wfn.org | WCC NEWS: WCC calls to freeze and dismantle Israeli settlements

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World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 02/09/2009 13:37:31

WCC CALLS TO FREEZE AND DISMANTLE ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS

The World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee called on
the Israeli government to freeze and begin to dismantle
settlements in occupied Palestinian territories. It also
encouraged a commitment to non-violence and peace negotiations,
and reiterated the need for an international boycott of products
and services from settlements.

In a public “Statement on Israeli settlements in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory” passed today in Geneva, Switzerland, at
the end of its 26 August – 2 September meeting, the WCC central
committee called “upon the government of Israel to urgently
implement an open-ended freeze in good-faith on all settlement
construction and expansion as a first step towards the
dismantlement of all settlements”.

The committee considered some 200 settlements with more than
450,000 settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories to be
“illegal, unjust, incompatible with peace and antithetical to
the legitimate interests of the state of Israel”.

Even as “Israel’s own right to exist in security evokes sympathy
and solidarity around the world”, the committee states, “its
policies of expansion and annexation generate dismay or
hostility”. For the committee there is a clear distinction to
be made “between the legitimate interests of the state of Israel
and its illegal settlements”.

The central committee reiterated its call to WCC member churches
“to accompany and encourage the commitment to non-violence and
active engagement in peace negotiations”. It also invited “member
churches and faithful to give moral and practical support to
non-violent acts of resistance to the confiscation of land, the
destruction of Palestinian properties and the eviction of people
from their homes and lands”.

The statement “reiterates the need for an international boycott
of settlement products and services”. WCC member churches “must
not be complicit in illegal activities on occupied territory” and
therefore should “practice morally responsible investment in
order to influence businesses linked to the Israeli occupation
and its illegal settlements”, the statement says.

The illegal settlements “and their corresponding infrastructure
including the separation wall” have dire consequences on the life
and dignity of Palestinian people, the WCC statement says.

Settlements deny Palestinians access to “land and water
resources”, “restrict their freedom of movement, diminish their
basic human dignity and, in many cases, their right to life”,
impede their “right to education and access to health care”, and
“destroy the Palestinian economy”. In these ways they increase
“the sense of dispossession and despair”. 

In addition to that, “illegal settlements in and around
Jerusalem endanger the future of the holy city”, which “should be
open to all and shared by the two peoples and the three
religions”. 

The WCC central committee calls on member churches to “pray for
and assist people who are suffering” as a result of settlement
activity and “hear the call of the churches of Jerusalem for
concrete actions by the international ecumenical community toward
a just peace for both Palestinians and Israelis”. 

Full text of the “Statement on Israeli settlements in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory”:
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=7156

WCC member churches in Israel/Palestine:

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/regions/middle-east/israel.html

Sixty Years of WCC Policy on Palestine/Israel, 1948-2009 (in
brief)
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3628

More information on the 26 August - 2 September 2009 Central
Committee meeting:
http://www.oikoumene.org/cc2009

Free high resolution photos are available:

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/events-sections/cc2009/photo-galleries.html

Other public statements and minutes approved by the WCC central
committee: 
Seeking a nuclear weapon-free world (
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/events-sections/cc2009/central-committee-news/en/article/6747/seeking-a-nuclear-weapon.html
) 
WCC upholds right to refuse military service (
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/events-sections/cc2009/central-committee-news/en/article/6747/wcc-upholds-right-to-refu.html
) 
WCC calls for solidarity amid anti-Christian violence (
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1634/wcc-calls-for-solidarity.html
)

Additional information:Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507
6363media@wcc-coe.org

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 349 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.