Iqraa and other Marathon Charity Cooperation runners at Fletcher's Cove in Washington, DC ready to start the “virtual” Marine Corps Marathon, on Oct. 25, 2020.
showed us the diverse natural beauty that abounds in the Washington, DC area: trails by rivers and creeks, through woods and over hills and next to neighborhoods and parks. We met our running buddies and ran in a group—socially distanced and with a gaiter or mask to protect ourselves and others. Our Saturday running friends became like our wolf pack and satisfied our need for social interaction. And the good works we did for our cause helped fulfil our desire to participate in social justice action on behalf of our one human race. What is Iqraa? Iqraa—we’re entering our 14th year of running for a brighter Palestine—is a running club that raises funds for university scholarships for students in Gaza, the West Bank and Jordan in partnership with United Palestinian Appeal (UPA). We’ve raised over $305,000 since 2008 in support of the Mahmoud Darwish Scholarship Fund. (Visit <act.upaconnect. org/Iqraa2021> to contribute.) Interested in joining the Iqraa running team? Our training program begins in May and continues through October. Most runners train for either the Baltimore Racing Festival (5k, half marathon or marathon) or the Marine Corps Marathon in DC. We partner with Marathon Charity Cooperation to provide coaching and support for the Saturday training runs and on race day. Iqraa coordinates the training and fundraising activity, e.g. providing advice and fundraising templates to our runners through weekly emails, as well as information about the cause to assist with fundraising. We also ensure our runners have direct access to coaches, two of whom are MAY 2021
Iqraa runners. If you want to join the Iqraa email list, contact me at kirkcruachan@yahoo.com. You can also visit <iqraadc.org> to learn more. And don’t forget that you can make a difference by Running for a Brighter Palestine! —Kirk Campbell
FILMS Retired Patriarch of Jerusalem: America “Does Not Care What Will Happen” to Palestinian Christians
In the 26-minute film “The People’s Patriarch,” Michel Sabbah, the first Palestinian in 500 years to serve as the Latin (Roman Catholic) Patriarch of Jerusalem, obliterates all illusion that Israel has any intention of ever letting up on the Palestinians and granting them statehood—or that the United States cares. “You will not have a
HAZEM BADER/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
PHOTO VIA K. CAMPBELL
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state,” he says. In fact, only two choices are on offer, the patriarch emeritus tells his people: “either to swallow the poison forced upon us” or to persevere in demanding full political rights, even as “the worst may be yet to come.” Superb cinematography and a gripping soundtrack reinforce the sense of peril of the moment. Now that Israel’s “mask has fallen,” Sabbah says, the Palestinians face the “direst situation” since the ethnic cleansing of their country began in 1948. The patriarch’s dark foreboding extends beyond his homeland to the Middle East as a whole. In his view, the West, led by United States, “wants to destroy the existing Middle East and create a new Middle East” to achieve its own geopolitical objectives. In doing so, they “do not care what happens” to the people of the region, not even the Christians; “If they die, then they die.” For Sabbah, Jerusalem is the key political and moral indicator. “Jerusalem today is not a holy city of love,” he says. “It is a city of hatred. It is a city of war.” The U.S. decision to move its embassy to East Jerusalem was the act by which “America closed the doors for peace,” he adds. Sabbah, who is in his 80s and lives in the West Bank village of Taybeh, was appointed patriarch by Pope John Paul II in 1988, and served until 2008. The film includes footage of the ancient and solemn Vatican ritual of investiture to the position, and of Sabbah’s momentous return from
Michel Sabbah, then the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, passes by the Israeli separation wall in Bethlehem, on Dec. 24, 2005. WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
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