Christian Palestinians Invite Global Participation in January Conference

By Rev. L. Humphrey Walz

The first international conference of the Sabeel Liberation Theology Center (P.O. Box 1248, Jerusalem) will be held Jan. 22-27 in consultation with the Middle East Council of Churches and other ecumenical organizations at the East Jerusalem YMCA. The sponsoring body, Sabeel, consists of outstanding Palestinian Christian leaders who, dedicated to peace in the Middle East, believe that Jerusalem is the major key to that goal.

Sabeel's director, Canon Naim Ateek of the Jerusalem Episcopal Cathedral, is the author of the sold-out 1989 Orbis book, Justice and Only Justice: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation. He also is known for his collaboration with two American theologians—Jewish Mark Ellis and Catholic Rosemary Radford Ruether—in compiling and editing Faith and the Intifada: Palestinian Christian Voices (Orbis, 1992).

On the 12-member committee working closely with Canon Ateek in Sabeel is Father Elias Chacour of Galilee, author of two courageous, conciliatory and bestselling books, Blood Brothers and We Belong to the Land (see AET Book Club Catalog pages 79 and 80). Other committee members are: Archdeacon Riah Abu El Assal, Mrs. Nora Carmi, Mr. Wasif Daher, Mrs. Cedar Duaybis, Dr. Munir Fasheh, Mrs. Samia Khoury, Mrs. Violette Khoury, Advocate Jonathan Kuttab, Mrs. Jean Zaru and Mr. Zoughbi Zoughbi.

The conference keynote address by Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah is to be followed by a day devoted to such basic themes as: Jerusalem's Lessons from History; Partnerships for the Future; Christian Theology of Jerusalem; Pilgrimage in Perspective; Current Realities in the Closure of Jerusalem; Politicization of Archeology and City Planning; Requirements for a Just Legal Solution; and Toward Building an Inclusive Jerusalem.

Sessions will be held in Galilee and Jericho as well, and appropriate lectures will be given on the buses taking participants from place to place. Hospitality will be afforded on many occasions by local Christian churches. The conference will end with an optional trip to Gaza.

Canon Ateek expresses his appreciation for the number of American early registrations and hopes that more applicants will contact him at the Center, by mail, by telephone (972-2-289415) or by fax (972-2-283869).

Glimpses of Closed Jerusalem

Sabeel publishes Cornerstone, a 12-page newsletter of first-hand reports on events in the Jerusalem area that call for Christian action. Extracted comments by two of Sabeel's leaders, Jonathan Kuttab, a human rights lawyer and son of a Palestinian pastor, and Cedar Duaybis, a member of the YWCA National Council in Palestine, give a foretaste of how the January conference will clarify and humanize the Jerusalem situation with a challenge to Christian action.

"East Jerusalem has always been the heart of the Palestinian area."

Below are the first two paragraphs of Kuttab's essay on "Legal Aspects of the Closure":

"When Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967 it proceeded to announce immediately to the world that it will allow free access to the holy places in Jerusalem. However, shortly after the occupation began, Israel unilaterally annexed East Jerusalem and a number of villages surrounding it into Israel and applied Israeli law and administration to them. It then proceeded to regulate the movement of people from the West Bank (as well as Gaza) into East Jerusalem.

"During recent years and since the Gulf war, Israel intensified its campaign to Judaize Jerusalem and took a number of steps to restrict the Arab institutions in East Jerusalem. This was particularly harsh because East Jerusalem has always been the heart of the Palestinian area, containing not only the religious but also the economic, cultural, medical, institutional and communications services of most of the West Bank."

Duaybis illustrates problems with brief stories of troubles experienced by Palestinian women trying to cross checkpoints into or out of Jerusalem: "Please explain to him that my customers live on both sides of the barrier," she quotes a Palestinian woman as pleading in the presence of a crossing-point guard who barred her from carrying laban (home-made yogurt) across. "Go back!" shouted the soldier, almost toppling her jar of laban as he pushed her aside.

In another instance, a soldier "roughly pulled one of two women by the sleeve of her beautifully embroidered Palestinian dress. 'Get out, both of you—go back and get permits.' 'A permit for what?' She spoke, as if to herself, as she got out of the taxi, tears running down her cheeks. 'I only want to visit Jerusalem.'"

Historic Christian Acreage Threatened

The Fourth Geneva Convention, to which both the U.S. and Israel are signatories, forbids an occupying power to settle its citizens in areas it has occupied militarily. Yet, ignoring or defying this agreement has been a standard feature of Israeli takeovers of more and more of the West Bank acreage remaining in Palestinian hands.

In line with this pattern, Israeli Housing Minister Benyamin Ben-Eliezer has slated January 1996 for the start of yet another 6,500-unit Jewish settlement—this one at Abu Ghannaim, near the endangered Christian village of Beit Sahour.

Biblical tradition and Church history saturate the slopes of Mount Ghannaim, which rise east of Bethlehem. It was here that Hebrew farmer Boaz courted the Gentile gleaner Ruth and, with her, became one of the forebears of King David and of Jesus.

Called Har Homa in Hebrew, Abu Ghannaim's southward view includes the Shepherds' Field of St. Luke's Christmas story. Its Byzantine monastery's ancient remains, like those of the much older churches of St. Luke and St. Marina nearby, have been in Franciscan custody since the Middle Ages.

The area is dotted with yet more sub-surface relics of other centuries of Christian predominance in the region. It is, however, these three sites that Senior Researcher Judith Green of the Hebrew University Institute of Archeology is most eager to excavate carefully before they are destroyed in Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert's rush to circumvent the peace process by encircling the city with Jewish settlements on Arab properties.

Director Ghassan Andoni of Beit Sahour's Center for Christian-Jewish-Muslim Rapprochement told Ecumenical News International's Martin Bailey, "There will be popular demonstrations if the Interior Ministry permits this construction. We may have no other choice."

Members of the Israeli Jewish Peace Now organization have, in fact, called on the minister of the interior to block the construction plans. When an Israeli settlement was proposed for the same spot three years ago, the U.S. was among the governments that sharply rebuked Israel and forced it to put the project on hold.

Clearly, however, Olmert hopes that this time the Clinton administration and Congress will be forgetful, vacillating, or inconsistent with its previous position and the Fourth Geneva Convention. (According to Quaker sources, the Israelis have confiscated over 36,000 acres of Palestinian land since the Oslo peace accord.)

MECC Speaks Out on Jerusalem

The current issue of the Middle East Council of Churches' News Report provides this Nov. 2 statement on Jerusalem by the MECC Executive Committee at Limassol, Cyprus:

"Christians the world over prepare to celebrate the anniversary of two thousand years since our Lord Jesus Christ was born, God with us. As that happy moment draws near, our concerns are drawn to our Christian brothers and sisters who live in Jerusalem. They are the living presence of our common Body in the city where the Church was born, and we share with them their agonies and fears for the city that is and for the city that shall be.

"Jerusalem has a special spiritual status: It is holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims. It contains the reminders—holy places—of what their faiths proclaim and revere. But, more than shrines and places of worship, it is a peopled city, a living community, by whom life is breathed into an ancient culture and deep religious heritages. Their right to be where they are, on any scale of justice, is inalienable.

"Whatever their religion, the people of Jerusalem must enjoy the right of free access, the right to exercise civic responsibilities, the right to settle down and live, and the right to worship God according to their own traditions. It breaks the city's unique and living covenant when the followers of one impose restrictions upon the believers of other religions, place impediments in their path, and threaten their communities with dissolution.

"The peace process began with high hopes, rejoicing the hearts of those who live in the city of peace. Unfortunately recent decisions—Israel's choice to celebrate three thousand years since David's conquest and the American Congress' determination to transfer the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem—raise obstacles before those who are working for peace. They trespass upon the human rights of Palestinians and, in asserting exclusive Israeli claims, distort the pluralistic distinctiveness of the city. These actions violate all the United Nations' resolutions on Jerusalem, and mock the universal rule of law. In short, they seriously undermine the peace process.

"Speaking for the churches of the Middle East and particularly for our people in Jerusalem, we plead with our brothers and sisters in the faith throughout the world: Listen to what the Patriarchs and the leaders of Jerusalem's churches said in November 1994, appealing for the conditions that make for peace. Defend the rights of Palestinians to dwell in the city they know as home. Stand against those who confiscate and expropriate properties in and around Jerusalem that are not theirs but belong to the native children of the land. And lift a voice to uphold those whose homes and livelihoods are being destroyed by the intrusions of illegal settlements.

"Jerusalem is the city of Pentecost. Join with us in work and prayer that the Holy Spirit may inspire the peacemakers and that, indeed, there may be peace on earth, good will among people."

The Rev. L. Humphrey Walz, D.D., retired Associate Executive of the Presbyterian Synod of the Northeast, is active in denominational and ecumenical peacemaking activities.