JOURNALIST KILLING CONDEMNED

Church organisations in the Middle East have condemned the killing of the Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

The prominent Al Jazeera reporter was shot while reporting on an Israeli military raid on the town of Jenin on May 11.

Al Jazeera and the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that she was killed by the Israeli Defence Force, although this was disputed by Israel.

A statement from ACT Palestine Forum and the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) read: “With shock and great sadness, the Middle East Council of Churches headquartered in Beirut, the Ecumenical Palestinian organisations, and members of the ACT Alliance working in Palestine and the region, received the news of the murder of the beloved journalist Ms Shireen Abu Aqleh. Shireen was killed by a bullet fired from the Israeli occupation forces in Jenin, a city in the northern part of the West Bank, while she was on the job. She is not the first nor will she be the last voice silenced by the violence of the Israeli occupation, as her death is, unfortunately, one among many in the world of Palestinian journalism.

“All of us in Palestine, Lebanon, and throughout the Middle East are devastated by this news. Shireen’s death impacts all who fight for freedom of speech across the globe. Shireen was not just a journalist, she was a clear voice of the pain and hurt that we have all felt as a result of Israeli occupation here in Palestine. On this tragic occasion, we once again reaffirm the right of the Palestinian people to a state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

“We salute Shireen and what she represented through her persevering and thorough journalistic work. Shireen aimed at exposing the truth of the occupation and conveying the oppression and persecution of us Palestinians.

“We offer our heartfelt condolences to the family of Shireen, and to the Palestinian people at home and in the diaspora for this heavy loss.”

The statement was also signed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan & the Holy Land, the MECC Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees and East Jerusalem YMCA.

WEA/UN MEETING

World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Secretary General Bishop Dr Thomas Schirrmacher led a delegation of WEA leaders in a recent meeting with United Nations (UN) Secretary General Mr António Guterres at the UN headquarters in New York. They discussed some of the ongoing and newly emerging crises in the world, including the war in Ukraine and the ensuing refugee crisis, issues surrounding freedom of religion and belief as well as the environment.

Guterres thanked the WEA for its long-term engagement in a wide area of topics and fields and shared that he had got to know the WEA more during his tenure as UN High Commissioner for Refugees. As a person of faith himself, he urged the WEA to increase its engagement and encourage other like-minded faith actors to join the collaborative efforts at grassroots.

Schirrmacher applauded the UN for elevating the co-operation with faithbased organisations in various branches and entities. He highlighted the UN Environment Program (UNEP) as the first branch that did not subsume religions under ‘non-state actors’ but included them as important partners in identifying and implementing global solutions.

“The hundreds of millions of Christians belonging to the many national Evangelical Alliances around the world are not always ‘easy-going’ actors when it comes to collaboration with others, as they are highly critical of issues such as corruption, racism, economic inequalities, or the suppression of freedom of religion or belief,” Schirrmacher noted. But he also emphasised that “they are not critical simply for the sake of criticising. Instead, they seek to co-operate and engage meaningfully for a peaceful, just, and livable world, which is in accordance with the will of Jesus Christ.” (WEA)

FOOD CRISIS GROWS IN HORN OF AFRICA

International development charity Christian Aid has warned “the cost of living crisis is global and demands urgent action” as people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia face rising hunger and acute water shortages amidst the worst drought in 40 years.

With a report recently published by the Global Network Against Food Crises calculating that the number of people experiencing crisis-levels of hunger or worse across the globe rose by 40 million in 2021 alone, concerns for the region are growing.

In the report, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warns the war in Ukraine is “supercharging a three-dimensional crisis – food, energy and finance – with devastating impacts on the world’s most vulnerable people, countries and economies.”

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