wfn.org | WCC: Report on visit to Jerusalem

["Sheila Mesa" <smm@wcc-coe.org>]

World Council of Churches
Update Up-02-09
For Immediate Use
8 April 2002

Preliminary report on WCC deputy general secretary's visit to
Jerusalem

Cf. WCC Press Update, Up-02-08, of 5 April 2002
Cf.WCC Press Release, PR-02-14, of 2 April 2002

The following is the text of a preliminary report by a WCC
delegation which visited Jerusalem from April 2-4, 2002.  The
report was presented at a meeting with the press on Monday, 8
April, at 1400h in the Palais de Nations, Geneva, Switzerland.

The WCC Deputy General Secretary Mr Georges Lemopoulos visited
Jerusalem from April 2-4, with WCC International Relations
programme executive staff of the Council. The main purpose of
this visit was to meet with the Patriarchs and Heads of the
Churches and Christian communities of Jerusalem to discuss the
present situation in Palestine/Israel and to discuss details of
WCC and other ecumenical efforts in this regard.  The visit was
undertaken as an expression of WCC solidarity with the churches
of the Holy Land and their communities.  It was also planned to
work out practical details related to ecumenical programmes
undertaken by the WCC together with its partners to seek an end
to this tragic situation.

A key element of the delegation's visit was a first meeting of
the WCC with the newly enthroned Primate of the Greek Orthodox
Church of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Patriarch Irineos. Among the
topics discussed were the important role of the Patriarchate in
the WCC and its contribution to the wider ecumenical movement;
the status of the Special Commission on Orthodox Participation in
the WCC; the re-establishment of the Jerusalem Ecumenical Centre
and concerns of the Patriarchate. Lemopoulos was extremely
pleased with this encounter which took place in a warm, honest
and fraternal atmosphere. His Beatitude Irineos welcomed WCC
efforts in supporting its member churches in diaconal, interfaith
and international matters and assured the delegation of his
support for strong relationships and links with the WCC.  HE
Archbishop Aristarchos, chief secretary of the Holy Synod, was
assigned to continue the co-operation with the WCC on behalf of
the Patriarchate.  The WCC delegation was 
saddened to hear that the Israeli government had not yet
recognised the election of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch.  The
delegation offered the WCC's good offices to intervene if called
upon.(

With the Patriarchs and Heads of churches, as well as local and
international nuns, monks and clergy, the members of the WCC
delegation joined in a peace march to the residences of Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon and of the US Consul General in Jerusalem,
Mr Ronald Schlicher. The church leaders walked from the Old City
on a cold and rainy morning amidst an angry crowd and drivers
holding olive branches and white ribbons.  The marchers carried a
message of peace and an offer to mediate an end to the violence
and the siege of the Palestinian towns and villages.  They
offered prayers for peace and pleaded for an end to the violence
and offered their good offices as mediators. To the dismay of the
church leaders and those with them, the US consulate and the
Prime Minister ignored their presence and their offer of
assistance.

The next morning, in response to dramatic reports coming from
the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the church leaders of
all Christian traditions present in the Holy Land marched again
together to Bethlehem. They were confronted with tanks, guns and
the Israeli Defence Forces who refused to allow them to cross the
checkpoint to visit their churches, clergy and people in the
birthplace of Jesus, one of the holiest sites of the Christian
world. 
 
International journalists marched with them and all church
leaders gave extensive interviews condemning Israel's
re-occupation of Palestinian towns and villages, its use of
excessive force, inhumane treatment of civilians, and its blatant
disrespect of holy sites, churches, monasteries and Christian
institutions.

The WCC delegation had extensive meetings with the Armenian and
Latin Patriarchs, and the Bishops of the Episcopal and Lutheran
Churches.  It also met with the Chairperson of the PLO Higher
Ministerial Commission on Church Affairs, Dr Emil Jarjoui, local
human rights defenders, Palestinians in Israel, medical and
emergency relief staff, representatives of international and
local church-related organisations, and the Jerusalem
Inter-Church Committee (a representative body of the Patriarchs
and Heads of Churches of Jerusalem).  They met, too, with HE
Sheikh Jamil Hammami, a participant in WCC-related interfaith
dialogue group. It regretted that no meetings with Jewish
religious leaders who also participate in the interfaith dialogue
could be arranged.   It had requested to meet with Rabbi Melchior
and Rabbi David Rosen, but received no direct reply until just
before the delegation left for the airport when it received a
message from Geneva that Rabbi Rosen had responded to the WCC
request and welcomed a meeting with the delegation.  This will be
followed up by telephone as soon as possible. 

Due to the warlike situation and total siege, meetings could
only be held in Jerusalem. The delegation regretted that it was
unable to meet with many other Christian and Muslim leaders, or
with colleagues and friends from Bethlehem, Beit Sahour, Beit
Jala and Ramallah.  

The discussions focussed on the present tragic situation, the
needs and appeals of the local churches and Palestinian
communities for strengthened WCC and other ecumenical efforts to
alleviate the suffering of the local population living under a
cruel military occupation. The delegation heard eyewitness
accounts of Palestinian families confined to their homes under a
total curfew in fear and humiliation.  Medicines, water,
electricity and food are desperately lacking. Their private homes
are being violated, their belongings being looted and stolen. In
some cases families were still living with the bodies of dead
relatives for whom permission for burial had been denied.   The
Church of the Nativity, a sacred place for Christians around the
world, was under threat of military attack.   The delegation
heard repeatedly that the IDF was destroying the civilian
infrastructure on the pretext of arresting "militants and
terrorists." 

The delegation condemned the terrifying loss of Palestinian and
Israeli lives. It experienced first-hand the extreme fear of the
Israeli civilian population and the heightened level of
intolerance on both sides.  It was disheartened to see young
Orthodox Jewish children pelting Arab cars with stones as they
entered East Jerusalem.  It also heard reports on the "transfer
policies" of the Israeli government that are supported by Knesset
members and ministers from members of the Labour and Likud party
alike.  In this are to be found the seeds of racist policies that
apparently intend ethnic cleansing and to spread more hatred. 
The delegation believes that Jewish religious leaders and members
of the Israeli civil society who have engaged with the WCC and
/or local churches in interfaith dialogue and peace work should
take a courageous stand and speak out against such policies and
acts of intolerance.  Their voices are critically needed now. 
Mistakes of history should not be repeated.  Unless they join
moderate Palestinians, including the Christian religious
leadership, in calling for non-violent resistance to end the
occupation, the only voices heard will be those of the extremists
on both sides. 
 
The delegation condemns all acts of violence against civilians,
calls for the cessation of racist policies, all provocative
language and indiscriminate killings, including the desperate
acts of suicide bombers.
 
The delegation echoes the unified voice of the local church
leaders in endorsing the right of a people to resist the violence
of military occupation and to struggle for its end by non-violent
means. In this respect, the delegation is convinced all the more
of the importance of its member churches and all national,
regional and ecumenical partners to join together in response to
the WCC's and the local churches' calls for a united
international ecumenical response to the campaign in 2002 to "End
the Illegal Occupation of Palestine: Support a Just peace in the
Middle East". 

The churches of the Holy Land and all Palestinians are in urgent
need of an objective permanent international presence.  The WCC
should continue and accelerate its efforts to establish the
Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel
(EAPPI), despite the extremely dangerous situation and the fact
that many international delegations are now being turned back
when they seek to enter Israel. Plans for the accompaniment
program will be reassessed on the basis of the discussions held
in Jerusalem.  The EAPPI should focus on co-operation with
existing grassroots solidarity groups and the Christian
Peacemakers Team in Hebron.   

The State of Israel, the Occupying Power, has obligations under
international law, in particular under the Fourth Geneva
Convention. It cannot be allowed to continue to violate them with
impunity. The WCC has called for an end to the silence and
immobility of the international community and has appealed to its
member churches to speak and act urgently and in unison through
their respective governments to press for an international
presence in the midst of this conflict.  The delegation heard
from all those it met that this is an immediate priority in the
present situation.

For further information, please contact Karin Achtelstetter,
Media Relations Officer           Tel:  (+41.22) 791.61.53  
	Mobile:  (+41) 79.284.52.12

**********

The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a fellowship of churches,
now 342, in more than 100 countries in all continents from
virtually all Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is
not a member church but works cooperatively with the WCC. The
highest governing body is the assembly, which meets approximately
every seven years. The WCC was formally inaugurated in 1948 in
Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Its staff is headed by general
secretary Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church in Germany.

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