A march, a checkpoint & Bethlehem Call in Stellenbosch, SA | marthiemombergblog
Witnessing what happens in Palestine
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Everyone who supports a free and just Palestine were welcome to join us and ab0ut 50 people walked with us. The group walked to the main building of the Faculty of Theology . At “Checkpoint 171″ (actually the main entrance to the Faculty of Theology in 171 Dorp Street) we wanted people to experience what it feels like to not be able to enter your own university in your own land, or rather, to not have the access to education, etc. [I'll load our video here asap.]
As I translated The Bethlehem Call into Afrikaans, I realised something I’m supposed to know - just how powerful it is to read something in one’s own language. I have read The Call many, many times since December 2011, but now the words in my mother tongue made me experience the contents in a more immediate, a more intimate, manner. Suddenly I understood the urgency, the lament, and the appeal so much better. I am a post-apartheid South African and for the life of me I just cannot allow another apartheid system in another part of the world. I have to stand with the oppressed. No, I have to do more. I have to spread the message and advocate for a just peace in Palestine.
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5 Responses to A march, a checkpoint & Bethlehem Call in Stellenbosch, SA
Reply	did you simulate a march……..why did you not march to the real check point? what prevented you…..i seem to remember christ saying and working against those who sat and traded in the temple,he did not simulate being against it,he DID work against it, and made everyone know.
Reply	The march was real, but we simulated the checkpoint, simply because we’re not in Palestine (although some of us were there), but in South Africa. We wanted to show our fellow South African citizens what it’s like when one has movement restrictions in your own country.
Reply	….dalk ook omdat Jesus binne die wil van Sy Vader opgetree het en sodoende met gesag kon optree. Hy het nie, soos dit blyk in julle geval, teen die wil van Sy Vader se ewigdurende verbond opgetree nie. Grondgebied wat Hy met ‘n ewigdurende Verbond aan Israel belowe en gegee het. Baie meer as wat hulle huidiglik besit. Ja, daar is ongeoorloofde grondbesetting in Israel, maar dit is ongelukkig die vreemde nasies wat Israel se grond beset. Ongelukkig is daar nie meer ‘n draad vir “Christene” om op te sit nie. Die tyd is verby van eng standpunte, kompromieë en niemand probeer aanstoot gee nie. Of jy glo dat God weet wat Hy doen, vertrouenswaardig is, en Sy karakter gister, vandag en more dieselfde is – of jy staan teenoor Hom en loop die gevaar dat Hy gaan sê, “gaan weg, ek ken jou nie”. Ek glo in hierdie tyd is Hy besig om seker te maak dat ons wat onself “christene” noem, kom by daardie punt waar ons nou moet kies. Groete en liefde in Yeshua.
Reply	Daar is baie verskillende maniere om die Bybel te verstaan. Juan, die perspektief wat jy hier verduidelik, klink vir my na die soort wat ander uitsluit en benadeel en tot verskriklikhede soos die Holocaust kan lei. Ek verstaan die Bybel weer op ‘n heel ander manier. Vir my is Christus se bydrae een van inklusiwiteit, een van liefde, een waar genade en menswaardigheid vir ALLE mense geld. Ek meen so ‘n benadering is tot voordeel van almal. As jy lus is om meer hieroor te lees, oorweeg die uitstekende boek deur Miroslav Volf (1996): Exclusion and Embrace: a Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation. Nashville: Abingdon Press. Volf onderskei tussen verskillende maniere van uitsluiting:
•	Ekstreem (om mense te vermoor en uit te dryf)
•	Assimilasie (om te verwag dat almal soos jyself leef)
•	Dominansie (om te oorheers en regte te misken)
•	Verwerping (om die menswees van ander te minag)
Dan is daar ook simboliese uitsluiting waarin ons weier om die ander te ken en eerder kies wat ons eie belang dien. Weet jy, juis as ‘n post-apartheid Suid-Afrikaner KAN ek nie toelaat dat ‘n stelsel van onderdrukking en apartheid elders in die wêreld bestaan nie. Daarom staan ek vir menseregte en vir ‘n menswaardige bestel vir almal, ek kan nie anders nie.
Reply	are you also singing with a big chore for tv arte ?
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