WCC TO STRENGTHEN CHURCHES’ PEACE EFFORTS IN PALESTINE/ISRAEL

Local churches in Palestine/Israel are looking to the whole fellowship of the World Council of Churches (WCC) to play a stronger role in supporting local churches’ struggles for a just peace there. This is the main finding of a delegation led by the Council’s general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia that visited Palestine/Israel from 21 to 26 June. A new advocacy forum launched prior to the visit, and ecumenical accompaniment are high on the churches’ list of actions in pursuit of this goal.

"The visit allowed us to confirm that the WCC does have a role to play in strengthening and supporting the churches in Palestine/Israel," said WCC delegation member Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, head of the Church of Norway’s Council on Ecumenical and International Relations. "In so doing, it will be crucial to carefully listen to the churches in the Holy Land and let them decide what kind of support they need," he added.

The Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum, recently launched in Jordan and welcomed by the heads of churches in Jerusalem, will be "a privileged tool to facilitate greater involvement of the WCC member churches in advocacy efforts for a just peace in the region," said Kobia. "It will enable our member churches to increase the work in awareness raising as well as in education both of their constituencies and the public at large."

"Youth issues should be on the front-line of the forum’s concerns," said WCC central committee and youth body member Christine Biere, from the Evangelical Church in Germany, who was part of the ecumenical delegation. She identified "peace education for youth and children" as a "key factor" for success "as well as a main concern of the local churches".

Monitoring life in the occupied territories

The WCC’s Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine/Israel (EAPPI) was strongly backed as a concrete way for churches worldwide to get involved in the struggle for a just peace.

The WCC delegation got a first-hand introduction to the accompaniers’ work. They saw EAPPI volunteers at work in Jayyous, a small West Bank town that has been cut off from its farming lands; Hebron, a Palestinian city of 160,000 inhabitants whose centre has been invaded by some 400 radical Israeli settlers whose presence has killed what used to be the city’s vibrant commercial life; Aida, a refugee camp of some 4600 people from families displaced by the 1948 war; and Bethlehem, a community encircled and being suffocated by the government of Israel’s "separation barrier".

"Ecumenical accompaniers are the eyes and ears of the ecumenical family in the midst of the conflict on the ground," said Kobia at the end of his tour of gates, checkpoints, and empty streets with closed shops.

Inter-religious encounters, holy sites

The WCC delegation met the mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, as well as the two chief rabbis of Israel, Rabbi Yona Metzger (Ashkenazi) and Shlomo Amar (Sephardi). Issues of education for peace and reconciliation, inter-religious relations and dialogue as well as common values were discussed.

"An education founded on solid moral ground needs to replace the propaganda-type education that demonizes the other and encourages hatred," said Kobia. "If extremists on both sides are allowed to define what it is to be Palestinian or Israeli, then we are in trouble."

The delegation visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem’s Old City; attended a Shabbat service at the synagogue Kol HaNeshama, prayed at the Western Wall, and paid a tribute to Holocaust victims at the Yad Vashem memorial. Kobia and his wife Ruth shared a Shabbat meal with a family in West Jerusalem.

The delegation visited Christian holy sites in Nazareth, Bethlehem and Jerusalem. They also visited Augusta Victoria Hospital of the Lutheran World Federation on the Mount of Olives; met with members of local Christian organizations in Bethlehem, and worshipped at St. George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem.

In addition to Kobia, Fykse Tveit and Biere, CEC central committee member H.E. Metropolitan Emmanuel (Adamakis) of France from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople was part of the WCC delegation, which was accompanied by Ruth Kobia, and WCC staff members Jonathan Frerichs, Michel Nseir, Peter Williams and Juan Michel.

"The visit allowed us to confirm that the WCC does have a role to play in strengthening and supporting the churches in Palestine/Israel," said WCC delegation member Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, head of the Church of Norway’s Council on Ecumenical and International Relations. "In so doing, it will be crucial to carefully listen to the churches in the Holy Land and let them decide what kind of support they need," he added.

The Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum, recently launched in Jordan and welcomed by the heads of churches in Jerusalem, will be "a privileged tool to facilitate greater involvement of the WCC member churches in advocacy efforts for a just peace in the region," said Kobia. "It will enable our member churches to increase the work in awareness raising as well as in education both of their constituencies and the public at large."

"Youth issues should be on the front-line of the forum’s concerns," said WCC central committee and youth body member Christine Biere, from the Evangelical Church in Germany, who was part of the ecumenical delegation. She identified "peace education for youth and children" as a "key factor" for success "as well as a main concern of the local churches".

Monitoring life in the occupied territories

The WCC’s Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine/Israel (EAPPI) was strongly backed as a concrete way for churches worldwide to get involved in the struggle for a just peace.

The WCC delegation got a first-hand introduction to the accompaniers’ work. They saw EAPPI volunteers at work in Jayyous, a small West Bank town that has been cut off from its farming lands; Hebron, a Palestinian city of 160,000 inhabitants whose centre has been invaded by some 400 radical Israeli settlers whose presence has killed what used to be the city’s vibrant commercial life; Aida, a refugee camp of some 4600 people from families displaced by the 1948 war; and Bethlehem, a community encircled and being suffocated by the government of Israel’s "separation barrier".

"Ecumenical accompaniers are the eyes and ears of the ecumenical family in the midst of the conflict on the ground," said Kobia at the end of his tour of gates, checkpoints, and empty streets with closed shops.

Inter-religious encounters, holy sites

The WCC delegation met the mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, as well as the two chief rabbis of Israel, Rabbi Yona Metzger (Ashkenazi) and Shlomo Amar (Sephardi). Issues of education for peace and reconciliation, inter-religious relations and dialogue as well as common values were discussed.

"An education founded on solid moral ground needs to replace the propaganda-type education that demonizes the other and encourages hatred," said Kobia. "If extremists on both sides are allowed to define what it is to be Palestinian or Israeli, then we are in trouble."

The delegation visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem’s Old City; attended a Shabbat service at the synagogue Kol HaNeshama, prayed at the Western Wall, and paid a tribute to Holocaust victims at the Yad Vashem memorial. Kobia and his wife Ruth shared a Shabbat meal with a family in West Jerusalem.

The delegation visited Christian holy sites in Nazareth, Bethlehem and Jerusalem. They also visited Augusta Victoria Hospital of the Lutheran World Federation on the Mount of Olives; met with members of local Christian organizations in Bethlehem, and worshipped at St. George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem.

In addition to Kobia, Fykse Tveit and Biere, CEC central committee member H.E. Metropolitan Emmanuel (Adamakis) of France from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople was part of the WCC delegation, which was accompanied by Ruth Kobia, and WCC staff members Jonathan Frerichs, Michel Nseir, Peter Williams and Juan Michel.