WCC NEWS: Gaza panel calls for freedom from the “prison” of territorial isolation

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World Council of Churches - Feature

GAZA PANEL CALLS FOR FREEDOM FROM THE “PRISON” OF TERRITORIAL
ISOLATION

For immediate release: 30 September 2010

By Theodore A. Gill *

What is at stake in Gaza? This was the title question posed to 
panelists
speaking on the morning of Wednesday 29 September before 
approximately 120
participants in the United Nations Advocacy Week (UNAW) organized by 
the
World Council of Churches. The public discussion was moderated by 
George
Hazou, chairman of the Middle East Council of Churches’ central
committee.

For panelist Nora Carmi of Jerusalem the answer to the opening 
question is
straightforward: “What is at stake in Gaza is life.” The puzzling
thing, she continued, given the life-and-death situation of 
Palestinians
in Gaza, is this: “Why don’t we care enough for this tiny spot where
people are dying?”

Carmi, a staff member of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology 
Centre,
argued that the time has come “to say what is truly in our hearts” and
to vow that “we are going to save the people” whose lives are at risk
each day. This is far more crucial than a rehearsal of the content of 
UN
resolutions or further analysis of issues that have been analyzed so 
often
in the past.

She feels that “the greatest tragedy” to befall Palestinians is found
not in events of 1948 or 1967 but in the continuing division of the 
people
into separate territories and fractious parties, and particularly in 
the
isolation of Gaza and its inhabitants from the rest of the world.
Conditions in Gaza have been deteriorating for decades, she added, 
“and
we must share the responsibility for this.”

“We must come out of this UN Advocacy Week with a strategy and the
determination to act,” she said. This might mean “a Selma march in
Palestine” to “end the crime” being perpetrated there.

A pivotal event in the US civil rights movement was a 1965 march led 
by
Martin Luther King, Jr from the city of Selma to the state capitol in
Montgomery, Alabama.

Another speaker, Rabbi Brian Walt of the United States, president of
Ta’anit Tzedek – Jewish Fast for Peace, focused on the question,
“What is at stake in Gaza for Jews?” His conclusion was, “What is at
stake is no less than the moral core of my faith. Our liberation as a
moral people is inextricably linked to justice for the people of 
Gaza.”

Ta’anit Tzedek, an initiative among US Jews who support the Israeli 
peace
movement, draws inspiration from the words of prophecy in Isaiah 58:6,
“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, to break
every yoke?”

The rabbi described three principal aims of the Jewish Fast for Peace
related to Gaza: break the silence among Jews in regard to the 
oppression
of Palestinians, lift the siege of Gaza which is “immoral as well as
illegal” and pursue peace through negotiations in the realization that
there can be no military solution. He indicated that Ta’anit Tzedek 
may
intensify its efforts at lobbying the US government in order to resist
“the confusion of Judaism and the Jewish faith with Israeli national
policy.”

Standing for justice and peace is a responsibility for Jews due to 
calls in
Hebrew Scripture for righteous living, Rabbi Walt added, “but it is 
also
a human responsibility.”

Ramzi Zananiri, executive director of the Near East Council of 
Churches and
the International Christian Committee-Jerusalem, urged the audience to
view the “corporate punishment” of Gaza’s population within the
wider context of all occupied Palestinian territories. The election 
of the
Hamas party in Gaza serves as a distraction for international 
observers,
he said, but the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza constitute
interlocking parts of the one national aspiration of Palestinians. 
Gaza
must not be isolated in our thinking, any more than it should be
physically isolated by military blockade.

It is in this context of a united national vision that we appreciate 
what
is at stake today, Zananiri observed. “The reality on the ground 
remains
explosive. The likelihood of the worst-case scenario remains, and 
this is
keenly felt on the ground in each of the occupied territories.” It 
must
be felt, too, by all who yearn for peace in the Middle East: “The
situation as it stands cannot tolerate any additional injustices.”

* Theodore A. Gill is a minister of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
serving as senior publications editor of the World Council of Churches


The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, 
witness 
and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship 
of 
churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 
Protestant, 
Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 
million 
Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the 
Roman 
Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Olav Fykse 
Tveit, 
from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, 
Switzerland.



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