The ELCA has issued an action alert to advocate for using diplomacy and not military action with Iran.  It asks advocates to tell their congressional leaders to endorse  The Ellison-Jones House letter , a positive message to the President in support of diplomacy with Iran.  The deadline for House members to sign  is March 1, so time is of the essence in contacting your Representative.

Senate resolution 380, on the other hand, is a dangerous one that in essence lowers the threshold for war with Iran.  There isn’t a deadline for action on this one, but Senators need to hear from constituents who oppose it.  

Please take action and spread the word to others as well.

For interesting developments on Iran, read these articles: 
Israel wouldn’t warn US of strike on Iran
Q and A on a Nuclear Iran from the BBC

httpv://youtu.be/Se7RWVK93qE

A delegation of the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land visited Washington to speak with administration officials and congressional leaders about the role religious leaders can play in Middle East peace-making. Here Bishop Munib Younan of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land and Patriarch Fouad Twal, the Latin Patriarch of the Holy Land and Jordan, talk with Churches for Middle East Peace Executive Director Warren Clark about the Christian presence in the Holy Land and the role of the Council in the Holy Land. Bishop Younan outlines 4 things people can do to help: 1) strengthen Christian institutions in the Holy Land; 2) build community-based education; 3) create jobs; 4) build affordable housing.

Peace in the Holy Land is a necessity – and possible.  So said the delegation from the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land  who visited Washington DC this week to speak to high level administration officials, congressional leaders and interested lay people.  The group, made up of top Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders in the Holy Land, have been working together since 2005 toward mutual understanding and ultimately to bring a just peace to their beloved land.

They spoke to Vice President Joe Biden for an hour and a half, and spoke Tuesday at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, stressing the role of education in peace-making.  I have asked for a transcript of the panel to be put up at http://www.usip.org/events/preventing-incitement-and-promoting-peace, but don’t know if that is possible.

A written statement from their delegation states that their goals for this visit include advocating for equal, free access to all holy sites and for respecting all three narratives of Jerusalem, Jewish, Christian and Muslim.  The council speaks out regularly against incitement and has commissioned a study of Palestinian and Israeli textbooks to monitor and hopefully lead to change of material deemed to incite hatred and racism.  The council is also working to launch a project to prepare emerging religious leaders to enable them to also work cooperatively toward a just peace.

They say that religious leaders can and should be a great help to address entrenched issues that touch on both religion and politics, and are ready and eager to be of service.

Read their full statement of goals and a message from this delegation.

Religions for Peace Middle East/ North Africa (MENA) Council, an international and independent NGO committed to peace, convened a meeting of Muslim Ulemas and Christian Clergy, in addition to a number of researchers and concerned persons from Syria and other countries, in Larnaca, Cyprus, on 22-23 February 2012.  The meeting built on the Religions for Peace MENA Marrakesh Declaration (16-17 November 2011) that rejected violence, the misuse of religions, and acknowledged religious diversity and respect for human dignity.  The group released a statement that contained these conclusions: 

Given the recent bloody developments (in Syria) that stir conscience, and based on their religious and human responsibility as well as their belief in God Almighty, the participants agreed on the following:

Our faith in the Lord inspires us:
1. To support the quest for a peaceful solution, mainly based on national dialogue and the rejection of all forms of violence regardless of its sources.
2. To reject the use of military and security measures by all parties after they proved inefficient and exacerbated the problem.
3.To call upon the authorities to the immediate release of prisoners of opinion to respect human dignity.
4.To refuse all forms of foreign interference given that the Syrian crisis is an internal issue which should be solved only by Syrians with the support of others.
5.To call Syria to embrace all its citizens, with no distinction or discrimination, as a mother nurtures its children within its territory and abroad.
6.To reject absolutely the violation of the territorial integrity of Syria or its ethnic, religious and denomination diversity.
7.To reaffirm that Christians and Muslims are historical components of the Syrian social fabric that should be preserved to guarantee the future, prosperity and coexistence in this country.
8.To acknowledge that the values of justice, freedom, dignity and equality are the basis of citizenship. Citizenship is not a grant but a right for every Syrian citizen.
9.To reaffirm the responsibility of religious, political and cultural elites to face all forms of religious incitement, and cooperate in disseminating a message of moderation, tolerance and rejection of hatred.
10.To call upon all countries involved in economic sanctions imposed on Syria to reconsider these sanctions, which have affected the Syrian people, exacerbated the crisis and undermined stability and growth.

ELCJHL Pastor Mitri Raheb, Director of DIYAR Consortium, was recently awarded the 2011 “Deutscher Medienpreis” (German Media Prize) for his organizations' efforts for peace.

The Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb, pastor of Bethlehem’s Christmas Lutheran Church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL),  received the 2011 “Deutscher Medienpreis” (German Media Prize) to recognize his individual and the Palestinian Lutheran church’s peace efforts. Pastor Raheb is also Director of DIYAR Consortium, which operates an international cultural center, a health and wellness center and a college. He is among four recipients of the prestigious prize to be awarded in Baden-Baden, Germany.

In his speech receiving the award, Pastor Raheb said:

We said, firstly, that the Holy land does not need walls but bridges. That is why we called our centre “Dar annadwa”, Centre for International Encounter. Martin Buber, the Jewish philosopher, whose thinking is very significant for me, was right when he wrote, “All true life is encounter.” The “thou” of the other person gets a face and a name through encounter. Dialogue can only be true dialogue if it is a dialogue between people with equal rights, if the “thou” and the “I” stand face to face. If each person can have their narrative, their history and identity, but also listen to the narratives of the others. A monopoly of truth, of certainty or the role of the victim are not part of genuine dialogue.

Then we said we must not just become peace chatterers. In a context where so many destructive factors are created every day and, at the same time, there is constant talk about peace processes, we must work continuously to create spaces for life: spaces where people can breathe, where children in refugee camps can make music; where women from distant villages can learn a profession in artistic handwork; where Christian and Muslim children attend school together, where young men who cannot find jobs on the labour market receive further training; where people in leadership receive political education; where young Palestinian women play football and compete at the world level, where senior citizens can lead a life in fullness and where Jewish and Palestinian academics and activists together seek a better future. What we put into practice with them is the belief that the sky and not the wall should be the limit of our thinking and creativity. That may sound good but in our region (and not only there) it is very dangerous. It is dangerous to think; demands for freedom of opinion are not welcome and challenging myths frequently costs one one’s life. But life is only genuine if it is lived in freedom.

Pastor Raheb is known world-wide for his peace and creativity work with media, education and culture.  Find out how you can help with Raheb’s work for children at Bright Stars of Bethlehem.org.

In a congratulatory letter, the Lutheran World Federation’s General Secretary Martin Junge wrote:

“The Deutscher Medienpreis is a recognition of not only your hard work and passion for justice, it is an affirmation of your approach, and that of the ELCJHL, to the complicated challenges of building institutions that change lives and of building relationships that strengthen prospects for a lasting peace.  Your efforts exemplify the ELCJHL’s nonviolent opposition to the Occupation, its uncompromising commitment to finding peaceful solutions, and its rigorous promotion of tolerance and mutual respect among Jews, Christians and Muslims, and between Palestinians and Israelis.”

To mark the 20th anniversary of the prize this year, it honors individuals who, in their work for peace, have quietly carried on without much media attention. The Deutscher Medienpreis jury said Raheb was being honored for building the Bethlehem congregation’s education, health care and dialogue programs.

Read Pastor Raheb’s entire speech   |  See German video of award presentation

The Fellowship of Middle East Evangelical Christians (FMEEC) released their final communique  after their symposium on Evangelical and Christian Presence in the Middle East in Beirut, Lebanon.  The group explored ways in which they could remain faithful to their universal Reformation legacy while properly responding to the challenges they currently face in the various countries in which they live (Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Sudan, North Africa and the Gulf region).

Among other things, the communique calls for a Middle East that: 

“enjoys peace based on justice, freedom and the respect and preservation of human rights. They called upon all their Muslim compatriots, but especially those authorities now in power, to work for the establishment of civic states in the region; states founded on a modernized understanding of democracy which is not based merely on numbers and vote counts, but rather on equality in the rights of all to equal citizenship under the just rule of law; states that offer equal opportunities for work and prosperity to all the inhabitants of the Middle East without discrimination. It is only in such a Middle East that all communities, evangelical and non-evangelical, but especially the youth amongst us, shall enjoy safety and wellbeing, and therefore shall no more live in frustration and fear, or be subjected to the temptation to emigrate.

A plea was put forth to all those concerned with the question of Christian presence and witness in the Middle East (be they regional or world governments, church leaders and congregations or partner organizations across the globe) to become more aware of the dangers currently besetting all Middle Eastern Christian minorities, but especially the evangelicals amongst them (who are a minority within a minority).

An invitation was issued to all our regional and international partners and friends, inviting them to conduct a serious investigation into the truth of what is in fact happening in the different countries of the Middle East; and which differ from one country to another. Having done so, it becomes incumbent on all to inform the international community of these facts and to respond accordingly. It is our hope that this response shall be inspired by the Biblical principles upon which the Evangelical Reformation was based centuries ago. To us this means to uphold justice and truth and repudiate the violence that now so sadly prevails in the Middle East region – violence that comes all sides and parties involved.

The communique also said the group held workshops and discussion about how to “reach a definitive strategy that contributes to rebuilding Middle Eastern Evangelical communities on the basis of a new and indigenous theology of public issues; a theology inspired by a unified Christian evangelical vision that calls for freedom and equality before the law in the context of a just understanding of citizenship for all ethnic, religious and national identities, and that contributes to the further development of human resources. In this regard, the participants emphasized that a final, just and fair solution to the Palestinian crisis is necessary for any future progress on all these fronts.”

Bedouin one example of the elimination of adequate Palestinian housing

httpv://youtu.be/uhlrG2z2ccw

On January 3^rd the Government of Israel published the memorandum of a bill named “Regulation of the Bedouin settlement in the Negev“, in which in states the steps to be implemented in order to relocate the overwhelming majority of the residents of the unrecognized villages and confiscate about 2/3s of the land remaining in their possession. Within the bill are what some consider violent measures to ensure its implementation. This bill is currently going through the legislative process in the Knesset, and soon may become law.

UN Special Rapporteur says some Israeli policies create “new frontiers of dispossession of the traditional inhabitants, and the implementation of a strategy of Judaisation and control of the territory”

Read full version of her initial findings or the conclusions below:

Israel has been ruling the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean for more than 40 years. After the Oslo agreements, Israel retained official temporary control over the vast majority of the occupied West Bank (Area C). At present, more than half a million Israeli-Jews, have settled in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem. Throughout my visit, I was able to witness a land development model that excludes, discriminates against and displaces minorities in Israel which is being replicated in the occupied territory, affecting Palestinian communities. The Bedouins in the Negev – inside Israel – as well as the new Jewish settlements in area C of the West Bank and inside Palestinian Neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem – are the new frontiers of dispossession of the traditional inhabitants, and the implementation of a strategy of Judaisation and control of the territory.

In different legal and geographical contexts, from the Galilee and the Negev to the West Bank, I received repeated complaints regarding lack of housing, threats of demolition and eviction, overcrowding, lack of community development, the disproportional number of demolitions affecting Palestinian communities and the accelerated development of predominantly Jewish settlements. The Barrier makes visible what the territorial planning regime has silently implemented for decades, and the blockade is the most extreme expression of separation as a restriction to survive and expand.

In all my interviews with Palestinian citizens of Israel as well as my visits to Palestinian communities, I was impressed by the collective sense of frustration and extreme insecurity with regard to their housing and property rights. I also observed a complete lack of faith that the Israeli military, political or judicial authorities would take effective action to protect their rights, which are enshrined in international instruments to which Israel is party.
It is important to note that Israel’s spatial strategy has been heavily shaped by security concerns, given the belligerent, conflictive nature of Israel-Palestine relations, with waves of violence and terror. But certainly the non-democratic elements in Israeli spatial planning and urban development strategies appear to contribute to the deepening of the conflict, instead of promoting peace.

Additionally, within Israel, privatization, deregulation and commercialization of public assets has undermined the declared goal of the Jewish foundation of the State of Israel – to provide a safe and adequate home for all Ishuv regardless of nationality or income level.

It would appear therefore, that the Israeli planning, development and land system now violates the right to adequate housing not only of Palestinians under Israeli control, but also of low income persons of all identities, who find it increasingly difficult to obtain housing under existing policies. Both aspects of this discriminatory system should be changed to allow all people under the Israeli regime to attain the most basic human right for adequate housing, within the framework of dignity and equality.

Preventing Incitement and Promoting Peace: Obstacles and Opportunities for Religious Peacemaking in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict:  Feb 28, 12:30 pm – 2:30 pm EST (Stay tuned for webcast information)

CRIHL members met with then Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in 2008 to present a united call against violence of all kinds.

The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) is pleased to host a distinguished delegation from the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land (CRIHL): the consultative body that comprises the most senior official Israeli and Palestinian religious leaders. CRIHL was established as the implementing body of the historic declaration signed in Alexandria, Egypt in 2002 in which Israeli and Palestinian religious leaders pledged to work together to end the violence and promote peace. Since the signing of the Alexandria Declaration, USIP has provided strong support to ongoing efforts to implement the document’s goals.

This event will feature the following speakers:

• Rabbi Shlomo Amar
  Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel
• Canon Trond Bakkevig
  Convener, CRIHL
• Sheikh Yousef Ed’ees
  Chief Judge of the Sharia Courts, Palestinian Authority
• Dr. Mahmoud Habash
  Minister of Religious Affairs, Palestinian Authority
• Rabbi Yona Metzger
  Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel
• His Beatitude Fouad Twal
  Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
• Bishop Dr. Munib Younan
  Head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land
• Dr. Richard Solomon, Introductory Remarks
  President, USIP
• Dr. David Smock, Moderator
  Senior Vice President of the Religion and Peacemaking Center, USIP

Israeli policies on Palestinian residency have arbitrarily denied thousands of Palestinians the ability to live in, and travel to and from, the West Bank and Gaza, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Israel should immediately stop denying or cancelling the residency of Palestinians and close family members with deep ties to the West Bank and Gaza, and end blanket bans on processing their applications for residency.

 The 90-page report, “Forget about Him, He’s Not Here,” describes the arbitrary exclusion by the Israeli military of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians since 1967 and documents the impact that exclusion continues to have on individuals and families. The way Israel’s military has exercised its control over the Palestinian population registry – the list of Palestinians whom it considers to be lawful residents of the West Bank and Gaza territories – has separated families, caused people to lose jobs and educational opportunities, barred people from entering the Palestinian territories, and trapped others inside them, Human Rights Watch said. Egypt also has problematic policies on Palestinians trying to enter Gaza that are based on the Israeli-controlled population registry.

From Human Rights Watch

View Forbidden Family, a video of the family of the ELCJHL’s Redeemer Church organist in Jerusalem.  He is a Jerusalem resident living with his West Bank wife who has had to deal with these residency issues.

I encourage you to read this report from a recent meeting in Washington, DC, hosted by the World Evangelical Alliance. Two of the quoted speakers, Dr. Atef Gendy and Dr. Andrea Zaki, are close companions of the ELCA in Egypt.

While the peace process remains stymied, and all focus is on whether parties will return to talks or not, suffering does not stand still in the Holy Land, especially for those in the occupied Palestinian territories dealing with discrimination and inequities.

A recent report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied Palestinians territory (UNOCHA) makes this conclusion: 

Israeli civil law is de facto applied to all settlers and settlements across the occupied West Bank, while Israeli military law is applied to Palestinians, except in East Jerusalem, which was officially annexed to Israel (which hasn’t been recognized under international law). As a result, two separate legal systems and sets of rights are applied by the same authority in the same area, depending on the national origin of the persons, discriminating against Palestinians.

These separate systems are the basis of many inequalities:

Though all are supposed to have access to Jerusalem's holy sites, Muslims are regularly prevented from going to pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Here they pray at the checkpoint instead.

 THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT

ROADS AND PERMIT SYSTEMS:
In the West Bank, normal life for Palestinians is virtually impossible because of separate roads for Israelis and Palestinians; check points and roadblocks that impede Palestinian travel while facilitating that of Israelis[1]; and a bureaucratic permit system that allows Palestinians very limited movement even within the West Bank without a permit.

EAST JERUSALEM
East Jerusalem is home to about 270,000 Palestinians.  In addition, 200,000 Israelis live in ever-expanding East Jerusalem settlements.  Palestinian homes are demolished, residents are evicted, and land is threatened with confiscation for projects such as public parks.  A permit regime keeps Palestinians from moving freely in and out of the city.  The barrier restricts entry to Jerusalem for West Bank Palestinians while Israeli settlers can come and go freely.

THE RIGHT TO SECURE HOUSING
HOME DEMOLITIONS
Palestinian homes and other buildings have been demolished at an alarming rate to make room for settlers. West Bank residential demolitions were up 80% in 2011 over 2010, causing 1,100 Palestinians to be forcibly displaced from their homes with 4,200 more affected by the demolition of “livelihood structures.”

Elaborating on these statistics, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs notes, “These demolitions occur in the context of an inadequate and discriminatory planning regime that restricts Palestinian development, while providing preferential treatment to Israeli settlements.”[2]

SETTLEMENT CONSTRUCTION:
Meanwhile, Israeli settlements in the West Bank continue to expand.  Peace Now reported a 20% rise in settlement construction starts for 2011 with East Jerusalem seeing a 10-year high for settlement plans.[3]

THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE ONE’S OWN FAMILY
In the West Bank and Israel, Israeli laws deny the right of people to choose their own spouse and live with him/her.  Within the West Bank, family reunification permits have been frozen for years, which means a Palestinian with a Jerusalem ID cannot legally live with a West Bank spouse in Jerusalem without special dispensation.  Within Israel, a law was recently upheld which disallows a spouse from the West Bank to live with his or her partner in Israel.

 THE RIGHT TO CONTROL AND BENEFIT FROM ONE’S OWN RESOURCES
Land inequities lead to unequal distribution of other natural resources, water in particular.  80% of the water from the West Bank mountain aquifer, which Israel controls, goes to Israelis – including setters – leaving only 20% for Palestinians.[4]  Israelis consume four times more water than West Bank Palestinians, 300 liters/day compared to 70 liters/day, according to a report by Amnesty International.[5].

The Palestinians are also denied the benefit of other resources that by law should be theirs to control, such as the quarries that Israel operates in theWest Bank that recently were allowed to continue. 

Soldiers check a child's backpack on the way to school.

THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION
In Gaza, high school students are often unable to leave the territory for university opportunities, while their Israeli counterparts in Sderot experience no such limitations.

The shortage of classrooms in Jerusalem for Palestinians is notorious, making for extremely crowded conditions.  Many students are hindered or prohibited from entering their schools on a daily basis by the checkpoint system or the barrier.  In Hebron, school children must be walked to school by international peaceworkers to protect them from settler violence.

THE RIGHT OF PEOPLE TO RETURN HOME
Palestinian refugees are not allowed to return to their homes while Jews from anywhere in the world are free to immigrate to Israel.  Many Palestinians who have passports from other countries have had their residency rights revoked and are being issued entry permits only for the West Bank and have trouble entering Jerusalem.