Jewish author proposes one-state solution
Israeli-Jewish author and organizer Jeff Halper spoke at a June 25 lunch gathering organized by the Mennonite Church Eastern Canada (MCEC) Palestine-Israel Network (PIN). Halper heads the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and is the author of Decolonizing Israel, Liberating Palestine: Zionism, Settler Colonialism, and the Case for One Democratic State. Halper said that while it…
The path to peace includes Hamas
I am not, and have never been, a supporter or apologist for Hamas. I am a Christian, and Hamas is an avowedly Muslim organization. I am a pacifist, and Hamas believes in armed struggle as the path to liberation. Yet, I know that there is no path to peace that does not involve Hamas, as…
Public and protests pressure decision-makers in the war against Gaza
Following community pressure, in early July, the University of Waterloo (UW) in Waterloo, Ontario, dropped all legal charges against a group of students and concerned community members who were calling on the university to divest of any company that supports Israel as the war against Gaza continues. Occupy UW is part of a significant movement…
Beyond revenge: The story of Maoz Inon
Maoz Inon is an Israeli Jewish social entrepreneur and peace advocate. During a February online event—Part I of the Peace & Possibility events—he shared the story of his parents being murdered by Hamas and his family’s astonishing journey to peace. The following excerpts are from an online event with Inon that Canadian Mennonite convened in…
Attending to war
First-hand from Gaza The following is a string of messages received by a reader of Canadian Mennonite who worked in Israel-Palestine. She received the messages on October 30 from a friend in Gaza who lost 19 family members in the bombing two days before. The person has two pre-school sons and is now sheltering in…
MCC responds to bombing in Gaza
Nighttime was the hardest for Mahmoud Alhalimi. With the electricity cut and bombs falling, the hours were dark and loud, as he tried in vain to help his two young children fall asleep. “They asked me all the time, ‘What are these sounds? Are they coming to our home?’” he says of their time during…
MC Canada working groups call for sanctions against Israel
The following letter was drafted by representatives of the Mennonite Church Canada network of regional working groups on Palestine and Israel, and sent to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, on May 2, 2018. It is being published in Canadian Mennonite at the request of the working groups. In July…
Mid-point reflections from Gaza
This is midpoint in my five-week ministry here in Gaza and Bethlehem. Things are going well. While my students in Gaza are doing research, book reports and various kinds of homework, I have had the opportunity to teach classes at the college, lead workshops in the community, help to establish the peace studies center, and…
First report from Gaza
I am writing this from prison. All 1.8 million of us who are living in Gaza are in prison. The walls around Gaza keep us (except us privileged foreigners) from leaving to work, to shop or to go to another church, town or country. We cannot sell our crops or manufactured goods. Some have meager…
