World Council of Churches - News Release
Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org For immediate release - 14/12/2006 02:05:29 PM
WCC CALLS INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION TO "WEEK OF IMPUNITY" IN THE MIDDLE EAST
World Council of Churches (WCC) acting director for international affairs Mr Clement John has today called international attention to three "telling events" in the Middle East, all of which, he says, "involve denial and great danger".
The first such event this past week, John notes, was denial of permission for Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and a United Nations delegation to enter Israel to investigate why 19 members of one Gaza family were killed by an Israeli army artillery shell last month. The second event was the staging of an international conference in Teheran that questioned the Holocaust. And the third was an interview in which Israel's prime minister referred to his country as being among the world's legitimate nuclear powers.
"These three actions are cases where impunity - pretending one is exempt from the harmful consequences of one's actions - prevails over responsibility and accountability. Their authors add to the region's endemic volatility at an especially dangerous time," John emphasizes.
The full text of this statement is available on the WCC website at: http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?id=2920
Additional information: Juan Michel, +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
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The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 348 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.