Tag: FOSNA

An Alternative Advent Calendar

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological AnimationLeave a comment

A gift from FOSNA to help us reorient Advent around direct action for Palestine.

🍉 Sun, Nov 30 – Read the Palestinian-led call to BDS. Join the Complicit Corporations campaign (as a community.) Sign the pledge as an individual.

🍉 Mon, Dec 1 – Microsoft is perhaps the most complicit tech company in Israel’s illegal occupation, apartheid regime and ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza – which is why Microsoft is also now priority BDS target. Before the Christmas shopping season, take the pledge to boycott Xbox. Invite a person in your life (who plays Xbox!) to join you.

🍉 Tues, Dec 2 – Eat something you consider to be a treat today. Remind yourself that liberation work is sweet and the revolution ends with dancing.

🍉 Wed, Dec 3 – Listen to Palestinian Christians. Read Kairos Palestine 1, written in 2009.

🍉 Thurs, Dec 4 – Listen to Palestinian or protest music as you put up Christmas decorations.

🍉 Fri, Dec 5 – Look up whose land you’re on: native-land.ca

🍉 Sat, Dec 6 – Watch a Palestinian documentary. Invite someone to join you.

🍉 Sun, Dec 7 – Find the nearest Chevron-linked target near your community on this map. (Note: they are not all gas stations!) Share the story of it with your network this week. Can you imagine a collective action you might participate in together?

🍉 Mon, Dec 8 – Plan a local Boycott Chevron caroling action with friends or family. Not prepared for that stage of action yet? Make a plan to play or share Boycott Chevron carols while hosting people at your house one day in Advent. Plan to discuss what you’ve learned about boycotts with them. (Shout out to our friends at CFP for these awesome caroling action materials!)

🍉 Tues, Dec 9 – Print or adapt these flyers and ask a local community or your favorite local business to pass them out over the Christmas shopping season.

🍉 Wed, Dec 10 – Read Kairos Palestine 2, published Nov 2025.

🍉 Thurs, Dec 11 – Donate to FOSNA, Sabeel, or a mutual aid campaign in Gaza. (Or all three!)

🍉 Fri, Dec 12 – Watch the boycott Chevron training from USCPR.

🍉 Sat, Dec 13 – Watch a Palestinian documentary. Invite someone to join you.

🍉 Sun, Dec 14 – Request with your church’s worship team or leadership that Palestine (not simply “Gaza”) to be added to the prayers of the people on Sunday or Christmas Eve.

🍉 Mon, Dec 15 – Tell Chevron CEO Mike Wirth you’re boycotting Chevron.

🍉 Tues, Dec 16 – Familiarize yourself with discriminatory laws in Israel.

🍉 Wed, Dec 17 – Sticker around your town. (Here are some Boycott Chevron sticker templates!)

🍉 Thurs, Dec 18 – Call/text a friend. Tell them about your direct action Advent experience so far.

🍉 Fri, Dec 19 – Make a list of 5 things you wish every kid in the world had. Begin working toward that world.

🍉 Sat, Dec 20 – Watch a Palestinian documentary. Invite someone to join you.

🍉 Sun, Dec 21 – Join the Freedom Church of the Poor’s Longest Night service tonight (6p ET / 5p CT / 3p PT; join here) or spend a moment in quiet lament for all who we have lost on the way to liberation.

🍉 Mon, Dec 22 – Eat another treat today. Remind yourself that liberation work is STILL sweet.

🍉 Tues, Dec 23 – Write your Congressperson a Christmas card! (Here’s an example to get you started.)

🍉 Wed, Dec 24 – Name Palestine in your local Christmas Eve service. (Get creative! Submit it in a prayer request form. Wear a keffiyeh to worship. Bring it up in conversation with your pastor, leadership board, or congregation.)

🍉 Thurs, Dec 25 – Begin to organize your community (church, town, business) to become Apartheid Free in 2026.

National Traumas

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting EmpireLeave a comment

A message from Jonathan Kuttab, the executive director of Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), a Christian voice for Palestine

PTSD and Trauma are not only personal and individual in character but often afflict whole nations and peoples. Frequently historical in nature, trauma can be passed down intergenerationally. 

One of the greatest examples of such trauma afflicting our region is that of the Holocaust, compounding the historical experience of centuries of persecution, hatred, and discrimination against Jewish people. This is a trauma that made it easy for many to succumb to the doctrines of Zionism, offering Jewish empowerment via Jewish supremacy in a Jewish-dominated state as the only cure for their ongoing suffering. It has made many easy prey for fascist doctrines, of belief in the value of violence and military overkill as the only path to survival. It has also made it difficult for many to take seriously any path towards peace and reconciliation that is not firmly rooted in their military power and supremacy. And while many cynically exploit the traumas of the Holocaust for political ends, there exists a genuine phenomenon of authentic fear that cries out for healing and needs to be addressed.

That rabbit hole of domination and “deterrence” will likely doom Israeli Jews to eternal strife and enmity with their neighbors, leading to ever increased militarization since in their traumatized state no amount of military power will ever be sufficient, and any attempt by Palestinians to resist that domination is only likely to reinforce the trauma. Similarly, all peace efforts will be viewed with deep suspicion and reticence, particularly if they require concessions that seem to reduce Israeli military domination or appear to make Israel weaker or more vulnerable to the risk of future attacks.

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Where are God’s People?

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation2 Comments

By Jonathan Kuttab, executive director of Friends of SABEEL North America (FOSNA), a theological reflection of 100 days of genocide

As we have now passed 100 days of ongoing genocide and the number of named victims exceeds 25,000 (not counting those still buried under the rubble), the scale human suffering has long reached unbearable dimensions. Over ten thousand children have been killed and continue to be killed at the rate of about 100 per day; over 1,000 children suffered  amputations, many without anesthesia. 50,000 pregnant women struggle to survive and give birth, sometimes by cesarean section, without enough milk, food, or water, much less sanitary conditions. An entire population is being starved, 90% of them are homeless, within just a few miles of a full convoy of trucks filled with supplies not being allowed in to provide food and water. Entire neighborhoods are razed to the ground. The continuous bombardment has exceeded within three months the entire tonnage of bombs used by the US in Iraq over six years. Meanwhile, the people of Gaza have no air defenses, bomb shelters, or escape. For people of faith, this agonizing reality forces  us to confront serious theological challenges. 

The Holocaust in Germany generated a crisis of faith for many Jewish individuals and theologians. Recurring questions include:

  • Where was God during the holocaust?
  • Why did God allow these atrocities to occur? 
  • How could a just God allow such evil to persist? 
  • How can God abandon innocents facing genocide? 

Many individuals lost their faith in God altogether. Similar questions are being raised by people of faith these days in response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Continue reading “Where are God’s People?” →