Church coalition urges support of UN resolution on halting Israeli settlement building
Episcopal News Service. February 3, 2011 [020311-01]
ENS staff
A national Christian coalition has expressed its concern for the stalled negotiations in the Middle East peace process, and is urging the Obama administration not to block a draft U.N. Security Council resolution calling on Israel to stop illegal construction of settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) -- which includes 24 Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant national church bodies and faith-based organizations, including the Episcopal Church -- said in its Feb. 2 statement that the language in the resolution "reflects language that the United States has historically used to describe settlement construction activity: illegal, an obstacle to peace, and not legitimate."
The statement follows a similar call from Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who on Jan. 16 wrote to President Barack Obama urging U.S. leadership to "reignite a negotiations process that can produce immediate and sustainable steps toward a just, comprehensive and lasting peace."
She also cautioned against use of the U.S. veto power to block such a resolution as it "would send the wrong signal to both parties, as it would be interpreted by many as a break from past U.S. positions against settlement building," the presiding bishop wrote.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority briefly came to the table in September 2010 in negotiations mediated by Obama, but those talks faltered when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to extend a temporary freeze on the construction of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Palestinian negotiators have maintained that a full settlement freeze is a condition of their participation in peace talks.
For most of 2010, the Israeli government maintained a temporary freeze on settlement construction. Obama had sought this freeze in order to bring the parties to the table, but the Israeli government declined to extend the moratorium past September unless the Palestinian Authority would formally recognize Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people. Palestinian negotiators refused to do so.
"The current upheaval in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East presents an important opportunity for the United States to refocus its diplomacy and make comprehensive proposals for conflict reduction and reconciliation in the region, starting with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," said Warren Clark, CMEP executive director, according to a press release. "By drawing on established human rights and international law, consideration of the pending U.N. Security Council resolution on halting Israel's expansion into Palestinian territories can be an important first step in reigniting diplomacy and moving the two sides toward mutual agreement."
The resolution, submitted by Lebanon on behalf of the Palestinians, is expected to be discussed by the Middle East Quartet (U.S., U.N., E.U. and Russia) later this week.
The Episcopal Church has repeatedly stated its support for a two-state solution in which Israel's right to exist in security is affirmed by all nations, while a free, independent, and secure Palestinian state exists alongside Israel. Under such a scenario, the Episcopal Church and most peace advocates support the sharing of Jerusalem as a capital between Israel and a future Palestinian state.
The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem -- with its 27 parishes and 33 institutions throughout Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon -- is committed to a stable and lasting peace through a two-state solution. The U.S.-based Episcopal Church supports the Jerusalem diocese through partnerships and companion diocese relationships.
"Palestinians deserve self-determination and Israelis deserve the security of a comprehensive peace and recognition by their neighbors," the CMEP statement says. "The outlook for an agreement is not hopeless. Recent reports confirm that in 2008 both sides made significant progress in defining their positions on important final status issues, including security, borders, refugees, and Jerusalem. Yet little progress has been made since then. The United States must send a robust message in word and deed to both parties that delay is not an option and that new substantial steps toward a comprehensive agreement are needed immediately."
The full statement is available here.