Media Release: PSC delegation in Palestine for Christmas

Media Release: PSC delegation in Palestine for Christmas

Issued by the Palestine Solidarity Committee

While wishing all South Africans well over the festive season, 
we want to remind Christians that the birthplace of Jesus, 
Bethlehem, remains under Israeli occupation as it has been for 
the past 36 years. And under occupation too are the thousands 
of Christian Palestinians this Christmas.

The true spirit of Christmas is about sharing and caring for 
other people. Six members of the Palestine Solidarity 
Committee are, in this spirit of caring for the “least among 
people”, spending between a few weeks and a few months in 
various forms of volunteer work in Occupied Palestine, 
including in Occupied Bethlehem. Their tasks over this period 
will include assisting Palestinian farmers to harvest their olive 
crops in the face of racist Israeli settlers who regular harass the 
farmers (and the internationals who assist them), assisting in 
Palestinian refugee camps, protesting against the building of the 
Apartheid Wall, etc.

The message of Jesus was one of transformation and justice, 
not one of accommodation with oppression and injustice. It is 
this yearning for transformation and justice that the Palestinian 
people continue to have. It is this yearning that causes them to 
demand that they not be forced to live in Bantustans – which is 
the plan of the Israeli government and which is effectively what 
the Apartheid Wall is doing. If the Bantustan solution was not a 
good and just solution for us South Africans, it certainly is not a 
good and just solution for Palestinians.

All that Palestinians are praying for at this time is to be able to 
return to their homes (800000 Palestinians were forced out of 
their homes and their land in 1948 and they and their offspring, 
numbering 5 million today, have lived as refugees for the past 
55 years) and to live in peace.

While we pray for peace for all in the Middle East, we also pray 
for the safety of the South Africans that are in Palestine now, 
committed to assisting the attainment of that peace.

Issued by the Palestine Solidarity Committee

For an interview with the South Africans currently 
volunteering in Palestine, call:
Anna –  +972 5 259 8264

For more information, call:
Salim – 082 802 5936
Na’eem – 084 574 2674

PS: This address is used only for mailing lists.
If you wish to email me privately, mail me on [email protected]