Maria Khoury: News from the Holy Land

Greetings from the Holy Land!

I wish all of you a blessed Holy Nativity Fast.   Tomorrow, we are actually celebrating  the transfer of the relics of St. George from Asia Minor where he was martyred to Lod (next to the Tel Aviv airport now)  where his mother lived in ancient Palestine.  It has been an annual tradition that Christian communities from all corners of the Holy Land gather in Lod to commemorate this special feast day in addition to the one in April.  

However, some of you might know the ongoing violence in Jerusalem and the unrelenting settlement expansion and police harassment, riots and marches inside Israel have increased following the cold blood killing of an Arab youth by police in Kafr Kanna. The  Israelis and Palestinians have been killing each other back and forth in revenge attacks for many months now. Thus, many people in our community were simply too scared to get a permit and travel to the original St. George Church to continue this century old Christian tradition in memory of St. George the Great Martyr.   We pray for better times ahead and keep our hope in Christ.  

Personally, I wish I was in America instead of checkpoints where Israeli soldiers are shooting kids throwing rocks. I am not sure if we are on the verge of another uprising but may our Lord have mercy with the violence all around.

Maria Khoury, Ed.D. 
Taybeh