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Episcopalians join Mideast Interfaith Peace-builders Delegation
2003-035-1
2/18/2003
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[Episcopal News Service]
Six Episcopalians, who joined a Mideast Interfaith Peace-builders Delegation, returned from their two-week trip 'deeply sobered by what we have heard and seen.'
The trip, co-sponsored by the Episcopal Peace Fellowship and The Witness Magazine, was coordinated by the Fellowship of Reconciliation. The delegation visited Palestine/Israel, Jordan and Lebanon January 25-February 8. 'We have listened to representatives from dozens of Palestinian and Israeli organizations working nonviolently for a just peace in the Middle East, and have heard the stories and opinions of countless individuals whose views on the conflict span the political spectrum,' they said in a statement.
The statement described encounters with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon with no rights, refugees who 'have entered a second half-century of existence as a forgotten people. Crowded refugee camps, bursting at two to three times their intended capacities, house refugees whose rights to work, own property, and travel are severely restricted, and whose access to education and health care are minimal.'
In Jordan, the delegation was told that 'the nation's economic, environmental and political' situation has suffered critically over the last two years and that Jordan was feeling isolated by the U.S. government because it is being accused of not securing its borders with Iraq.
In a meeting with Anglican Bishop Riah Abu el-Assal in Jerusalem, he told the group of the missile attack at St. Philip's Church adjacent to the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, supported by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, two days before their arrival. 'No one who is sane could claim that this was a mistake--it was a huge guided missile,' he said. The bishop repeated an assertion the delegation heard from many in the region: 'The root of this problem is the occupation.'
Members of the delegation even ventured into Hebron, a Palestinian city with a nearby Israeli settlement that has been a flashpoint of violence in the last few years. They were told by Israeli settlers that Palestinian parents are encouraging their children to be suicide bombers. They stayed with Palestinian and Jewish families, 'ordinary people who yearn for peace and security in this land, many of whom have given up hope of living alongside former neighbors.'
In its statement the delegation said that health care workers spoke of 'the traumatic effects on young and old alike and heard concerns expressed that the current state of violence will grow much worse if war begins in Iraq.' In a meeting with U.S. embassy officials, they were told that 'our government is committed to the creation of a 'sovereign and viable' Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.' They also saw the first stages of a wall being built by the Israelis to separate the two sides in the conflict.
(Episcopalians on the delegation included Michael Battle, Peter Churchill, Ethan Flad, Elisha Harig-Blaine, Christopher Pottle, Terry Rogers and Winnie Varghese. Individual trip reports and the final statement are available at www.forusa.org.)
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