21st September, 2015
The head of the World Council of Churches has called for prayer so that the “wall will fall” between Israelis and Palestinians as Christians around the world join in the annual World Week for Peace in Palestine and Israel.
In a statement released last week to mark the launch of the week – which runs from 21st to 27th September, Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit said it was his “sincere desire and prayer, shared with many Jews and Muslims, that there should be no hostilities among neighbours in Israel and Palestine, and beyond, in the whole Middle East region.”
This year’s event is taking place under the theme of “God has broken down the dividing walls” in reference to a quote from Ephesians 2:14 which states that God “has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us”.
Rev Dr Tveit said the last few years have been “particularly difficult for the Middle East, especially for communities in Iraq and Syria”.
“Over the past two weeks, we have seen tremendous numbers of refugees seeking new lives in Europe. This tremendous exodus of refugees indicates just how difficult their lives have become. As churches, we must not forget to address the fundamental concern of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Resolution of this conflict, if it is a just peace agreement, will contribute significantly to solving other problems of the Middle East. It will remove one of the sources of conflict that could lead to religious extremism, thus promoting peace in the region and beyond.”
He said that, “(a)s in the rest of the Middle East, Palestinian Christians are adversely affected along with their neighbours” and in particular spoke of Christians in the Cremisan Valley, which lies near Bethlehem and is where Israel is building the latest segment in its separation wall. Last Saturday it was expected to be the site of a gathering of church leaders in a “strategic, nonviolent witness” which Rev Dr Tveit said was intended to confront individual soldiers and police guarding the equipment being used to create the barrier as well as the “unjust structures and systems supporting Israel”s illegal occupation of Palestinian land”.
“In the Cremisan Valley, Christians are being directly impacted by Israel”s occupation policies,” he said. “A historically Christian area for centuries, Cremisan is home to a monastery, a convent, and Christian schools, all alongside hectares of privately-owned Palestinian Christian land. For churches to highlight the Christian character of this particular area does not diminish that all Palestinians share the same struggle. Israeli occupation harms all Palestinian lives. In this case, however, Christians are being directly affected.”
He said it was essential that they and other Christians in the Middle East “know that they are not alone” and said that as people prayed that the “wall will fall”, it was his hope that “practical steps will soon be taken for the establishment of a just peace in Palestine and Israel and the whole Middle East region.”
~ pief.oikoumene.org/en/world-week-for-peace/world-week-for-peace-in-palestine-israel
A petition to stop wall being built can be found here:
~ www.change.org/p/stop-the-illegal-separation-barrier-wallwillfall
– DAVID ADAMS
