A voice of conscience for peace, justice, human rights, and intercultural encounter
There is so much that I found offensive about President Joe Biden’s recent trip to the Middle East, but I wanted to wait a week so I could cool off. “First, do no harm,” the medical adage says, and yet – and my expectations were ‘zero’ – he was able in a few short days…
POWER: “the capacity and extent to which one can influence the behavior and beliefs of another.“ In discussing the current political and religious climate, I have often mentioned that the Left, particularly the Religious Left, is especially uncomfortable with discussions of and strategies that employ the use of power. Power, its use and facility, makes…
Dear friends in Fort Wayne and around the country, We are approximately halfway through our solidarity tour to Palestine and Israel. And we have had a very full last few days. Thursday, June 16, was spent touring holy sites. In the morning, we toured the Al Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock; with the permission of…
When you read this, I will be in Jerusalem traveling with 18 people in Palestine and Israel after a three-year COVID hiatus. We have now surpassed 250 people from within 60 miles of Fort Wayne who have traveled with me in my 15 “solidarity tours” since 2002. If I am to be honest, it’s been…
BACKGROUND Many of you know that in 1998-1999, I was a Fulbright Scholar working at the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies (RIIFS) under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal, King Hussein’s brother, in Amman, Jordan. In the ensuing years I was invited back three different times to give lectures to…
ICMEP Statement on Nakba Day 2022 ICMEP Condemns the Murder of Shireen Abu Akleh and Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing of the Palestinian People Today, May 15, marks the 74th anniversary of the Nakba (“Catastrophe”), the forced displacement by Israeli forces of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes, the destruction of a Palestinian homeland in 1948. It is…
The US and Palestine — A Challenge for the Church [Our friend and much-respected pastor of the North Manchester Church of the Brethren, Kurt Borgmann, received a Lilly Grant for a sabbatical. As part of the grant, both pastor and congregation agree to explore an issue/question of their choosing. Kurt decided that his three months…
I want to share with you a poem by our friend (and 2019 ICMEP Gala speaker and Champion of Justice Award recipient), Susan Abulhawa. Susan is a Palestinian-American author (her acclaimed Mornings in Jenin has been translated into 32 languages and sold over a million copies), poet, and activist. She is the founder of Playgrounds…
For 17 years, the mission of Indiana Center for Middle East Peace has remained the same – “We are a voice of conscience for peace, justice, human rights, and intercultural encounter.” Every one of our board members, and all our many supporters and friends throughout the years focus like a laser beam on these core…
“Freedom is a process by which you develop the habit of being inaccessible to slavery.” Alla Gutnikova is a young Russian Jewish woman, one of four Russian student journalists (the other three, Armen Aramyan, Natasha Tyshkevich, and Volodya Metelkin) who worked from DOXA, an independent Moscow student magazine. The four were recently sentenced to two…