wfn.org | Stated clerk issues plea for 'just and lasting peace' in Israel and Palestine

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Note #7121 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05-April-2002
02137

Stated clerk issues plea for 'just and lasting peace' in Israel and Palestine

LOUISVILLE - The stated clerk of the General Assembly, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, today issued a statement on the crisis in the Middle East. The text follows.

April 5, 2002

For the sake of peace and security in Israel and Palestine, in the Middle East and in the world, the human tragedy experienced by Palestinians and Israelis must be ended.

For the sake of peace and human wholeness of the two peoples, acts of terror, whether individual or organized, and state violence and military destruction must stop.

For the sake of peace and justice, the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip must come to an end.

We grieve the loss of innocent lives of Israeli civilians killed by suicide bombings, and condemn those acts as abhorrent.  We do not believe that acts of violence will ultimately create a climate in which Israelis and Palestinians can live together in security.

We decry the continuing occupation of the Palestinian territories by the Israeli government, and the terror inflicted upon the Palestinian people through Israel's repeated military incursions into Palestinian towns and villages.  
We do not believe that the might of the powerful can bring peace through the force of humiliation, violated rights, and death.

We urge that political leaders keep focused on peace, not allowing themselves to be diverted by from its path by extremist activities.

Since 1967, our church has called for the recognition of Israel's right to exist as a sovereign state within secure borders, the right of the Palestinian people to self determination, including the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state, and the right of both peoples to live in peace as neighbors. We have repeatedly called for the end of the Israeli occupation, a halting of the building and expansion of Israel settlements and colonies on confiscated Palestinian land, a halt of the continuing humiliation and degradation of the Palestinian people by Israel through collective punishment, demolition of houses, damage and destruction of public buildings, including church structures, invasion of hospitals, schools and church buildings and annexes, border closings, military check points, denial of access to health and social services and religious sites, and even brutal attack on Palestinian police and civilians, including women, men and children inhabitants of refugee camps.

We have now for years watched the "peace process" alternately with hope and despair. We have called on our own government, which yields enormous influence on the leadership of both Israelis and Palestinians, and indeed in the entire region, to take a pro-active, unbiased role in promoting justice and peace in the region; and have often been disappointed by its silence, delayed action, or one-sided support of Israel given in the false hope that Israel's policies would bring security.

We have encouraged United Nations resolutions aimed at justice for both Israel and the Palestinians, which were adopted but sometimes vetoed by our own government, and most often ignored or defied by Israel.

Our hopes have been raised by the recent unanimous action of the Arab Summit in Beirut, formulated on the basis of the Saudi initiative, offering Israel full recognition with diplomatic relations and political, social and economic cooperation in return for the implementation of the United Nations' resolutions calling on Israel to withdraw from Palestinian Occupied Territories and return to its 1967 borders.  Israel has yet to respond to the offer of the Arab Summit held in Beirut in late March. 

We have found hope in the Israeli peace movement and in Israeli reservists who have refused to fight any further in the Occupied Territories.

We are encouraged by the recent call of President George W. Bush on Israel to withdraw its military forces from the Palestinian towns, to end its settlements activity, to respect the dignity or the Palestinian people and to return to peace negotiations.  We welcome the plan to send Secretary of State Colin Powell to the Middle East to work toward that goal.  We urge that the United States, which is recognized as a potentially key partner, should exert its positive influence to end the occupation.  As we trust that the recent initiative of our President will help to change the present militant climate, we pray that the liberator God of the ancient Exodus will also look with favor upon the peoples held in bondage of all sorts in the land called holy: military and political bondage, bondage of terror, bondage of despair, bondage of material need, bondage of anger, hurt and bitterness, bondage of history. 

In hope, we acknowledge that though the land be holy for its historical significance for people of faith, it is not sacred for exclusive claims. As a church that works to actualize the affirmation of peacemaking as the believer's calling, we are convinced that the potential for peace, if grounded in justice, is far greater than the divisions perpetuated by conflict, hostility and violence. We are absolutely convinced that "shalom," "salaam," "peace, integrity and wholeness" is God's will for all people, for all creation.     

Therefore, once again, we lift up our hands in supplication to Almighty God; we lift up our voices to political leaders in the region, in our nation and in the world; we lift up our hopes for peoples living under the tyranny of fear, suspicion, hatred, or despair; with the plea that the spirit of good counsel and good will prevail for a just and lasting peace, in Israel and Palestine, and in the world.
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