Episcopal Press and News
Episcopal Church Joins in Jerusalem Ad Project
Episcopal News Service. August 22, 1996 [96-1543]
(ENS) Through the Episcopal Church Public Policy Network, the government relations office of the Episcopal Church in Washington D.C. is urging Episcopalians to help support the purchase of a full-page advertisement in the New York Times calling for a shared Jerusalem.
The advertisement will stress that although "Israeli leaders hold that Jerusalem should be Israel's capital under the sole sovereignty of the State of Israel," the city is "a sacred city to Jews, Christians and Muslims."
Supporters of the advertisement, a project of the ecumenical Churches for Middle East Peace, will be stating that "as Christians committed to working for peace, we support a negotiated solution for Jerusalem that respects the human and political rights of both Palestinians and Israelis, as well as the rights of the three religious communities."
Jerusalem "cannot belong exclusively to one people, one country or one religion," the advertisement concludes. "Jerusalem should be open to all, shared by all -- two peoples and three religions."
A full-page advertisement in the Times will cost $33,000, which must be raised from donations from individuals and organizations.
While negotiations over the future of the city were supposed to begin in the summer of 1996, the expansion of Israeli settlements for Jews on land claimed by Palestinians in east Jerusalem and adjacent West Bank land annexed by Israel "will leave nothing to negotiate," according to a letter from the public policy network, a national network of Episcopalians committed to advocacy. The letter urges Episcopalians to write letters to President Bill Clinton and his administration to protest the construction of additional settlements.
"As Israeli Prime Minister (Binyamn) Netanyahu begins to shape the policies and practices of his new government, the Episcopal Church in the United States needs to urge the Clinton Administration to pressure Israel to stop building settlements which threaten the peace process," the letter states.
International attention has been focused recently on the confiscation of land in the northern parts of Bethlehem, Beit Sahour and Beit Jala, just south of Jerusalem, in order to construct a border road between Bethlehem and Jerusalem that would link the Jewish settlement of Gilo and a proposed settlement of Har Homah.
Protests by residents of Bethlehem, the Palestinian owners of the confiscated land, foreign and Israeli peace activists, and members of church groups were unable to stop the destruction of ancient olive trees planted on the land as construction of the road began in June. According to the International and Local Committees for the Defense of Bethlehem, the road would complete a ring of Jewish-only settlements and bypass roads around Bethlehem, a Palestinian town, effectively extend the southern border of Jerusalem into Bethlehem, and cut off over 2,400 Palestinian families from their land and olive groves.
The Har Homa settlement itself would eventually house 50,000 Jewish Israelis on the last forested mountain in the area, Jabal Abu Ghneim, confiscated in 1991.
"The confiscation of any land in the Palestinian territories can only provoke opposition to and endanger the peace process," said Michel Sabbah, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. "These confiscations raise in all hearts frustration and despair and are one of the main factors which is exploited by extremists, and which lead to more violence."
The 1991 and 1994 General Convention of the Episcopal Church both opposed the use of United States aid to support the expansion of settlements in the Occupied Territories, which the 1994 convention called "illegal under international law and an obstacle to peace."
Churches for Middle East Peace is a joint program of the Washington offices of the American Baptist Churches, USA; American Friends Service Committee; Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); Church of the Brethren; Episcopal Church; Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Friends Committee on National Legislation; Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers; Mennonite Central Committee; National Council of Churches; Presbyterian Church (USA); Roman Catholic Conference of Major Superiors of Men; Unitarian Universalist Association; United Church of Christ; and United Methodist Church.
For information on the advertisement project and settlements in the Occupied Territiories, call Thomas Hart, legislative assistant in the Episcopal Church's government relations office, at 800-228-0515.
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