« 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

  • By Fred Gransville Where the Rich Raped, the Justice System Genuflected The Girls Were Not Collateral Damage. They Were Targets. They were people’s daughters, sisters, granddaughters. Before the girls were trafficked to an island, misused and scrap…
  • By World BEYOND War A new report by the global peace group World BEYOND War finds that military bases used by foreign militaries are growing in number, as are public protests and advocacy against those bases. Of 1,247 foreign military bases in the…
  • By Sally Dugman I like the citizen arrest process, although never tried it out. It means that you go up to a wrongdoer and cart him or her off to jail if you don’t fear that your head will be blown off with a gun by the perpetrator in the process … Who…
  • By World BEYOND War The global peace organization World BEYOND War has announced the awardees for its fifth annual War Abolisher Awards: Ralph Nader, Roger Waters, and Francesca Albanese. The awardees will accept their awards in an online event on July…
  • By Mark Powell They bomb children, rob the treasury, cover up Epstein's client list, and term it democracy—what they're running is a pathocracy, and it's happening today. American Pathocracy/Kleptocracy history and current news, untainted by Google,…
  • By Mark Aurelius “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another… “ It’s that time again, actually way past due, as the lists of grievances are even fatter…
  • Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirovic The 2018 Skripal Attack Case The current orchestrated Western policy of total Russophobia, directed by Collective West, can be recorded to start by the British Cabinet of Theresa May – the focal servant-dog to US global…
  • By Sally Dugman This proactive Palestinian Pulverizers of humans, D. Trump who is indirectly responsible for the deaths of many thousands of Palestinian people of all ages, has no standing to say something like this utterly stupid statement about Putin:…
  • Tracy Turner When the Republic Betrays, the Body Must Answer Protest is not a right—it is a judgment passed upon power. A corrupt state standing above law and beyond justice forfeits its legitimacy, and we, the people, are compelled to answer—not with…
  • 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…
Censorship is not safety. It is authoritarianism in disguise. Bing is not just a search engine—it is an information gatekeeper. Click the red button to email MSN and Bing.com executives. This message challenges their censorship of ThePeoplesVoice.org and demands transparency, algorithmic fairness, and an end to suppression of free expression.
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