by Joe Burns, Commission Member
Rev Ashraf Tannous is a Lutheran pastor who spoke at Leeds Minster on Sunday 19 October in an event organised by Sabeel Kairos in partnership with the Minster.
He is a pastor in Bethlehem and talked about his own experiences as an Arab Palestinian Christian living under Israeli occupation. His life is complicated as he has married someone who resides in Jerusalem – and getting between the two places requires special permissions and many lengthy waits at Israeli checkpoints.
Rev Ashraf spoke with passion about the history of the region and his own history. He said that his ancestors were living in the region when Jesus was alive and so he can trace his ancestry to the earliest Christians.
His message was clear: Israel has for a long time worked to reduce Palestinian lands through illegal settlements, the construction of the so-called ‘security’ barrier and the genocidal actions that the Israeli Government has undertaken in Gaza.
He was also very clear about the actions of the UK Government. How can the UK, he asked, recognise the Palestinian State whilst at the same time supplying armaments to Israel? Such actions amount to complicity in the genocide of Palestinians.
It’s complicated. We know that.
However, we must not fool ourselves that the UK Government is doing enough to address the injustices suffered by Palestinians at the hands of the right-wing Israeli Government.
Media attention is limited – not least because the Israeli Government will not allow journalists into Gaza. Events like this provide the only real means of hearing what is happening on the ground from people who experience it every day.
In the Q&A at the end of his talk someone asked how he maintained Hope.
He replied with a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
‘If you have Faith but not Hope then you are sick.’
When he mentioned Bonhoeffer, the other quote that came to my mind was
‘Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act’.
That is one of the reasons why the Commission, now through SPARK Social Justice, sponsors one of the films each year at the Leeds Palestinian Film Festival.
A prayer bookmark from Sabeel Kairos
Another question related to the best way to counter the arguments of Christian Zionists. His reply, basically, was that they were misinterpreting the bible.
He recommended that people should consult the works of Palestinian theologians. One example is a book called “The Cross and the Olive Tree” (ed. John Munayer & Samuel S Munayer)
I must give a mention the first part of the event. This was a middle eastern lunch supplied from Real Hope café. When I arrived at the Minster I was wondering how they were going to do lunch as the café area just to the right of the entrance was already full (and, worryingly, there was no sign of food there!).
In a leap of imagination they had put tables out down the central aisle of the Minster and people wandered down and found a seat after being served their food at a serving point. Given that there were about 80 people there, it was an impressive feat of organisation!
