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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rayhanania

Op-Ed writer, author, radio host, podcaster at The Arab Daily News

RAY HANANIA — Op-Ed writer, author, radio host, podcaster

Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.

Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).

Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.

Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.

His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.

Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.

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