A UK charity has raised more than £210,000 for the support of Christians living in the West Bank, Gaza and Jordan.
Friends of the Holy Land, founded in 2009, received more than £110,000 in donations during their 2020 “Pentecost Challenge”, a sum that will now be matched by £100,000 worth of donations from three donors.
Christians from across the UK took part in the fundraising drive, hosting events such as “socially distanced Strawberry Teas”, and sponsored garden and neighbourhood walks. The money raised will be distributed directly to around 500 vulnerable families across the West Bank, Gaza and Jordan.
The coronavirus pandemic has destabilised the livelihoods of many communities in the region.
Over 70 per cent of the population of Bethlehem have been unemployed since early March due to the collapse in tourism, a sector that, according to experts, will continue to be depressed until mid-2021. Lockdown restrictions have dramatically reduced economic activity and trade across the West Bank, and Palestinian Authority monthly revenue has declined to the lowest level in two decades. This is likely to have serious implications for the financial and political stability of the Palestinian territories in the future.
Unemployment in Israel has reached a record high, with more than one million jobless at the end of last month, a rate of 23.5 per cent. This is a nearly 20 per cent rise since the beginning of the year, with the lowest-paid, the youngest and the oldest workers worst affected.
The executive director of Friends of the Holy Land, Brendan Metcalfe, thanked UK donors for their generosity, but warned that “the situation facing our brothers and sisters is set to remain very challenging for many months to come”. He praised the work of his organisation’s Bethlehem office, which works with Palestinian families in need to meet medical and educational costs, as well as providing emergency support to those in need.
In Bethlehem, Friends of the Holy Land operate a school for disabled children and a day centre for elderly women. The charity also provides support to St Luke’s Hospital in Nablus, the closest hospital to Bethlehem in the region.
A Catholic supporter of the charity, Paul Sutherland-Moore of the Billercay Catenian Circle, said he was “delighted to learn of the amazing number of caring people stepping up from all walks of life to make donations”. Sutherland-Moore added that on previous visits to the Holy Land he had direct experience of the way in which, even in “normal times”, Christians living there had “no support from the state in any real shape or form”.
He added that given the current instability in the region, it was important to continue to support causes like those of the Friends of the Holy Land “now and in the years ahead”.
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