Housan Village

Hey I've been helping out, creating a new blog recently. It's for a village called Housan just West of Bethlehem.

It looks like the village is gonna be surrounded by the Wall that Israel is building Around the West Bank. Anyway the aim of the blog is to give the villagers a voice.

A bunch of them have already started talking about telling the history of the village, and collecting old photos and stuff. I think it means alot to them to know that people in the outside world care about what's happening to them.

the link is on my blog there, or click on this link http://housanvillage.blogspot.com


I'll try to post properly in the next day or two, having a few internet problems out this way. Things continue to be pretty sever out here. My friend Phil went back to Gaza this week, electricity and water are only available a few hours everyday, and there is so much damage from the incursion that is continuing.

I went to church today in Bethlehem and I was really moved by the service. The people were praying really earnestly for an end to the crisis. Hearing Palestinians praying for Israeli's safety as well as there own was really powerful.

The news in brief.......

So I guess it's been a while since I've blogged...
I'm in between English classes at the moment,
and I've been editing a new edition of a book about the conflict from the perspective of a Palestinian Christian. It's been really interesting.

The lovely Becky has arrived in this part of the world which has been really nice,
I've gotten to see more of her than I expected.

Elsewhere things continue to be pretty bad.
Gaza is being hit really hard in the past few weeks,
America is obsessing about this kidnapped Israeli soldier and seems relatively unmoved by the fact that over 60 Gazans are dead.
There was a story two days ago of where the Israeli Army bombed a house in the South of Gaza, killing a university professor, his wife and 7 of their 9 children.

The same seems to be true for Lebanon where 55 civilians have died this week,
in response to 8 soldiers being killed and 2 being kidnapped.
"Israel have the right to defend themselves" is the US line.

The EU is calling Israel's response disproportionate, and the Swiss Foreign Ministry (speaking as protectors of the Geneva convention) condemned Israel's actions in Gaza;

"A number of actions by the Israel Defense Forces in their offensive against the Gaza Strip have violated the principle of proportionality and are to be seen as forms of collective punishment, which is forbidden," the Swiss Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"There is no doubt that Israel has not taken the precautions required of it in international law to protect the civilian population and infrastructure."

It's crazy the justifications you can read in the news for the killing of so many people.