After 50 years as a military zone, the area which houses seven monasteries and is known as the “land of monasteries,” is being cleared of landmines and given back to the various surrounding churches.

According to Haaretz, the area, which is thought to be the site where John the Baptists baptized Jesus, was under Jordanian control until 1967 when the Six Day War claimed the area as a war zone and it was mined and booby-trapped.

Now, more than five decades later, the Mine Action Authority at the defense ministry, the Halo Foundation, the Engineering Corps and 4CI are working together to remove all of the mine and unexploded ordinance there. So far, the group has removed the mines from three monasteries. Once the traps and explosives are completely removed, the Mine Action Authority intends on returning the area to the surrounding churches and opening them up to tourists, as they once were.

According to Haaretz, 50 out of the 250 total acres have been swept and cleaned of mines. The Mine Action Committee plans to finish the project by the end of 2019.

Col. Max Nudelman from the Engineering Corps told the outlet that more than 1,000 mines have been removed so far. They are anticipating the removal of at least twice as many mines in the remaining land. Jordan has also played an important role in the mine removal process, as they agreed to lend a hand in clearing the eastern bank of…

First lady Melania Trump attended a Marine Toys for Tots event held at the Joint Anacostia-Boiling Military Base in southwestern Washington, D.C on Tuesday. 

The first lady shared a few words of insight before she assisted the kids in filling boxes with toys, stating that “As a mother, I feel children are the most precious gift of all. As First Lady, I have made it my mission to shine a light on programs that provide more opportunities for children to succeed.”

After the boxes were filled with toys, the children took time to write Christmas cards that would be added to each box. The first lady and several US Marines got involved with the activities, helping the children write their letters. 

The event wasn’t complete without a visit from Santa Claus, who arrived with bags that read “Be Best” on the front. The first last helped give out the bags before she visited with the parents of the many children at the event. 

The first lady spoke highly of the organization, telling AOL: “Their mission to send messages of hope to children and motivate them to grow into responsible and patriotic citizens and community leaders is so important to our society. 

“I had been looking forward to this event ever since last year’s ended,” she recalled. 

The Marine Toys for Tots program has been sharing a message of hope with less fortunate children since 1947, according…

City officials in Kitchener, Ontario, are being criticized after they ordered the microphone shut off at a Christmas festival when a grandmother began reciting the Christmas story from Matthew 1. 

The grandmother was from Trinity Bible Chapel, a congregation that was invited by the city last year and was invited back this year to take part in the Christkindl Market festival in front of City Hall.

The church’s worship team sang several songs. But when the grandmother began reading Matthew 1:18-25 in the German language — “Christkindl” is German for “Christ child” — organizers cut off her mic.

“Not only that, background music was played through the speakers to seemingly drown out her voice and embarrass her,” Trinity Bible Chapel associate pastor Will Schuurman wrote on a church blog. The church performed the same program last year. 

It is ironic, the church said, that “about 15 feet from the main stage was a nativity scene set up by the City of Kitchener … pointing to the birth of Christ.” 

The city did not set parameters on what could be said, the church added.

The city told CTV that “in its 22 year history” Christkindl “has never had scripture or sermons as part of its scheduled programming.” 

The event organizers told church officials that if they continued reading the Bible or preaching from it, “they…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hezbollah that the terrorist group “will be hit” if the group’s actions continue.

“Our deployment is ready for a strong response if Hezbollah make a big mistake and decide to harm us or to resist to the operation we are conducting. They [Hezbollah] will be hit in such a way that they cannot even imagine,” he said.

Netanyahu’s comments came after Israel Defense Forces found a third cross-tunnel from Lebanon into Israel. The IDF had been destroying the terrorist-dug tunnels.

“The route, like the rest of the tunnels, is under IDF control and anyone who enters it on the Lebanese side endangers their life,” read a statement released by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.

Israel says the tunnels violate a U.N. resolution. As part of Operation Northern Shield, IDF is currently searching for and then destroying the tunnels. IDF says there is other tunnels, but because of military concerns, cannot release the number, according to The Times of Israel.

A Hezbollah leader also said this week “there is not a single point in the occupied territories (Israel) out of reach of Hezbollah’s missiles.”

“The Zionists cannot tolerate such a high level of threats in confrontation with Hezbollah, which is why they have no motive for entering another war with Lebanon,” said Sheikh Naim…

(RNS) — After a tense standoff with officials at the U.S.-Mexico border on Monday (Dec. 10), at least 30 American clergy were taken into custody over the objections of demonstrators, who had come to protest the treatment of Central American asylum-seekers and to decry the extension of a border wall and the militarization of the border.

Priests, pastors, imams and rabbis knelt at the border south of San Diego in front of a row of U.S. Border Patrol agents clad in riot gear. Organizers said 30 faith leaders were arrested, but a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official put the number at 32.

CBP said most were charged with failing to comply with directions from federal officials and then released, but one was charged with assaulting or resisting an agent — a charge the protesters already dispute.

The “Love Knows No Borders” demonstration was organized by the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group that assembled religious leaders from across the faith spectrum for the event. Participants said it was meant to express frustration about several border-related issues at once.

“It was about the militarization of the border, about the border wall itself and about calling for the rights of the migrant — particularly the migrant caravan,” said Lucy Duncan, an organizer and outreach director for the AFSC who was at the protest and was among those arrested.

“There were people there from all across the country from all faith traditions risking arrest and making a statement, saying this is not what our country stands for, this is not what…