From: Stephen R. Low <steve....@gordianconcepts.com>
Sent: November 27, 2024 9:07 AM
Subject: Exploring the Holy Land Problem: Friday, Dec 6 and Saturday, Dec 7
Palestinians, Israeli Jews, and those of us who care about them have never faced challenges greater than today’s.
Contributing to this mess has been the Biden administration’s Holy Land policies, which have been—shall I be polite and say, “awkward?”
Now, we await a Trump administration, whose 2016–2020 Israel policies were so ill-considered and unbalanced, that many believe they helped to incite Hamas’s murderous attack on October 7, 2023.
These “realities” pose major challenges for all of us seeking peace, equality, and justice in the Holy Land.
Rather than wring our hands in despair, the GRALTA Foundation has organized two events to help us shape constructive, outside-the-box thinking about how to refine the American people’s understanding of the Holy Land Problem and how to advocate for new U.S. Mideast policies that will improve conditions and achieve security for all who live there.
Here are two (free) opportunities to hear two internationally-known speakers—two experts on the Holy Land’s human rights problem—who can help us to answer the question, “Where can we go from here?
Friday, Dec. 6 @ 7:30 PM
Community Church of Boston
565 Boylston St., Boston
accessible via the T, between Dartmouth & Clarendon or
discount vouchers available for Back Bay Parking Garage, 199 Clarendon Street.
Saturday, Dec. 7 @ 2:00 PM
Bemis Hall
15 Bedford Rd., Lincoln, MA
park across the street at the “Stone Church”
Please join us for one of these events.
Our speakers:
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Mazin Qumsiyeh Human Rights Activist, Professor, Bethlehem & Birzeit Universities
Prof. Qumsiyeh was born and raised in Beit Sahour on the outskirts of Bethlehem. His evolving world views have been shaped by living under Israeli occupation, the education he received at universities in the Middle East and the U.S., and on years of extensive travel throughout the world. After obtaining a doctorate in Zoology and Genetics from Texas Tech, Mazin trained at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and taught at the University of Tennessee, Duke, and then at Yale. He is author of 190 scientific papers, hundreds of articles, and several books on topics ranging from cultural heritage to human rights to biodiversity conservation to cancer.
After returning to Palestine in 2008, Mazin and his wife Jessie Chang founded and run (as volunteers) the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity & Sustainability and the Palestine Museum of Natural History—both situated on the Bethlehem University campus.
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Mark Braverman Executive Director, Kairos, USA
Dr. Mark Braverman is a retired clinical psychologist and trauma consultant. Raised in a traditional Jewish family, he was steeped in Jewish religious observance, Bible study, the Hebrew language, and the Zionist narrative. Confronted by the reality of ethnic cleansing and ongoing colonial settlement of Palestine, Mark has devoted himself since 2006 to working for a future of dignity and peace for all the people living between the River and the Sea.
Mark has been closely involved in the international church movement for Palestinian rights. He spoke at the launch of the Kairos Palestine document in Bethlehem in 2009 and served on the Palestine Ecumenical Forum of the World Council of Churches. He is the author of two books and numerous journal articles and book chapters on the Kairos movement, ecumenism, post-holocaust theology, Jewish and Christian Zionism, and Christian-Jewish relations.
Regards,
Steve Low
