07377
June 25, 2007

Christian leaders urge end to occupation of Palestinian territories

‘Violence in all its forms cannot be justified,’ group says

by Ecumenical News International

AMMAN — Christian leaders meeting in the Jordanian capital from around the world have called for an end to the “illegal occupation” of Palestinian territories by Israel.

In a statement issued on June 21, at the end of a three-day gathering, the leaders said they wanted to work with the Christian churches of Palestine and Israel to build bridges for an enduring peace, “to end these decades of injustice, humiliation and insecurity, to end the decades of living as refugees and under occupation.”

The conference, convened by the World Council of Churches, launched a “Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum” to help mobilize action to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and to promote inter-religious action for peace and justice.

The 130 representatives from churches and Christian organizations said there was “no military solution” to the Middle East conflict. “Violence in all its forms cannot be justified, whether perpetrated by Israelis or Palestinians,” they stated

“In the very place where Jesus Christ walked upon the earth, walls now separate families, and the children of God — Christian, Muslim and Jew — are imprisoned in a deepening cycle of violence, humiliation and despair,” their statement read.

The meeting said Palestinians had the right of self-determination and the “right of return” and that a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict needed to be “viable politically, geographically, economically and socially.”

The conference’s final statement said Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are “illegal and constitute an obstacle to peace.” The Israeli “Separation Barrier” is a “grave breach of international law” and must be removed from the occupied territories, it added.

“We expect churches worldwide to speak out with a clear voice and to stand by us in active solidarity in face of a tragic conflict that keeps Palestinians suffering and Israelis living with fear, and that can only be solved with a just peace,” the WCC quoted Bishop Munib Younan, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, as saying at the end of the June 18-20 meeting.

In a speech on the first day, the Latin (Roman Catholic) Patriarch of Jerusalem, Michel Sabbah, said that delaying the end of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories feeds extremism and terrorism. “Occupation means violence, Israeli and Palestinian killing and hatred,” he stated.