Christian Peacemaker Teams' income for the first 6 months of this financial year is US$77,000 less than the same period last year. This is a drop of 23%. Can you help us make up that shortfall this month?  

In 2008, just as we were expanding our programme work in Africa and the Philippines the global economic recession hit and we incurred a large deficit. In 2009 we asked for your concerted support. We also reduced expenses CPT wide and suspended new projects.

Israeli border police destroyed several Palestinian fields in Al Beqa'a Valley just east of Hebron on 6 July 2010, directly affecting the livelihood of more than one hundred Palestinians. The fields each measured ten dunums (approximately 40 acres) and included tomatoes, eggplant, cauliflower, and beans.

Then on 14 July, the border police–allegedly  with the help of workers from Mekorot, the Israeli water company–removed more irrigation pipes and demolished a rainwater cistern in the same area. 

The "Open Shuhada Street" campaign began on 22 February 2010, with demonstrations in al-Khalil and other cities around the world.  Since then, Palestinians, Israelis and internationals have held weekly demonstrations in al-Khalil’s Old City every Saturday at 4:00 p.m. with chanting, drumming, speeches and dancing. The campaign aims to reopen Shuhada Street to Hebron's Palestinian residents.

On July 24, the Israeli military and police responded violently to one of these demonstrations, punishing the activists with arrests and large fines. 

by Samuel Nichols

In August, after nine years of persistently petitioning the Israeli District Coordinating Office (DCO) has electricity.

Intense lobbying efforts by at-Tuwani residents, international human rights organizations Christian Peacemaker Teams and Operation Dove, Israeli activists, and others resulted in at-Tuwani receiving permits by the Israeli DCO to be connected to the Palestinian electrical grid.  The at-Tuwani Village Council brought in Israeli and international activists, politicians, Palestinian Authority officials and Palestinian electrical engineers to help accomplish the mission of bringing electricity to the village.  Quartet envoy Tony Blair came to hear about the lack of basic services for the South Hebron Hills. The Palestinian Authority eventually provided the supplies to build the electricity infrastructure.

In early August CPT-Palestine issued an invitation to join them, Palestinians, and people from all over the world in boycotting Israeli goods and cultural events, divesting from all companies that profit from the occupation of Palestine, and pushing for international sanctions on Israel. In the KAIROS Palestine document (http://www.kairospalestine.ps/) there is a statement from Palestinian Christians saying that advocacy campaigns must not be about "revenge but rather to put an end to the existing evil…to free both peoples from extremist positions of the different Israeli governments, bringing both to justice and reconciliation."

Naming the Land

As members of CPT we believe it is important that we ask ourselves questions about the land and our relationship with it. How does the land provide for us and what are our responsibilities to it? Are we visitors? settlers? exiles? Is our land under occupation or are we occupying someone else's land? Is the land threatened or being damaged? Whose land is it and what struggles might they be involved in to return or to remain on their lands? The following writings were submitted by CPT corps members and interns from different locations and project sites as meditations on the land. As you read them we invite you to think in a new way about the place where you live and the land that sustains you.

• Kurdistan, Iraq: Dangerous Forest
• U.S.A.: Chicago - Under the Asphalt
• Palestine: To Our Land
• Colombia: Ancestry vs. Legal Title
• Borderlands: Embers of Resistance
• Canada: a Sickness Passed on to the Children
• Earth, the Mother

The people of Las Pavas are a sustainable farming community. Paramilitary violence forced them off the land several times but each time they returned. In 2006 the community was in the legal process of claiming its land rights when a Daabon consortium bought the land from an absentee owner, who had lost his rights by abandoning the land for years. On July 14, 2009, riot police forcefully removed the community  of  123 families (more than 500 people).

by Micele Braley

On 23 August 2010, 3000 people from 18 countries gathered at the Palenquero AirBase in Puerto Salgar, Cundinamarca, Colombia to speak out against U.S. militarization of Colombia. This event culminated the Women and People's International Summit of the Americas against Militarization.

Impassioned speakers demanded sovereignty over their homes and land. Colombian Senator Gloria Inés Ramirez spoke of the injustice of the U.S. increasing its military presence in her country to address narcotraf-ficking fueled by drug consumption in the U.S. Would people in the U.S. stand idly by if the Colombian military arrived to occupy military bases to fight the "war on drugs" by launching attacks on the civilian population? Yolanda Becerra, president of the Women's Popular Organization told those gathered, "We don't want only the end to shootings, we are asking for a peace with social justice."

by David Milne

On 25 May 2010, the Simcoe County Council voted to ask the Ministry of the Environment of the Province of Ontario to revoke the Certificate of Approval for Dump Site 41. The Ministry immediately approved the request. The pure water of the Alliston Aquifer has been protected indefinitely, at least in this location. 

Common sense and environmental activism have won a huge victory. This campaign was a wonderful period of cooperation and mutual trust among Indigenous people, local farmers, residents of nearby towns and churches and activists from environmental and other NGOs, including Christian Peacemaker Teams.  

by Peter Haresnape

Tannis Nielson stood at the front of the bus brimming with enthusiasm. "Welcome, everyone, to the Great 'Indian' Bus Tour of Toronto! What a great turnout. Somebody phoned me the other day to ask, 'What's the difference between this tour and a normal one?'" We waited expectantly for the answer. "About 11,000 years, baby!" the Indigenous artist and organizer cried. The passengers laughed and cheered. 

by David Ball and Jerry Stein

One week after the Ontario government threatened to halt maintenance of a back road used for wild rice and berry harvesting, fishing, hunting, and trapping, members of Grassy Narrows First Nation in northwest Ontario community renewed their eight-year blockade to assert their territorial rights.

Led by grassroots women from the Anishinabek community, the blockaders prevented Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) from interfering with their work crew, whom the MNR visited three times and ordered to purchase a gravel permit. The MNR representatives also issued a stop work order citing environmental, public and worker safety concerns.

by Rosemarie Milazzo

Working this summer in Arizona with CPT partner No More Deaths, I met more deported migrants than last year who say they simply give up. They can endure no more dangerous journeys in the desert, no more frightened lives in our land of liberty.

The future of Iraq is more complex and uncertain than the current U.S. narrative claims, according to a report just published by CPT in Iraq (find web address for full report below). "Iraq after the Occupation– Iraqis speak about the state of their country as the U.S. military withdraws," is based on extensive interviews with Iraqi citizens in various parts of the country. It quotes Iraqis who express doubt on the effects of the U.S. military "surge," the trustworthiness of the Iraqi military, and the reliability of Iraqi public figures and institutions.

Aram Jamal Sabir, Sulaimaniyah
Executive Director Kurdish Institute for Elections

 Aram Jamal Sabir began to participate in non-violent trainings in 2004. He now teaches others about the topic.

"I can't tell you exactly when I started to believe in nonviolence–sometime during all the wars and violence here," he said. "In the university I felt that violence could be used against the enemy. With time I saw that violence didn't change the situation.

Sabir tried working with groups promoting non-violence, and educated himself. He watched documentary films, including "A Force More Powerful," which he now uses in his teaching.

Many churches, meetings, peace groups and individuals raise support for the work of CPT in diverse and creative ways.  We dedicate this corner to those stories, both as a way to say "Thank You!" and as an inspiration to others.  Please send your friend-raising stories to kryss@cpt.org.

The Mennonite Church and the Muslim community of Floradale, Ontario produced a dinner theatre featuring a traditional Middle Eastern meal and the play "Those Shoes of Peace," a story of a CPTer's peacemaking in Palestine and return home to North America where he faces opposition from his family.  Proceeds were divided between CPT and the church's Palestinian Refugee Committee. CPT received $4857!

Colombian Conscientious Objectors Celebrate Ruling: On 10 September 2010, Colombia’s Constitutional Court ruled that conscientious objectors may now be exempt from compulsory military service if their objections are found to be “deep, fixed and sincere.”  The 111-page decision says that conscientious objection should be judged on a case-by-case basis and that current legislation prohibiting conscientious objection violates this inalienable right and must be reformed.

Hey, why don’t you people start fighting injustice at home? Like the crap differently-gendered persons experience? The humiliation, the attacks. Wasn’t one of your gay team members denied the right to speak at a Social Justice forum by a Roman Catholic archbishop? Whooooops! Didn’t hear word one from you folks on that small human rape. You need to clean up your own corners of the world before you start peddling your religion’s hypocrisies around our planet
Mark Zoldy, Canada

Ten people participated in CPT’s summer 2010 training in Chicago. Seven completed the training with three-year commitments to serve as Peacemaker Corps-pc or Reservists-r. Left to Right, Front Row: Marcus Armstrong-r (Milton Keynes, England), Lor Breley (Michigan, USA), Janelle Thiessen (Manitoba, Canada); Middle Row: Courtnay Wilson-r (Ontario, Canada), Bud Courtney-r (New York, USA), Jo Ann Fricke-r (Illinois, USA); Back Row: Kathy Thiessen-r (Manitoba, Canada), James Thomas-r (North Carolina, USA), Ian Stumpf (Ontario, Canada), Laurens van Esch-pc (Utrecht, Netherlands).

Listing of CPTers and delegation members and where they served.

Peacemaker Delegations
• Aboriginal Justice: 24 September - 6 October
• Colombia: 19 May - 2 June, 14-27 July, 22 September - 5 October 2011; National (for Colombians) 16-23 April 2011.
• Iraq (Kurdish North): 14-28 October 2010; 31 March - 13 April, 13-26 October 2011.
• Palestine/Israel: 16-29 November 2010;    4-17 January, 8-21 March, 24 May - 6 June, 19 July - 1 August, 6-19 September (German language), 15-28 November 2011.

Signs of the Times is produced up to four times a year. Batches of 10 or more are available to institutions, congregations, and local groups for distribution. Any part of Signs of the Times may be used without permission. Please send CPT a copy of the reprint. Your contributions finance CPT ministries including the distribution of 16,000 copies of Signs of the Times.