Jerusalem’s Augusta Victoria Hospital, a facility that treats Palestinian residents from the West Bank as well as some Arabs from East Jerusalem, has a million-dollar view from its perch atop the Mount of Olives…
The Mount of Olives Housing Project Featured in The Lutheran
May 30, 2006
Hoping to stem the flow of Christians from the Holy Land, Lutherans build affordable housing
Family life centers around one room in Saleh and Sahar Kawas’ apartment in Jerusalem’s Old City. It’s where the 30-something couple and their five children eat, do homework, watch TV, play indoor basketball and sleep.
Their cramped conditions illustrate a larger problem. Lutheran World Federation regional representative Mark Brown said affordable housing is hard to come by for Jerusalem’s Christian Palestinians.
To help, the LWF plans to construct an
$8-million Christian housing project on almost 4 acres on the Mount of Olives. Done in partnership with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land and the Germany-based Kaiserin Auguste Victoria Foundation, the homes would sit near Augusta Victoria Hospital on the southeastern corner of LWF property. The project consists of 84 low-rent apartments in 12 buildings….
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Eberhard Hitzler to Head LWF Department for World Service
April 13, 2006
Experience in Church Development Work in Germany and Africa
GENEVA, 13 April 2006 (LWI) – Oberkirchenrat Eberhard Jakob Hitzler from Germany will assume the position of director of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department for World Service (DWS) in July 2006. Hitzler, 53, was appointed by the LWF Executive Committee at its March meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. His initial term is four years.
He will succeed Mr Robert Granke who joined the relief development organization, Canadian Lutheran World Relief in March 2006.
Since 2000, Hitzler has been head of the department for development policy at the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) headquarters in Hanover, and head of the organization’s Africa department since 2003. He was executive secretary of EKD’s church development services, 1998 to 2000.
He pursued theological and mission studies at the Mission Seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria in Neuendettelsau, Germany, 1972 to 1978. From 1976 until 1977, he studied African theology, religion and Islam in East Africa among other subjects, at the Makumira Theological College, Usa River, in Tanzania. From 1978 until 1980, he was a vicar in the Nürnberg-Worzeldorf parish. He was ordained as a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria in May 1981, and served as a pastor of St Anna Parish, Augsburg, 1980 to 1983.
Hitzler served as a missionary to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania Arusha diocese, 1984 to 1991. Alongside pastoral responsibility for 15 congregations, he was coordinator of several community-based development projects, and assisted in developing the diocese’s HIV/AIDS work. From 1991 until 1998, he worked with the Protestant Association for Cooperation in Development (EZE) in Bonn, Germany, as head of the policy and communications department.
Hitzler and his wife, Monika Hobelsberger-Hitzler, have two children.
As the LWF’s internationally recognized humanitarian and development agency, DWS works with marginalized and disadvantaged communities in areas of greatest vulnerability and endemic need. It cooperates within global networks that include ecumenical, governmental and non-governmental partners. In 2004, DWS spent a total of USD 87 million in its 24 programs in 37 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin and Central America. (359 words)
ELCA Presiding Bishop, LWF President Urges Resolution of Hospital Tax Case
February 10, 2006
ELCA NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON, D.C. (ELCA) — The Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), urged U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to ask Her Excellency Tzipi Livni, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel,
for resolution of a tax case involving Augusta Victoria Hospital. Rice and Livni were to have met this week.
In a Feb. 8 letter to Rice, Hanson said, “Augusta Victoria Hospital provides hospital and health services to Palestinian communities not otherwise served and [its] humanitarian efforts are both much needed and deeply appreciated by the Palestinian people.”
“At this critical time of political unrest in the Holy Land all efforts to provide a foundation of good will should be encouraged and affirmed,” Hanson said.
Augusta Victoria Hospital, which is operated by the LWF, is facing the possibility of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes to the State of Israel. In court proceedings in 2002 Israel sought to void a long-standing tax exemption the LWF has had for its humanitarian and health care activities in the region since 1966.
Israel won the case in 2002. The LWF appealed the verdict to the Israeli Supreme Court. LWF leaders are concerned the hospital’s future may be jeopardized if the LWF loses the appeal.
“Our urgent request is that the tax case involving the government of Israel be resolved so that nonprofit providers, including the Lutheran World Federation’s Augusta Victoria Hospital, can continue to provide care for Palestinian people who are in need,” Hanson added.
* Annie Lynsen is director for grassroots advocacy and communication, ELCA Washington (D.C.) Office.
LWF Leaders Raise Concerns about Augusta Victoria Hospital with Israeli State President
September 6, 2005
Appeal for Government Intervention in AVH Tax Exemption Case
JERUSALEM/BETHLEHEM, 6 September 2005 (LWI) – In a meeting with Israeli President Moshe Katsav, September 5, leaders of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) discussed prospects for Middle East peace and pressed specific financial concerns about the future of the LWF-run Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH) in East Jerusalem.
LWF President Bishop Mark S. Hanson, General Secretary Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko, and Vice-President for the Asia region, Bishop Dr Munib A. Younan, met with Katsav in Jerusalem. They are attending the LWF Council meeting in Jerusalem and Bethlehem August 31 – September 6.
Hanson, also presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, told Katsav that Lutherans were pleased with the Israeli government’s decision to withdraw settlements from Gaza. The LWF Council “came here out of our commitment to strengthen Jewish-Christian relationships and Christian-Muslim relationships,” he said.
Calling the withdrawal from Gaza “an historic opportunity,” the Israeli president said the government’s decision to withdraw was painful and divided Israeli society. He said the “gap” between Israelis and Palestinians “has never been as small as now.” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whom the LWF leaders met with September 3, has the ability to stop terrorism against Israeli civilians, Katsav said.
According to Katsav, terrorism was key to why Palestinian people were suffering injustice, unemployment and poverty. He said Israel did not want an escalation of bloodshed, and noted that if Abbas could stop terrorism, it would benefit the Palestinian people.
Hanson said “stopping terrorism and violence is a major challenge,” and affirmed Lutherans’ rejection of violence, and their “support for a just and lasting peace for all.” Lutherans were concerned about the “massive struggle” of the Palestinian people to rebuild Gaza, and freedom of movement for people in the West Bank so that they are not separated from their jobs and families, the LWF president told Katsav.
Younan, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, told Katsav that Israel’s security was dependent on justice, peace and reconciliation for Palestinians. He said local religious leaders have started a “Council for Religious Leadership in the Holy Land” to promote greater religious understanding.
“I believe that if the Lutheran church can contribute positively to stopping terrorism, we can renew political negotiation and dialogue,” the Israeli president said.
Noko said the LWF’s contribution to peace and international understanding included its 1984 action to renounce the anti-Jewish writings of Martin Luther, the German church reformer who started the Protestant Reformation.
The AVH represents the LWF’s commitment to peace and humanitarian service, Noko said. Presently the hospital is facing the possibility of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes to the State of Israel. In 2002 Israel took the LWF to court seeking to void a longstanding tax exemption the hospital has had since 1966 with Jordan. The exemption was continued under the State of Israel in 1967.
Israel won the case in a district court, and the LWF appealed the verdict to the Israeli Supreme Court. The LWF leaders are concerned that the hospital’s future may be jeopardized if the LWF loses the appeal. “It’s a difficult situation for us to continue with humanitarian services with the imposition of taxes. We hope that we can find a solution,” Noko said.
Hanson cautioned that if the government of Israel did not intervene and solve the tax case fairly, it could have negative consequences for Israel. He said more and more people were watching this case and its implications for the hospital, including the German president and prime minister of Norway, both of whom have expressed concern to the Israeli government.
Katsav’s adviser, Avi Granot said the AVH was registered as a hospital not a religious institution, and was taxed like all hospitals in Israel. But Rev. Mark B. Brown, director of the Jerusalem-based LWF Department for World Service (DWS) regional program said Israeli hospitals could qualify as teaching hospitals and receive subsides for which the AVH could not qualify.
“The hospital is unique. We’re serving people who are not part of the national health insurance who have little or no capacity to pay,” Brown said of the AVH’s services that include cancer treatment and kidney dialysis.
The LWF leaders also had brief courtesy visits September 5, with Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Silvan Shalom; Israel’s Minister of the Interior, Ophir Paz-Pines; and Jerusalem Mayor, Uri Lupolianski. (745 words)
*There are around 170 participants in this year’s Council meeting, including representatives from the LWF member churches on the 49-member governing body. Also attending are officials from LWF partner organizations, invited guests, stewards, interpreters and translators, and LWF staff. The Council is the annual governing body meeting between Assemblies held every six years. The current Council was appointed at the July 2003 Tenth Assembly in Winnipeg, Canada. It comprises the President, Treasurer and 48 persons elected by the Assembly. Other members include advisors, who are ordained and lay persons representing the different LWF regions.
FEATURE: Israeli Wall Hinders Access to Hospital’s Unique Services
December 22, 2004
LWF-run Augusta Victoria Hospital is a Link between Israelis and Palestinians
JERUSALEM/GENEVA, 22 December 2004 (LWI) – Dr Tawfiq Nasser stands high up on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem and points to the distant landscape below. He indicates the long wall circling Jerusalem and extending far into northern Israel and west Jordan. From up here, from the Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH), where Nasser is Chief Executive Officer, the mighty wall looks almost harmless. Like a ribbon it winds through the hilly landscape, sometimes clearly visible, sometimes partly hidden. Yet Nasser knows firsthand how dangerous this wall is. He lives on the other side of it, and whenever conflict breaks out or the Israeli army closes the checkpoint for other reasons, Nasser is cut off from home. That is why he always has a small bag with spare clothes in his office.
But he is not the only one affected by the construction of the separation wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The entire hospital’s existence is at stake, he says. The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has been running the AVH since 1950. The health institution is one of the projects of the LWF Department for World Service (DWS) program in Jerusalem. Around 75 percent of the AVH patients come from the West Bank. If the checkpoints are closed, they cannot reach the hospital. This is particularly serious if they are dialysis patients, as the hospital has the only dialysis center for children in the West Bank.
Eight-year-old Rafi Waits for a Kidney Transplant
Eight-year-old Rafi can no longer come to the hospital for his three-times-a-week dialysis, but has to stay there throughout. His place at the dialysis unit is decorated with many children’s drawings. Always smiling, Rafi has not given up hope. He is firmly convinced that he will soon get a kidney transplant and be able to live at home and attend school normally. But at the moment he suffers – he hardly ever sees his mother, father, sisters and brothers. Nazareth, is home, but it is too far away for a daily family visit. To make it worse, the “separation wall” has practically prevented free access.
“How can I heal people in view of such a terrible thing as the wall?” Nasser asks bitterly. But the doctor and musician, born in August 1964 in the very room which is now his office, is a good organizer, and one who never gives up hope. He is planning a community bus tour. The patients will be picked up daily and brought to the hospital through the only entrance in the wall. The AVH presence will also be strengthened through the use of mobile clinics in the Palestinian parts of the West Bank. It should be possible to fulfill the ambition of the hospital to be there for the poorest of the poor and, at the same time, to provide excellent services.
Making Modern Medical Care Available to All Patients
The AVH is a general hospital and offers medical care to all needy people regardless of their religion or origin. There is an increase in the number of patients seeking services that are not available in other hospitals in the West Bank. Besides pediatric dialysis, the hospital also specializes in ear, nose and throat surgery for children, gastroenterological treatment and pediatric neurology. In addition, it runs the only radiotherapy center for cancer patients in the West Bank. Nasser is proud to show the new modern radiation unit in the hospital basement, built with assistance from international partners.
And because he wants to make this new method of treatment available to as many people as possible, he is fighting on all fronts against the wall’s ongoing construction and other injustices. One example is Israel’s plan to impose an “employer’s tax” on the hospital, although the tax exemption status agreed in 1966 between the LWF and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was adopted by the state of Israel in 1967 after the Six-Day War. The costs of the tax are estimated at USD 350,000 annually, representing 13 percent of the hospital’s total operating costs. “If this is implemented, it would mean the end of the hospital financially,” Nasser cautions. “It would endanger the health provision for thousands of Palestinians.”
The AVH has a great symbolic status in the coexistence of Palestinians and Israelis in Jerusalem, according to Tawfiq Nasser. “The hospital,” he says, “is a link between the two groups and we want to keep it that way.”*(757 words)
(Reported for LWI by Klaus Rieth, Stuttgart.)
Palestinian Bishop Urges Lutheran Communion to Support Catholic Day of Prayer, Fasting for Peace
December 22, 2004
December 22 Appeal for Urgent Action to End Conflict in Holy Land
JERUSALEM/GENEVA, 20 December 2004 (LWI) – Palestinian Lutheran Bishop Dr Munib A. Younan has called on the global Lutheran communion and its partners to support an initiative of the Roman Catholic bishops in the Middle East and Africa to observe Wednesday, December 22 as a day of fasting and prayer for Israel and Palestine.
In a statement signed by 22 bishops attending the October 11-16 Conference of Bishops of the Region of North Africa and the Conference of Latin Bishops in the Arab Regions in Rome, the Roman Catholic leaders called on Christians worldwide to do more to show commitment for peace in the Holy Land.
Against the backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Younan, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan (ELCJ) and vice-president of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) for the Asia region, reiterates the Catholic bishops’ conviction that the churches can do still more. “If all the churches of the world recognize their duty toward the Holy Land, and if they all join together in common and concerted action to sensitize their governments, their people and the international community, their intervention will become a decisive factor in the attainment of justice, peace and reconciliation in the Holy Land,” he asserts.
His plea for solidarity to Christian churches stresses the need to relieve suffering on all sides of the conflict. “We do not call you to take one side against the other. On the contrary, we want you to help both sides find the way to reconciliation.”
On the conflict, he affirms: “The situation has dragged on for many years now, and requires, today more than ever, action to put an end to the sufferings of all inhabitants of this land, Jews, Christians and Muslims, who have become equally incapable of ending the conflict, fettered as they are in a spiral of cruel and irrational violence.”
In the context of Advent and Christmas, Younan concludes: “We believe that the babe of the manger in Bethlehem will hear the yearnings of every suffering person and will transform the hearts and minds of peoples and politicians toward justice, peace, forgiveness and reconciliation for Christ is our only hope in our troubled Middle East.”
The 3,000-member ELCJ has congregations in Israel, Jordan and Palestine. (393 words)
Norwegian Award for LWF Vice-President Bishop Munib Younan
December 17, 2004
Palestinian Bishop Dr Munib A. Younan received the 2004 Bethany Award from the Bethany Foundation in Oslo, Norway for his leadership in working for peace, justice and reconciliation through dialogue between Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Middle East. The head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan (ELCJ) was equally recognized for his continuous witness of Arab Palestinian Christianity in the Holy Land.
The foundation, begun by the Methodist Church in 1897 also honored Younan for his service with the Augusta Victoria Hospital, an institution run by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department for World Service program in Jerusalem. Younan has served as ELCJ bishop since 1998. He is LWF Vice-President for the Asian region, and a member of the LWF Executive Committee.
Accepting the award in October, Younan thanked the Bethany Foundation on behalf of Palestinian Christians, and paid tribute to his friends and colleagues in Norway for their partnership and support. “This makes our Palestinian church a church of martyria, serving suffering people with the love of God, even as it is suffering itself,” he said. The ELCJ has 3,000 members in congregations in Israel, Jordan and Palestine. It joined the LWF in 1974.
(ELCJ News)
