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Presentation on the
Mount of Olives Housing Project
1) Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you about the Mount of
Olives Housing Project and some of the challenges facing our Christian
sisters and brothers in Jerusalem.
2) Unfortunately, the Palestinian Christian presence in Jerusalem has
been getting smaller and smaller over the years. The Right Reverend
Munib Younan, Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and
the Holy Land, and other church leaders in Jerusalem have identified the
lack of affordable housing as one of the main causes of the Christian
exodus from the city.
3) Many families active in the Arabic speaking Lutheran congregation in
Jerusalem desperately need adequate housing. The seven members of the
Hadawar family live in a tiny apartment in the Old City. Three
generations share a bedroom, while around the corner from their cramped
home, plans have been approved for an Israeli settlement that will be
built in the Muslim Quarter.
4) Saleh and Sahar Kawas live in a single bedroom apartment with their
five children. There are no parks or open areas near their Old City
home, and the children normally spend the day inside with their mother,
Saleh, who is concerned about the violent gangs in the neighborhood.
5) In an effort to address one of the causes of the decrease in
Christians in Jerusalem, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and
the Holy Land (ELCJHL), The Lutheran World Federation (LWF), and the
Kaiserin Auguste Victoria Foundation (KAVF) have teamed up to build a
housing project on the Mount of Olives for the Palestinian Christian
minority in Jerusalem.
6) The project will consist of 84 home units. Apartments will be
provided based on need, particularly for young families and the elderly.
7) The Mount of Olives Housing Project will be built on 15 dunums of
land provided by the Lutheran World Federation.
(four dunums equal one acre)
8) The site is located on the southeast corner of the LWF property and
looks out over the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea.
9) Preparations are already underway. Seventy olive trees have been
moved from the housing project site and replanted on the north end of
the LWF’s Mount of Olives campus.
10) One section of the boundary wall along the southern end of the LWF
campus was transformed in 2005 to a retaining wall built to the
specifications of the project.
11) One of the next steps will be to begin discussions with the Israeli
Antiquities Department in order to secure permission for building. An
Antiquities Department permit is one of seventeen that must be obtained
before construction commences.
12) The Mayor of Jerusalem, Uri Lupolianski, met with Bishop Younan,
Rev. Mark Brown, LWF Regional Representative in Jerusalem, and other LWF
leaders in September 2005 and pledged to help the LWF obtain the permits
for the construction of the housing project in the shortest time
possible.
13) It is important in the search for peace between Palestinians and
Israelis, and between Jews, Christians and Muslims,
14) to strengthen the Christian presence in the Holy Land
15) and to lift up Jerusalem as a city of shared faiths and a model of
peace, understanding, tolerance and reconciliation.
16) “Christianity has provided a kind of leavening in the Middle East .
. . acting as a buffer between the Arab world’s broad Islamic resurgence
and the strands within Israel of a rising ultranationalist brand of
Judaism. These two fundamentalist movements, which have fused religion
with nationalism, increasingly cast the territorial Israeli-Palestinian
conflict in religious terms. If the Christians disappear, the Middle
East will become that much more vulnerable to the embittered dichotomy.”
[Charles M. Sennott, The Body and the Blood]
17) Bishop Younan [photo left] is a leader among the heads of churches
in Jerusalem. He and many other Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant
Palestinian Christians work to promote peace and justice through their
churches, schools and community groups.
18) Though Palestinian Christians have been in Jerusalem since the first
Pentecost, the roots of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and
the Holy Land – the ELCJHL - began in the mid 19th century when German
and English missionaries came to teach and minister to the local people.
19) The six congregations of the ELCJHL are in Jerusalem, Ramallah,
Amman, and the Bethlehem area. These congregations are made up largely
of families of refugees who fled their homes at the time of the tragic
wars that followed the formation of Israel.
20) Redeemer Church, in Jerusalem’s Old City, is home to the Arabic
speaking congregation led by Pastor Sani Ibrahim Azar, as well as
international congregations using German, English, and Danish.
21) The Arabic speaking congregation offers numerous activities for
women, youth, children and the elderly. Daily life for many of the
congregation members is a struggle due to the political and economic
situation and the Separation Wall around Jerusalem. Such things as going
to church for worship or meetings and finding affordable housing are a
constant challenge.
22) An empowered Christian minority will be important in building a
modern and democratic Palestinian society and state. Palestinian
Christians and their churches, schools, and health services often play
peace-keeping roles between the Israelis and Palestinians.
23) Today the ELCJHL operates four K-12 schools and four additional
educational programs in Jerusalem and the West Bank addressing a variety
of practical needs in contemporary Palestinian society. Together these
schools and programs make up an educational system fueled by a Christian
vision of hope for a brighter future in the Holy Land.
24) Similarly, the Lutheran World Federation's Jerusalem program has
been serving Palestinian refugees and others living in poverty for over
55 years.
25) The LWF brings hope and healing through projects related to health,
education, and humanitarian aid in the occupied Palestinian Territories.
26) The Augusta Victoria Hospital, located in Jerusalem on the Mount of
Olives property just one hundred yards from the location of the housing
project, is one of the oldest of the LWF’s Jerusalem projects. Since
1950, the LWF has been managing the Augusta Victoria Hospital, known as
AVH, and caring for the property it holds in trusteeship for the
Kaiserin Auguste Victoria Foundation.
27) The hospital serves all in need, regardless of race, religion,
nationality, gender, or ability to pay, but does so with an emphasis on
helping refugees and others living in poverty.
28) The LWF’s Vocational Training program has been guiding and
strengthening Palestinian youth since 1949.
29) The LWF’s Village Health Program was established in the early 1950s
and quickly became one of the most important healthcare programs in the
area following the 1948 war.
30) The LWF Jerusalem program also distributes humanitarian supplies and
basic necessities to refugees and people living in poverty in order to
meet immediate needs. The supplies often include sweaters, handmade
quilts, blankets, sewing fabric and sewing kits, health kits, school
kits, baby kits, toys, and soap.
31) There has been a continuous Christian presence in Jerusalem since
the time of Jesus. Arabs, Armenians, and other Middle Eastern Christians
in Jerusalem today are living links between ourselves and the earliest
Christian churches. Christians became the majority in the Holy Land
during Byzantine rule, but today they make up less than two percent of
the population.
32) In 1946 there were 31,400 Christians in Jerusalem, 34,000 Muslims,
and 99,000 Jews. By the year 2000, while the Christian population of
Jerusalem shrank to less than 15,000, the Jewish population grew to
440,000 and the Muslim population grew to almost 200,000.
33) Some Christian leaders like Bishop Younan estimate that the actual
Christian presence in Jerusalem is less than 10,000 and that the
Christian population in Jerusalem will be diminished to 5,000 once the
Israeli Separation Wall is completed around Jerusalem. Perhaps as much
as one half of the Christians who currently live in Jerusalem will be
excluded from Jerusalem by the Separation Wall.
34) Palestinian housing has been built at a steady rate of about 50
units per year, while Israeli building has accelerated dramatically,
with settlements being built on Palestinian land in the West Bank. 44%
of East Jerusalem is zoned as Green Areas, meaning that the land is
unable to be developed by anyone, including the landowner.
35) In 2004 and 2005, 198 homes in East Jerusalem were demolished
because proper permits had not been obtained. 594 Palestinians lost
their homes this way.
36) Of all construction started in Jerusalem in 2002, 80% of the
buildings were in Jewish neighborhoods; 19% were in Palestinian
neighborhoods.
37) A lack of housing and a shortage of work has forced many Palestinian
Christians to leave Jerusalem and relocate to the West Bank or to
another country.
38) Along with Jerusalem residency comes many rights, such as
eligibility for pensions and healthcare. When Palestinians move to the
West Bank, they relinquish their status as Jerusalemites and also the
rights that come along with that status.
39) The Mount of Olives Housing Project aims to counter the unjust and
strangling situation of housing for Palestinians in Jerusalem.
40) The project’s aims are:
To contribute to the overall presence of the three religions in
Jerusalem -- Judaism, Christianity and Islam -- by strengthening the
Christian minority communities in a spirit of ecumenical and
inter-religious openness and by curbing the exodus of the Christian
population from the city;
41) To support the human rights of Palestinians by providing housing at
reasonable prices, making it possible for them to remain in East
Jerusalem; and
42) To protect and preserve the LWF property on the Mount of Olives in
order to continue to provide humanitarian services, serve the
Palestinian people, and promote peace and understanding through a
continued international and ecumenical presence.
43) Current plans are for construction to be completed in three
phases, ensuring that the project does not exceed its budget. We hope
that the project will be nearing completion by the end of 2010! Support
for the $8 million dollar project is expected from the governments of
several European nations, including Norway and Sweden, as well as from
churches and individuals in Europe and North America.
44) More information and updates about the housing project can be found
on the following websites:
www.HolyLand-Lutherans.org
www.LWFJerusalem.org
www.mtofoliveshousing.org
45) Momentum is building for this important endeavor. I hope you join us
in helping to provide Palestinian Christian families with affordable
housing and to maintain the Christian presence and witness in Jerusalem.
46) Providing 84 housing units for the Palestinian Christian minority in
Jerusalem is a small, but nevertheless important step toward the larger
goal of realizing the vision of Jerusalem as a city of peace and
reconciliation.
47) “The Mount of Olives Housing Project is vital to the future of the
Christian presence and witness in Jerusalem and it is important,
therefore, to the future of Jerusalem as a city of peace for Jews,
Christians, and Muslims and as an example of reconciliation for the
world.”
Bishop Mark Hanson
Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and
President of the Lutheran World Federation
48) “I hope you will learn more about the needs of our sisters and
brothers in the Holy Land and consider supporting the Mount of Olives
Housing Project.”
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