Some 75 percent of Christian students in the village of Maghar have not returned to school in the three weeks since clashes between Christians and Druze residents of the Upper Galilee village, Deputy Education Minister Michael Melchior said Wednesday.
According to Melchior, there are about 1,000 students of all ages still absent from their classes.
By Jack Khoury and Yoav Stern, Haaretz, March 2, 2005
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PERSIAN GULF \ Mar 01, 2005
5727
Vivian Gilmer and Marie Bush were conducting mission efforts with a group in the United Arab Emirates. The rest of the group was expelled from the country, but the two women's passports were confiscated.
"While in custody, they have demonstrated faithfulness to Christ and continued to proclaim the truth of Scripture"
Baptist Presss, March 1, 2005
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FEATURES \ Feb 28, 2005 4034
A bishop of Jerusalem says that Christians, as bearers of values such as justice, peace, dignity and human rights, can make a key contribution to solving the Mideast conflict.
Christians' weapons are those of "negotiation, patience and bridge-building," said Auxiliary Bishop Giacinto-Boulos Marcuzzo, in a statement to ZENIT.
The Italian-born prelate has been in the Holy Land for 44 years. He was ordained bishop 11 years ago and has been patriarchal vicar of the Latin Church in Israel for the past decade.
Zenit.org, Feb 22, 2005
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ISRAEL \ Feb 28, 2005 4214
Tiberias police launched an investigation Sunday to find out who was behind a pamphlet threatening renewed violence against Christians in the mixed Druze-Christian-Muslim village of Maghar, in the Galilee, that saw violent clashes earlier this month.
The pamphlet, which was distributed Sunday and signed by a group calling itself "The Heroes of Hamza Ben Ali" after a Druze saint, expressed support for the riots and included detailed threats to open fire on any Christians venturing onto the village's main road starting Wednesday.
By Jack Khoury, Haaretz, Feb 28, 2005
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FEATURES \ Feb 23, 2005 4286
Open Doors with Brother Andrew works in Israel helping persecuted believers in the region reach out with the hope of Christ. President of Open Doors USA Carl Moeller says the Christian population in Israel has been affected. "From maybe 30 to 50 percent of the West Bank and Gaza being Christian in 1950, to now about 1.5 percent and that's because of the violence that's taken place."
Mission Network News, Feb 18, 2005
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OTHER \ Feb 23, 2005 4150
The World Council of Churches (WCC) on February 21 urged its members to consider economic measures to oppose Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and praised the action of a U.S. denomination that has started a process of selective divestment from companies linked to the occupation.
"Multinational corporations have been involved in the demolition of Palestinian homes," the WCC's main governing body said in a statement adopted during a February 15-22 meeting in Geneva. They "are involved in the construction of settlements and settlement infrastructure on occupied territory, in building a dividing wall which is also largely inside occupied territory, and in other violations of international law."
by Stephen Brown, Ecumenical News International, Feb 21, 2005
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TOP STORIES \ Feb 22, 2005 4718
THE ORTHODOX Church of Greece and Jerusalem placed a gag order on all clergy, just two days after press revelations linking Archbishop Christodoulos to a man arrested for heroin dealing one year later. The mounting church crisis, with daily revelations of bishops' scandals, is widely considered Christodoulos' greatest challenge in his seven-year ministry, and some believe it could even jeopardise his position at the church's helm.
GEORGE GILSON, Athens News, Feb 18, 2005
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ISRAEL \ Feb 19, 2005 4991
Amram Mitsna, former leader of the Labor Party and mayor of Haifa writes about Maghar: "The rumor alone was ample pretext for the assault on the Christian villagers, simply because they were Christians. Can it be that in Israel, the state of the Jews - a people with much experience with persecution and pogroms in the name of religion - there could be such a thing as violence committed in the name of religion?"
"In the next day the media, whose function it is to reflect reality and place urgent social problems on the public agenda, described the events as if they had occurred in some foreign country, with emphasis placed on the teenager and his concocted story, and not on the violence or the religious aspect. How would the media and the political establishment have reacted, what would the Israeli agenda look like had the people under attack been Jews?"
Haaretz, Feb 16, 2005
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FEATURES \ Feb 19, 2005 4459
Another Israeli columnist writes from Washington about MK Benny Elon (National Union) and his relationship with evangelicals in the USA:
"He invests more time and effort than perhaps any other Israeli in nurturing the relationship with Evangelical Christians in the U.S. As minister of tourism during the intifada, Elon promoted visits by Evangelical churches to Israel, and he continues to attend their conferences and speak out against diplomatic compromise on the Land of Israel.
By Nathan Guttman, Haaretz, Feb 17, 2005
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