for our work to continue.
General Conference
United Methodists are responding to Kairos Palestine: A Moment of Truth ,a statement of faith and urgent call to action from Christians in Palestine. UMKR seeks, through nonviolent means and in partnership with Palestinian Christians, freedom, justice and equality for all Palestinians and Israelis.
COVID-19 RESPONSE PLAN
FOR THE OCCUPIED
PALESTINIAN TERRITORY
UN Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
The humanitarian community
in the occupied Palestinian
territory has released a detailed
plan aimed at preventing further transmission of
COVID-19 and mitigating the worst effects of the pandemic, laying the foundations for the Government of Palestine’s response plan. To implement the plan, we are urgently requesting that donors contribute US$34 million.
See the summary
Download the full plan
An Appeal from UMKR
UMKR has important church legislation for our denomination's global General Conference, to be held in 2021. These resolutions address:
• protecting Palestinian children,
• defending the right to boycott,
•divesting from the bonds of occupation governments, and other timely justice issues.
We also have BIG PLANS for educating
A LOT of people throughout our church about Palestinian rights, with literature, displays, speakers, meals, and witness actions!
With very limited resources, UMKR has made a BIG impact in the global United Methodist Church! Groundbreaking divestment and boycott actions by the UMC would never have happened without UMKR's advocacy AND all the extraordinary partners and allies who helped us.
General Conference is always our BEST OPPORTUNITY to make a worldwide impactfor Palestinian rights throughout our denomination.
But, if we are to succeed in advocating for justice with thousands of United Methodists who come to General Conference from four continents,WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Click the green button and take action now:
Please give as generously as you can, and
know that whatever you are able to give
will be greatly appreciated.
In this 2014 photo, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell speaks at the opening of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Community and Government Center in Mashpee, Massachusetts. On March 27, the U.S. Department of the Interior ordered the removal of 321 acres of the tribe’s land out of federal trust. Photo courtesy of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. [via United Methodist News Service]
Land is Sacred: Stand With the
Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe
The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, the very tribe that welcomed the Pilgrims in the 1600s, is at risk of losing what is left of their homelands due to a determination made by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Why is this important?
The Mashpee Wampanoag,
the People of the First Light,
have occupied the same
region for over 12,000 years
and have faced deminishment
of their homelands since
colonization.
After an arduous process
lasting more than three decades,
the Mashpee Wampanoag were re-acknowledged as a federally recognized tribe in 2007. In 2015, the federal government declared 320 acres in Massachusetts as the Tribe’s initial reservation, where they can exercise full tribal sovereignty.
Now the Trump Administration has decertified the protected land of the indigenous Mashpee people. This is colonialism and must be stopped.The Mashpee Tribe has legislation in Congress Senate that will protect their land: the "Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act (HR.312)."
LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS
See this informative article from the United Methodist News Service:
“Native caucus sounds alarm over tribal land dispute”
See this piece in The Guardian: Trump administration revokes tribe’s reservation status in ‘power grab’
The Native American International Caucus (NAIC) is one of our church's ethnic caucuses and one of UMKR's fellow members in the Love Your Neighbor Coalition (LYNC). Download the NAIC open letter to legislators
MoveOn.org has a petition to the U.S. Congress calling for support of the tribe’s legislation. It has over 280,000 signatures. Help them get to 300,000! Sign the petition to Congress
For those in the US: Send a message directly to your legislators. Color of Change has one prepared to make that easy. Take action here
TOOLKIT:Organizing for Palestinian Rights in the time of COVID-19 Download it
ONGOING NEWS & UPDATES
Christian Organizations write to President Trump and Secretaries Mnuchin and Pompeo
Urge Trump administration to lift sanctions hurting the people of Iran and Syria, end US support for Israel's blockade of Gaza and press Israel to ensure all needed supplies can reach Gaza Download the letter
Christian Organizations write to the U.S. Congress
Urge Congress to restore humanitarian aid to Palestinians including UNRWA, aid that had been cut by the Trump administaions, and thank them for their efforts to provide aid in the previous year
Download the letter
Resources related to the Covid-19 Pandemic
See stories on Covid-19 here:
https://mondoweiss.net/tag/coronavirus/
Sign up for their COVID-19 updates on this page:
https://mondoweiss.net/newsletters/
In the list of newsletter choices, see:
Special Coverage: Covid-19
Find their COVID-19 stories at this page:
https://electronicintifada.net/tags/covid-19
See their Coronavirus stories:
https://www.972mag.com/topic/coronavirus/
Statistics on the Coronavirus in the Occupied Palestinian Territories See the reports
Updates from Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP)
ACTIVISM
FROM HOME
during COVID-19
In the Time of COVID-19
UMKR needs your support
General Conference 2020 has been
scheduled for Aug-Sept 2022. Our justice legislation is still vital & needs
YOUR support! LEARN MORE:
🔶 See New Items 🔴 New on our site
The campaigns and actions on
this page have moved to a more
permanent home: our page for ACTION/CAMPAIGNS
Still on this page:
RESOURCES for those who are concerned about the COVID-19 situation in Palestine.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Political Analysts of Al-Shabaka:
Publications on COVID-19
• What the coronavirus outbreak means for Palestinian refugees
by Yara Hawari, The New Arab
• Coronavirus outbreak in the time of apartheid
by Osama Tanous, Al Jazeera English
• Israel’s caging of Gaza is a recipe for coronavirus disaster
by Jehad Abusalim, +972 Magazine
• ‘A hotbed for fake news’: How Palestinians are
fighting coronavirus misinformation
Yara Asi and Marwa Fatafta, +972 Magazine
_______________________________________________________________________________