Stated clerk issues plea for 'just
and lasting peace' in Israel and Palestine
from Presbyterian News Service
LOUISVILLE -- April 5, 2002 -- The stated clerk of the
General Assembly, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, today issued a statement
on the crisis in the Middle East. The text follows.
April 5, 2002
For the sake of peace and security in Israel and
Palestine, in the Middle East and in the world, the human tragedy
experienced by Palestinians and Israelis must be ended.
For the sake of peace and human wholeness of the two
peoples, acts of terror, whether individual or organized, and state
violence and military destruction must stop.
For the sake of peace and justice, the Israeli
occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip must come
to an end.
We grieve the loss of innocent lives of Israeli
civilians killed by suicide bombings, and condemn those acts as
abhorrent. We do not believe that acts of violence will ultimately
create a climate in which Israelis and Palestinians can live together in
security.
We decry the continuing occupation of the Palestinian
territories by the Israeli government, and the terror inflicted upon the
Palestinian people through Israel's repeated military incursions into
Palestinian towns and villages. We do not believe that the might of the
powerful can bring peace through the force of humiliation, violated
rights, and death.
We urge that political leaders keep focused on peace,
not allowing themselves to be diverted by from its path by extremist
activities.
Since 1967, our church has called for the recognition
of Israel's right to exist as a sovereign state within secure borders,
the right of the Palestinian people to self determination, including the
creation of a sovereign Palestinian state, and the right of both peoples
to live in peace as neighbors. We have repeatedly called for the end of
the Israeli occupation, a halting of the building and expansion of
Israel settlements and colonies on confiscated Palestinian land, a halt
of the continuing humiliation and degradation of the Palestinian people
by Israel through collective punishment, demolition of houses, damage
and destruction of public buildings, including church structures,
invasion of hospitals, schools and church buildings and annexes, border
closings, military check points, denial of access to health and social
services and religious sites, and even brutal attack on Palestinian
police and civilians, including women, men and children inhabitants of
refugee camps.
We have now for years watched the "peace
process" alternately with hope and despair. We have called on our
own government, which yields enormous influence on the leadership of
both Israelis and Palestinians, and indeed in the entire region, to take
a pro-active, unbiased role in promoting justice and peace in the
region; and have often been disappointed by its silence, delayed action,
or one-sided support of Israel given in the false hope that Israel's
policies would bring security.
We have encouraged United Nations resolutions aimed at
justice for both Israel and the Palestinians, which were adopted but
sometimes vetoed by our own government, and most often ignored or defied
by Israel.
Our hopes have been raised by the recent unanimous
action of the Arab Summit in Beirut, formulated on the basis of the
Saudi initiative, offering Israel full recognition with diplomatic
relations and political, social and economic cooperation in return for
the implementation of the United Nations' resolutions calling on Israel
to withdraw from Palestinian Occupied Territories and return to its 1967
borders. Israel has yet to respond to the offer of the Arab Summit held
in Beirut in late March.
We have found hope in the Israeli peace movement and
in Israeli reservists who have refused to fight any further in the
Occupied Territories.
We are encouraged by the recent call of President
George W. Bush on Israel to withdraw its military forces from the
Palestinian towns, to end its settlements activity, to respect the
dignity or the Palestinian people and to return to peace negotiations.
We welcome the plan to send Secretary of State Colin Powell to the
Middle East to work toward that goal. We urge that the United States,
which is recognized as a potentially key partner, should exert its
positive influence to end the occupation. As we trust that the recent
initiative of our President will help to change the present militant
climate, we pray that the liberator God of the ancient Exodus will also
look with favor upon the peoples held in bondage of all sorts in the
land called holy: military and political bondage, bondage of terror,
bondage of despair, bondage of material need, bondage of anger, hurt and
bitterness, bondage of history.
In hope, we acknowledge that though the land be holy
for its historical significance for people of faith, it is not sacred
for exclusive claims. As a church that works to actualize the
affirmation of peacemaking as the believer's calling, we are convinced
that the potential for peace, if grounded in justice, is far greater
than the divisions perpetuated by conflict, hostility and violence. We
are absolutely convinced that "shalom," "salaam,"
"peace, integrity and wholeness" is God's will for all people,
for all creation.
Therefore, once again, we lift up our hands in
supplication to Almighty God; we lift up our voices to political leaders
in the region, in our nation and in the world; we lift up our hopes for
peoples living under the tyranny of fear, suspicion, hatred, or despair;
with the plea that the spirit of good counsel and good will prevail for
a just and lasting peace, in Israel and Palestine, and in the world.
