« DUBAI / A DYING MONUMENT TO GREED AND EXCESSGone but not forgotten -- the bin Laden revival tour »

Will the Church act to save the children of Gaza this Christmas?

December 1st, 2009

Stuart Littlewood

OPEN LETTER to
The Most Rev. and the Rt. Hon. the Archbishop of Canterbury
Spiritual leader of the Anglican Church

    Dear Archbishop,

    Two years ago, on returning from Gaza and the West Bank, I wrote about the dire conditions and the British government's complicity in the crippling blockade, and reminded prime minister Gordon Brown that Gaza was formerly entrusted to Britain under mandate, which was reason for us to feel a special responsibility.

I urged him: “Go see for yourselves the misery, the human tragedy and the devastation you have heaped on these nice people. Feel the pain and weep.

“Then amaze us. Do something courageous for once. Lift the cruel siege. End the 90 years of betrayal that has so shamed Britain."

That was before the horrific blitzkrieg launched by Israel last December/January, in which at least 350 children were murdered and thousands more maimed or made homeless. Gazans have to exist in circumstances that are simply indescribable. You know that the Strip is still under daily bombardment, the promised reconstruction has still not begun, all borders remain sealed to form a vast concentration camp and marauding Israeli warships machine-gun Gaza fishermen in their own waters.

Today I was disgusted to learn that chocolate, which few can afford but all regard as a great delicacy, especially at Muslim holy festivals such as Eid, is prohibited by Israel and banned from entering Gaza. It has to be smuggled in at great risk through the tunnel system. See http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=242966

Gaza and the rest of the Holy Land, one would have thought, are constantly in the mind of the Church, whose purpose and inspiration are founded there. I have seen no statement about Gaza on your website since 31 December last year, when the slaughter had barely begun. So the challenge issued to Gordon Brown might just as well be addressed to your goodself... What courageous thing will you and your colleagues do this Christmas-time to intervene and bring humanity, practical relief and spiritual help to all those Christian and Muslim families who for years have been so cruelly oppressed and abused by the Israeli regime and its supporters?

I am reminded of your Inter-Faith Committee's statement 'In Co-operation for the Common Good', which talks of a commitment to heal wounds of misunderstanding where they are found. All those who signed it are pledged to "draw on the fundamental values held in common and on the wisdom of our respective faiths to continue to work for the wellbeing of our society [and] our wider global community..."

I have also seen your 2008 Faith in Human Rights statement, on the 60th anniversary of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which seeks to "address major threats to the full realisation of human rights". As you know, the people of Gaza have for decades been denied a list of human rights as long as your arm.

Archbishop, you are a leading advocate of dialogue between the different faiths with the view that religious belief and practice have immense contributions to make to the common good. Furthermore the Church of England and the Churches of the global Anglican Communion increasingly face the need to engage with people and communities of other religions, and you personally are leading that process of engagement here and abroad.

Gaza and the rest of the Holy Land are a prime and urgent test for the engagement you speak of. Why not visit the Strip? Ask Brown and Blair to fix it, and don't take 'no' for an answer. Galvanise the government and remind them of their Christian duty to defend and protect the weak: somebody should. Of course, that is the duty of all decent men, Christian or not.

See Mr Haniyeh. Imagine it: archbishop meets imam and prime minister of a people under continual terror attack – the forgotten children of a lesser God, apparently – while the international community stands idly by. That would be one very interesting conversation, ground-breaking and symbolic enough to make a difference… and, dare one suggest, bring a smile to the face of God.

Wish I could be there to report it.

Stuart Littlewood

-###-

Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. For further information please visit www.radiofreepalestine.co.uk

No feedback yet

Voices

Voices

  • Tracy Turner The Reclamation of the Republic When, in the Course of human events, it shall become absolutely necessary for the People to dissolve the political ties which have united them to a government that has betrayed its trust to obtain their…
  • Tracy Turner SMELE's (Slow-Motion-Extinction-Level-Events). Not yet common in academia, but it should be. I. Introduction: The Timebombs We Ignore "Not with a bang but a bureaucratic shrug, the world ends." - Revisionist reading of Eliot by the…
  • By David Swanson I wish U.S. academics would spend less time fantasizing choices between various murders with trollies, or playing games with theories about how greedy robots might do diplomacy, and more time on the impeachment problem. The United…
  • Cathy Smith Hidden Bombshells in Trump’s “Big Bodacious Pill” “The most dangerous place to be is between power and its reckoning.” —Rewritten maxim of Beltway survival In the dark guts of Trump’s 2025 legislative monolith—cheekily christened the Big…
  • Robert David A global exposé of how corporations distort science, erase truth, and turn human death into quarterly growth. I. Introduction: When Truth Becomes a Liability In an age when algorithms dictate belief and lobbyists author legislation, truth…
  • Robert David Polluters don’t just dump toxins. They dump stories—engineered by billion-dollar PR firms. They Poisoned the Planet—Then Hired Spin Doctors to Make You Forget When a chemical spill poisons a town, when a pipeline ruptures in a fireball,…
  • By David Swanson, World BEYOND War Switzerland got that way through NEUTRALITY Remarks at Neutrality Colloquium: A Call to Action for Active Neutrality & World Peace, June 26-27, 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland. I grew up in a town in the United States that…
  • Fred Gransville I. The Fluoride Question For decades, fluoride has had an uncontested official story: it is a beneficial, even benevolent substance—vital to healthy teeth. In toothpaste tubes to water supplies, fluoride has been presented as a dental…
  • Tracy Turner #SCOTUScorruption #FascistAmerica #EndCitizensUnited Bush started it. Obama enabled it. Trump perfected it. And the Court? It never checked power—it built it. I. Opening Jab: The Judicial Illusion "They wear robes to appear impartial. But…
  • Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirovic Carl von Clausewitz The focal questions about war In dealing with both theoretical and practical points of view about war, at least six fundamental questions arise: 1) What is war?; 2) What types of war exist?; 3) Why do wars…
July 2025
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
 << <   > >>
    1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31    

  XML Feeds

Multiple blogs solution
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted articles and information about environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. This news and information is displayed without profit for educational purposes, in accordance with, Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Thepeoplesvoice.org is a non-advocacy internet web site, edited by non-affiliated U.S. citizens. editor
ozlu Sozler GereksizGercek Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi Hava Durumu Firma Rehberi E-okul Veli Firma Rehberi