Church Coalition asks president to help
deploy peacekeepers to Israel/Palestine
by Alexa Smith, Presbyterian News Service
Released 23-August-2002. Posted here on 8-29-02]
(Editor's Note: Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP),
an ecumenical coalition that includes the Presbyterian Church (USA),
released this letter to President George Bush urging him to support an
the deployment of an international peacekeeping force in
Israel/Palestine. A CMEP delegation will be meeting with staff of the
U.S. Agency for International Development next week to discuss the
dire situation of Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza.)
August 21, 2002
Dear Mr. President:
As representatives of national churches and
organizations in the United States with strong ties to the Middle East,
we urge the U.S. government to seize the opportunity to lead the region
into a new era of peace and democratic transition. Along with many
moderate Israelis and Arabs, we stand ready to support a credible peace
process that will fulfill the vision we share with you and Secretary of
State Colin Powell of a viable Palestinian state living side-by-side in
peace with the state of Israel. However, at this time the continued
violence between the Palestinians and Israelis and the humanitarian
crisis of the Palestinians living under Israel's military occupation are
foremost in our minds and are the subject of our letter and appeal to
you.
Let there be no doubt of our deep and abiding
compassion for the Israeli people who live with fear, suffer appalling
wounds, and die from Palestinian attacks. We condemn such attacks and
believe as you do that the people of Israel rightly demand and deserve
security from attacks on civilians and the state itself.
The Palestinian people, as well, deserve security from
attacks on civilians. We know from fact-finding trips and reports from
Palestinian Christians of disproportionate attacks with heavy weapons,
killings, collective punishment, closures and curfews, blockades,
demolitions, land seizures, mass arrests. The Lutheran Bishop of
Jerusalem observed, "It seems that this is not a war against
terrorism. This seems to be a war against the hope and future of the
Palestinian people." Moreover, the close ties between the
governments and peoples of Israel and the United States give the
impression to some that the United States supports, and is complicit in,
Israel's actions. Israel's use of U.S.-supplied weaponry against
Palestinians living under occupation, such as took place in Gaza City on
July 23, further increases this impression.
We urge you to act on the appeal you made to Israel on
April 5 that, "Israel should also show a respect for and concern
about the dignity of the Palestinian people who are and will be their
neighbors." When your demands of Israel - to be compassionate at
checkpoints and to spare innocent Palestinians daily humiliation, to
ease closures and allow people to work, to withdraw its forces from
reoccupied areas and to stop settlement activity - are disregarded or
met with token response, we urge you to follow up with the same
intensity as in your public exhortations to the Palestinians.
The reoccupation of Palestinian land and lives by the
Israeli military has led to a humanitarian crisis of shocking
dimensions. The USAID reports released on August 5 confirmed information
from agencies affiliated with CMEP member churches - of emergency levels
of malnutrition in children and anemia in women, a curtailed
availability of food and a lack of money for families to purchase food.
The damage done to medical and educational service delivery are both
heartrending and profound beyond measurement. Even the buildup of
garbage in the blockaded cities and villages poses a serious health
problem. We fear that the humanitarian crisis is deepening a sense of
desperation among Palestinians and contributing to the ongoing cycle of
violence.
This disastrous situation cannot be allowed to
continue. Churches for Middle East Peace urges you to support, with
immediacy and vigor, the deployment of an international peacekeeping
force to separate the Israelis from the Palestinians and restore hope to
each. Such a move would not only fundamentally change the stalemated
dynamics on the ground, but would also set the stage for a third party
role during the troop withdrawal, negotiation and implementation phases
of a fresh peace process.
This moment is tragic, as both peoples and their
leadership remain caught in a cycle of vengeful violence. However, this
is also a time of unprecedented opportunity and readiness, as shown by
the Arab League endorsement of the Saudi Crown Prince's proposal, for a
comprehensive Israeli-Arab peace - an objective of every United States
president since Israel's founding.
While the human and political dimension of the
Israeli-Arab conflict are sufficient cause for our concern and appeals
to you, its profound religious dimension sustains our hopes and prayers
for peace. We pledge ourselves, as did the signers of the Alexandria
Declaration on January 21, "to continue a joint quest for a just
peace that leads to reconciliation in Jerusalem and the Holy Land, for
the common good of all our peoples." We pray that you will join us
and the leaders of these three faith communities in Israel and Palestine
in that quest.
Sincerely,
James H. Matlack
Washington Office
American Friends Service Committee
Stan DeBoe, OSST
Director, Office of Justice and Peace
Catholic Conference of Major Superiors of Men's Institutes
Greg Davidson Lazakovits
Director, Washington Office
Church of the Brethren
Lisa Wright
Associate Director
Education and Advocacy Program
Church World Service
Jere Myrick Skipper
International Policy Analyst
Episcopal Church, USA
Mark B. Brown
Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Joe Volk
Executive Secretary
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Jim Kofski, MM
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Maryknoll Missioners
Brenda Girton-Mitchell
Director Washington Office
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Elenora Giddings Ivory
Director, Washington Office
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Eugene Heideman
Representative to CMEP
Reformed Church in America
Jack Edmondson
Representative to CMEP
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
Peter E. Makari
Common Global Ministries Board of the United
Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Jaydee Hanson
Assistant General Secretary for Public Witness and Advocacy
General Board of Church and Society
United Methodist Church
Peggy Hutchison
General Board of Global Ministries/Mission Contexts and Relationships
United Methodist Church
Mia Adjali
General Board of Global Ministries, Women's Division
United Methodist Church
