Release # 017 {2891}
April 19, 1996
TITLE: Delegates want Middle East Peace
DENVER (UMNS) -- On the fourth day of the 1996 United Methodist General Conference, here, delegates condemned the escalating cycles of violence in the Middle East and authorized sending a delegation to the White House to express the church's desire for peace and justice in that part of the world.
The conference also remembered the first anniversary of the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing by standing in a moment of silent tribute to the memory of 168 people who died, the grief of the survivors and the service of those who helped.
The delegates also requested the General Conference secretary to fax a message to Ron Norrick, mayor of Oklahoma City, and the people of that community, conveying words of comfort on behalf of United Methodists worldwide.
Delegates learned that while they were conducting church business on April 18, nearly 100 people -- mostly women and children -- were killed in Lebanon when Israeli bombs fell on a refugee camp and a U.N. peacekeeping area. "This civilian massacre is just another cycle of violence in a land hungry for peace," said the Rev. Randy Day of New York.
In a show of solidarity with the people of Lebanon, West Ohio Bishop Judith Craig, who visited the Middle East representing the Council of Bishops in 1994, read a statement to the conference on the crisis in Lebanon and the occupation of Palestine.
She told of the difficulty understanding the complexities of "centuries old entities raging in the little land we call 'holy.'" She said she believes "we must continue to be a voice that cries for a just peace."
The violence surrounding South Lebanon has risen to "heartbreaking" levels, Craig said. "We are appalled" at the levels of Israel's assaults on Lebanon. Though the Israelis called their response to Lebanon "self-defense," Craig said, it "is not a legitimate justification" to drive 400,000 people from their homes or to attack power plants critical to the civilian infrastructure.
The statement challenged the church to speak out about the Palestinian people's attempt to survive in the midst of ongoing turmoil -- confiscation of Palestinian lands; and sealing or demolishing Palestinian homes. It mentioned the continued
growth of Israeli settlement communities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the construction of by-pass roads that isolate Palestinian towns and villages.In the last 50 years, suffering of the Palestinian people "has become more acute" with the suicide bombings in Jerusalem, Ashkelon and Tel Aviv. "It is as if the Oslo Peace Accords had never been signed," Craig said.
The statement called for:
* protection of children, youth and other civilians;
* return to normalcy for people who have been refugees or subjugated in their own land for the past three generations;
* freedom of Christians, Jews and Muslims to practice their faiths in the city which is holy to the three major monotheistic religions of the world; and
* increased efforts to assure geographic, economic and political security necessary for Israelis, Palestinians and Lebanese to co-exist.
"We join our Christian sisters and brothers of the faith who are indigenous to Palestine, Lebanon and Israel ... in our call for a just peace and a free life for all residents and all those who govern them in the Middle East," Craig concluded.
After Craig's remarks, delegates voted to send a delegation, headed by Bishop Woodie White of Indianapolis, president of the Council of Bishops, to meet with President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore to share the statement of the 1996 General Conference on the Crisis in Lebanon and Occupation of Palestine.
Delegates also heard from Bishop Peter Dabale of Nigeria, Africa, about the atrocities in that country.
-- Linda Green
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