wfn.org | NCCCUSA "Message on Jerusalem" (Final Text)

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contact: Carol J. Fouke, NCC, 212-870-2252
Internet: carol_fouke.parti@ecunet.org

CITY OF HOLINESS AND HOPE

A MESSAGE ON JERUSALEM

For Jews, Christians and Muslims, Jerusalem has been
a city of holiness and hope.  It is the place where
histories, both separate and intersecting, have
become enshrined, and where redemption and renewal
have been remembered and promised.

Jerusalem has  been a city of conflict, where
followers of the three Abrahamic traditions have
sought to make exclusive or superior claims on the
Holy City.  All such claims have been contradicted
by Jerusalem's stubborn character as a place where
religions meet, where Jews, Christians and Muslims
encounter each other in their quest of faithfulness
to God.

Christians should not presume to define the
significance of Jerusalem for their partners in the
Abrahamic tradition.  Even among Christians there
are widely differing perspectives on the meaning of
Jerusalem, its spiritual significance, its political
future.  But an unwillingness to define or evaluate
the devotion of others should not prevent us from
attempting to articulate convictions and hopes that
we, as Christians, believe should be realized in the
determination of the status of the Holy City.  We
are especially mindful of the statements and
sentiments of the Christians of Jerusalem, Palestine
and Israel, and the Middle East, whose lives are
touched immediately by the success or failure of the
parties involved and the international community to
arrive at a satisfactory solution to the problem of
Jerusalem.

As Christians in the United States, we bear a
special responsibility in light of the U.S. role as
sponsor of the peace process.  In its 1980 Middle
East Policy Statement, the Governing Board of the
National Council of the Churches of Christ affirmed
that the issue of Jerusalem was an issue not only of
shrines, but also of people.  The holiness of
Jerusalem and the peace of Jerusalem are inseparable
from the extension of justice to all of its people.
While the definition of the political solution is
the responsibility of the political leadership of
Israel and the Palestinian people, we are impelled
to set forth what we feel should be embodied in the
ultimate resolution of the status of the city.  A
durable solution to the political question
concerning Jerusalem will require the imaginative
genius and good will of people of faith, of the
negotiators and of their U.S. sponsor.

Jerusalem as a place where the divine and the human
have come together.

For Christians, Jerusalem is the venue of
redemption, the place where the love of God for
humanity took human form in the life, death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ.  That coming together
of the divine and the human in the Incarnation
ensures that the full stature and dignity of human
beings can never be at odds with the will of God.

Similarly, for Jews and Muslims, Jerusalem is a
place of great historical and theological
significance.

Yet no geography, no city, including Jerusalem, can
be called holy except that God’s righteousness
dwells within it,  and nor can remain holy except by
the just relations of the people who dwell within
it.

Jerusalem as a shared legacy

For Jerusalem to realize its vocation it cannot
belong to any one people or religion. History is
replete with the efforts of groups -- religious,
ethnic or national -- to possess Jerusalem.  And
history has demonstrated that such efforts have had
the effect of violating the very nature of the place
and despoiling its holiness.  One of the most
egregious of these episodes in history was the
Crusades, in which western Christians wreaked havoc
and slaughter on Muslims, Jews and oriental
Christians alike in an effort to "reclaim" Jerusalem
for Christendom.  The Crusades now stand as a sad
example of how misguided zeal can produce
shortsightedness, violence, cruelty and, ultimately,
futility.

It is our belief that any solution to the disputed
status of Jerusalem must recognize that it is a city
like no other, that it is "home" to people of all
three traditions, home to people who live far away
but nevertheless find their identity, their past and
their future hopes represented in the Holy City.  It
is essential that those who negotiate the future of
Jerusalem recognize its truly unique role, that they
use the prophetic imagination of their traditions to
define new modes of sovereignty and governance so
that Jerusalem will stand as a symbol of peace and
conviviality, a living antidote to the chronic
diseases of bigotry , intolerance, ultranationalism
and exclusivism.

Jerusalem as the city of two peoples and three
faiths

What was viewed as possibly a new period in the
history of this city, symbolized by a moving gesture
of reconciliation, the handshake between the Prime
Minister of the State of Israel and the Chairman of
the Palestine Liberation Organization, has become
instead a period of uncertainties, dashed hopes and
unfulfilled expectations for many Palestinians and
Israelis.  One of the elements of the Declaration of
Principles ratified by that handshake was a promise
to negotiate the final status of Jerusalem.  That
promise has not been kept.

The recent violence reflects the deep frustration of
Palestinians with the lack of progress in the peace
process and the continuing denial of their rights.
The extension and opening of a tunnel near the Dome
of the Rock mosque was a provocation that reflected
insensitivity and disregard for the religious
feelings and national claims of Palestinians in
Jerusalem.  This tunnel should be returned to its
state before the violence began, and no further
actions should be taken that may affect the status
of the Holy Places in Jerusalem prior to a
negotiated settlement.

Since assuming control of all of Jerusalem in 1967,
Israel has been consistent in extending free access
to the Holy Places to the international Christian
community.  For this policy, Israel is to be
commended.

By contrast, for much of that period Middle Eastern
Christians have been unable to come to Jerusalem.
The signing of peace agreements between Israel and
Egypt, and between Israel and Jordan, may have
reduced the impediments for some Middle Eastern
Christians, but for Palestinian Christians and
Muslims resident in the West Bank and Gaza,
Jerusalem remains largely inaccessible.  Since the
Gulf War in 1991, the Israeli authorities have
imposed a continuous series of closures of Jerusalem
and of Israel itself to Palestinians in the Occupied
Territories.  While the closures have varied in
their severity, they have had the overall effect of
depriving most Palestinian Muslims and Christians of
the right to worship at the places held sacred in
their respective traditions.  In addition, the
closure has had a devastating impact on the
Palestinian economy, on education, on health care,
and on the unity of families.

Israel has explained this policy as a measure
necessary to assure the security of Israelis, and of
the city of Jerusalem itself.  Indeed, Israel has
suffered grievously from the senseless violence of
terrorism. It is our belief, however, that the only
durable guarantor of peace is justice.  As long as
Palestinians are deprived of access to their
cultural, economic and religious center, Jerusalem,
the possibility of violence borne of frustration
will remain.  Any resolution of the question of
Jerusalem, we believe, must guarantee free access to
Jerusalem for all.

Of grave impact as well has been the intensive and
extensive building of exclusively Jewish settlements
in and around the city, and the subsequent and
relentless expansion of the municipal limits of the
city to include those settlements. The impact of
these settlements and the expansion of the
boundaries of Jerusalem has been the effective
displacement of Palestinians, since much of the
building has taken place on confiscated Palestinian
land. The settlement policy has, as well, altered
the delicate demographic balance of Jerusalem,
magnifying the fears of its Palestinian residents
that they will be overwhelmed and marginalized in
the city that they consider to be the center of
their national life, and perhaps finally will be
expelled from  it completely.  The settlements,
which are illegal under international law, are thus
an obstacle to peace.

Jerusalem as paradigm of peace and justice

Jerusalem both comprehends and transcends its
contemporary status.  When we speak of a new
Jerusalem, we look to a Jerusalem whose holiness
resides not only in its past, but also comprehends
its present and looks forward in hope to its future.
When we call Jerusalem the Holy City, we are both
evoking its sacred history and at the same time
praying for the realization of future hopes and
promises.

It is our challenge always to work to overcome the
dissonance between the present Jerusalem, which
reflects the chronic maladies of humanity --
divisiveness, violence, intolerance, chauvinism --
and the future Jerusalem, the city that is hallowed
in faith, the mother who can nurture without
favoritism all her children, whether they are Jews,
Muslims or Christians.

A Jerusalem that is called holy by Christians, a
place where every Christian can feel at home, cannot
reflect values that are at odds with the fundamental
tenets of our faith. This, too, is our stake in
Jerusalem: not a territorial claim, not a political
design, but rather a steady insistence that the city
we call "holy" and "home" reflects common values of
love, sharing and justice.

The peace of Jerusalem for which we, with the
Psalmist pray, is a peace for all its people:
Muslims, Jews and Christians alike.  It is a peace
grounded in the thirst for justice.  For us, this is
not a peripheral concern, a passing cause.  It lies
at the heart of who we are and who we want to be.
We join our brothers and sisters in the Abrahamic
tradition in striving together, in hope and love,
for a Jerusalem that remains holy for all.

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