Freedom Advocacy Network

Omar Haramy – Christian Pilgrimages to West Bank – Freedom Advocacy Network – July 22, 2026

Written by

Salman Naqvi

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On July 22nd, 2026, Freedom Advocacy Network was honored to be host Omar Haramy, director of Sabeel, “an ecumenical grassroots liberation theology movement among Palestinian Christians”. Our dear friend and member Karina Q visited West Bank a few months ago with the Sabeel organization and shared her reflections from her visit in January 2026 with the Freedom Advocacy Network community. In this meeting, we’ll hear more about Sabeel and the work they do directly from Omar.

Agenda: Hope in the Midst of Hopelessness — reflecting on how faith, justice-centered advocacy, and community resilience help sustain hope for Palestine even in times of genocide and despair.

Links:

Housekeeping:

HaqNow.org

  • Need 30 min user story collection help – need 30 min of your time – connect with Salman: salman.naqvi@gmail.com

Notes:

  • Jesus lived most of his life in Palestine
  • Christianity is an Eastern religion – even though the perception of that may be different
  • People have been referring to Palestine as Palestine since 70 AD – and at least 40 different empires
  • Palestinians have always outlived empires
  • Archeoligical sites show remnants of the old empires
  • Palestinian is not an ethnicity – there are 28 Ethinicities that identify as Palestinians – are are coptic, indian, nigerian, afro and many other Palestinians communities
  • There are Palestinian Jews – in the 1000s
  • There are also Bahais, Ahmadis, Druze and others also part of Palestine
  • There are also Samaritans which are very similar to Jews also part of Palestine
  • Zionism is to have as much land as possible with non-Jews
  • The ethnic cleansing plan of Zionism is insane – but somehow in Western democracies, liberal democracies, this insanity is accepted – but somehow it’s accepted even in countries like Canada
  • Zionists movements exists in Judaism, but now also in Islam, in Sunni Islam and of course there is Christian Zionism – which are the most established
  • Christian Zionism predates the Jewish Zionism that exists today
    • You encounter it in many different ways
    • Most famous Christian Zionist is Lord Balfour – and was an antisemite – some say he become less antisemite before his death
    • There were two schools of dealing with “Jewish Problem”
    • Jews were the main “others” for most Europeans
    • Main two groups had two approaches – Hitler’s solution was to kill the Jews – and then there was Lord Balfour said we can get rid of them to Palestine
    • They don’t care about Jews – they just want to get rid of them
    • People who were antisemitic wanted to get rid of Jews
    • Third group of Christian Zionists, read the bible in simple way, they read that “Jews are the chosen people” – so Jews have a right to go back to their land
    • Last two groups are the “crazy people”
      • Jesus will only come back only if Jews take over Israel – and temple needs to be rebuilt – and when Jesus comes back, 2/3 Jews will be killed and 1/3 will convert to Christianity
      • Another group is: Enemy of my enemy is my friend – hence must oppose Muslim Palestinians
  • Sabeel has existed for 40 years
  • Sabeel are Palestinians – Christians continue to be 10-15% of the Palestinians in diaspora – in Palestine, there are around 200,000
  • Religion can be a beautiful catalyst for liberation

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