Pursuing Peace Together: Working for Reconciliation in the Holy Land

Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) is an ecumenical Christian organization that organizes the Christian community in the United States and advocates for issues of peace and justice in the Middle East. CMEP organizes a conference and advocacy event in June so that we, the members, can network together and address legislative policy regarding these issues. This  year CMEP placed its emphasis on the issue of re-invigorating the peace process between Israel and Palestine. We asked congress to support the administration of President Obama in its pursuit to achieve a comprehensive two-state solution with a just and lasting resolution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. This year the Passionist JPIC office added its voice to this Christian movement to advocate for peace in the Holy Land.

The Passionist Position:

The Passionists are an international Catholic religious community. One of the aims of our international commission for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation is to promote a culture of solidarity within the international Passionist family. I recently shared a blog post that was written by our UN director Fr. Kevin Dance, CP where he shared his own experience at the Passionist community in Bethany, which is on the border of Israel and the West Bank. In that article he and former superior Fr. Claudio discussed their concern for the Palestinian community in the area where they lived. Of specific concern was the situation of “The Wall” which cuts through our Passionist property. The Passionist and a community of religious sisters offer the local community of Bethany the service of providing elementary education and running an orphanage. These are services that can no longer be offered to the Palestinian community who are effectively shut out from these and so many other resources that are basic necessities of family life. The situation of the checkpoint crossings was also an issue of concern where Palestinians are forced to undergo a rigorous and sometimes humiliating process on a daily basis.

The Passionists shares CMEP’s vision and hopes for a two state solution between Israel and Palestine. We recognize that Israel must be allowed to provide for its own national security and that both Palestine and the Arab league must be able to live in peace with this neighboring state. However we also believe that for Israel to achieve its goal for a lasting and stable peace it must work with the Palestine community and build a cooperative relationship between them.     

Palestinian Christians:

The situation between Israel and Palestine is not just about a conflict between the Jewish and Muslim community. Throughout the Middle East but particularly in Palestine the plight of the Christian minority is becoming more critical for us and for the universal Catholic Church. The Christian groups have lived between a rock and a hard place for decades now. With the situation becoming increasingly difficult this population has been opting to emigrate in vast numbers out of the region. Many Palestinian and Iraqi Christian communities have been reduced to over half of what they once were. We heard some disturbing trends from Catholic Relief Services suggesting that in some areas where ancient Christian communities once thrived, like the Chaldeans or Greek Catholics, will be abandoned within a generation. CMEP invited Palestinian Christian clergies to report on the situation and what we heard is that the situation of religious freedom is becoming less tolerated. If this conflict continues to increase the divisive attitudes between the Israeli and Palestinian ethnicities then the Palestinian Christian will be the ones who suffer the reactionary and defensive policies from both communities.

Pope Benedict XVI has recently shared his anguish with regards to the Christian community in the Mid-East. For that reason the Vatican is organizing a synod in the Middle East that will focus on the situation of the religious freedom and the Christian minority. We shared with our representatives our grave concern with our own communities in the region and we informed them that they can expect a renewed legislative activism from the Catholic community when the findings of the synod become public. Our congressional representatives expressed interest in this upcoming synod and their findings.

CMEP Legislative Asks:

 On June 15 we visited our congressional representatives advocating that they support the administration in pushing both parties and holding them both accountable for the establishment of a two-state solution. Through the use of congressional resolutions and dear colleague letters we offered them some creative suggestion where they could demonstrate congressional support by using language that holds Palestine and Israel accountable for any violation or obstruction to the negotiation of a two-state solution. We cited how congress has done this to express accountability from the Arab community when Senators Bayh and Risch wrote a letter to President Obama but that unfortunately this letter said nothing that holds Israel accountable for continuing to create settlements in Jerusalem even though it has a settlement freeze. The settlement freeze was a laudable move by the Israeli government toward this process and we hope that it will not expire in September.

Jerusalem must be shared between the two nations. Neither side will allow themselves to give up this city. Furthermore Jerusalem is icon for the three Abrahamic faiths. We request Congress to urge the President to hold both sides accountable to violence and illegal settlements in that city and to be an active mediator on the final status of Jerusalem.

Finally we also shared with them our concern with the humanitarian situation in Gaza. While we again understand the security rational for the blockade we believe that the situation has become a human right violation. In this case we suggested that the Christian presence can have a positive effect in this area if religious communities and NGO’s had the resources to build necessary infrastructure and schools that can bring hope and a viable future to a youth and young adult population that dominate the population in Gaza. A disenfranchised youth population could become an explosive liability to the security of Israel and we suggest the United States must become diplomatically creative with offering carrots and incentives for peace. We suggested a smarter blockade that keeps Israel secure while granting the Palestinian youth an opportunity to have a viable and cooperative future with its northern neighbor and to lessen its reactionary allegiance to Hamas and other fundamentalist groups.