wfn.org | WCC FEATURE: Israeli occupation puts strain on Palestinian Christians

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World Council of Churches - Feature

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>For immediate release - 02/04/2009 11:03:11

ISRAELI OCCUPATION PUTS STRAIN ON PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS

>By Emma Halgren (*)

>Free photos available, see below

Churches around the world must speak out and act for justice in
Israel and Palestine, church leaders told members of an
ecumenical delegation visiting the region from March 7 to 14.

Members of the delegation – a Living Letters (
http://overcomingviolence.org/en/iepc/living-letters-visits.html
)team visiting on behalf of the World Council of Churches (WCC) –
learned of the many ways in which churches in the region
cooperate to provide social services and advocate for peace and
justice. But as the already low Palestinian Christian population
continues to dwindle, and life becomes increasingly difficult for
Palestinian people living under Israeli occupation, the work of
churches is coming under strain, and support is desperately
needed, the delegation was told.

"Living Letters" are small international ecumenical teams
travelling to locations around the world where Christians strive
to overcome violence. Their goal is to express the solidarity of
the ecumenical family and learn how people are dealing with the
challenges that face them.

Throughout the week the delegation met with local church leaders
Patriarch Theophilus III of the Holy City of Jerusalem and All
Palestine, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal, Bishop Munib
Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy
Land and the Rev. Robert Edmunds, representative to the Anglican
Bishop Suheil Dawani in Jerusalem.

The leaders told the group that many factors were contributing
to the high rates of emigration of Palestinian Christians, and to
the suffering of Palestinian people as a whole. These included
discriminatory housing policies, the demolition of Palestinian
homes to make way for Israeli settlements, high rates of
unemployment, and violence from Israeli settlers.

In addition, a strict permit system imposed by the Israeli
government severely restricts, or in many cases prohibits, the
movement of Palestinians within (and to and from) the West Bank.
These restrictions affect all aspects of Palestinian life, making
everyday activities like selling farming produce, obtaining
access to medical treatment and education and visiting friends
and relatives difficult, hazardous and often impossible.

>"Don't leave us alone", plead church leaders

Patriarch Fouad Twal said that after 60 years of occupation,
there was a strong sense of powerlessness among Christians in
Palestine.

"We still pray," he said. "And we believe in the power of
prayer. We are hopeful with the new US administration. But we
need countries around the world to support us."

Patriarch Theophilus III said that a strong Christian presence
in the Holy Land was extremely important, and that his
Patriarchate was working hard to promote reconciliation in the
region.

"Christians need moral support – they need to feel that they are
not alone. One very important contribution to the peace process
is education – initiatives that allow young people to get
together, to get to know each other's religious symbols, to
remove prejudices," he said.

Bishop Munib Younan said it was important to understand that
injustice now could fuel extremism in the future, across all
three religions in the region. Already this was being manifested
in numerous ways, he said – for example, in the rise to power of
ultra-orthodox personalities in the Israeli government, in the
strong support for Israel by Christian Zionists, and in the quest
for power among Islamic fundamentalists.

Nowhere was the impact of these tensions clearer than in the
recent war on Gaza, said Bishop Younan. A team of clergy recently
visited the Gaza Strip. What they saw there in the wake of the
December to January Israeli air strikes was destruction on a
monumental scale, and a people traumatized by the violence they
had experienced.

"I've travelled a great deal in the world, and this is the first
time I've seen children without a smile," said Bishop Younan.
"The children of Gaza cannot smile. Where is the conscience of
the world?"

The time for negotiations had passed, he said, and it was time
to act. "The churches must not keep quiet about this. They must
be prophetic voices. Don't leave us alone in our struggle. Help
us by raising your voices to speak more clearly on justice, the
sharing of Jerusalem, an end to the occupation, and a viable
state for Palestinians, living side-by-side with the state of
Israel."

Rev. Dr Naim Ateek, founder and director of the Sabeel
Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center ( http://www.sabeel.org/
)in Jerusalem, issued a similar call during an evening meeting
with the Living Letters team. Ateek, whose book A Palestinian
Christian Cry for Reconciliation had been launched the previous
night, said there was a desperate need for prophetic voices on
the Israel-Palestine issue, particularly Christian ones. "If all
the churches were willing to speak up, we could work miracles
here," he said. "We have great weight, which we have not used."

>Courage needed to challenge occupation

The need for US leadership on the issue – and the importance of
advocacy by US churches to encourage this leadership – was a
recurring theme throughout the visit. The Rev. John Thomas,
general minister and president of the United Church of Christ
(UCC) in the United States, was also in Jerusalem and the West
Bank in March as part of a visit to ecumenical partners in the
Middle East. He and two UCC staff members accompanied the Living
Letters team on several of their meetings with church leaders and
human rights organizations.

He was struck by the changes that had taken place since he last
toured the area in 2005: the expansion of illegal Israeli housing
settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank; the
transformation of once-makeshift checkpoints into elaborate
terminals through which Palestinians must pass in order to enter
Jerusalem; and the growth of the Separation Wall which now cuts
deep into the West Bank.

Thomas said the Palestinians he met expressed little hope of a
change in their situation. "The sense of abandonment and
vulnerability is profound, the sense of political powerlessness
pervasive."

He challenged members of his own church to speak out on the
issue. "The question for us is whether we can be brave enough to
challenge an occupation seeking to claim the souls of all
involved, and that demeans and dehumanizes even those it seeks to
privilege," he said.

"As citizens of the nation that provides billions of dollars a
year to support the occupation, we are deeply complicit, and
therefore called to a particular responsibility to say, 'No
longer in my name!'"

>[1'032 words]

(*) Emma Halgren, WCC Communication intern, is a member of the
Uniting Church in Australia.

More information about the Living Letters visit:
http://overcomingviolence.org/en/peace-convocation/living-letters-visits/israel-and-palestine.html

Photo gallery (high resolution versions available upon
request):
http://overcomingviolence.org/?id=6727

Sixty Years of WCC Policy on Palestine/Israel, 1948-2007 (in
brief)
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?id=3628

>WCC member churches in Israel/Palestine 
>http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?id=4746

>###
>[SIDEBAR]

>Education is crucial in bridge-building

To get an idea of the overall health and well-being of a
society, you should look at how its smallest minority is being
treated. That's the theory Rabbi Daniel Rossing holds to, and in
the case of Arab Christians – a minority group in the Holy Land –
the indicators are deeply troubling.

Rabbi Rossing, executive director of the Jerusalem Center for
Jewish Christian Relations (JCJCR), knows that lack of
understanding is at least partly responsible for this.

The JCJCR recently conducted a public survey of attitudes among
the adult Jewish population in Israel to Christianity,
Christians, and the Christian presence in Israel. 

The results showed a strong correlation between levels of
education and tolerance of Christians, and indicated the high
degree of segregation that currently exists in Israeli society –
more than 50 per cent of respondents said they had no Christian
friends or acquaintances in Israel or abroad. Younger respondents
showed significantly lower levels of tolerance of Christianity.

The JCJCR, which has a staff of two Jews and two Christians,
works to overcome some of this prejudice and foster greater
understanding between the different religions. It runs numerous
educational programmes for both Christian and Jewish audiences,
teaching them about key aspects of the other religion including
doctrine, worship and the history of that religion's presence in
the Holy Land.

Staff members organize seminars on Christianity for government
ministries, Israeli Defence Force educational units, police,
journalists, and other audiences, and produce resources in Hebrew
and Arabic about the Christian and Jewish faiths respectively. 

The centre also runs "encounter groups", in which Jews and
Christians with something in common – for example age, gender,
profession or geography – are brought together to discuss the
issues affecting them, to share information about their culture,
and to discuss opportunities for collaborative social action.

>The rabbinic voice of conscience

Rabbis for Human Rights is another organization working to build
better relationships. Established with the aim of being "the
rabbinic voice of conscience in Israel", it takes practical
action on issues like house demolitions and women's rights.

One key project, Agricultural Access, brings together teams of
international and Israeli volunteers from all religious
backgrounds to plant, prune and harvest olive trees. This helps
Palestinians maintain access to their trees and reduce the
incidence of violence and theft during the harvest season.

"If our first mandate is to promote human rights, then our
second and no less important mandate is to introduce into the
mindset of Israelis a different understanding of Judaism," said
executive director Rabbi Arik Ascherman.

"We have to break down the stereotypes that Palestinians have of
us, and with the help of Palestinians, break down the stereotypes
that we have of them. That’s the only way we have a better
future."

Rabbi Rossing said the encounter between Jews and Christians in
the Holy Land was a deeply complex one, but that there was
potential for cooperation.

"As much as religion can be used to fan the flames of conflict,
it can also extinguish the flames of conflict," said Rabbi
Rossing. "We believe that the Arab Christian population, as small
as it is, can serve a bridging role, but only if the majority
religions have at least a minimal understanding of who these
Christians are."

>[540 words]

Opinions expressed in WCC Features do not necessarily reflect
WCC policy. This material may be reprinted freely, providing
credit is given to the author. 

Additional information:Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507
6363 media@wcc-coe.org

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