wfn.org | LWF Executive Committee Calls for Peace and Reconciliation in

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

LWF Executive Committee Calls for Peace and Reconciliation in
Israel-Palestine
LWF Governing Body Issues Statement against Separation Wall in
the Occupied Palestinian Territory

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GENEVA, 23 February 2004 (LWI) - "Break Down the Walls" is the
title of a statement adopted February 22 by the Executive
Committee of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) protesting
against the construction of the separation wall in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory. 

At its February 21-23 meeting here, the 13-member committee
reiterated the LWF's conviction "that peace and security for all
the people of Israel-Palestine can only be found through
dialogue, mutual understanding and the restoration of broken
relationships."

The committee members condemned indiscriminate acts of violence
that target civilians, and emphasized that "all of the people of
Israel-Palestine have a right to be protected from such
indiscriminate violence and collective attacks and punishments."
At the same time, however, they stressed that the wall "cannot
create the peace that both Israelis and Palestinians deserve,"
describing it is an obstacle to dialogue, mutual understanding
and a just peace. 

The committee also drew attention to the fact that the
construction of the separation wall is worsening "the already
intolerable situation that is forcing the exodus of Palestinian
Christians. In this respect, its members expressed their fear "of
the imminent extinction of the indigenous Christian church in the
Holy Land."

They quoted LWF Executive Committee member Bishop Dr Munib A.
Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan (ELCJ) and
LWF vice-president for the Asia region, who said, "we need to
find ways to bring about more communication, not less; more
face-to-face encounters, not less; more avenues to peace and
reconciliation, not less." The ELCJ has congregations in Israel,
Jordan and Palestine.

The Executive Committee is made up of the LWF President, five
Vice-Presidents, the Treasurer and chairpersons of the seven
Program Committees. It oversees the proper functioning of the LWF
between meetings of the Council, and acts as the LWF Board of
Trustees and Personnel Committee. The current committee was
appointed at the July 2003 LWF Council meeting in Winnipeg,
Canada. It is chaired by LWF President Bishop Mark S. Hanson,
presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
The committee normally meets twice a year.(368 words)

The full text of the statement by the LWF Executive Committee
follows:

Break Down the Walls

Statement of the LWF Executive Committee on the construction of
the separation wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

The Executive Committee of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF),
meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, on 21-23 February 2004, joins the
chorus of concern expressed by churches and ecumenical
organizations around the world regarding the construction of the
separation wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including
in and around East Jerusalem. In particular, we endorse and
affirm the statements of the heads of churches in Jerusalem on
this topic.

The LWF unreservedly condemns indiscriminate acts of violence
targeting civilians. Our prayers are with the victims of all such
crimes, and with their families. All of the people of
Israel-Palestine have a right to be protected from such
indiscriminate violence and collective attacks and punishments.

We reiterate the conviction, often expressed by the LWF, that
peace and security for all the people of Israel-Palestine can
only be found through dialogue, mutual understanding and the
restoration of broken relationships. Israelis and Palestinians
live and must continue to live side-by-side on a small piece of
land, holy to three of the world's major faiths. Ultimately, a
way must be found for all of the children of Abraham to share
this heritage in peace and with justice. The separation wall
represents a denial of this self-evident fact and a rejection of
this inevitable responsibility.

The wall cannot create the peace that both Israelis and
Palestinians deserve, and that we desire and pray for. On the
contrary, history demonstrates that such efforts to divide people
with physical barriers only promote the deepening of enemy
images, mutual demonization, and extremism. As Bishop Munib
Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jerusalem has said,
"we need to find ways to bring about more communication, not
less; more face-to-face encounters, not less; more avenues to
peace and reconciliation, not less."

The separation wall in Israel-Palestine is an obstacle to
dialogue and mutual understanding. It is an obstacle to a just
peace. It violates applicable principles of international
humanitarian and human rights law. Since the course of the wall
runs well inside the West Bank, it constitutes a further
unilateral and illegal annexation of territory. Its construction
entails the destruction of yet more Palestinian homes and olive
groves, and separates Palestinians from each other and from their
farmlands, water resources and health and other essential
services. It results in a worsening of the already intolerable
situation that is forcing the exodus of Palestinian Christians,
and heightens our fear of the imminent extinction of the
indigenous Christian church in the Holy Land. The course of the
wall is drawn so as to encompass the locations of over half of
the settler population in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and
further entrenches those settlements. The wall and the
settlements it protects create new facts on the ground which will
prevent the establishment of a viable contiguous Palestinian
state as part of the accepted two-state solution.

We call for an end to both the construction of the wall and to
the creation and support of settlements in the Occupied
Palestinian Territories. Both must be removed from the landscape
of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, if a just peace is to be
genuinely pursued. The LWF continues to work and pray for a
future in which Israeli and Palestinian children can live
together in peace and can share a future in the land that all
call 'holy'.

The God that we proclaim and serve is a God of relationships and
reconciliation, who works to break down barriers created by human
beings, to reconcile and to make peace. We echo the words of His
Holiness Pope John Paul II in declaring that what the Holy Land
needs today is bridges, not walls. We pray that God will break
through the dividing wall being constructed on the land of God's
gift, and through the walls of hostility that rise ever higher in
the minds of the peoples that now inhabit it. "For he himself is
our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the
barrier, the dividing wall of hostility" (Eph. 2:14).

Adopted on 22 February 2004

[The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 136 member churches in 76 countries representing 62.3 million
of the almost 66 million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical and inter-faith relations, theology, humanitarian
assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects
of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in
Geneva, Switzerland.)
 
[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information
service. Unless specifically noted, material presented does not
represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various
units. Where the dateline of an article contains the notation
(LWI), the material may be freely reproduced with
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