20th October, 2015
The World Council of Churches has expressed its concern over the escalating violence in Israel and the West Bank in which at least eight Israelis and more than 40 Palestinians have died and many more injured.
In a 19th October letter to member churches in Palestine and Israel, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches, Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, said the council was following "with increasing dismay" events in the region and particularly in Jerusalem, and was continuing to "work and pray for a just peace for both Palestinians and Israelis, promoting respect for the status quo of the holy sites of Jerusalem as an important contribution to reducing current tensions".
"As Christians, we must all seek an end to violence against any of God’s children, just as we seek an end to occupation and the injustices that present such formidable obstacles to peace in Israel/Palestine," he wrote. "Violent attacks are an unacceptable and counter-productive means of seeking justice. Proportional security measures and the rule of law are the appropriate instruments for responding to such attacks, not extra-judicial killings."
Rev Dr Tveit said the WCC "stands firmly with Christians in the Holy Land in our conviction that the illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories must be brought to an end" and said the international community had "stood by" as "successive restrictions, impositions, acquisitions, settlements and prevarications by the Government of Israel have forced the prospect of a viable two-state solution to vanishing point."
He called on all political and religious leaders to "resist instrumentalising holy sites in the political struggle between the Palestinian people and the Israeli occupation" and commended Palestinian Christians for their commitment to nonviolent resistance.
On Sunday, Pope Francis urged both Israelis and Palestinians to have the "courage and fortitude to say no to hatred", saying he followed "with great concern" the violence that plagued the Holy Land.
Israel has been the scene of a wave of violent attacks over the past couple of weeks in which eight Israelis have died and numerous others been injured. More than 40 Palestinians have also been killed – almost half of them identified as attackers – while others have died in clashes with IDF troops in the West Bank.
In one of the latest violent incidents in Israel, a soldier was killed when a gunman who was also wielding a knife, identified subsequently as a Bedouin Arab citizen of Israel, attacked a bus station in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. An Eritrean man was shot by a security guard in the attack in the mistaken belief he was a second attacker before being beaten by a mob. The incident prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to warn against vigilantism, saying "no-one must take the law into their own hands".
– DAVID ADAMS
