries every one of us and should worry the international community.”

Facing an economic catastrophe, both Hamas and Fatah are pressured to agree to a unity government that would meet the world’s three conditions for lifting the boycott: recognising Israel, renouncing violence and honouring previous Palestinian Authority-Israel agreements.

In the meantime, government workers have not been paid their full salaries since March. As a result, about 725 000 schoolchildren out of the more than one million students have been unable to go to classes because their schools are closed.

The rest attend either private schools – such as four run by the Lutheran church – those run by the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Orthodox and other churches, or schools run by the United Nations Relief and Work Agency.

With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.