The very sad news came yesterday that Israel had demolished Palestinian homes throughout the West Bank, including five in Umm al-Kheir – the village I visited last month with a delegation from the Center For Jewish Nonviolence. Susiya, another village we visited is also under threat of immanent demolition. Please join me in signing this petition to urge Secretary of State Kerry to “to use the leverage the United States has, as Israel’s biggest supporter, to put real pressure on Israel to stop displacing Palestinian families from their homes.”
This Friday night August 12, will mark the Global Shabbat Against Home Demolitions – an international show of solidarity with Palestinians who live with daily possibility that their homes will be destroyed and their families uprooted. Click here to see if there is a gathering near you. If not, please consider organizing one.
A Prayer for the Steadfast
This is a prayer for the steadfast,
the ones who stand firm,
the ones who say:
you can destroy my house
but you will never destroy my home.
This is a prayer for the ones
who lose their fields
only to clear new ones,
uprooting weeds, moving stones,
planting zatar seedlings
in the hot summer sun.
This is a prayer for the ones
who sift through the rubble of their homes
and find dolls, blankets, tea canisters,
photos of ancestors gazing at them
through shattered glass.
This is a prayer for the ones
who live in tents
next to twisted steel and broken concrete
knowing they will have to rebuild
before winter comes again.
This is a prayer for the ones
who issue appeals
and stays and petitions
to courts that issue no justice.
This is a prayer for the ones
who put their children to bed at night
in huts of corrugated metal,
praying they will not awaken
to the sounds of bulldozers.
This is a prayer for the ones
who stand amidst the ruins
once the soldiers have gone
and silently vow:
demolish our houses again
if you choose
but we will never leave.
We will rebuild, we will replant,
we will remain.
Our very existence
is resistance.
Shalom Rav 