Christian leaders demand more active US role in promoting roadmap
By Ahmad Barakat
AMMAN - Christian leaders of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF),
currently on a visit to the Kingdom, on Saturday demanded that the US play a
more active role in promoting the roadmap and achieving peace in the region.
"I have been frustrated with the US not taking a more active role in
contributing leadership to the roadmap," President of the LWF and the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Bishop Mark Hanson told the press
yesterday.
He added that US should encourage the Israeli government to find a
lasting and secure settlement for this conflict.
Hanson said the visit was designed to promote a 12-point peace proposal
composed by an interfaith initiative for peace which comprises Muslim, Jewish
and Christian leaders, urging the US, Israel and the Palestinian Authority to
take urgent steps to achieve peace in the region.
Hanson, who is part of the US-based initiative, said this month's LWF
biannual assembly urged Lutherans to participate in a campaign under the slogan
"Peace Not Walls: Stand for Justice in the Holy Land," designed to raise
awareness, and engage in activities for "peace with justice" between Israel and
Palestine.
The LWF, which represents some 66 million Christians from 138 churches in
77 countries, believes that Jerusalem should retain its Arab identity and be
the capital of two states since it supports the two-state solution, according
to Vice President Bishop Munib Younan, who is also president of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.
"A secure Israel cannot occur without justice and peace for the
Palestinian people... and freedom and justice for the Palestinian people is
dependent on a secure Israel," Hanson said, adding that peace in the Middle
East is the key to world peace.
"If the wall gives security to Israel but not freedom and justice to the
Palestinians, it is not a solution then because it only accomplishes half of
what we want," he added.
Hanson, accompanied by LWF Secretary General Ishmael Noko and other
church officials, is scheduled to meet with His Majesty King Abdullah and
senior officials today, before heading to Jerusalem and Bethlehem for talks
with Palestinian and Israeli religious and political leaders.
Noko said the church opposed the war in Iraq and had told the US
administration that there were no sufficient reasons to wage the war.
"I was one of the very first US religious leaders who opposed going to
war against Iraq... before the war started and even after the war began,"
Hanson said.
Under current developments and present violence in the war-torn country,
Hanson said he believes that the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds must now decide
their own security and they must tell the US when it is time to leave.
"My concern is that the US stays in Iraq to impose our will... then we
have not honoured the Iraqi people," he said.
The delegation also condemned the rocket attack in Aqaba that took place
last week, saying it was a terror act that emerged from the current regional
situation.
The delegation, visiting the Kingdom for the first time, encouraged
Lutherans and other Christians to visit Mount Nebo, which is considered a
spiritual and a Christian site along with other religious sites in the Kingdom.
Urgent steps needed on the road to peace
The United States, in coordination with the Quartet, should immediately
take the following steps to renew momentum on the roadmap:
1. Strongly reiterate the roadmap's unequivocal call for an end to all
acts of violence and work actively with the Palestinian Authority, the Israeli
government and Arab states to achieve and maintain a ceasefire agreement.
2. Exercise active, determined US and Quartet engagement, including
consistent, visible presence of the special presidential envoy and larger scale
public monitoring of implementation required by both sides.
3. Determine with more specificity steps which each side must take and
set a timetable for taking them (see below for specific steps to be taken by
the Palestinian Authority and Israel).
4. Support benchmarks for possible mutually acceptable solutions based on
the principles and ideas generated in earlier negotiations and in current
Israeli-Palestinian civil society projects, such as the Nusseibeh-Ayalon
initiative and the Geneva Accord.
Specific Steps for the Palestinian Authority
The United States, in coordination with the Quartet, should insist that
the Palestinian Authority:
1. Continue and deepen the process of democratic reforms and financial
accountability.
2. Take effective action to halt violent attacks against Israelis, punish
those who commit any such acts, and gain commitments from all factions to
cooperate in implementing the roadmap.
3. Cooperate with regional and international efforts to cut off aid to
and dismantle those groups which persist in planning or carrying out acts of
violence against Israelis.
4. US, regional, and international support and (effectively monitored)
economic aid should be increased to bolster the Palestinian central authority's
capacity to consolidate and strengthen its security forces and prevent
terrorist attacks; and to deliver humanitarian aid, vital services, and
development assistance to the Palestinian people.
Specific Steps for the Israeli government
Simultaneously, the United States, in coordination with the Quartet,
should insist that the Israeli Government:
1. Take effective action to dismantle all unauthorised settlement
outposts established since March 2002 and freeze expansion of existing
settlements.
2. Exercise measures, such as lifting curfews and easing restrictions on
movement within the West Bank and Gaza, to improve the humanitarian situation
of Palestinians.
3. Halt construction of the Security "Fence" or "Wall" beyond the Green
Line around settlements in areas which require confiscation of more Palestinian
land and threaten the viability of a future Palestinian state.
4. In coordination with the Palestinian Authority demonstrating capacity
to prevent violent attacks, withdraw Israeli military forces from areas
reoccupied since September 2000.
Sunday, August 28, 2005
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