Generations of Partnership in Palestine

"history didn't start October 7, 2023"

​Every day, the news from the Middle East is more horrifying and heartbreaking. More than 67,000 Palestinians are confirmed dead in what international authorities and humanitarian leaders – and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) have termed a genocide. Attacks and bombings, as well as a growing refugee crisis, is affecting not only Gaza and the West Bank, but Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.  In this moment of devastation, Week of Compassion is supporting trusted partners on the ground, ensuring that families in crisis receive care, dignity, and hope. 
 
Dr. Peter Makari, Global Relations Minister for the Middle East and Europe with Global Ministries, recently returned from a visit to Lebanon and the partners meeting of the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), a long-standing Disciples partner through Global Ministries and ACT Alliance. We are grateful for Peter’s work and witness, and for the partnership impact update he offered.

One of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)’s long-time partnerships in the region is with the Department of Service to Palestinian Refugees (DSPR), a ministry of the MECC that has been active in Gaza and neighboring countries since 1949. The refugee crisis began at the Nakba (‘catastrophe’) when 750,000 Palestinians became refugees, dispossessed of homes and property. DSPR, an indigenous ministry deeply rooted in the community, has accompanied Palestinian families ever since, caring for people in Gaza, West Bank, Galilee, Jordan, and Lebanon.
 
Today, DSPR staff, most of whom are themselves displaced, are “nothing short of heroic”, Peter notes. They continue to provide medical and psychosocial assistance to people in Gaza, serving 200-300 people daily with support to babies, young children, and pregnant mothers. Through Week of Compassion support, these services continue even when bombings, shortages, and despair threaten to overwhelm entire communities. As the DSPR Director reminds us, staff are not exempt from suffering; they serve while they and their own families live under siege.
 
Another long-standing partner supported by Week of Compassion is Al-Ahli hospital, led by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem. Serving Gaza since the late-1800s, Al-Ahli has been damaged multiple times in the last two years, including on Palm Sunday 2025. Despite damage to the facility, mobile clinics and in-community distribution of medications continued. Doctors from other hospitals (most destroyed) have come to serve at Al-Ahli. Before 2023, hospitals in the area were specialty centers, but now everyone is combining efforts to do whatever they can to tend to their people. Week of Compassion has sustained these efforts by funding salaries, providing fuel, and ensuring medical supplies reach those in desperate need.
 
Palestinian partners consistently remind us that history didn’t begin on October 7, 2023. The struggle for peace and justice has been going on for generations. Disciples have engaged in this work since the 1970s through General Assembly resolutions, including emergency resolution GA-2571 passed this summer, and through long-standing relationships with the Palestinian Christian community and with human rights organizations like B’Tselem. Advocacy is another way the Disciples engage. Supporting partners through grants cannot be separated from the moral work of speaking out–on arms sales and military assistance, on the use of economic measures, on international and U.S. law, and by rejecting antisemitism, anti-Islam bias, or any ideology that discriminates.
 
In Lebanon, during the MECC meeting, Peter and other international partner representatives visited Yousef (or Joseph), a carpenter whose shop was destroyed by an Israel airstrike in southern Lebanon. With support from MECC, Yousef is rebuilding his business, replacing tools, and reclaiming his livelihood. Stories like Yousef’s remind us that the work of Week of Compassion is not only about urgent relief, but also about the long, slow, faithful work of accompaniment–helping families rebuild, sustain their dignity, and hold on to hope. 
 
This is the mission of Week of Compassion: connection with trusted local partners, integrity in stewardship of resources, and accompaniment that endures long after headlines fade. Together, as Disciples, we remain rooted in faith and committed to compassion, standing with those who suffer and laboring for the peace of God’s whole creation.