wfn.org | Presbyterians and Others Push For a Shared Jerusalem in "New York

[PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org]

Times" Ad 17-September-1996 
 
 
 
96364 Presbyterians and Others Push For a Shared Jerusalem  
                      in "New York Times" Ad 
 
                          by Alexa Smith 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has signed onto a call 
from at least 14 Christian organizations insisting that Jerusalem be shared 
by Israelis and Palestinians when the still plodding peace process resumes 
final negotiations on sovereignty of the city. 
 
     A campaign is now under way to generate the signatures that will raise 
the $33,000 necessary to print the call as a full-page ad in "The New York 
Times" sometime after the U.S. elections in November. 
 
     Stated Clerk the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick signed onto the document 
last week, telling the Presbyterian News Service that "Jerusalem is a city 
of both Palestinians and Jews together. ... That's of great importance. 
 
     "And we have concerns for the people of Israel as well as for the 
Palestinians." 
 
     Individual and organizational signatures are being sought for the 
Jerusalem Ad Project, which is coordinated by Churches for Middle East 
Peace (CMEP), 110 Maryland Ave., NE, Ste. 108,  in Washington, D.C. 20002. 
Individual signatures will be printed for $25.  One hundred dollars is the 
minimum for listing the name of an organization or an individual 
representing an organization. 
 
     The PC(USA) contribution will be $100. 
 
     The deadline for signatures is Oct. 31. 
 
     While the call urges the U.S. government to stop backing exclusivist 
claims to Jerusalem -- made most adamantly by the current Likud government 
-- what it pushes for most vehemently is an unhampered peace process that 
respects the human and political rights of Palestinian and Israelis and the 
rights of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities there. 
 
     The partial text reads: "Jerusalem at peace cannot belong exclusively 
to one people, one country or one religion.  Jerusalem should be open to 
all -- two peoples and three religions." 
 
     "A peace that does not take into consideration the concerns of 
Israelis and Palestinians will not last, will not bring peace," said the 
Rev. Walter Owensby of the Presbyterian Washington Office.  "It will only 
bring a temporary cessation of hostilities. 
 
     "We want the most just peace possible -- recognizing the security 
concerns of Israel and the political and social concerns of the 
Palestinians." 
 
     Actual sovereignty of Jerusalem was put on the table in agreements 
made by Israel's former Labor government and the now Palestinian Authority 
to be negotiated in the final phases of the then ongoing peace 
negotiations. 
 
     Current prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that Jerusalem 
remain "the undivided capital" of Israel -- both during his campaign and 
since his election.  High-level Israeli and Palestinian officials have been 
working the past few weeks to adopt procedures to resume now interrupted 
peace talks. 
 
     PC(USA) Middle East liaison Victor Makari wants this denomination to 
make its voice heard. "In the 30 years since the occupation of East 
Jerusalem," he said, speaking about Israel's annexation of the Old City and 
additional land on the West Bank after the Israeli victory in the 1967 War, 
"the conditions of Palestinians who've lived there for centuries seem to be 
getting worse." 
 
     CMEP director Corinne Whitlatch said access to Jerusalem's commercial, 
cultural and political life is absolutely essential for the survival of 
Palestinian communities on the West Bank.  Curtailed Palestinian access to 
the city itself -- while explained by the Israeli government as a security 
measure -- serves the dual purpose, Whitlatch suspects, of severing 
Palestinians from Jerusalem.   "Jerusalem," she said, pointing out the 
irony for those who live nearby, "is open to foreigners." 
 
     But what cannot be overemphasized when negotiations resume, according 
to Whitlatch, is the peace a shared city would symbolize for the volatile 
Abrahamic family -- Christians, Muslims and Jews -- who live within and 
outside Jerusalem's old walls and throughout the tumultuous Middle East. 
 
     "We're having to think a new thought here," Owensby told the 
Presbyterian News Service, admitting that the shared-city notion is not 
without its problems and has few historical models. 
 
     But the concept of a shared city was proposed by the United Nations in 
1948, when Israel was established as a nation.  And while it was a more 
acceptable idea to Jews then, Palestinians were unwilling to comply.  In 
the meantime, Israel, through its military and judicial successes, has 
annexed more land, including historically Arab East Jerusalem and the Old 
City, as well as parts of the West Bank -- and a generation of Israelis now 
no longer remembers a city not under Israeli control. 
 
     While Israel claims Jerusalem as its capital, no other country 
currently recognizes that designation -- though the U.S. passed legislation 
to move its embassy there by 1999.  No construction has begun yet and the 
president has the authority to waive the legislation. 
 
     However, for Christians who have Zionist leanings -- such as Doug 
Duckett of Cincinnati -- ideas about shared sovereignty of Jerusalem are 
unacceptable. 
 
     "I just don't see any Israeli government sharing sovereignty over the 
heart of the city," Duckett told the Presbyterian News Service, adding that 
the peace process needs to examine all kinds of arrangements.  "But I have 
no problem with Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem." 
 
     Duckett agreed that security-related closures have put significant 
burdens on Palestinians, but pointed out that Jews were prohibited any 
access to sacred parts of the Old City when it was under Jordanian control 
from 1948 to 1967.  He said that he'd read that one possibility under the 
former Israeli government was to set up more autonomous boroughs within the 
city itself and establish special provisions for Christian and Muslim -- 
thereby Palestinian -- religious sites. 
 
     But the Rev. Edwin Hanna of Lexington, Ky.,  a longtime Presbyterian 
missionary in Lebanon, sees no other solution but a shared one.  "If we 
want peace in the Middle East, this means sharing the land there with the 
people who have lived there for centuries," said Hanna.  "That's not 
antagonistic to the Jewish faith or the Jewish people.  It simply says that 
in the world where we live, we share what we have. 
 
     "No one should be deprived of a home or of rights," said Hanna, adding 
that a shared city was what the United Nations proposed long ago.  "So I'm 
willing to put $25 and my name [on the call]." 
 
     Owensby said the call falls well within the boundaries of repeated 
General Assembly policies related to Jerusalem and to the Middle East. 
"It's important for us as Christians to make clear that we have concerns 
about the outcome of Jerusalem, about the peace process.  So often the 
public hears concerns expressed in terms of Palestinians and Israelis, Jews 
and Muslims. 
 
     "Jerusalem has a claim on the Christian conscience," Owensby told the 
Presbyterian News Service.  "And it's time Christians step forward and 
state our concerns about Jerusalem in a public arena, not just an 
ecclesiastical one." 

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