Good morning and welcome to this webinar. My name is Jennifer Henry and I serve as the Executive Director of Cairo's. Cairo's strives to bring together peoples, indigenous, settler and newcomer in shared commitments to ecological justice and human rights. We work with networks of activists in Canada with global partners around the world and with Canadian churches. And we are so grateful that you are present with us this morning. I want to begin this morning and this webinar in a good way by acknowledging the land in which where I am located and where the Cairo's Toronto office is. This is the land of the Huron-Wenda, the Haudenosaunee and more recently the Mississaugas. It is land governed by the Dishwathwan Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant which is an agreement to care and share the land and abundance around the Great Lakes. And the wisdom and responsibility of this covenant to take only what you need, to share and leave some for others to keep the dish clean and to come in peace. That wisdom and responsibility continues to resonate in this day and this time. For Cairo's it is a spiritual practice to begin with a land acknowledgement. But as we turn today to the topic of this day and this webinar I want to recognize the particular poignancy of this practice. We do so in an action of truth telling, as a gesture of gratitude and a commitment to continue to work towards right relations with Indigenous peoples. And I would encourage you to take a moment wherever you are right now to acknowledge in your heart and in a moment of silence the first peoples and the treaties of the land in which you inhabit and to express gratitude. So we'll just take a moment. So this webinar is a labour of the heart of both Wiam the Palestinian Conflict Transformation Centre which is a 10-year partner of Cairo's and of a delegation of Canadian church leaders who visited Wiam and other partners in both Palestine and Israel in November of last year. And our focus today as it was in the delegation is on the human rights implications of the ongoing occupation but particularly on women's experience, women's empowerment and the role of women in peace building. Our delegation prioritized hearing from both Palestinian and Israeli partners and particularly the voices of women in Bethlehem, Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, Gaza or communities throughout the West Bank. And for more information on the delegation we're happy to share the report that I think Rachel has provided the link within the chat. So today we're going to keep to that theme of women peacemaking in the context of occupation as the overall frame but we're also going to try to intersect with the issues and the day, the moment, the conjunctural moment particularly the impact of COVID-19 and of annexation. And our plan today in terms of a flow is to hear from our partners, our colleagues at Wiam and then to have brief interventions from the delegation members before turning to opportunities for Canadian advocacy and some questions and answers. So yes, this webinar is information sharing in context from those on the ground today in Palestine working with communities and from those of us who were honored to be present a few months ago in both Israel and Palestine as listeners. And this webinar is a call to solidarity action. But I want to suggest that it's also a practice of hope and we spoke about this a little bit as we were preparing. When we gather as we do this morning to hear from the heart of struggle when we pay attention, when we honor each other with our time when we equip ourselves for persistent action when we are present even in such a disparate gathering as this we are practicing hope. And my experience of hope which is so vital for the continued struggle for justice and equity the continued struggle for just peace in Palestine and Israel is that it can be borrowed for a while. When we can't find it ourselves when despair begins to consume us as it sometimes does the mere presence of another committed to similar struggles can help us rediscover it in ourselves again. So today I opened this webinar in the desire that it is learning and action but most of all a spiritual expression of hope that even with the pain and struggle so lasting so acute that things can be different that just peace can be realized that this is what we believe. So I'm going to turn now to our first speakers from WIAM the Palestinian Conflict Transformation Center. WIAM offers community based programs for children and youth and women including income generation legal training and workshops on human rights and WIAM works with a women's shelter it runs weekly women's groups at the center as well as several groups that meet in several of the marginalized villages in the West Bank and we were able to have an opportunity to interchange with some of those women in groups while we were there. So the word is honored and it is a deep and lasting honor for us to be partners with WIAM as Kyros and I will invite the WIAM staff to speak to you at this time. I think the way it will happen will begin with the Center's beloved director Zoukbi Zoukbi followed by Tarek Zoukbi who's bringing his insight and the indomitable Lucy Talji who will also speak the women's program coordinator and so I will turn it over to our friends at WIAM to hear from them on the context and the particular issues facing Palestine in this moment. Thank you very much. You are humbling us actually. I would like to say thank you a lot for your compassion, for your empathy and sincere partnership. This is giving us hope and always renewable hope. Mahatma Gandhi says truth never damages a cause that is just and so our call and our talk will be about justice and as we are involved in this issue we are talking about restorative justice that redresses the wrongs rather than avenging them. So we are happy to be in this Zoom and to continue our discussion and to help to raise awareness here and there as well as to go in the last troubled road for justice. WIAM is a grassroots organization and it is based on community-based society and family is the viable socio-economic unit and at WIAM as a result of COVID-19 as a result of the threat of inaction we haven't sit silent and idle at home we work diligently with the people whether in the office or outside the office or at our homes, from our homes our homes become our offices when there is a lockdown. So what we do is we do a lot of psychosocial support for communities for individuals by phone as well as face-to-face. We may get a lot of conflict with this kind of prison more conflict increased so we try to solve conflict remarkably between people and third, try to provide some support of food, health, hygiene to the affected families and people and we continue to do that with the spirit of openness with the spirit that we are here to serve the people no matter who are the people without discrimination about gender, sex, religion family, political affiliation religious affiliation and we continue to do that despite that this big prison becomes a small prison and the threat of inaction is at the door and you know people talk about inaction as if it is a new thing no, it is not a new thing since 1967 the state of Israel has you know continued to do inaction from inaction is Jerusalem in 1980 and considered the eternal unified capital of Israel going to the wall which took almost 19% of the West Bank up to this today. We are not talking about inaction as the problem we are happy to end the occupation when there is no occupation there is no more annexation and we can live together people in the Middle East side by side with our rights guaranteed and rendered now you know with the COVID you know cases are increasing so far in the Palestinian area we have more than 5,105 cases with 25 people dead and 171 Palestinians died in diaspora shows that the importance to have a home that doesn't mean if we have a home that the death toll will be less but at least we are much more comfortable nowadays with the COVID we feel that we are separated from the whole world too and with the annexation threat another nightmare for us before I go on but let me remind you with the people in small prison since March 5 there are more than 900 new prisoners since March 5 this year and since 1967 69 people died in prison as a result of medical neglect so what we are looking for emancipation we want to be free from the small prison and the big prison before I continue I would like to pass the microphone to Tariq who will talk about the annexation yes so I just want to echo some of the words that were said and thank you all for being with us and a special thank you to Kairos Canada which has been supporting justice which has been in partnership with us for the past 10 years and it's always uplifting and rejuvenates our hope when we see all of you viewers we see this organization many others that are taking time from their day not worrying about their own pandemics or the conflicts within their communities or societies instead coming here to engage with our narrative with our experience and listen to us and hopefully we'll be moved towards helping us fight injustice and bring about justice so if you look on the presentation that we have we have three maps they're all the same map and they're all of Trump's proposed peace plan the reason we don't have a map is because nothing has been clearly defined yet at the moment everything we know about annexation from the Israeli government is through oftentimes very vague statements and with little information about different territories that will be affected but as he was saying annexation isn't something new it's something that has been practiced since the creation of Israel and since especially in 1967 with the creation of the settlement movement if we look at the three maps you can see especially in the first and the last of course the one in the middle is the current and then it moves to either of those if this annexation based on Trump's plan is to go through what we see is a Swiss cheese Palestine Palestine already looks like a switched cheese but this will deepen the divide between the different territories and especially for the delegation that was here they can tell you some of the checkpoints and some of the difficulties the physical barriers that the average Palestinian has to go through to move from one territory to the other with annexation this divided these physical barriers will increase and one thing that has been clear from the get-go is we've had Israeli spokesperson after the other from the government official spokesperson saying that the Palestinians in those annex territories will not be given citizenship given the same rights as Israelis under Israeli law but they will be living under Israeli law and in some cases under Israeli military law just like many areas of the West Bank already do so annexation how will it impact our life it will impact our life socially economically and politically when we talk socially of course creating this divide between the different communities since 1967 we have been alienated especially after the establishment of the Palestinian authority from the Gaza Strip and so already you have West Bank and Gaza Strip divided and they're so divided that they basically become their own subcultures and now that will increase on the level of the West Bank within the West Bank between these different societies also with tensions rising because of annexation a large part of the West Bank's food basket or bread basket will be taken because in this annexation it's often times the land that is most fertile with the least number of population that is annexed first and so within that within our context the olive tree and olive groves and agricultural farmland is a socio-economic viable source of income for many families and households and so with the loss of that we expect to limit the loss of income for many families and already one third of all Palestinian households suffer from food insecurity with another third being at risk of food insecurity and since COVID began we were on lockdown in March and up until June 21st we had less than 600 cases but what we've also had is the loss of the tourism sector and the tourism industry as tourists haven't been able to come into the Palestinian territories and so we've seen unemployment rise drastically in Bethlehem reaching over 80% upwards of 90% and so we expect this food insecurity to be on a drastic rise and continue to do so without any adequate plans or without any adequate sources to help alleviate the suffering or the scarcity that has been caused and created by both the annexation and the COVID crisis furthermore the annexation moves to increase the number of settlers and settlements and to change the settlements from settlements to Israeli annex territories and land and within that we already see cuts in the water supply Bethlehem has received a 70% cut in its water supply and we are also still seeing cuts in the electricity supply due to the political situation unfortunately and the lack of control on the borders Palestinians must go through Israeli channels to be able to bring in the equipment and for security reasons which until the moment did not have to be disclosed Palestinians haven't been able to produce or build their own electrical facilities and 90% of the trans water border of the water resources on trans border have been restricted and confiscated by Israel and so we rely on Israel and the Israeli government for both our water and electricity supply and with this threat of annexation with the increase of settlements there's already been plans underway to cut the supply drastically to the West Bank to be able to feed and supply the new and growing settlements to work this electricity and water and maybe before continuing we'll transfer to Lucy who will speak more about annexation and women I will be talking about the impact on the women for the Palestinian women who are already facing dual oppression of the Israeli military occupation and the Palestinian patriarchal society COVID-19 and the consequence of the lockdown have become a third threat of the violence we are currently focusing our efforts on mitigation the increase in the gender based violence during the pandemic through an emergency response plan this includes providing a free line 24 hours GPV Helping Line service as well as counseling securing protection for women in the shelter carrying out media intervention and awareness campaign locally and globally and continue to document human rights and international human rights violation against women throughout Palestine the pandemic is not showing us new problems it's worth seeing that's what the women UN Women Special Representative said that crisis can worsen the economic, social and political situation of women and girls deepening existing inequalities but this can also be an opportunity to move forward and not to go backward to emerge from crisis this crisis with resilience and to build back better gender equality must take center stage in all aspects efforts from ensuring the stimulates plans address the needs of both men and women equally to encouraging and promoting the role of men at home and in the shelter as a partner in the household but as we are saying this a new threat has continuously been gaining ground and that threat is annexation and Tariq was speaking about the annexations but the annexation plan definitely will negatively affect the livelihood, environment, education health of women in the areas under threat especially in the Jordan Valley the major effects on women and other people in general represented in preventing women and other people from benefiting their land and live in dignity girls and women will likely more isolated and less financially empowered moreover all the communities will likely experience limitation on their rights a freedom of movement and access to land services and loveliness unemployment is a skyrocketing crisis and severely crucial economic activity the annexation will thus impact women with an added sharp in domestic violence which is a very serious issue that we are facing at the environmental side the annexation of fertile ground in Jordan Valley in particular which represented the food basket of the Palestinian would change the fertile land into settlements render a functioning Palestinian state impossible by depriving of the land and the natural resources necessary to sustain itself we are addressing you as we are extremely concerned about the ongoing policies taken by the Israeli government against the land and the people of the Palestine that is leading towards a further process of annexation annexation mean the perpetuation of the systematic denial of the national and human rights of the Palestinian people threatening the rule based world order and prospect of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East Canada as a beacon of freedom as moral responsibility to strongly oppose the annexation because it would likely extinguish any chances of the peace in the future to leave the Palestinian in impossible difficult situation that will likely explode tension locally and in the region thank you I will thank you thank you Tarik let me remind you with something that when we talk about the occupation we are not against Jews we are against the occupation we are against the system the system is evil the people are human beings and many times we look at this conflict as a conflict of the dysfunctional family of Abraham there are challenges facing us during the provide 19 and the annexation threat first the absence of international groups is very you know terrible for us we need to have international presence nowadays more than ever since the world is busy with the pandemic many of these countries who have the power are very busy with their own affairs so Israel can do different things on their ground third the economic situation is deteriorating more and more we talked about women women who used to be representing 18% in the workforce nowadays less employment is skyrocketing for example in Bethlehem 90% or more are unemployed in the whole west bank more than 50% and Gaza is higher and so to give you an example the GDB per capita in Palestine is $3,198 in Israel $41,615 and we buy the same food for the same price for such challenges the absence of the Arab voices in the area and the absence of you know modern peace loving presence here and there and as you know the except for Jordan some Arabs inside Israel are very active and this also with you give us a renewable source of hope the weak position of some governments in the west at this moment and the UN really has no teeth this is also very strong you know challenge some of the Arab countries are making normalization without any progress in the peace process so this create a lot of things what we are left in scenarios you know Israel try to enact but they could don't talk about it as an accession they talk about imposing the Israeli law on contested territories it is not contested it is occupied and the accession is a violation of human rights and try to dismantle the PA and drawing the resources of the PA what is left is chaos maybe uprising Israel might perpetuate the status quo the status quo to have more land and less Palestinian people and or at the end it is you know taking the land and no people at all and we will talk later on about hopes I appreciate so much your comments that you pointed out so clearly that this particular crisis of annexation is within the long context a long history of the experience the practice of annexation you pointed out for us the impacts that it will present on livelihoods on mobility on sense of connectedness on basic needs and particularly Lucy the focus and I think we want to keep this focus very clearly on the multiple oppressions of women experienced by Palestinian women and particularly the threat of domestic violence and the possibility of that increasing in this kind of context and I appreciate very much the very clear call to us to not turn away to keep our focus to despite the challenges that the community is experiencing around the world in terms of the pandemic to not leave you without our vision and our voice in terms of more responsibility and call at this time so thank you very much I intend we will come back together with you at the end with some questions at the end but we will turn now if it's okay to the delegates is that okay at this time thank you so we were really privileged to go and to see and I will invite each of the delegates to give a brief reflection from that experience we'll go through a few of those interventions we'll have a brief break and then we'll continue on and then circle back to the partners after some advocacy calls but we will begin now with Lori Ransom and so pleased to have Lori with us this morning Lori was a delegate of the United Church of Canada she works there focused on indigenous ministries and justice and I'll invite Lori to speak to us now thank you Jennifer and greetings to everyone who is with us this morning it was indeed a privilege to be a member of this delegation I learned so very much this morning I'd like to invite all of you who are listening to think about the children of Palestine to think about what it's like to grow up under occupation that on a daily basis one is in an environment where one of the schools going to churches mosques walked by walls and military checkpoints and armed soldiers with guns and what the psychological impact is on the children and the generations growing up one of the most disturbing meetings we had emotionally disturbing and challenging meetings with a group called Defense of Children International in Ramallah by information we received from that Salem Human Rights Organization in Israel and this concerned the detention of Palestinian children children of the ages of 12 to 18 who are not tried in civilian courts but are tried in military courts some 500 to 700 are convicted a year and there's a 99% conviction rate 70% 70% of these children are convicted for the act of throwing stones often out of soldier many are taken 50 to 60% from their homes in the middle of the night blindfolded handcuffed lead deprived and transported in military vehicles they're interrogated without family members presence and often without a lawyer presence although that is their right sentences can be from 3 to 12 months in prison and UNICEF regards this military tension as something that remains widespread systematic and pervasive there are 25 documented cases last year of children put into solitary confinement for on average 16 days my personal background has been dealing with survivors of residential schools for 5 years I worked for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and the World to focus on the childhood experiences of childhood trauma of children so I'm acutely aware of the intergenerational impact on children and on their families of experiences of trauma it's a story very familiar to people in Israel as well and so that's something that moves us deeply and deserves attention one of the things we recommend to the Canadian government as a delegation is to urge the government to closely monitor and report on the treatment of Palestinian children arrested by Israeli forces and prosecuted in the military court system and I hope this morning you will think about what it's like and consider how we might support them that's all for me thank you Jennifer Lori thank you and it's particularly poignant that you draw the connections to our own history of human rights violations and our own oppression of children and it reminds us that when we speak about these kinds of questions we speak with humility and we need to make the connections I'm going to invite now Lana Robinson to speak Lana was a delegate from the Canadian Friends Service Committee Society of Friends and I invite her to speak to you now Lana hails from British Columbia and like the other British Columbia delegates, folks on the panel folks who are joining us this is early for all of you and also early for Lana so thank you for joining us thank you Jennifer and everyone joining us this morning I'm going to take a personal approach here because I was dramatically changed by the experience I went on the trip with my own notions about how things were my knowledge of the history and issues in the region was limited but I felt like my understanding of it was fairly easy and simplistic there was Palestine in Israel the oppressed and the oppressor victims and villains these people were worthy of my compassion and these people were not and to tell them apart was an easy thing but so much of what we heard and what we saw was so much more than I could have expected the stories from the Palestinians were more heartbreaking the history so much more complex the tension more palpable and the occupation itself more brutal than I could have imagined my simplistic view of things crumbled with each visit that we made to the women's groups the refugee camps the hospital the water projects and the offices of diplomats Palestinian peace workers and of the various church leaders but it fell apart completely when we visited with the Israeli peace activists and human rights defenders this is where my most profound learning and opening took place we visited with coalition for women coalition of women for peace which brings together Israeli and Palestinian women to work together in nonviolent activism we visited the Bethlehem an Israeli human rights organization and information center that works specifically to end the occupation and Zocrot which is also an Israeli organization that seeks to ensure that the history of the Palestinian Exodus in 1948 the Nakba and the subsequent and ongoing erasure of Palestinian communities is documented and shared in particular with Israelis we met with Amos Gvertz who founded Israelis and Palestinians for peace and we had a wonderful conversation with Rabbi Jeremy Milgram who works with rabbis for human rights all of these people work within their Israeli communities they're working for peace and the recognition of human rights for Palestinians they work to end the occupation the security measures that we saw that were needed to protect these people in their own country was astonishing it rivaled certainly what we saw at the Canadian embassy when we were there and all of these workers told us stories personally of being shunned by family and friends being blacklisted for employment opportunities and being harassed, victimized and criminalized as citizens in their own communities in their own country these were Israelis defending the rights of Palestinians working to educate other Israelis and communities at large to change minds and open hearts these Israelis are building friendships and community where there was brokenness and fear their losses in doing so were evident and devastating it's one thing for the oppressed communities and marginalized communities to struggle for justice for themselves and certainly it is they who must be at the forefront of those struggles and lead the way for the rest of us to come along it's another thing to be an ally and opposition to your own family to your own community and your own government to fight for justice and the human rights of others there must be a call to support and protect those who stand up for human rights we see that many of them who risk their lives and livelihoods are often made targets themselves the Canadian government has made a commitment to protect those who are human rights defenders here and abroad and this commitment requires action urgently right now in Palestine and Israel personally I have come to see that my idea of victims and villains has no place in the seeking of justice or peace so the idea that some are spared the pain and suffering of the occupation by virtue of their identity as Israeli has been replaced with the understanding that none escaped the suffering that the occupation levels certainly Palestinians suffer and have suffered unimaginably it is also true that Israelis suffer in different ways and for different reasons but I am convinced that none escaped the prison that is the occupation continued annexation will only spread the suffering and it must end thank you so much Lana and particularly for reminding us of the alliances that we must build across difference with the common goal of ending the occupation and bringing about justice peace thank you for your words and your presence I am going to turn to the Reverend Rosalind Kant Latam Elm who represented the Anglican church including the self determining Anglican church of Canada and I want to recognize and express our gratitude to Reverend Elm who was one of the co-chairs of our delegation and so let us and helped facilitate our presence in the many conversations that we had with communities so thank you Rosalind thank you for thank you for the introduction it is a privilege and honor to be here with my colleagues and all of you this morning now I have to be honest that I am still recovering from this experience it's difficult to go back to the western context here in Canada and to the context of the continuing colonization of indigenous America but what I have come to realize in six months of reflection and of course with thinking about the Palestinian reality of the already annexed territories there in Palestine is that their participation in liberal democracy requires an understanding of systems and structures of privilege and the dignity of personhood from my own experience here in Canada I know that to participate which is a basic right by the way is to understand that personhood must be recognized this is not a political question at least not a political question when speaking from a liberal democratic reality which we sit in now it's about humanity it's about rights and it's about dignities the Palestinian people as we travel through the rolling hills of that beautiful and ancient country what we found though is infrastructural weaknesses water sanitation healthcare the Palestinian people struggle against normalizing these weaknesses they have bodily controlled daily of where they go and where they don't go who can come with them to medical appointments this is systematic at administrative occupation these walls, checkpoints food insecurity being kept from digging wells farming and grazing to a replacement of incarceration and terror personhood peace and security is difficult under these conditions without the organizational capacities of William without their partners these organizations come together to teach to educate to create spaces in which Palestinian communities Palestinian communities that are marginalized women, children but also communities that work with Palestinian communities Israeli communities coming together to create this space of peace and justice women, youth and men come together to assert their right of personhood it's not even about participating in the political structure of the Israeli state but to just to demonstrate their own dignity, their own right to speak their own right to farm their right to create economies their right to live and they do this under this auspice of occupation occupation that threatens their humanity Palestinians Israelis deserve the opportunity to live together and this is what these organizations these partnerships create those opportunities this is the great hope this is the great hope it is being demonstrated for the world so I encourage you advocate with a good mind peace and justice to the personhood of the people of Palestine thank you thank you so much Rosalind and keeping focused on the dignity of every person and the struggle to preserve that dignity in a context where there is this kind of push to normalize human rights violations and impoverishment thank you for your words we're going to turn to one more voice before we take a brief health break for a sip of water or another coffee and that is going to come to us via video the other delegation co-chair was the national bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Canada and Susan Johnson and while she's not able to be with us in person in this webinar today she did send a brief video greeting and message so we'll hear that now and then we'll go to a brief five minute health break and return to hear the remaining voices focus on advocacy and return to the partners with some questions Susan Reverend to Susan Johnson now the national bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada Hello I'm Bishop Susan Johnson from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada last November I was one of four of our delegation who had the opportunity to go to Gaza although I've been in the West Bank about 20 times it was my first time being in Gaza and that's what I learned this year the population in Gaza a very small geographical area will top 2 million 40% of the population is unemployed 62% of the population is 15 to 29 years old so you know what that does on youth to have that high incidence of unemployment 80% of the population at least is on partial at least partial dependence on international age so that gives you a sign of the poverty in the region there's problems with all kinds of infrastructure the electricity is controlled by Israel and is turned on and off they only get a few hours a day fuel to run generators is expensive and diesel fumes contribute to the air pollution in the region the sewer systems are inoperable sewage is being dumped into the Mediterranean there is fresh water or there was a fresh water aquifer under Gaza but it has been over pumped in competition between the Gazans and the Israelis and is now 96% salinated and undrinkable people buy water but the water is not always safe that they buy and in the end it's poor people who can afford the least to end up drinking safe water this polluted water the salinated water has led to a lot of waterborne diseases and a very high incidence of kidney failure in the population due of course to the salination in the water the schools are also overcrowded they are running three shifts a day but of course that means a very short school day for every child not enough education we saw great work being done by churches and NGOs but there is not enough work to take care of misery in that place I think one of the moments that made the greatest impression on me is when we were visiting a psychosocial program with 11 year old girls we saw them going through singing and dancing and playing and they looked like happy little campers and then we realized that they have already in their lives gone through three incursions into Gaza and that still every time a rocket goes off every time a bomb drops those girls are re-traumatized as is much of the population those young people grow into adults moving forward and I can't imagine the lifelong trauma that they are going to experience my deepest concern is about the future for Gazans but also the future for those in the West Bank annexation will have the effect of continuing to take away land and making the land mass for Palestinians in the West Bank smaller and smaller like it's happened in Gaza it also means that the very best of locations of resources of arable land of old producing all of fields are being taken away all the resources and it's going to mean increasing poverty into Palestine increasing taking away of infrastructure and resources like electricity and water which already affect the West Bank and I worry that the West Bank in the end is going to be more and more like Gaza it's time for us to intervene and advocate we need to ask the Israelis not to go ahead with annexation we need to speak out to our government and to our elected members of parliament to take a stand and speak out for Palestinian people at this time thanks very much for your participation in this webinar thanks very much for helping us work to keep peace with justice between Israel and Palestine God bless you turn now to the Reverend Andreas Thiel from the Anglican Church in Windsor and Reverend Andreas represented the Primates World Relief and Development Fund member of Cairo's on the delegation so I'll invite him to speak to us now thank you Jennifer and thanks to our zoom masters who I think are being kept quite busy keeping our webinar going it's good to be with you today my role on the Cairo's delegation to Palestine was to represent the Primates World Relief and Development Fund also known as PWRDF for those of you who don't know PWRDF is the Anglican Church of Canada's Agency for Sustainable Development and Relief and we have enjoyed a long-standing relationship with Cairo's Canada for me one of the highlights of the trip came when a small group of us traveled to the Gaza Strip if you were listening before the break you would have heard Bishop Susan Johnson tell a little bit about that trip while we were there we met with the staff of the Al-Ali Hospital in Gaza City and we learned directly from them about special urology equipment that the hospital purchased through PWRDF support this urology equipment is being used to address serious problem that affects many people in Gaza but particularly is devastating to the children of Gaza and that problem is kidney stones as some of you heard before the break the drinking water of Gaza is so terribly contaminated largely because of seawater intrusion from the Mediterranean but also because of over pumping and pollution and so that means that the only safe source of drinking water is bottled water and for a large portion of the population that lives on something like five or six dollars per day bottled water is simply not an option and consequently far too many people have no choice but to drink the only water that is available to them and of course that is water that is damaging to their health so after seeing the urology equipment it was reassuring to know that this small hospital in Gaza City now has some equipment to treat kidney stones and to help some of the most vulnerable citizens of that place on the slide you'll see a picture if you look at it closely you'll notice that we're looking at some shelves in the hospital pharmacy you'll also notice that nobody in the picture is smiling and that's because we're listening to some very grim statistics the pharmacist in the lab code is telling us that at any given time about half of the medical supplies in the hospital pharmacy are at a zero balance we're looking at shelves that are more empty than they are full we were told that the hospital draws up an annual budget but it just takes one brief episode of violence with Israeli forces to render that budget completely meaningless as a result money that could have been used to fund programs like neonatal nutrition or breast cancer screening this money gets diverted to the immediate challenge of treating patients with gunshot wounds or worse and so the big learning for me in all this was that far too often like so many places around the globe it is the women and children who end up suffering women and children are the victims of the ongoing blockade of Gaza and what has been called the de-development of Gaza and that's to say absolutely nothing about this horrendous threat of COVID-19 sadly the women and the children are far too often the ones who go without necessary treatment well the promising news as I heard it was that there is a lot of care and compassion that is being offered and shown in this hospital in Gaza city the programs that are being offered have a profound positive effect on the lives of women and children and at the same time these programs remain very fragile and very vulnerable and so they depend so much on our ongoing support and on our ongoing advocacy thanks so much thank you Andreas and I know that for those of us myself included who were able to visit Gaza it was a poignant and challenging experience but the moment that was most difficult for me was that moment of leaving when we were leaving and folks we knew were staying and were so restricted in their mobility and options including for things like vital health care so thank you for focusing on that I will turn now to the Reverend Helen Smith who represented the Presbyterian church in Canada on the delegation and ask Helen to speak to us now Reverend Helen thanks Jennifer during our time in Palestine we had the privilege to meet several women's groups facilitated by Lucy Telji these groups have learned about their rights learned about the UN convention on the elimination of discrimination against women or the security council's resolution on women peace and security for example they've not only learned but they've put what they've learned into action in community building and building peace and mutual support so in one community we learned how they canvassed for improvements to the garbage disposal and now they were working on how to reverse into the school because the clinic is too far away we learned about their social enterprises embroidery, baskets, beekeeping and we had a wonderful dinner in Jericho at a restaurant that these women had started up and were running but in their own words they are choking under occupation their movement is severely limited by checkpoints there are settlements all around and many have no choice but to work there part of an illegal economy their children or their partners are in military detention without charges we've already mentioned about the problems with water limited access to water many children have emigrated looking for a better life than that under occupation so we say no to annexation but even more we must say end the occupation we can support these groups of resilient women and they can support us they are certainly an inspiration in my denomination and probably in yours the women's groups are the groups that move forward matters of social justice during this time of COVID-19 we have discovered new ways of linking up this webinar is an example of that we talked the other day about connecting Canadian groups with Palestinian groups for mutual support for exchanging our ideas for learning from each other how we can all advance equality equality between Israeli and Palestinian between settlers and indigenous peoples between black, white and people of color the one quote that we all picked up on from Yosef Dahur of the Jerusalem inter-church council of the world council of churches sticks with us all equality is the precondition for justice and peace will be the fruit thank you over back to you Jennifer thank you so much Helen and in particular they appreciate we know and we can tell the story of victimization of women and children in this broader context of occupation but it's also very important to focus on the role of women in this broader context of occupation and to focus on the role women bring as contributors as survivors as human rights defenders as leaders in their communities of the change from the grassroots up women peace builders as contributors to the broader sustainable peace so thank you for helping us focus on that at this time I'm going to turn to our last intervention from a delegate Paul Hansen Roman Catholic priest from the redemptorist congregation Paul was on the delegation representing religious communities of men and women and I'll invite Paul to speak with us now thank you very much Jennifer and I appreciate the fact that Kyros initiated, supported and developed this delegation to Palestine as you suggest that I represented the religious congregations in the borders of Canada but Palestine was not new to me I studied scripture in Palestine and I accompanied pilgrimages to the holy land over the years and I'm also very much in touch with the Palestinian community here in Toronto because when I'm in my office every morning I have coffee with Palestinians so as a result of that I'm aware of the issues because the people with whom I have coffee they're in touch via Skype normally with their family members actually living in Palestine, Bethlehem and in Jordan and Lebanon and so I'm aware therefore of the issues that we've spoken about the occupation the settlements, the torture the jailings and the annexations and of course while we lived in Palestine we found ourselves in a walled ghetto called Bethlehem after a couple of days of our visit I found myself in a very interesting place I found myself sliding into a bit of a spiritual retreat for the time that I was in Palestine this time I was incredibly interested in the folks that I met the folks who traveled with us around and who associated with us in the varied communities that we met I was interested in them and how they were personally living this human tragedy the bigger political and demographic issues slid a bit to the back and so I began to call what I was personally experiencing what I wanted to bring back to Canada I was calling it a terrible beauty why did this retreat interest come upon me a few years ago when I returned from a similar exposure visit to Brazil a friend of mine commented Paul why is it when you return from the global South Africa, Latin America Middle East you're full of hope you're very positive and yet when you leave our middle class Canadian conversations you're kind of flat I thought about his comment for weeks and then I came to realize and man did it ever hit me in Palestine that the folks in the global South and the Middle East seemed to me to be living out of their essence while most of us in the north of the Americas we're living out of our extra and of course there's never enough extra when you live there so for most of us our experience in Palestine I listened to observe deeply out of my way to seek personal intimate conversations with folks that we encountered for example I spent a bit of an afternoon with a medical doctor from Biazor the manager of the hotel where we stayed a couple of hours of conversation with him the employees of that hotel where we stayed people I met when the mayor of Bethlehem gave us a supper and there were varied folks from varied religious commitments there and then of course when I was with Tyros Palestine I met with the patriarch a few years ago on a similar visit to Latin America a young person said to me who was following me around for three days Paul having seen what you've seen and experienced what you have experienced when you go back home to Toronto and do nothing you're not only not a Christian you're not even a human being that comment haunted me the time I was in Palestine with the delegation and that was the reflection I took away as I journeyed in flight back to Toronto so for me personally because I've seen so many similar kinds of delegations going to very places throughout our world and it's nice to talk about it and it's very beautiful to say hey we're in the conversation but it has to happen back here and so for me the question is I'm a Canadian what am I doing if I say I am truly committed to the struggles in Palestine thanks Jennifer thank you very much Paul and for focusing us on what is our next task I think which is to shift to the delegation we had incredible hosts in we am who opened doors for us who stretched themselves to engage the breadth in the perspectives we were offered who found us shelter multiple times who were our family while we were there but we also benefited from resource people who were very honoured to have with us resource people who helped us to wrestle to reflect and animated our delegation and one of those was Rachel Warden who is the Chairs Partnership Manager and she's kind of behind the scenes you'll see her later but another was the wise and committed Wendy Geshuru who is staff of the United Church of Canada and I'm going to invite Wendy who is a very important resource to us both before, during and after the delegation to speak to us now about current advocacy priorities and opportunities for action thank you Wendy hi everyone thank you Jennifer I know that many of the people on this webinar are already very active and engaged in justice seeking issues confronting creation so I will not presume to be as comprehensive as I think we need to be but I will just basically speak to some of the priorities that this delegation has raised in its report that we heard about from partners we all know that Palestinian and Israeli partners of the churches of Karos Canada have been very clear about what is needed for realizing a just and lasting peace and we are on this call has been very clear that an end to the occupation and the injustices that accompanied are key this must happen and that the missing piece in the quest for the peace that we so desperately hope for and work for and year in four years as Ross mentioned as we colleagues on this call have mentioned a justice that upholds respect for human rights the dignity and equality of all is essential we have heard from partners in Palestine who are fellow Christians that they have called on the churches around the world to engage in solidarity with urgent principled and prophetic action in support of a just peace they said this many times over the decades more recently they said this very clearly in December 2009 when they issued the Kairos Palestine moment of truth they said it again in June 2017 in the open letter from the national coalition of Christian organizations in Palestine and they have just recently articulated a cry for hope again in July 2020 we struggle as churches in Canada about how to do this work of justice seeking for peace in Palestine and Israel because we are complicit in the injustice as Canadians we are complicit in the injustice our role in part is to amplify the call and the voices of partners but our role is also to do our part to respond to what they have clearly stated is needed and so there is work for us to do here in Canada some of the ways that we have tried to respond faithfully this delegation visited Canadian representatives in Ramallah and in Tel Aviv they had meetings in Ottawa in March of this year with MPs with members of the government with global affairs they reiterated the calls that were made in the report most recently Canadian churches have written to the Canadian government calling for the government to use all measures at its disposal to oppose annexation and the ongoing occupation we have called for an end to the blockade on Gaza Kairos Canada continues to amplify the voices of the women of courage that were highlighted in this webinar throughout its programs meetings in Ottawa accompanied by partners from Riyam like Lucy and Tarik part of decolonizing our solidarity with our partners is for us as people of faith to ask ourselves to ask our churches and our government some tough questions why does the occupation continue what are the structures and policies and practices and sustain injustice whether it is in Palestine and Israel or here at home in Canada on Turtle Island what is our role in sustaining injustice and therefore what must we do to dismantle that injustice and the systems that perpetuated we have heard today some of the ways that we can do that and some of the ways in which we are striving to learn what other ways that we can engage and these are some of the questions that church leaders on this delegation wrestled with in their visits with partners and since their return in Canada the Canadian political context and Canadian policy have been challenged by how Canada has engaged justice seeking in Palestine and Israel Canadian policy is very clear that the occupation is illegal and annexation is illegal the settlements are illegal Canada can be more outspoken and explicit in implementing its own policy as I've articulated to support self-determination and international law and human rights whether at the UN or not Canada can be a force for justice and for upholding international law one way is that Canada can be consistent with its own policy and with long-standing international law by voting for UN resolutions that call for an end to the occupation we are concerned as Canadians about Canada's voting record at the UN we were encouraged by its recent vote in December 2019 for self-determination or recognizing and affirming the self-determination of Palestinian people but those votes need to be consistent those votes in favour of international law in support of international law need to be consistent they cannot be piecemeal and they cannot be one-off our leaders political and faith leaders have often failed to do everything possible to work towards a just peace in Palestine and Israel Canada has an obligation to comply with international law the churches have an obligation to speak truth to power and to call for justice the church leaders who participated in this delegation have been doing this as you heard on the call today not only with the government but within their denominations and ecumenically one hoped for essential outcome of this webinar in hearing from we UN partners and the church leaders on this delegation we renew our commitment in our denominations and across Canada to work for a just peace all of us gathered today can take action and do everything we can to contribute to ending the occupation thank you for the action you take today for the actions you have taken and for your continued commitment to work for justice you will see on your screen a particular ask has been on the looming annexation whether it is by a formal announcement or the creeping annexation which has continued to take over much of the land and displace people from their homes, their farms and their communities if there's one action you take today at the end of this webinar please write to your MP write to the minister of foreign affairs and call on Canada to take action to oppose annexation and to end the occupation thank you thank you very much Wendy for laying out some of the recent advocacy context and for being so clear in asking us to take action as a result of this conversation I think that for those who have already had that conversation with their MP there is another piece there and that is to have conversations with our colleagues with our family, our friends in churches in community groups and to ask them to also take that kind of step and that's a critical piece to do as well as taking it on your own we do have some time for some questions and as I said I was going to focus the questions to our colleagues particularly the partners and so I'm going to I have a question for Lucy one for Tarek I also will probably turn to Zugbi for the last word of the wrap up but I also wondered there is a question I think that's more about the delegation the co-chair whether Roz would be able to respond to that question so I'll start with I'm going to start with Lucy Lucy there's a question that is really about the particular experience of women hearing clearly about the multiple oppressions what is it that we how does we work to help women to stand up against those oppressions recognizing that even to do so to take steps to do so can create a greater risk for women as they take those steps as they speak out what are your strategies how do you help women to speak out knowing that in fact even doing so might create risk for them I'll turn that over to you Lucy the role of the women as a community leader, peace builder and activist can no longer be denied in Palestine we am recognized the urgent need to engage the women in the community on the social, political culture and economic level our strategy to work on the three peace protection, prevention and participation the most important things that which make, we are unique in that role we are trying to establish men alliance from our colleagues and staff we started to work on what we call it he for she alliance in order to change the patriarchal mentality which is the really most important that has a huge impact on the role of the women in their participation on social, political level this is one of the things that we are doing the second things threatening the capacity of the women and different level on the economically because we found out that we or we believe that when the women they are totally economically independent their situation would be totally different so we are trying to equip those women in skills and build on the skills that they have but in order they have their own small project in order to increase their income which has helped them to be totally economically independent and that would help them to be voice they can speak up for their rights for the simple rights that they have and also when it comes to we are to the voice we as a center our aim to carry the voice of the voiceless so through the programs that we are working we are trying to raise the voice of those women that from the domestic violence also through the political participation engaging women and political participation when it comes to legislative council or municipal council that another part also with the project that we are working with Kyros Canada that it's really an honor to be partnered with Kyros Canada which is on women peace and security and that's what we are working to create a space for those women to have their and secure their life, dignity and income actually we have lots of programs one of the programs that we've been working we call it from zero to hero and that's one of the projects that had to learn to from like the women they were not they don't have any voice and they reached to be one of the decision making in local let's say in local councils and another one we call it from making to decision making so people think that the women that they the right the right spot for them to be in the kitchen so we are trying to show the society it's really important to work on gender equity from young with the young generation and that's what we are trying to to work with schools on gender to understand the different role between men and women and actually this is a glimpse of the project that we are doing as a center and maybe my colleagues would like to add on what I mentioned Thanks Lucy and I'll turn to Teriak next and he could add as well as the question I'm going to throw to him but I want to say how important you are to the women's groups and how much to help them with the capacity building and to come alongside we saw that one of the ways that there was this some sense of protection even while that capacity building was happening was the collective and their connection to you and to we am as a place of support and that economic empowerment which gives them a sense of independence which also can help with their protection in the time and the critical role of working with men and boys I think very important thank you Lucy for that work and for your leadership Teriak I'm going to give you the challenging question which comes up in a number of the the questions that have been raised I'll group them together and it is kind of the question was phrased in one context with or Palestine but it is the question of the concept of Palestine where Palestine is a state what say we about the two state solution in this particular context or is it not more realistic to think about some kind of generation and some kind of equality of rights within one state this is the question I would pose to you to respond to it's kind of a question of both conceptual and what's realistic and what are you looking at at this time thank you very much for the question um maybe I'll start by commenting on Palestine Palestinian territories West Bank today Samaria maybe what to call this and because this is the foundation or root of the answer that I will provide in a recent post of one of my friends with talks of annexation and this is a sentiment that is being shared now by many Palestinians basically what was written is it called Palestine is it called Samaria is it called Israel is it called occupied Palestine is it called the Palestinian territories and then they end it by saying what's important is that we are able to continue to call it our home and so that's the essence of the soul in terms of the one state or two state solution I think I saw in the questions as well specifically about annexation being practiced or continued to being practiced kills the one's two state solution um and the answer is yes it's very difficult for us to imagine the creation of a viable state or country when there is such a strong geographic discontinuity and when the country doesn't have any borders of its own to control and if the annexation continues the creation of a Palestinian state would quote unquote be within the larger state of Israel which means Israel would remain in control of the borders and would remain the middle man between Palestine and the international community and that isn't sustainable or viable in regards to the one state solution it is very possible to state solution in the current context although very difficult is still possible but it's not important whether it's a one state or two state or confederacy what's important is what goes into any one of those systems and so within this what the Palestinians and I think the Israelis need is one we need recognition of the past for Palestinians that means recognizing the very long history of suffering of occupation of marginalization beginning from 1948 even under the British under the Ottomans till today and within this having recognition of many of the terrible events that we continue to live in experience and that continue to live in our narrative that continue to live in our oral tradition we need to reconcile the pain that comes out of these stories the other thing that we need is equal rights for regardless of nationality regardless of race regardless of religion regardless of socioeconomic political background and that is for me as a Palestinian living in the state of Palestine or under Israel or as an Israeli living in Israel under the state of Palestine or under a new formation of both of these people groups and countries and the last thing we need is the right of movement right to enjoy the whole of the land and this as a Palestinian Christian I cannot imagine any sustainable long lasting future of peace that's based in justice in which Jerusalem is removed in which Jerusalem is restricted from my access or in which I cannot go and enjoy the beautiful Lake of Tiberias or the Sea of Galilee whichever name we'd like to call it or even to go and enjoy the desert in the south and I would also like to believe that my Jewish brothers and sisters same as my Muslim brothers and sisters would also like to come and enjoy Bethlehem to go and see Jerusalem we should all have equal right to enjoy the entirety of the land and have our rights afforded respected and given to us regardless of what nation or what system of rule is actually the land and maybe for the last question is it possible the wonderful answer is yes you can't negotiate with an earthquake with a hurricane or with a drought but you can negotiate with people and this injustice has people behind it and we can negotiate with these people and we can work with each other towards justice but to be able to reconcile our past and to move forward and I think that was said time and time again in this webinar and as part of the advocacy we need your help, your support and we need the international community's help and support to pressure Israel not to its knees but instead to its senses and to help empower and bring the Palestinian voice to the fore so that it is heard and that's my answer Thank you so much Tarek so much for helping so many of the conditions that are really of the essence of the solution so there was something very important about the delegation important for me in my experience I think for all of us who are part of it and that was that we were a diverse delegation indigenous settler newcomer together and that brought a particular kind of clarity to this particular visit maybe different than some of us had experienced before and so there was a question and I'll pose it to Roz for you to as one of the co-chairs of the delegation to share a little bit about how did we make the connections did we make the connections how did we do that in our experience between the situation of indigenous peoples in Canada and they brought the Americas and the situation in Palestine, Israel so I will give you that question to respond to on all of our behalf Oh well it's hard to truth tell I'll tell you what I think it was difficult for everyone to come back to their like I said their western context to come back to Canada to enter back into their lives after this life changing experience so I think everybody on this delegation was struggling in their own way of their own position in their communities and of course in their livelihoods I won't claim that that was only on myself I think we started to really recognize the similarities and the differences on the struggle between the Palestinians in the State of Israel and the indigenous people of Canada and the government of Canada of the State of Canada I think that there are certain broad strokes that Canada certainly coming to realize that I think the people of Israel are starting to realize and that is the incremental genocide of our people here in Canada and the Palestinian people there in West Asia I think that politically our contexts are different Tarek spoke of the one state, two state or confederacy question those are broad political questions that have that are variegated answers we consider ourselves Canada's original people and that of course brings up a whole difference between our situations but I think that we have to really concentrate on the fact that what is really at stake here again as I said is personhood the ability to participate in democracy the ability to have a voice is critical to us the ability to establish our sovereignty within ourselves within our communities can happen without these basic human dignities of clean water these basic human dignities of being able to go with your child as a young father to go with your child to the hospital that is critically important to the Palestinian communities and the Palestinian people same critical to us as well so we really struggle with that together and that is a question to non-indigenous Canada and to settler communities in Israel is you have a place of privilege in which the government protects you and we fight that daily and and I say we I say that in unity with my Palestinian brothers and sisters that those are some those are some striking similarities that we share I think also when I think of for instance Lucy's very groundbreaking work in Palestine I mean she has the heart of a native woman and there are women in Canada like her who work to create spaces for these voices to come through I mean as we believe that women are the life givers of a nation and so it's really important that we support initiatives that Lucy is so passionate about because again she's not only giving that space but these women are learning again some of their ancient arts that they have lost and they are becoming stronger women, stronger mothers, stronger sisters and stronger wives and that really really builds a nation so I think this is important both in Canada and in Palestine the work that William does with Tarik and Mr. Zugby they are so so important to the wider cultures and certainly bringing dialogue to various communities both Palestinian communities and Israeli communities who are working together to create a just and peace place there in the ancient lands so I think that our struggles are similar it is important that privileged Canada support these initiatives both in Canada and in Palestine and in the world it takes all people to build peace and it takes all of us to come together with our many backgrounds to create equal rights and dignity for ourselves for each other that recognition of personhood I think is crucial and critical both in Canada and Palestine one of the things that before I and one of the things that Tarik had mentioned was the recognition of the past and that too is critical to Canada's understanding of their privilege it is critical to the state of Israel's understanding of the incremental genocide of the Palestinian people it's also important for us as indigenous people and as my brothers and sisters in Palestine is to recognize how that has affected us I remarked several times during the delegation that we have normalized in Canada the reserve structure this is not normal to live in a block of land that is governed by the federal government is not normal to struggle with clean water with just 25 miles away there is a water that flows freely is not normal it's not normal and the Palestinian people they struggle against normalizing that way of life but they wake up to it every day just as we do and I think it's important as we go forward is to recognize those little events again that's going back to recognizing how this colonization has affected us has affected our social fact has affected our bodies so I I stand in solidarity with my Palestinian brothers and sisters and I hope that my indigenous brothers and sisters do the same as I speak to councils and so on here in Canada thank you for the question Jennifer I appreciate it thank you so much Roz and for your leadership in this process and reminding us of this centrality of indigenous leadership and Palestinian leadership in this struggle and the responsibility and accountability of white settlers to take our proper place as allies and coming alongside but to do so accountable for our privilege and recognition of the colonization that is continuing and it needs to end in both contexts so I will give the last word today to our friend and colleague Zubi Zubi and you see the questions but I will maybe ask you about vision and about hope and about what if there's something you want us to do next what is that and I will leave that last word with you as we and then we will have some thank yous and wrap up for this morning I am shivering with hope and I'm uplifted to hear such deep voices for justice and peace our reconciliation you know this kind of spirituality is needed nowadays that transcends denominations and when I hear you I feel this kind of spirituality of resistance that is needed nowadays here spirituality of resistance and creativity and since we talk about hope I like the verses of the second Corinthians chapter 4 verses 8 to 9 which says I am hard-bressed on every side but not crushed perplexed but not in despair persecuted but not abandoned struck down but not destroyed this kind of thing helps me to keep hope this verse this paragraph sustains my hope coming from the fact that we belong to the land all of us and as one of the leaders of the first nation people sitting full says man belongs to the earth earth does not belong to man so all of us regardless of our faith regardless of our nations color the lander belong to the earth the earth does not belong to us it is a call of inclusivity it is a call for respecting each other and also diversity in unity I believe the voice I heard from you is a prophetic voice and the work you do is a prophetic action that all of us say occupation is evil and to let people coexist with mutual respect with inclusive call for justice as you know our kids our youth suffered a lot one third of the male population in Palestine have been in prison one third has suffered from the prison more than 20,000 women have been in prison since 1967 so a call to free us all let my people free and this is very important message to see our cause internationalized because at this moment it is very difficult to solve this kind of conflict to end the occupation by only dialogue or negotiation between Israel and Palestine we need the international community to bear its responsibility to help end the occupation when I see 52 members of the parliament in Canada sign a memorandum to end the annexation to stop the annexation to end the occupation it is hope it is really a call for hope and as Palestinians we always look to convert to transform crisis to opportunities as a result of the threat of annexation Palestinians more are more united we work for diversity and unity and we are making connections and there are hope in reading the history we talk about the wall in Berlin after 28 years the wall is no longer there we talk about the apartheid system in South Africa after 42 years of systematic apartheid is no longer there we talk about civil rights movement despite there are some pockets of resistance in the States but Martin Luther King was able to transcend to move to transform and in the Balkans the conflict stopped so this kind of hope you know we need more and more to see end the occupation and nowadays if we make some mathematics that Israel is talking about annexing almost area C it could be 60% we don't want to lose our pose percentage wise 10%, 60%, 1% but if we talk about area C 60% and if we make such equation it is 22% of the historic land cross 60% almost equal 13% this is where the black Africans in South Africa used to own before they changed from apartheid to better situation I think hope for us is a form of faith a form of nonviolent struggle with you we are able to move forward and especially when we talk about women you know since the start of we am in 1994 we impart on empowering women and we created a lot of coalitions between men and women and I think there will be no freedom if the women are not free actually our woman does not compose only 50% of the population but they raise the other 50 and with your voices with your support you are helping us more you are empowering us to walk in this less traveled road despite of guvite despite of the occupation and despite on the personal issue the separation between my wife and children in the states and in their land this kind of opportunity would like on the personal level we are able to overcome it on the national level we are able to conquer it and on the international level justice will be the coal and will be the march and will be the drums to beat in order to free all the nations and as the South African leader and Mandela of course the South Africa will not be free until Palestine is free and we need the freedom for Jews Muslims and Christians to live together in two state solution or one state to guarantee that equality and inclusivity and reciprocity as the umbrella for any solution we would like to thank you all for your support for your empowerment and I tell you frankly also we shouldn't not think of the peace camp in Israel the Jewish peace of voice in the world despite they are getting smaller but they are a voice and they are a ray of hope it is also a part of renewable hope for us thank you all and we would like to invite you again there is more room in the end now thank you so much Zubbi persistence is required our persistence our action to bring forth transformation and that justice for all my last words of gratitude to all of you who have been present and listening and reflecting for the gift of your attention and your solidarity and action I want to thank our partners Zubbi and Tarik and Lucy very much for your clarity and for your generosity and for your hope we want to strive to live up to the call that you are issuing to us in this context I want to thank our delegates for their words and for their speaking from their hearts of their own experience they were church leaders but ordinary people experienced and we are committed to persisting in our advocacy I want to thank our trusted advisor Wendy and Rachel also who you now can see on the screen who were resource people to our delegation so helpful to us I want to thank Kirsten who has been working to support this webinar and the work around Palestinian advocacy advocacy for just peace Kirsten Van Houten and who helped us with the presentation today we couldn't have done this without the technical assistance of Gabriela Jimenez and Giselle Del Rezorio who helped to uplift us and facilitate us and make this all possible so I hope you can see their faces on the screen to bring them from behind the scenes to in front of the scenes as a critical part of this process that we were in this morning and I just close really with my deepest hope for our collective action as hope made real in this world and thank you to all of you for being present with us in this time thank you Zara technically them but also thank you to you for and for all the work you do for this