wfn.org | English Speaking Christians in Holy Land Speak Out

[JerusalemRelOrgs@aol.com]

JERUSALEM, April 7, 2002--Members of several English-speaking Christian 
communies in Israel and Palestine have sent an open letter to the U.S. 
Secretary of State urging that American policy be more even-handed and 
consistent.

They sent the message on the eve of Secretary Colin Powell's visit to the 
Middle East.  He is expected to talk with both Israeli Prime Minister Arik 
Shron and Palestinian President Yassir Arafat in an effort to jump-start 
peace talks.

The full text of the message follows:

OPEN LETTER 
TO US SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL 
from Members of English-Speaking Christian Communities 
in the Holy Land

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell 
U.S. State Department 
2202 C Street NW 
Washington DC 20520

Dear Mr. Secretary,

"... No one can remain indifferent to the injustice of which the Palestinian 
people have been victims for more than fifty years. No one can contest the 
right of the Israeli people to live in security. But neither can anyone 
forget the innocent victims who on both sides fall day after day under the 
blows of violence. Weapons and bloody attacks will never be the right means 
for making a political statement to the other side. Nor is the logic of the 
law of retaliation capable any longer of leading to paths of peace." 
John Paul II (January 10, 2002)

We, the undersigned, have experienced and can attest to the truth of these 
words of Pope John Paul II.  We are members of several English-speaking 
Christian communities in the Holy Land who have been living in Israel and in 
the Occupied Territories. 

Our length of residence ranges from six months to twenty years. We represent 
a number of English-speaking nationalities, predominantly American but also 
many others, and a wide variety of backgrounds and professions. We include 
students and professors, parents and clergy, US government/ USAID personnel, 
heads/personnel of American and other non-governmental aid agencies, 
international diplomats, officials working for UN agencies and health and 
education professionals.

We are writing to you out of a deep concern and urgency.  The violent and 
horrible events in this land have escalated in recent weeks.  America is 
deeply involved in this conflict both as a broker of the peace process and 
as a supplier of weapons.  The increased violence has underscored the 
failure of successive American administrations to implement defined policies 
for the resolution of this conflict.

Twenty-five years have passed since President Sadat visited Jerusalem and 
opened the way to the Camp David peace process.  Camp David was eventually 
succeeded by the Oslo Accords, then the Wye River Agreement, and more 
recently by the Mitchell and Tenet reports. None of these agreements have 
been implemented. 

A generation of Israeli and Palestinian youth has grown up observing the lack 
of political will of the United States government to implement our defined 
policies for the Middle East. 

Moderates on both sides of this conflict have been marginalized and 
discredited by the failure to bring about a just and lasting peace.  Both the 
Israeli creation of "facts on the ground", and the terror attacks against 
innocent civilians, have 
succeeded in delaying the timeframe and in presenting further obstacles to 
the search for a just and lasting peace.

The US government has accepted such negative developments with apparent 
equanimity.  It has capitulated to the demands and excesses of the 
extremists and radicals on both sides who have no interest in peace and 
reconciliation.  To date, it has failed to address the major cause of the 
problem - the oppressive and illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
 
The legitimate human and civil rights of the Palestinian people and their 
right to their own national homeland have been denied - rights that most 
peoples of the earth enjoy and take for granted.  

Palestinians daily face the expropriation of their land and the unrelenting 
construction on this land of Israeli settlements and settlement roads. Over 
the last 18 months ordinary Palestinians have also suffered under the Israeli 
'closures' and military siege, which have cut them off from their places of 
employment, study, basic health-care and families.

During this period, our Christian communities have seen the horrific effects 
of the work of suicide-bombers and other militants on the people and cities 
of Israel, and some have narrowly escaped injury in such incidents. Some 
among us, however, can also testify to having personally eye-witnessed a 
wide range of violations of Palestinian basic human rights and personal 
freedoms by the Israeli authorities, including: 

.    house demolitions with families made homeless; 
.    uprooting of ancient olive and citrus groves on which multiple families 
     are dependent for their livelihoods; 
.    families cowering in terror as US-manufactured missiles shower down 
     indiscriminately on civilian areas from US-manufactured Apache 
helicopters 
     and F-16 bombers, or from Israeli tanks; 
.    shelling of buildings right beside foreign diplomatic and UN offices in 
     Ramallah and Gaza, recklessly endangering their international and other 
     staff; 
.    ndiscriminate shootings by IDF soldiers at checkpoints of civilians, 
     including children, women, the elderly and the disabled; as well as 
firing 
     of tear gas at such people crossing the checkpoints on foot by young, 
     seemingly bored or frightened IDF recruits; 
.    severe harassment and physical abuse of Palestinians of all ages at such 

     checkpoints; 
.    i nappropriate handling of young Arab women at these locations; 
.    regular obstruction of teachers and students trying to reach schools and 

     universities; 
.    harassment and obstruction of ambulances trying to carry emergency cases 

     to hospital and blocking of UNRWA and other humanitarian relief 
operations. 

Similar incidents of this kind have been widely reported on by almost all 
the main Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights and humanitarian 
organizations.

All the members of our Christian communities unequivocally condemn and 
reject terrorism and violence as a means of advancing the political cause of 
the Palestinians, and fully recognize the right of the Israeli people to 
live in peace and security in their own state.     

Our experience here also helps us understand why, in their desperation, some 
young Palestinians see no other options available to them and nothing for 
them to live for. The US Administration has focused predominantly on the 
admittedly horrific and unacceptable violence of the Palestinian militants 
against Israelis but it has given insufficient attention both to the causes 
of Palestinian militancy 
and terror, and the daily terror and war that Israel is inflicting with 
impunity on the largely civilian Palestinian population. 

This has, not surprisingly, led to the emergence of a strong sense of moral 
outrage on the part of the majority of Arabs and Muslims worldwide. It has 
also generated a major questioning among millions of people of conscience 
internationally of the credibility, impartiality and moral authority of the 
US government and its policies.  This in turn has contributed significantly 
to the hostility felt by many people internationally towards the US, its 
government and its citizens.

There is an urgent need for the resolution of this conflict.  There is a 
solution possible, but it is neither a military one, nor a terrorist one. 

The parameters of the solution have been clearly delineated and the vision 
spelled out by you yourself, Mr. Secretary, in Louisville, and by President 
Bush at the UN. 

They are expressed in US-sponsored Security Council Resolution 1397, a very 
welcome initiative indeed; and also in the proposals recently set forth by 
Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and, most tantalizingly of all, in the 
Taba talks that ended in January last year, which brought the two sides to 
the brink of an historic breakthrough on most of the highly complex and 
deeply entrenched issues dividing the two sides. 

It is no longer appropriate to discuss proposals about interim solutions or 
arrangements.  These interim policies have been the framework under which 
Israel has extended and expanded its illegal presence in the West Bank and 
Gaza Strip.  The US government has been a proponent of a two-state solution 
to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  Now is the time for the US government 
to operate within the rubric of the United Nations and to finalize a 
settlement to this conflict in accordance with Resolutions 242, 338 and 
1397.

This is a period in history that requires clear policy definition, firm 
political will, and consistency in action by the US government. The US 
government needs to display a type of "tough love" that links funding 
assistance with policy decisions that express its concern for all the peoples 
of this land.

We welcome General Zinni to Jerusalem and recognize the very severe 
obstacles he faces. We express the fervent hope that he will continue to 
receive the firm political backing, and strong, balanced mandate he needs 
from the top levels of his Administration in order to broker a just and 
lasting peace. It is the consensus of the undersigned members of our 
Christian communities that the only way to achieve success will be a firm, 
even-handed approach exerting equal pressure on both parties to halt the 
violence and provocation. The presence of international observers is also 
crucial for achieving this halt to violence and facilitating the return to 
negotiations. Necessary also is a simultaneous move to develop the political 
dimension, through the implementation of the Mitchell Report and the 
resumption of final status negotiations. 

To demand that President Arafat deliver a unilateral cease-fire while the 
closures remain firmly in place and Israeli military offensives and 
provocation continue, cannot and will not succeed.  In the interests of the 
Israeli people who are suffering so much from the conflict, the United States 
must also persuade the Israeli government to play its part, by implementing 
parallel measures to lift the military and economic siege and by progressing 
toward finalizing 
negotiations. Consistency of will to move beyond the rhetoric of US policy 
and to implement its stated goals will restore the credibility to the peace 
process and to the role the US government seeks to play as the honest broker 
of the peace process.

As people of faith, committed to the struggle for peace, justice and 
reconciliation, we are convinced that greed and arrogance, violence and 
death, will not have the final word, We have a deep love for this Land and 
for all of its people.  

Our experience here has taught us to make our own this simple insight from 
John Paul II:  One against the other, neither Israelis nor Palestinians can 
win the war. But together they can win the peace. We hope and pray that all 
sides in this present conflict come to the same recognition
 
Members of English-Speaking Christian Communities in the Holy Land 

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