Pastor Issa Talhieh from the Palestinian community of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, located in occupied West Bank, was denied an American visa. He was scheduled to speak with American clergy next week to highlight the severity of Israeli settler attacks on Palestinian villages.
Leaders from Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant denominations are planned to gather at the United Methodist Church building near the US Capitol on Monday. The goal of the gathering is to demand that Congress hold both settlers and the Israeli army accountable, as well as restrict the transfer of US weapons to Israel.
The group Christian Christians for Palestine (OCP), one of the organizers, reported in a press release that 'pressure in Congress is growing.' In September, 46 Democratic senators and Republican Rand Paul supported Senator Chris Van Hollen's initiative, which called on the State Department to report on Israel's abuses in the West Bank, including the killing of nine Americans there since 2022.
This event takes place two weeks after Democrats achieved a convincing victory in the US midterm elections, winning both houses of Congress and several state legislatures. They pledged to condition aid to Israel and cease accepting campaign funds from the pro-Israel lobbying group American Israeli Public Affairs Committee.
Issa Talhieh's sister, Hani Talhieh, will now speak on his behalf, as announced by OCP. In a press release, Talhieh stated: 'My brother could not enter America to tell you what is happening in Bethlehem. But the truth cannot be denied a visa. You cannot silence the people by keeping one priest out of the room.'
She added: 'I will stand in Washington, D.C., not only as his sister but as a daughter of Bethlehem, carrying the voices of families who have decided to stay on the land where their roots run deeper than walls, checkpoints, and politics. We are not asking for pity. We are asking for justice, dignity, and the right to remain in our homes.'
Prominent speakers at the event on Monday include Reverend Mitri Raheb, a Palestinian Lutheran pastor and founder of Dar al-Kalim University, and Mother Agapia, a nun of the Greek Orthodox Church. Her appearance on Tucker Carlson's podcast last year marked a turning point in the narrative of Palestine and Israel for the American right wing.
The event will also include the reading of names from the Gaza Children's Shroud—a 120-yard tapestry on which the names of more than 20,000 children killed by Israel during the military operation in Gaza are handwritten. The total number of dead exceeds 74,500. The shroud can be seen in several locations in the capital region, such as at the Islamic Center of Maryland on November 15, when a collective Janazah-ul-Ghaib prayer will be held for over 22,000 children killed by Israel, which the United Nations and Holocaust scholars have termed genocide.
