wfn.org | Lutheran Bishops Hear from Families of Middle East Conflict Victims

[<NEWS@ELCA.ORG>]

Title: Lutheran Bishops Hear from Families of Middle East Conflict Victims
ELCA NEWS SERVICE

>January 11, 2009  

Lutheran Bishops Hear from Families of Middle East Conflict Victims
09-009-JB

JERUSALEM (ELCA) - One man mourns a daughter, the other
grieves a father.

Their losses put them on an unlikely path to friendship in
an area of the world marked by Palestinian-Israeli strife.

Rami Elhanan, an Israeli, and Mazen Faraj, a Palestinian,
shared their stories recently with 45 bishops from the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Canada visiting the Holy Land Jan. 6-13 to
support Christians and promote peace.

As the two men spoke, the bloodshed in Gaza continued to
escalate, adding to the toll of about 7,000 lives already snuffed
out by violence since 2000.

The violence "will not stop until we talk," said Elhanan,
who lives here.  His 14-year-old daughter died in Jerusalem in
1997 in an attack by a Palestinian suicide bomber.

Faraj, who lives in a refugee camp in Bethlehem, said an
Israeli soldier fatally shot his 62-year-old father in 2002.

The losses drove Elhanan and Faraj to find constructive ways
to understand and respond to the carnage.  They are members of
Parents Circle - Families Forum, an organization of bereaved
families promoting peace and reconciliation for all who live in
the region.

At least 500 Israeli and Palestinian families are members of
Parents Circle.  They engage in public speaking, raising
awareness and advocating for peace.  Members also travel at great
personal risk to donate blood for victims on either side of the
conflict.

Meetings with young students are eye-opening for the teens,
Faraj said.  "For the Israeli students in the Israeli high
school, it's the first time in the lives (that) they meet with a
Palestinian as a human being," he said, "because most of the
time, they meet with a Palestinian in the media, through the
government and through the newspaper."

Anger consumed Elhanan for months after his daughter's
death.  At the suggestion of a friend, he attended a Parents
Circle meeting, mostly out of curiosity, he said.  Many people
attending arrived in buses.

"I saw the Palestinian bereaved families coming towards me
from the buses, shaking my hand for peace, hugging me, crying
with me," he said.  "I was completely shocked."

>At the time, he was 47 years old.

"It was the first time ever in my life that I met
Palestinians as human beings, who suffer exactly the same as I
do, who carry exactly the same burden that I do," Elhanan said.

>His life changed forever.

With his family's support, Elhanan now devotes his time to
talking with anyone who will listen.  His message is simple.

"We are not doomed," he said.  "This is not our destiny to
keep on killing and dying in this Holy Land of ours forever.  We
can change it.  We can break once and for all this endless cycle
of violence, revenge, retaliation and punishment."

Elhanan added that he is "ashamed as a Jew, as an Israeli
and as a human being" of the current Israeli military operation
in Gaza.

"The free and civilized world is standing by and doing
nothing," he said. "This is a shame.  It must be stopped because
too many kids are being slaughtered."

Faraj agreed that the human impact of the violence had been
lost.

"No one cares about it," he said.  "All the politicians care
about is the politics, the authority, the power, the money, the
corruption, everything -- but they never talk about the human
side of this conflict."

Faraj said his friends also support his work with Parents
Circle. Still, he lives with fear. Because he lives in Bethlehem,
he needed special permission from the Israeli soldiers to meet
with the bishops in Jerusalem. The journey frightened him.

>Elhanan praised his friend for his bravery.
>- - -

Information about the 2009 Bishops' Academy is at
http://blogs.ELCA.org/09cobacademy/ on the ELCA Web site.

>Information about Parents Circle is at
>http://www.theparentscircle.org/ on the Web.

For information contact:

John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog