Press Update
150 route de Ferney, P.O. Box 2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
E-mail: ka@wcc-coe.org
17 October 2000
[By way of Sam Bahour]
WCC encourages objective investigation of
Israeli practices
affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people
cf. WCC Press Update of 10 October 2000
The World Council of Churches (WCC) today submitted the following
written statement to the Fifth Special Session of
the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights presently
being held in
Geneva, Switzerland.
SHARING THE LAND, THE TRUTH AND THE PEACE Written submission
by
the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs
of the
World Council of Churches, a non-governmental organization
in
General Consultative Status with ECOSOC
Justice delayed, justice denied. The resolutions
and reports
relating to the rights and duties of Israelis and
Palestinians
adopted by or submitted to the General Assembly,
the Security
Council and this body since the Partition of Palestine
and the
creation of the State of Israel in 1948 fill volumes. Israel
has
most often either ignored or openly violated those related to its
practices, thus delaying and often denying
justice to the
Palestinian people, both in the Occupied Territories and
within
Israel.
In the post-Oslo period Israel has continued and even accelerated
its unilateral practices of changing "facts on the ground." These
have included:
a.. the confiscation over the past three years of an
estimated
2,200 Palestinian identity cards, some
900 in 1999 alone,
affecting in all nearly 2,500 citizens;
b. the continuing issuance and execution of demolition
orders
against Palestinian houses in the occupied territories - Israeli
Municipality of Jerusalem issued 141 demolition orders
in East
Jerusalem alone and carried out 19 in 1999 and demolished another
three by the end of August 2000;
c. continuing harassment and interference with
the work of
Palestinian institutions providing essential human services
in
East Jerusalem despite promises to desist;
d. continuing expansion by Israel of illegal
settlements in
territories occupied since 1967 and denial
of Palestinian's
exercise of their right to return;
e. repeated closures restricting movement of Palestinians
and
their access, inter alia, to the Holy Places in Jerusalem.
The Special Rapporteur on the Question of the violation of human
rights in the occupied Arab Territories, including
Palestine
inferred in his last report, and events following the provocative
visit on 28 September to Al-Haram Al-Sharif have again shown that
the consequence of this repeated defiance of international
law,
of continuing systematic violations of human rights,
including
the application of collective punishments, has been to incite
to
violence and to deny peace and security to both peoples. Israel's
particularly harsh response through the use of excessive
force
against its own Palestinian minority
in recent days has
contributed to their further vulnerability and alienation and
to
a deeper polarization of Israeli society. In a
letter of 10
October to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Dr.
Konrad Raiser,
General Secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) offered
support and prayers for the success of
the mission he has
undertaken to the region. Dr. Raiser said there:
Both sides have suffered from this renewed violent confrontation.
But once again it is the Palestinian
people, especially
Palestinian youth, who pay by far the greater price in God-given
life as a result of the disproportionate use of armed force
by
Israel. We pray that Prime Minister Barak and President
Arafat
and all those caught up in the terrible,
rising spiral of
violence will respond to your initiative and to the appeals
of
governments and peoples around the world by stepping back
from
the brink before they and the region as a whole are cast
again
into the abyss of full-scale war.
This is not a time for ultimatums or threats of more violent acts
of retribution, but the hour to join together in
declaring a
truce and days of public mourning for the victims of the violence
on all sides.
Sharing the land. Most Israelis and Palestinians fervently desire
peace, but many also despair at the lack of progress towards
it.
Jerusalem - home to Arabs and Jews, and
considered holy by
Christians, Jews and Muslims alike - has been regarded
as the
most complicated and difficult issue and has repeatedly been left
to the end of the negotiation process.
Believing that a
resolution of this question could open the way to agreements
on
equitable sharing of the land and resources in Palestine,
the
last WCC Assembly (Harare, 1998) called upon the parties not
to
postpone further but to include final status
negotiations on
Jerusalem as an integral part of negotiations
on a general
settlement of the wider Middle East conflict. In fact an approach
along these lines was taken during the most recent talks in Camp
David. For the first time, both
sides tabled constructive
proposals for shared sovereignty in Jerusalem. Recent events have
cut short this hopeful process. Once again
the exercise of
peoples' rights to peace and sovereign development
has fallen
victim to the enemies of peace. Sharing the peace. It
was not
surprising that these confrontations began in
Jerusalem, the
nerve center of the conflict. In a resolution
adopted on 29
September the WCC Executive Committee nevertheless
shared the
conviction expressed by Their Beatitudes the Patriarchs and Heads
of Churches and Christian Communities in Jerusalem
in their
statement of 26 September 2000 that a successful conclusion
of
final status negotiations on Jerusalem would contribute
greatly
to "true peace with true justice and security
for the 'two
peoples and three religions' of this land
-Palestinians and
Israelis, Jews, Christians and Muslims alike." The WCC is firmly
convinced that God intended the Holy City to be
a source of
peace, stability and coexistence rather than of the division
and
conflict that destroy human dignity and hope. We hope that
the
present special session of the Commission on Human Rights
will
draw on the spiritual resources God offers through Jerusalem
and
contribute constructively to this end.
Sharing the truth. Few international conflicts
have been so
marked by the dominant power's defiance of its obligations under
the Charter to abide by decisions of the Security Council and its
treaty obligations such as those of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Here as elsewhere self-asserted claims to impunity pose barriers
to peace and reconciliation between nations and peoples. Thus the
WCC welcomed the important decision of the Security Council
in
res. 1322 (2000) that stressed "the importance of establishing
a
mechanism for a speedy and objective inquiry into
the tragic
events of the last few days with the aim of
preventing their
repetition". Such an investigation could provide
an essential
beginning to revealing, sharing and mutual acceptance
of the
truth about past systematic violations
of peoples' rights.
Without such a process there can be little hope
for justice,
peace or reconciliation between Israeli Jews
and Palestinian
Christians and Muslims within and beyond Israel's
legitimate
borders.
RECOMMENDATIONS The Commission of the Churches on International
Affairs of the World Council of Churches therefore
recommends
that this Fifth Special Session of the
Commission on Human
Rights:
1.. Respond to Security Council res. 1322 (2000) by contributing
within its mandate to a "speedy and objective inquiry into
the
tragic events of the last few days with the aim of achieving
an
early final settlement between the Israeli
and Palestinian
sides;"
2.. Continue to support the work of the Special Rapporteur on the
Question of the violation of human rights in the occupied
Arab
Territories in the pursuance of his mandate
to investigate
Israel's violations of the principles and bases of international
law, and the 1949 Geneva Conventions relative to the Protection
of Civilian Persons in Time of War in the Palestinian territories
occupied by Israel since 1967, and to propose means of compliance
with relevant resolutions through regular
reports to the
Commission;
3.. Encourage the Special Committee to
Investigate Israeli
Practices affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian
People
and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories
to continue and
intensify its work;
4.. Reiterate its demand that Israel cooperate fully with
these
investigations, including the granting of full access
to the
occupied Arab Territories, and respond
to the content and
recommendations contained in the reports;
5.. Encourage the Working Group on Minorities
of the Sub-
Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights,
in
response to the appeals of Israeli Palestinian
leaders, to
investigate systematic violations of the human rights
of the
Palestinian minority in Israel particularly in light of
recent
official abuses and failure to provide protection;
6.. Reiterate its demand that Israel comply
fully with its
obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention;
7.. Follow up the work on impunity of the Sub-Commission on
the
Promotion and Protection on Human rights with respect to holding
states and individuals suspected of having
committed mass
violations of the right to life accountable
for their acts.
Geneva, 16 October 2000 A three-member Palestinian
ecumenical
delegation is attending the Special Session of the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights. The delegation is
hosted by the
Commission of Churches on International Affairs (CCIA)
of the
World Council of Churches (WCC).
Delegation members include: Archimandrite Theodosios
Hanna,
representing His Beatitude Patriarch Diodoros, Greek
Orthodox
Patriarchate, Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem
The Rt.
Rev. Riah Abu El-Assal, Bishop of the
Episcopal Church in
Jerusalem and the Middle East Dr
Marwan Bishara, author,
journalist from Nazareth, research fellow,
Ecole des Hautes
Etudes en Sciences Sociales
Father George Tsetsis, member of the WCC Central and
Executive
Committees, will accompany the delegation
along with WCC
International Relations staff.
Three other people are unable to join the delegation in
Geneva
due to the military closure of Palestinian territories: Ms. Jean
Zaru, Ramallah, Quaker, vice-chair of
the board of Sabeel
Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, Jerusalem Mr. Constantine
El'Dabbagh, Gaza Strip, Department for Services for Palestinian
Refugees/Middle East Council of Churches Ms Nahed
Awwad, Beit
Sahour, The Palestinian Center for Rapprochement between People
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For more information contact: Karin
Achtelstetter, Media
Relations Officer tel.: (+41 22) 791 6153
(office); e-mail:
ka@wcc-coe.org Top of page 2000 press updates
The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches,
now
337, in more than 100 countries in all continents from virtually
all Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church
is not a
member church but works cooperatively with the WCC. The
highest
governing body is the assembly, which meets approximately
every
seven years. The WCC was formally
inaugurated in 1948 in
Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by general secretary
Konrad Raiser from the Evangelical Church in Germany.
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