Hvordan bør kristne forholde seg til konflikten i Midtøstenkonflikten?

Jeg har alltid lurt på hvorfor kristne så ensidig kan støtte Israel i denne vanskelige konflikten. Teologisk har jeg ikke hadde noe å svare, når de har sagt at "I Bibelen står det jo at Israel har retten til dette landet". Nå veit jeg litt mer om hva jeg kan svare..

Magnhild, Einar og jeg (Agnete) deltok i dag på et særdeles interessant seminar i regi av Sabeels venner. Seminaret fant sted på Norsk Lærerakademi, og innlederne var Naim Ateek, leder av Saabel i Jerusalem, Morten Rasmussen, styreleder i Med Israel for Fred (MIFF) og Halvor Nordhaug, biskopen i Bjørgvin.

Naim Ateek var først ute, og la fram sin teologiske tolkning av folkegrupper og deres forhold til eller løfte om land. Fordi min teologiske forstand ikke strekker veldig langt, skal jeg ikke prøve å gjengi hans teologiske ressonement, men noen av hans sluttord var:
"We as Christians need commitment to justice and the truth."
"We as Christians must resist the wrong, unjust and evil."
"Love means loving the other, but also challenging the other."

Neste mann ut var styreleder i MIFF. Vi hadde håpa litt action her, men Rasmussen valgte å snakke om et litt mindre kontroversielt tema, flyktningesituasjonen. MIFF er en ikkereligiøs organisasjon, så det ga ikke riktig type motvekt til Naim Ateek. Temaet er viktig nok, men det ga inget svar på problemstillinga.

Selveste biskopen hadde tatt seg tid til å komme. Med biskophatten på (fra et biskopperspektiv), snakket han om det utrolig spennende temaet, jødenes rett til landet Israel. Slik jeg forstod det, sa han at det ikke står noe i Bibelen som tilsier at landløftet fortsatt gjelder I DAG. Biskopens konklusjon var: "Vi må forholde oss til denne konflikten som med alle andre konflikter. VI må forholde oss til menneskerettighetene og folkeretten."

Det ble et uhyre spennende seminar, med stor engasjement fra forsamlinga i salen, der vi tre var med på å dra ned alderssnittet drastisk. NLA-studenter: Hvor var dere??

Biskopen foreslo et nytt seminar, hvor han ville møte noen som fra et teologisk synspunkt mener jødene fortsatt HAR en enerett til landet Israel. Jeg kommer!

Palestinians in Norway

On Monday 9.aug Ward and Loren arrived Oslo Airport, since then they have been in Oslo sightseeing together with Bergen ICY, Oslo ICY and 3 from the YMCA in Sri Lanka.

We have been at the Nobel Peace Center and seen the exhibition about South Africa's struggle for democracy, and the exhibition "A Call to Action" about the Peace Prize laureate Barrack Obama. We have also been at the Norwegian Folk Museum. And eaten srilankan food, which were too spicy for some of us.

And from yesterday we have been at Uvdal for the Challange Course and Global week. Which has so far been really good!

LO & AUF want to withdraw "Oljefondet"-investments out of Israel

Lo (The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions) and AUF (Norwegian Labour Youth) condemn Israels boarding of the Gaza-convoy. And as a consequence they want the government to withdraw all investments in Israel made by the "Government Pension Fund - Global" (Statens pensjons fond - Utland).

Read more about it here:

Norwegian articles: LO   AUF

English versions (google translate):  LO AUF

There is also a norwegian facebook group : Oljefondet ut av Israel!

"Seminaret er slutt" / "The Seminar Ends"

I just recently read this comment by Morten Strøksnes in BT (regional newpaper from Bergen). I hope you will take the time to read it!  It is a very good comment to the discussion about boycotting Israel.

"Seminaret er slutt"   (in norwegian)

"The Seminar Ends"   (in english by google translate)

Country club

Bergen-ICY have focused on developing our knowledge on different countries this semester. We have had meetings were we have learned about Sri Lanka, Kenya, Palestine, South-Africa, Bangladesh, Ukraina etc, and yesterday we had a fabulous meeting about Somalia.

Heidrun were teaching us about the history of the country and we learned that it has been a british and italian colony. After a presentation of the country we always have a quiz related to the presentation and other aspects of the country.

If you wnat to try, you can answer these questions about Somalia:

What is the name of the president?

When did Somalia declare independece from England and Italy?

And what is the official languages in Somalia?

Amongst the members that were at the meeting yesterday, it was a close race. But they all had a way to go to get top score on the quiz. It was possible to get 23 point and the winner had only 11,5.

Do you want to challange todays members on the next country club-meeting? You are very welcome to join us.

ICWeekend 2010

From friday til sunday this weekend (12.-14. March) ICY'ers from Both Bergen and Oslo and other places in the world, were gathered at Dagali, Geilo. There were two ICY'ers from Oslo, four from Bergen, three GoCY'ers from Palestine and Kenya and three CfC'ers from Madagascar, Armenia and Norway. There were also some friends of the cabinowner represented and they were also a great part of this years IC-weekend. This is an annually event and this year it was arranged by Bergen-ICY. First and formost it is a soscial gathering where we can relax and have fun together. And it is also a good arena to exchange ideas about different topics that ICY is focusing on. This year we had a small workshop about consumption and environment and we came up with many ideas on how to focus on these topics. Maybe we will arrange a campagne that you can read about here later?

We had a lot of fun outside in the snow. These small boards give you a lot of speed down the road.

And this is what happens if you get to much speed...

We played a lot of UNO with extended rules. It's hard to keep up, but it's a lot of fun.

Global Youth Partnership

From 3. -6. February were Einar and Magnhild at Global Youth Partnership in Oslo. LNU arranged this conference to develop the comptence of the organisations that rescieved funding in 2009. Bergen-ICY recieved funds for our exchanged project with JAI in Palestine. Ibrahim wa also at the conference.

It was a really great conference wich were interesting and we learned a lot. There were lectures about mutual partnership, communication, Gender and environment etc. We are better prepared for a new project now. We used some time to plan the future together with Ibrahim and we look forward to keep in touch.

Oslo ICY and Buskerud krets were also at the GYP and we also got to know different organisation and many very nice people.

Ny leiar

Tysdag 2. februar hadde Bergen ICY sitt årsmøte for 2010. Årsrapport og reknskap vart lagt fram, akkompagnert av bilete frå ICY sine eskapadar i året som gjekk. Diskusjonar kring medlemstal og arrangement denne våren vart og viktig, og viktigast av alt: etter eit spanande val der Mari stilte til val på Einar sitt prinsipp frå i fjor om at "alle kandidatar treng ein motkandidat", vart Einar einstemmig valt til leiar for neste år. Han tok over den blå leiarmappa etter konstituert leiar Saliba. Gratulerar!

ICY meeting

Next ICY meeting: Tomorrow (thursday) at Ynglingen, 7pm.

I hope to see YOU there!

Happy new year!

The first meeting this year is today at 7 pm at Ynglingen.

We will, amongst other things, have presentation of 6 countries, some games, tea and snack.

New and old members are very welcome!