Today’s Enlightening Entertainment will be presented in Arabic and English, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Thai and Spanish.

Welcome, splendid viewers, to today’s Enlightening Entertainment.

Reverend Jadallah M. Shihadeh is the Pastor of the Lutheran Reformation Church in Beit Jala, a small Palestinian town situated approximately 12 km south of Jerusalem. He has a dream for all the people of Palestine.

Our message of peace, it’s a message of life. We want to live in freedom and in dignity. I am a Christian but I want to live in peace with Jews and with Muslims. There is no difference between the people. We want to live in dignity and democracy. And my hope for all the nations in the whole world [is] to understand that we need each other. That means I hope someday we know that we are a human being.

Reverend Axel Becker is a retired Lutheran pastor from Germany who frequently sojourns in Palestine. He shares Reverend Shihadeh’s dream of peace in Palestine. At times, Palestine reminds him of the process to harmony in his own country, symbolized by the removal of the Berlin wall.

It was a totally non-violent process. This is what we hope here and I think all the people which is engaged in the Peace Week, they hope that it will be a non-violent process, but an effective process, that these things have to end.

Peace Week is a non-violent, non-political movement with the sole purpose of bringing together the children of Abraham. It was begun by the two reverends and their organization, Beit Ibrahim, also known as the Abraham’s Herberge. As part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Reformation compound, Beit Ibrahim is a large church-sponsored peace project in the Middle East.

Both people can live together in respect, because this is the idea of Abraham’s Herberge, (That’s right.) that only if both people are living together in respect, then they can live in security and in a healthy way.

Father Axel Becker speaks about some of Beit Ibrahim’s activities.

We meet every week on Monday and pray together to have a message of a non-violent future. Or another example, during our Peace Week, we are organizing a football match. Muslims and Christians are playing together. We decided to finance the summer camps in Bethlehem area for the children of the refugee camps. Some churches, from outside, “Why are you doing this? Why you don’t do this for your children, the Christian children?”

And I told him, You have the Christian children all the time by you, you could help whenever you want. But these children from the refugee camp are children that are in need, and we have to help them to get a better life.

Reverend Shihadeh’s assistant is a Muslim young man named Muhammad. Muhammad grew up at Beit Ibrahim’s Boys’ Home for youngsters in need. Reverend Shihadeh is indeed Muhammad’s close mentor and friend. Together, they are a living example of a peaceful relationship among Palestinians of different backgrounds.

We don’t say this: “You are Christian and you are Muslim.” No. We say, “We are brothers.” I mean this is the example really here, to learn like a Palestinians, not we are Christians or Muslims – just we are Palestinian.

He is a young man whom I trust, and I want to give him the opportunity. Through him, we have the contact to the Muslims, and the Muslims lost their fear to enter the church, because they know that is my secretary is a Muslim. I mean, you have to do something, against your fears. You have to invite the people, don’t say he is a Jew, or he is a Muslim, or that he is a Christian, try to find ways how to live together. And Muhammad opened us doors to the world of the Muslims. It’s an example.

And we called him jokingly the Lutheran Muslim.

And I’m working here, so I like this, please.

And the Muslims in our church, they have their Ramadan fasting, and they invite me sometimes, (That’s right.) but under one condition. He said always, “You have to fast… ( Yes.) The whole day. It’s one condition, we invite you to be now a Muslim Lutheran. He is a Lutheran Muslim. Now I am a Lutheran Muslim, but he asked me, “Please come and be with us, but under one condition, fast, you have to fast all the day.” And (That’s right.) it’s good for me.

When we return, we’ll learn more about Beit Ibrahim’s recent peace activities and how the strengths of the Palestinians are a foundation for peace. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to Enlightening Entertainment and our program featuring Beit Ibrahim, an interfaith peace project in Palestine. Beit Jala has almost 17,500 inhabitants. 80% are Christians: Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant. The remaining population is Muslim. All have been living in mutually tolerant co-existence for many years.

Thy kingdom come They will be done

Reverend Jadallah M. Shihadeh, Pastor of the Lutheran Reformation Church in Beit Jala, Palestine, has firm faith in the Palestinian people. It is because harmony is already in their history, and in their nature.

We are a nation among the Arabs who are thinking democracy, in a democratic way. And the Palestinian people does not like to educate others peoples. They have respect. When people are with us, they are part of us and part of our life.

Father Axel Becker also discusses his own observations of the Palestinian people.

The family is very important. The families and to be together and to help each other. This is a very big factor and so I think the families are more important than the democratic institutions sometimes. So this is very special. For instance, the boys’ home here is important for children which have difficult situations. But if they are relatives then the family helps. Generally, I feel it’s a very... very kind people. They like to laugh and they’re very open.

This is my experience.

That’s very positive in the culture of Palestine. Nobody has to feel he is alone. Also, if you have a neighbor, he is a poor man and he is alone, all the neighbors visiting, try to visit him day for day, they bring him food, they bring him something to drink. They are taking care for him. There’s no need to ask them.

Maybe I can add one thing which I noticed here.

One thing I noticed here, what I think maybe it is special here for the Palestinians, it’s their interest for education. If you see all these young people here in the schools, so many schools, and institutions for education and the universities. This people is a very educated people and I think many doctors and many really very intelligent people are coming from these Palestinians.

In 2009, the Children of Abraham from the youth housing of Beit Ibrahim, together with other members of the church, initiated a Peace Week movement to strengthen the solidarity of peace workers in Palestine.

There were around 2,500 of us. We started to walk from here, then to the wall, where we stood by the wall with candles and prayer. We only had candles and prayer. There with many people, Christians and Jews and Muslims, we prayed and asked God that this wall will disappear from our country, not only from our country, but from our minds and from our hearts.

We are interested, to find ways how to overcome difficulties, obstacles, hatred, fears, and to be like Muhammad said, bridges of peace. And therefore we are open. You can be an unreligious person, but you are invited to be part of this movement. Because we want to be like a river, and we are moving, and we are welcoming everybody to be part of this movement, but under one condition: we are non-violence movement.

The peaceful demonstration expressed the heartfelt plea for peace and tolerance. Ritual and symbols can also be useful aids to create, even innovate, a harmonious atmosphere.

The Muslim, he has to give the bread to others. The Christian has to give a candle, Jewish person has to give a flower.

Each faith would share a symbol of life, hope, or friendship. Until the message of peace for all is realized, for Reverends Shihadeh and Becker, the dialogues will continue.

My wish is that these people can live in freedom and in justice. Together aside of people of Israel, the Jews, which also needs justice and their freedom, and this way, this should happen, this is my hope.

All the inhabitants of the world shall recognize and know the truth: that we have not been placed on this Earth to wage war and not for hatred or bloodshed. We only came to know Thee.

We need each other and we can survive only together. And if we decide to live in peace, it’s enough if we take care for the Earth, for our beautiful Earth. If we could do that, that means we have the possibility to live together.

May Heaven bless you, Reverend Shihadeh, Reverend Becker, and Beit Ibrahim for all you are doing to bring peace to the Holy Land and our world. We share your dream of a kinder, more open-hearted future among people of all faiths and cultures, as befits the children of God.

Joyful viewers, thank you for joining us today on Enlightening Entertainment. Coming up next is Words of Wisdom right after Noteworthy News. May your life be filled with Heaven’s grace and love.