Peace Not Walls

Rocky Mountain Synod Assembly - Resolution: No Way to Treat a Child, Protecting the Human Rights of Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation

• Read the resolution and fact sheet (see list of Documents at right
• Ask your congregation's voting members and pastor(s) if they would be willing to support the resolution
• See if the voting members/pastors are willing to speak in support of the resolution

No Way to Treat a Child

Each year the Israeli military arrests and prosecutes around 700 Palestinian children. The No Way to Treat a Child campaign seeks to challenge and end Israel’s prolonged military occupation of Palestinians by exposing  the widespread and systematic ill-treatment of Palestinian children. Since 1967, Israel has operated two separate legal systems in the same territory. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers are subject to the civilian and criminal legal system whereas Palestinians live under military law.
 
Detaining Dreams documents Israel’s human rights abuses of Palestinian children who are routinely targeted for detention, interrogation and torture in Israel’s military detention system. These practices are violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

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OPPORTUNITY PALESTINE - After ten years of planning and construction, the Evangelical Lutheran School of Hope in Ramallah, Palestine, has a new building that is opening for students this fall! You can help furnish the school and provide needed equipment - through http://opportunitypalestine.org.

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Churchwide Assembly Actions - the 2016 assembly took two actions urging action for peace with justice in the Holy Land:

• Peace with Justice in the Holy Land: Urging the US to make our foreign aid to Israel contingent on Israel's cessation of settlement construction in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem 
• Justice for the Holy Land through Responsible Investment: Asking for development of an ELCA human rights social criteria investment screen, specifically addressing Israel and Palestine

Read a FACT SHEET about the two memorials.

In the Rocky Mountain Synod, we participate in a special ELCA campaign working for justice and peace in Palestine and Israel, through

• Accompaniment
• Advocacy
• Awareness-raising

Peace Not Walls connects us with our Palestinian Lutheran companions—promoting dignity, full respect for human rights, healing and reconciiation. With our companions in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), we also accompany Palestinians and Israelis, Jews, Christians and Muslims working together for peace with justice. Learn more about the ELCA campaign.

Some ways you and your congregation can be involved:

• IMPLEMENT the ELCA resolutions on Israeli settlements and responsible investment - read a FACT SHEET on the Memorials
• WATCH a video introduction to Peace Not Walls
• Watch PALESTINE SHORTS: Four Palestinian Christians tell their stories in video interviews 
• CONTACT a speaker
• STUDY the KAIROS PALESTINE document, the Palestinian Christians' call to Christians around the world, asking for support in their struggle for human rights
• SUPPORT Lutheran  ministries in Bethlehem through Bright Stars of Bethlehem
• WHY have more than 200 Israeli settlements been built on Palestinian land? Watch "The Iron Wall" documentary
• WHY is a two-state solution unlikely? Watch a two-minute video: "Israel-Palestine, a Land in Fragments"