Quaker Sumud

Fall 2025 Sumud

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by

Alex
in

Dear Friends, welcome to our Sumud Quaker Study in Palestinian Self-Determination. Please post below any reflections or questions you have before, during, or after our sessions in Fall 2025. 

Maybe your reflection is on something impactful you find while reading Prof. Khalidi’s book, Hundred Years’ War on Palestine. Or something that stands out to you as you are reviewing the materials or watching the films linked in the toolkits. Perhaps you have a question you’d like to flag for discussion during our sessions or invite others to comment on in the forum. Or a reflection on our Quaker Testimonies. 

Whatever is on your mind, we welcome your contribution to this forum!

Comments

4 responses to “Fall 2025 Sumud”

  1. Freya Avatar
    Freya

    I am looking for some visual resources to help me keep information straight. Does the toolkit contain a timeline of events that we are discussing, a list of notable people who were involved, and/or a list of important documents we need to remember? The Khalidi book unfortunately does not include any of these but they would be a helpful memory aid.

    Reply
    1. Alex Avatar
      Alex

      Hi Freya! What a great suggestion. I recommend these:
      – visual timeline from the UN: https://www.un.org/unispal/historical-timeline/
      – cool interactive timeline I found by the Encyclopedia of the Question of Palestine: https://www.palquest.org/en/overallchronology
      – maps from Al Jazeera: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/27/palestine-and-israel-brief-history-maps-and-charts
      I have incorporated these into our History page: https://quakersumud.org/resources/history-amp-its-role/ and will try to highlight for our group.

      Reply
  2. Tom Avatar
    Tom

    I deeply appreciate the crucible of the truths that I have been learning through Quaker Sumud.

    It is a slow, grinding century-plus old process which periodically explodes into periods of intense violence and destruction. It is the horrendous story of a people being disposed of their lives, their lands, their culture. It is a story that two highly influential and suposedly democratic societies (USA and Israel) energetically work to suppress and distort.

    So as people of conscience, as Quakers we must ask of ourselves, individually and collectively, if our manner of response over the past several decades has not changed the narrative, then doing more of the same is insufficient in and of itself. Taking to heart the words of the international Quaker statement which named genocide in Gaza, what are our “courageous” actions? In the depth of silence prayer, in the crucible of discernment, and ultimately and primarily in the affirmation of challenging action we will find ourselves, individually and collectively, to be not only incarnational of the Peace Testimony, but even more significantly to be true sisters and brothers to the Palestinian people. That is the path that we must set ourselves upon.

    Tom
    Homewood Friends
    Baltimore, Maryland

    Reply
    1. Alex Avatar
      Alex

      Thank you so much for your reflections, Tom. I am very grateful for the feedback and the call to action. If our Testimonies really mean something, we are called to act in witness and solidarity.

      Reply

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