wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Hamas victory no cause for panic,

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #9082 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

06040
Jan. 30, 2006

Hamas victory no cause for panic,
bishop tells Holy Land Christians

by Michele Green
Ecumenical News International  

JERUSALEM - The Lutheran bishop of the Holy Land, Munib Younan, has urged
Christians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip not to panic over the militant
Islamic group Hamas' victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections.  
  
	Christians in Palestine have been unsettled by Hamas' sweeping
victory. The group's charter calls for the establishment of an Islamic state
in all of Israel and the Palestinian territories.  
  
	"We ask the Palestinian people, especially Palestinian Christians,
not to panic and arrive at hasty conclusions, but to persevere and remain
steadfast in this land," Bishop Younan said in a statement issued on Jan. 30.
 
  
	Hamas won a decisive majority in last week's legislative elections.
The group, which has political and militant wings, will now play a key role
in governing Palestine, but the makeup of the new government is not clear.   
  
	"Now more than ever, we need to continue to be an active, integral
part of the people and to continue as Christian witnesses for justice,
instruments of peace and ministers of reconciliation," said Younan, a native
Palestinian.	 
  
	His comments reflect concern that the Hamas victory could speed up
Christian immigration from the Holy Land, where Christians are an
increasingly small minority.   
  
	There are now about 50,000 Christians living in the West Bank, the
Gaza Strip and Arab East Jerusalem. They make up less than 2 percent of the
Palestinian population.  
  
	Once Palestinians have recovered from the "shock" of Hamas' victory,
Younan said, they should try to understand why the militant Islamic group won
a landslide victory, with 77 percent of the vote. He attributed the result to
Palestinian suffering under Israeli occupation, corruption in the Palestinian
Authority, Hamas' extensive charity network, and Israel's withdrawal from the
Gaza Strip last September.  
  
	"This is a moment of challenge and possibility in the midst of
unexpected change," he said, adding that the Lutheran church will "watch,
pray and work  unceasingly and prophetically, so that the policies
implemented for the Palestinian people will be guided by justice, equality
and freedom."

To subscribe or unsubscribe, please send an email to
pcusanews-subscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org or
pcusanews-unsubscribe-request@halak.pcusa.org

To contact the owner of the list, please send an email to
pcusanews-request@halak.pcusa.org