Churches for Middle East Peace: Pilgrimage to Peace (P2P) Tour with Daoud Nassar
Washington, D.C. – October 23, 2017 – From October 16 to 22 Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) hosted Daoud Nassar for a series of talks about daily life in the West Bank, human rights concerns, and peacebuilding as part of CMEP’s fall Pilgrimage to Peace tour. Over six days, CMEP’s Executive Director Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon hosted these conversations with Christian communities at nine events in four cities including: Washington, D.C.; Seattle, WA; Cary, NC; and Wilmington, NC.
Daoud Nassar is a Palestinian Christian and a native of Bethlehem, in the occupied Palestinian territories. He directs the work of the programs and projects on his family’s ancestral land known as Tent of Nations – a 100-acre hilltop farm that serves as an educational and cultural center for local Palestinians, Israelis, and international visitors.
Purchased in 1916 by Daoud Nassar’s grandfather, Tent of Nations is surrounded by Israeli settlements on three sides and the Palestinian village of Nahalin on the fourth. There is limited access to the property and the land is cut off from sources of water and electricity. The government of Israel has taken multiple actions to annex Tent of Nations, prevent building on the property, and cultivation of the land. Currently, the Nassar family has multiple cases pending in Israeli court as they seek to prove documented ownership of their land. As the family awaits the results of the court cases, they meet emerging threats to their land with nonviolent resistance.
Go to go.cmep.org/P2P2017DaoudNassar to hear Daoud Nassar speak about Tent of Nations and his family’s peace building work.
Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) calls on elected officials, churches, and individuals to stand in solidarity with nonviolent peacemakers like Daoud Nassar, visit Tent of Nations to see the challenges they face first hand, and recognize settlements as illegal and an impediment to peace.
For many Christians, a neglected element of their faith is understanding the role they can play as peacemakers and reconcilers in the midst of conflict. P2P speaking tours bring CMEP staff and peacemakers from Israel, Palestine, and the broader Middle East to speak to churches, schools, community group, and religious organizations. CMEP believes globally-minded Christians, who are committed to compassion and justice, can bring hope to broken communities throughout the world—including Israel and Palestine.
Formed in 1984, Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) is a coalition of 27 national church denominations and organizations, including Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Evangelical traditions that works to encourage US policies that actively promote a comprehensive resolution to conflicts in the Middle East with a focus on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. CMEP works to mobilize US Christians to embrace a holistic perspective and to be advocates of equality, human rights, security, and justice for Israelis, Palestinians, and all people of the Middle East.
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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
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