Grant Justice / Make Shade

Join IPMN's (Virtual) Annual Meeting

November 12, 1 - 4pm ET

November 13, 11am - 2pm ET

Knowing that the struggle for justice in Palestine is intensifying at the same time as Palestinian social justice and human rights organizations are facing heightened repression, we invite you to join us next week to hear from Palestinian voices, and discern together how we in the empire can give counsel, grant justice, expose injustice, counter Christian Zionism, and "make... shade like night at the height of noon."

IPMN is proud to have announced Dima Khalidi of Palestine Legal as our keynote speaker and a panel challenging Christian Zionism featuring Tony Deik, Sara Améstegui Deik, and Cynthia Holder Rich.

This is not a time to rest, but to ramp up. Register today for the annual meeting. Join us for worship, prayer, listening, studying, discussing, conducting business, and preparing to fight for a just peace at the 2022 General Assembly.

About our Keynote Speaker:
Dima Khalidi is the founder and director of Palestine Legal and Cooperating Counsel with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). She oversees Palestine Legal’s array of legal and advocacy work to protect people speaking out for Palestinian freedom from attacks on their civil and constitutional rights.

Prior to founding Palestine Legal in 2012, Dima worked with CCR as a cooperating attorney on the Mamilla Cemetery Campaign, submitting a Petition to United Nations officials to stop the desecration of an ancient Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem, and advocating on behalf of Palestinian descendants of individuals interred in the cemetery. As a volunteer and Ella Baker intern at CCR, she also worked on numerous cases that sought to hold Israeli officials and corporations accountable for Israeli violations of international law, as well as on CCR’s Guantanamo Bay docket. As a law student, she interned with the People’s Law Office in Chicago, assisting in the acquittal of Palestinian-American Muhammad Salah on major federal criminal charges.

Dima has a JD from DePaul University College of Law, an MA in International and Comparative Legal Studies from the University of London – SOAS, and a BA in History and Near Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan. Prior to studying law, Dima worked at Birzeit University, heading a research project on the role of informal justice mechanisms in the Palestinian legal system.

Dima has advocated on Palestinian rights issues in media forums such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Hill, Democracy Now!, The Nation, Al Jazeera, Huffington Post, The Birmingham News, In These Times, Jacobin, NPR, Law and Disorder Radio, and KPFK's Middle East in Focus, among others.

Meet the Expert Panelists on Christian Zionism:
Tony Deik is a Palestinian Christian from Bethlehem, currently living with his family in Cochabamba, Bolivia. In the last ten years, he has lived and ministered in different contexts, including the Philippines, Hong Kong, England, Palestine, and Bolivia. Tony is a PhD candidate in New Testament studies at the University of Aberdeen, a lecturer in biblical studies at Bethlehem Bible College (online), and a Networking Team member of the International Fellowship of Mission as Transformation. He is also involved in the work of the Centro de Capacitación Misionera in La Paz, Bolivia, and the ministry of his local church in Cochabamba, Dios en Cristo. Tony’s research and writing revolves around the Scriptures, their ancient meaning, and their modern relevance especially in subaltern contexts. He is married to Sara, a Bolivian, and they are the proud parents of Nour Sofia.

Sara Améstegui Deik grew up in the heart of South America, Bolivia. She studied theology across the Atlantic in the UK and worked and taught in the Middle East, Palestine. Sara is interested in bringing her Latin American context, Middle Eastern experience, and Western education to her academic research; she uses liberation theology and postcolonial criticism to deconstruct Christian Zionist discourse. Sara holds a BA in social communication from Universidad Mayor de San Simón and a DipHE in theology and an MA in biblical studies from London School of Theology. She currently studies for a PhD degree in theology at the University of Aberdeen, teaches upon invitation for the Centro de Capacitación Misionera in La Paz, Bolivia, and preaches at her local church in Cochabamba. Sara is married to Tony, a Palestinian, and they both have a three-year-old daughter, Nour Sofia.

Cynthia Holder Rich is a PCUSA pastor and theological educator. She has taught in seminaries in the US, Madagascar, and most recently in Tanzania. Her research interests center on race, gender, confessional Christianity, missiology and ecclesiology, and the impact of colonization on the churches in Africa. She currently serves Corinth Presbyterian Church in Dayton, OH and as faculty and research associate for strategic initiatives at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, OH. Earlier this year, Christian Zionism in Africa, a multi-author volume she edited, was published. Christian Zionism in Africa gathers 14 authors from across the continent to comment on issues legal, historical, theological, and Biblical about the growth of Christian Zionism on the African continent. It is the first book-length project published on the Christian Zionist movement in Africa, which is entwined with colonial and missionary history, Prosperity Gospel ideologies, and geopolitical transactions.