Episcopal Press and News

Jerusalem Will Not Become a Berlin, Says Shimon Peres

Episcopal News Service. March 27, 1996 [96-1427Q]

(ENI) Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres said recently that there will be no secular intervention in religious activities in Jerusalem, except on grounds of security. Peres was speaking to a delegation of the Lutheran World Federation, led by its general secretary, Ishmael Noko, during a meeting in Jerusalem on March 18. There were no plans to "make Jerusalem [into] a Berlin," Peres told Noko, after Noko had said that Jerusalem "should be an undivided city that is open to both Palestinians and Israelis." Noko said the LWF had always advocated co-existence between two states and three religions (Judaism, Islam and Christianity) in the city. The Lutheran Church in Jerusalem and the West Bank had not been able to hold synod meetings, Noko said, since border closures had been re-introduced in the wake of the four recent suicide bombings which killed 61 people in Israel. The bombings were intended to wreck the Middle East peace process. Commenting on the rigorous measures Israel has taken to try to halt the bombings, the Peres agreed that closures preventing the free movement of the Palestinians were "a collective punishment." But he added that the bombings targeting Israelis had also been "collective punishment."