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May 2026

We hope you enjoy this newsletter. This will be the last time it goes out to the wider church. To ensure you continue receiving our newsletters, please subscribe here.

Listening from the Heart workshops are deeply rooted in the painful and loving work of the Parents Circle - Families Forum, which brings bereaved Palestinian and Israeli family members to share their grief and humanity amid ongoing, brutal war. They teach us the importance of listening, forgiving, and finding our common humanity despite our differences.

McFarland UCC and the Palestine Justice Working Group invite you to attend a virtual Listening from the Heart workshop on Thursday, May 28, 7:00 - 8:30 pm. This free workshop will feature the stories of Bassama and Elena. If you have seen any of the others before, you’re welcome to come back for this one. All are welcome! Registration required here.

UCC Movement for Palestinian Solidarity (UCCMPS) is organizing a UCC Delegation to Palestine August 5-14, 2026, and you’re invited to consider joining them. It’s a complicated request no doubt, given current events, but read on and see how this lands.

Working with its partners at Sabeel (the Ecumenical Liberation Theology Centre in Jerusalem), UCCMPS spent a year designing an experience that will deepen relationships, expand capacity for “costly” solidarity, and inspire participants individually for the critically urgent work ahead. Their intention is to travel with at least 15, and as many as 30 leaders, and to meet Palestinian Christians face to face, hear their first-hand testimonies and wrestle with the implications of their call for solidarity, resistance and friendship in a moment of excruciating violence and immense need. Here you’ll find a one-page description of that experience.

If you find yourself interested, but have questions regarding safety or anything else, there will be having an informational Zoom session on May 14 at 11 am (Eastern US Time) to meet with several of our Sabeel/FOSNA partners (who will join the delegation from Jerusalem and the US) and assess the moment and decisions before us. Every question is welcome and worthy of your time! To receive the link for this meeting, please email Dave Grishaw-Jones from the Planning Committee. 

If you’re already ready to commit to this delegation, registration is here.

Some of you may have seen the embroidery work done by women from Hebron at the Conference Annual Meeting. The Cooperative was begun in 2005 to help women provide for themselves and their families. Currently 150 women from 8 cities and villages around Hebron participate in the cooperative. The cooperative is more than an income-generating project, it is also an act of community, a way of honoring the role of women, and a means to show Sumund - steadfastness - in the face of occupation and the harm it has done. 

Due to the lack of tourists to Hebron their means of providing for their families has decreased. If you would like to support these women, you can shop at their on-line store. There are many other items besides embroidery.

Eyewitness Palestine is a transformational education program that inspires participants to be accountable lifelong social justice advocates in the Palestine solidarity movement and within their own communities. They have a YouTube channel that offers several short videos that take viewers beyond the headlines. See the land of Palestine. Connect with Palestinians. Learn frameworks and strategies for justice. Act to build bridges between people and movements. 

There's only one way to truly understand the realities of Palestine - through the eyes of those who live there.

Their latest video, Tour of Burin, will especially leave you with an appreciation for the cost and pain of maintaining presence on the land, and the unshakeable determination to stay, even in the face of settler violence.

Kairos Palestine II is a confessional document written by the Palestinian Christian Ecumenical Initiative and released on November 14, 2025. The title of the document is A Moment of Truth: Faith in a Time of Genocide. This ecumenical initiative is a group of Palestinian Christians representing a variety of churches and churchrelated organizations in Palestine who are united to advocate for justice, peace, and human rights against the Israeli occupation. Using a theology of liberation, they call for international solidarity and promote a theology of love and hope. They challenge silence, highlight the struggles of Palestinian Christians, and work for a just resolution through nonviolent resistance and advocacy.

The Palestine Justice Network (PJN) has freely offered the Kairos Palestine II Congregational Study Guide - five study sessions grounded in a living confession born from the heart of Palestinian Christian suffering in current realities in Gaza, the West Bank, and within the wider Palestinian diaspora. 

Download a copy or order hard copies here.

To experience a bit of the PJN Reader’s Theater, watch this informative 17-minute video from the PJN, a mission network of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Dozens of boats carrying activists and aid for Palestinians in Gaza set sail from Barcelona, Spain, last month. Organizers of the Global Sumud Flotilla say that more than 70 boats and 1,000 people from around the world are participating. Campaigners say it’s the biggest civilian-led mobilization of its kind against Israel’s action in the Palestinian territory. Read more here. 

Unfortunately, at the end of April, while still hundreds of miles from Gaza near the southern Greek island of Crete, Israeli forces intercepted more than 20 boats and detained about 175 activists. Read more of this story here. 

As of May 8, 57 boats are still sailing. Follow their progress with this tracker.

You can support aid flotillas and call for an end of blockades and occupations by signing this petition.

Sumud - Arabic for “steadfastness” is used by Palestinian theologians to describe nonviolent resistance to occupation through advocacy, education, social work and faith-rooted presence. ELCA Sumud is the church’s response to occupation and injustice in Palestine and Israel. You are invited to check out the ELCA's SUMUD webpage for more resources to increase your understanding.

Palestine Museum US was founded by Palestinian American businessman Faisal Saleh who, after 40 years of entrepreneurial work, is turning his attention to managing the most ambitious Palestinian media project in the U.S. Located in Woodbridge, CT, the museum opened its doors on April 22, 2018, and is the only one of its kind in the western hemisphere.

Visit the museum website to take virtual tours, view various art and historical works, and listen to videos of artists. Here is an example of one video called "Telling the Palestinian Story - Fifty Women Artists - 200 Works of Art."

Save the Date! Madison's Big Ride for Palestine is July 20, 10 am - Noon, leaving Olin Park in Madison. All are welcome to join the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project team in this national 6-mile bike ride for humanitarian aid! Learn more here.

You’re asked to wear your kufiyas/keffiyehs/kuffiyehs! A kufiya is a cultural garment worn by people of various faiths across the Middle East, including Christians. It is a symbol of solidarity with the Palestinian cause, cultural heritage, and resistance against oppression. It is widely considered acceptable to wear, provided it is worn respectfully and with understanding of its significance and history, not just as a fashion accessory.

Since its founding in 1882, Al-Ahli Gaza Hospital has provided vital medical services to men, women and children in Gaza. Today, after two and a half years of unrelenting violence, Al-Ahli is one of the few remaining medical facilities in Gaza still standing. Ahli’s medical teams are working tirelessly, performing life-saving treatments and surgeries around the clock. The numbers are staggering. Al-Ahli’s medical director, Dr. Maher Ayyad, reports that in the past two and a half years more than 85,000 people have received care at Al-Ahli, and more continue to seek care every day. The operating theater runs 17 hours daily, performing over 450 surgeries each month. Outdated equipment is held together by determination and ingenuity. Through it all, Al-Ahli Hospital, a valued Mission Partner of UCC Global Ministries, continues to stand and continues to serve, thanks to the support of generous donors. 

In the Wisconsin Conference, at least three congregations have studied the situation at Al-Ahli, and decided to send funds for the hospital’s ongoing work. 

McFarland United Church of Christ has a historical connection with Palestine, explained Joan Jacobsen, chair of the church’s Outreach Funds Endowment Committee. “In the past, our church provided support to a Palestinian family living in the West Bank. This was a family that church member Harriet Taylor met while traveling in the region. That personal connection has been remarkable… We learned about the work of Al-Ahli more recently when two members of the UCC Palestine Justice Working Group gave us a presentation about the vital work of several UCC Mission Partners in the region. The situation of Al-Ahli Gaza Hospital was particularly compelling, and following that presentation several members of our Outreach Funds Endowment Committee requested and arranged for funds to be allocated to the work of this hospital.” 

Members of Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ in Madison learned about the work of Al-Ahli through a presentation by the church’s Palestine Justice Mission Team. Following that informative session, the Mission Team proposed that one of the congregation’s Monthly Compassion Offerings be dedicated to Al-Ahli Hospital. Compassion Offerings for the four Sundays in October 2025 were devoted to Al-Ahli Hospital.

At Brookfield Congregational Church UCC, it was Connie Sandell, a member of the church’s Mission Response Team, who led that Team in their study of five UCC Mission Partners in Palestine/Israel. “Our team decided to focus on Al-Ahli,” explained Sandell. “Each quarter of the year, on the Sunday services with communion, our church designates a particular organization to donate to. Our collection of offerings for Al-Ahli commenced in April and will conclude the first Sunday of June.”

In Matthew 25:36, Jesus lifts up the faithfulness of those who look after the sick. Through the efforts of Wisconsin Conference congregations, this ministry of tending and healing the sick is taking place today, and will remain strong for the future of Al-Ahli Hospital.

• Learn more here
• Donate here. In the box “Please direct my support”, select “Arab Ahli Hospital, Gaza."
• To request a presentation regarding UCC Mission Partners in Palestine/Israel (including Al-Ahli Hospital) contact Tom Beilman.