Title: New DVD Illustrates Lutherans Working for Peace in the Middle East ELCA NEWS SERVICE
April 8, 2008
New DVD Illustrates Lutherans Working for Peace in the Middle East 08-040-MRC
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "Peace Not Walls: Making a Difference in the Holy Land" is a new DVD that illustrates the ways members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) are working for "peace with justice" in the Middle East. Made available April 7, the 28-minute video examines the ELCA's engagement with Christians, Jews and Muslims working for peace, accompaniment with Palestinian Lutherans, the Israeli separation barrier and settlements, Christian Zionism and more.
"Peace Not Walls is an ELCA campaign dedicated to peace with justice in Israel and Palestine," said Carol LaHurd, campaign coordinator, ELCA Global Mission. She said the team that produced the new DVD endeavored to include "many voices" since the social, political, economic and religious situation in the Holy Land is complex.
"Jerusalem is a place where Christians, Muslims and Jews have lived for centuries. It is a place that is holy for all three faith traditions. And when you talk to Palestinians they tell you, 'We want this place to be a place where we can live together in peace. Jerusalem is a city of peace,'" the Rev. Said Ailabouni, Grace Lutheran Church, LaGrange, Ill., said in the video.
The DVD includes images from the Holy Land, interviews and examples of interfaith peacemaking activities.
Faraj Lahti, a Palestinian Christian, built his home on Palestinian land. After the construction of the Har Homa settlement began, Israel rezoned his property and informed him that his home would be demolished without a building permit from Israel.
"They tell us that this house is illegal," said Lahti in the video. "And as you know, we can't go to Israel without entry permission. I don't have it, and they won't give it to me. Demolition means they come with their bulldozers" and "destroy the house."
Settlements are communities inhabited by Israelis inside occupied Palestinian territory and are viewed as illegal by Palestinians, the United Nations, the United States and many other governments, according to the video. In the territories occupied by Israel since the 1967 war, a wall or barrier is being built on Palestinian land. Israel says it is for security, and Palestinians say the wall is a "land grab" and serves to divide Palestinians.
"Approximately 80 percent of the route of the barrier is inside the West Bank itself or in and around East Jerusalem. Israel has the right and, in fact, Israel has the duty to protect its citizens against attack, suicide bombings. But what the International Court of Justice has said in its advisory opinion, July 2004, (is that) the barrier, where it goes through the West Bank and East Jerusalem, is contrary to international law," Ray Dolphin, author and consultant for the United Nations, said in the video.
The video includes a brief discussion on Christian Zionism, "a politically mobilized strand of Christian fundamentalism committed to preserving Jewish control over all of historic Palestine to ensure the realization of the movement's own end-times," said the Rev. Robert O. Smith, director, Europe/Middle East Continental Desk, ELCA Global Mission. In the video he said Christian Zionism "is highly skeptical of any peacemaking efforts in the Middle East" and that "Christian Zionism believes that any person or country that attempts to force Israel into a peace treaty with its Arab neighbors is acting as an agent of the Antichrist."
The DVD features footage from the 2007 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, which reaffirmed the church's commitment to its "Strategy for Engagement in Israel and Palestine" approved by the 2005 ELCA Churchwide Assembly.
In a debate at the 2007 assembly about a proposal to include economic incentives to foster a just peace in the Middle East, the Rev. Margaret G. Payne, bishop of the ELCA New England Synod, Worcester, Mass., said it is "important to advocate for whatever a hopeful political solution might be to produce a two-state solution to the problem there. But I believe that we also have to embody our accompaniment with our brothers and sisters there in a physical and a financial way," said Payne.
Interfaith dialogue is explored in the DVD. For Rabbi David Rosen, director of interreligious affairs, American Jewish Committee, Jerusalem, interfaith encounter "allows me to experience the presence of the divine in the life of another from a tradition that is not mine."
He said, "Everybody here feels threatened. Everybody here feels vulnerable. Everybody here feels that they are a victim. And everybody else is expecting the other to take the first step or for others to initiate what needs to be done. Nobody here sees themselves as essentially responsible for any of the mess we are in."
"It's now time to make justice in the Middle East in order that extremism will not find excuses to mushroom and to grow here and there. It is now time to bring justice so that moderation will be stronger," the Rev. Munib A. Younan, bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, said in the video.
The DVD includes a brief discussion guide for "Peace Not Walls: Making a Difference in the Holy Land," a PowerPoint presentation called "The Holy Land: Recent History and the Quest for Peace," and more. - - -
"Peace Not Walls: Making a Difference in the Holy Land" is available at http://ELCA.org/peacenotwalls/educate/2008video.html on the ELCA Web site.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org http://www.elca.org/news ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog