Embrace’s patron, Bishop Rachel, speaks out against oppression and injustice after visiting the West Bank
After returning from a visit to Jerusalem and the West Bank last week, Embrace the Middle East patron the Rt Revd Rachel Treweek, Bishop of Gloucester said: “I am committed to bearing witness ever more to the injustice of all that intentionally suppresses the thriving of people.”
She began this in her Diocesan message this week, vividly describing what she witnessed during her visit. An extract is below. You can read her message in full on the Diocese of Gloucester website.
…The Palestinians (Christian and Muslim) under occupation in the West Bank are being strangled of life. Illegal Jewish Settlements grow, and tactics of fear and power are part of everyday life. I saw land where olive groves and vegetables once thrived, now abandoned and desolate as huge gates have been erected across entrance roads, and people can only access their crops and trees at certain times when the gates are unlocked. Israeli roads which Palestinians cannot access, are severing connection between Palestinian communities and villages, and people are being dispossessed of their land and homes.
Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem are not thriving. The Church in the West Bank remains faithfully present but the Christian population is diminishing as many of those who can, decide to leave. Many of those who remain are hanging on by their fingertips as their children ask them if they will be safe and if the conflict in the West Bank will become like Gaza.
Gaza is being obliterated. People are starving and families forcibly displaced from their homes — places of thriving and healing such as schools and hospitals, have been systematically destroyed.
It was horrifically enlightening listening to the insights of a young father who is part of the organisation, ‘Breaking the Silence’ — veteran soldiers who have served in the Israeli military and have taken it upon themselves to bring into the light the hidden reality of everyday life in the Occupied Territories.
It is of course important to say that Israeli hostages and their families and traumatised communities are not thriving either. All aggression and inhumane actions must cease. The rise of anti-Semitism and hostility towards Jewish neighbours and communities in the UK is abhorrent and is also to be called out…
As we walk towards Pentecost, and as many people engage with the initiative of ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ and the focus on the Lord’s Prayer, may we remember the seemingly forgotten places of our world where there is a lack of thriving, in body, mind and spirit, and may we be advocates for flourishing and justice, both locally and far away, yearning for God’s kingdom to come on earth as in heaven.
For me, what I have seen and heard in Jerusalem and the West Bank remains very present, and I am committed to bearing witness ever more strongly to the injustice of all that intentionally suppresses the thriving of people, each of us created in God’s image. I will be sharing my thoughts and reflections on my visit in different ways over the coming days and weeks.
Today, I pray ‘Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful people and kindle in us the fire of your love’.