Good Friday, Psalm 22

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me,
From the words of my groaning?

During the month of March, as we have been making our Lenten pilgrimage, 15 Palestinians were killed by Israel, including five children. As reported by the Palestine News Network, another 90 Palestinians, including 22 children, were wounded.

O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
And by night, but find no rest.

Israeli troops arrested 270 Palestinians, including 20 international solidarity workers, who travel to Israel and Palestine to stand with the Palestinians in non-violent protest of continuing land confiscations and human rights abuses.

Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our ancestors trusted, and you delivered them.

“Israelis Don’t Want to Be Occupiers Either”—it’s not a message we often hear in the US. The words of Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers usually drown out the voices of ordinary Israelis who see how militarization is corrupting the soul of their country. But these were the words of an Israeli peace activist, Gershon Baskin, as he reflected on the liberation movement sweeping across northern Africa toward the Middle East.

Baskin founded the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI), headquartered in Jerusalem. This organization brings Israelis and Palestinians together for weekly meetings to hear speakers and learn about one another to equip grassroots leaders who are knowledgeable and creative.

But I am a worm, and not human;
Scorned by others, and despised by the people.

Photo is from an exhibit, "Christ in the Palestinian Context"

After five members of a settler family were murdered in Itamar, near Nablus, Israeli authorities approved plans to build an additional 400 homes for the settlers. Itamar is an illegal settlement in the West Bank, wedged between Palestinian towns, villages and the refugee camps where Palestinians fled from the soldiers in 1948 and 1967. Itamar has taken land from these Palestinians to build their sprawling settlement, destroying olive groves and other agricultural land. Settlers from Itamar attack Palestinians, beating, occasionally torturing, and sometimes murdering Palestinians of all ages; they burn Palestinian crops, and hack down their groves of olive trees, the livelihood of many Palestinian villagers. Hundreds of these trees, have been destroyed by rampaging Israeli settlers. (http://www.ifamericansknew.org/media/itamar.html)

Yet it was you who took me from the womb;
You kept me safe on my mother’s breast.

Many Jews in Israel and in the US oppose Israel’s policies and are working to end the occupation. Jewish Voice for Peace has mounted a campaign supporting a shareholder resolution to request TIAA-CREF to engage with corporations in its portfolio, such as Caterpillar, Veolia, and Elbit, that operate on the West Bank and East Jerusalem, with the goal of ending all practices by which they profit from the Israeli occupation.

Do not be far from me,
For trouble is near
And there is no one to help.

In March, Israeli authorities demolished 70 Palestinian homes and other buildings, including a mosque.

For dogs are all around me;
a company of evildoers encircles me.

From Defense for Children International (DCI): On 8 March 2011, a 15-year-old boy from Beit Ummar village, West Bank, is arrested by Israeli soldiers from his family home at 1:00 am: Hands tied tightly behind his back with a single plastic tie - made to walk for an hour to the settlement of Karmi Zur - soldiers kicked him in the legs along the way - on arrival at the settlement he was made to sit on the ground for an hour in the cold and reports being slapped and punched - after an hour he was pushed into a military vehicle and transferred to the settlement of Gush Etzion for interrogation - interrogated by two men - "Sharif" and "Dawoud" - shouted at and confessed because he was 'scared' - signed a document written in Hebrew - taken outside and waited until 7:00 pm before being transferred to Ofer Prison - hands were tied so tightly behind his back that he began to scream in pain and they became swollen…

But you, O Lord, do not be far away!
O my help, come quickly to my aid!
Deliver my soul from the sword,
My life from the power of the dog!
Save me from the mouth of the lion!