wfn.org | PCUSA - Hopes for Mideast peace are shared among several faith leaders

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Hopes for Mideast peace are shared among several faith leaders

Friday evening conference gathers representatives of Jewish, Christian, Muslim 
faiths
Bookmark and Share

> Posted at
> July 2, 2010 11:55 p.m.

> By Toya Richards

> Presbyterian News Service

A pre-assembly conference Friday on peace in the Middle East helped set the 
stage for the 219th General Assembly (2010) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

?Shalom, Salaam, and Peace: One Hope, Two Peoples, Three Faith Traditions? 
brought together perspectives on the Middle East from diverse faiths practicing 
in context.

?We gather as a people of deep faith,? said the Rev. Dr. Ronald L. Shive, 
chairperson of the Middle East Study Committee (MESC). ?We gather as a people 
who have a persistent hope for a just peace in the Middle East.?

The purpose of the conference was to discuss the conflict from three faith 
traditions (Jewish, Muslim and Christian) who are bound together and who have 
strong traditions, including social justice, said Shive, pastor of First 
Presbyterian Church in Burlington, N.C., in Salem Presbytery.

The evening event was sponsored by the MESC. The committee was authorized by 
the 218th General Assembly (2008) ?to prepare a comprehensive study, with 
recommendations, that is focused on Israel/Palestine within the complex context 
of the Middle East? and to report back to the 219th General Assembly (2010).

The committee?s 172-page report with recommendations is entitled ?Breaking Down 
the Walls? and will come before the GA?s Middle East Peacemaking Issues  
Committee.

In addition to presentations by speakers, the pre-assembly gathering included a 
dialogue between the presenters, a question-and-answer session with attendees 
and dinner.

Avraham Burg, who formerly served as a member and speaker of the Knesset, as an 
Israeli Cabinet minister and as chairperson of Jewish Agency for Israel, opened 
the discussion. Among his points was that a competition has developed between 
Israelis and Palestinians over who has suffered more traumas.

On one side, ?We are always the eternal victims,? Burg said. Yet at the same 
time, the other side talks about humiliating occupation, the effects of 
colonialism and other traumas, he added.

Instead of respecting the pain of the other, the parties negate it, he said. 
They ?do not recognize the suffering of the  other.?

Yet if the attitude is warm and embracing, ?I believe that something else can 
come out of it,? Burg said.

The first stage, he said, must be recognition of the situation, which includes 
acknowledging a responsibility for the problems of Palestinian refugees. Action 
must be taken by the civil society to encourage political change.

There also must be a move from ?trauma to trust,? Burg urged. ?There are people 
out there ... who are my partners.?

> ?We need a different paradigm,? he said.

The Rev. Mitri Raheb, the second presenter at the conference and a Palestinian 
Christian, shared candidly about the plight of Palestinians. His own teenage 
daughter had to be smuggled into Jerusalem after being denied a permit to 
enter. The high school student needed to apply for a visa to the United States, 
where she had been granted a scholarship to  study.

?We cannot even move within our own country,? said the pastor of the 
Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, West Bank, and founder and 
president of the Diyar Consortium and International Center of Bethlehem.

The West Bank is being converted into ?Swiss cheese? where Israel gets the 
cheese and Palestinians are pushed behind walls into the holes, said Raheb, who 
said he looks outside every day to see settlements encroaching into Bethlehem.

?The facts on the ground, they speak much louder than all of these peace 
talkers,? he said. ?The conflict is not a philosophical conflict ... it?s 
existential.?

Ironically, one of the three speakers scheduled to participate, Palestinian 
Muslim Dr. Allam Jarrar, was not able to attend because he was not given an 
opportunity for a visa interview at the United States consulate in Jerusalem, 
meeting attendees were told.

However, in printed comments for the conference, Jarrar reiterated some of the 
principles that have guided Palestinians? efforts toward comprehensive and 
permanent  peace.

?Peace requires respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and 
political independence of both nations and their right to live in peace within 
secure and recognized boundaries, free from threats or acts of violence or 
force,? he wrote.

Further, he wrote, ?A sustainable peace should be based on justice and 
equality.?

Raheb said Israel?s implementation in Palestine of a system of segregation, 
building walls in order to keep the best resources, and creating reservations 
mirroring those used in the U.S. with American Indians ?are actually making 
peace totally impossible.?

The reality is depressing, Raheb acknowledged. Still, ?because of the deadlock, 
we have to speak out ... to speak words of faith, hope and love.?

?There is so much to be done,? he said. The Middle East Study Committee report, 
Raheb said, ?is for me a sign of  hope.?

One of the options he discussed was creative, nonviolent resistance ? 
specifically the use of boycotting as a tool, mentioned in a document Raheb and 
other Palestinian Christians authored.

While Burg shunned boycotting, he offered his own participation in a mass 
hunger strike at the separation barrier as a nonviolent option.

?This is real Ghandi-style civil disobedience,? Burg said.