MICAH

Save the date! 

Brick Oven Bakery Fundraiser 

October 4, 2025

A Land With A People book report. 

By Bruce Benson

A Land With A People was recommended as a good book for a discussion group. I thought I could check it out and I was blown away. A Land With A People Palestinians and Jews Confront Zionism. A collection of personal stories, history, poetry, and art was edited by Esther Farmer, Rosalind Petchesky, and Sarah Sills. It was published in 2021. 

The book begins with an explanatory Forward and Preface followed by a concise history of Zionism and the conflict in Palestine titled Zionism’s Twilight, Colonial Dreams, Racist Nightmares, Liberated Futures. Petchesky wrote the history and it is an impressive job. After the history is clarified there comes the personal stories, artworks, photos, and poetry. 

This section began as a storytelling project of Jewish Voice for Peace-New York City. Angela Davis wrote in her review of the book, “In giving us everyday narratives of Palestinian courage and resilience, alongside accounts of a growing Jewish resistance to Zionism, the book offers a collective story of fierce struggles against racism and apartheid”. These stories of struggle and resistance gave me a bit of hope after 21 months of war. 

There is a timeline charting 150 years of Palestinian and Jewish resistance to Zionism. This book tied together all the other books I’ve read on the Nakba. It will be available in the Church library. 

Last month’s questions: 

How would you define apartheid? 

Our answer: Apartheid isn’t just a word for the history books, it is happening before our very eyes in Palestine/Israel today. Apartheid in Palestina/Israel is the total domination of the Palestinians by the Israeli government. 

MICAH’s Question Of The Month: Where does apartheid exist today? 

Look for MICAH’s answer next Herald, along with a new question of the month for reflection. 

Dear Friends, 

The message below is from UMKR, and I am sharing it with you because I hope you would like to support an important piece of church legislation adopted by General Conference in 2024. Please sign the Wespath petition and also spread the word - share the petition widely! 

n peace, 

MICAH Team 

https://umkr.salsalabs.org/wespathpetition2025/index.html 

URGENT UPDATE FROM PALESTINE/ISRAEL 

The famine in Gaza is escalating to unprecedented levels, with only one or two weeks predicted left before mass numbers of civilians start dying from hunger and thirst. Trucks that could feed the entire population of Gaza for three months are currently blocked from entry by Israel. 

Holy God, we have no more words to describe the evils that we are witnessing. Our hearts are shattered by the cries of the hungry and the silence of the world around them. We plead with you from the depths of our grief, brokenness, and anger. Yet even in this darkness, we turn to you, because there is nowhere else to turn. God of justice, God of the oppressed, give the people of Gaza both their daily bread that you have promised and help us to lift this inhumane siege.