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New York City, February 1, 2007--The bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Munib A. Younan,
says there is still hope to avert a civil war in Palestine but it will
take work.
"Some of us will try to mediate between Hamas and Fatah," he told a
gathering of National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC)
staff members yesterday.
"If they don't resort to sanity or the rule of law," Bishop Younan said,
there will surely be a civil war. If that happens, he said, it will
likely drive away more Palestinian Christians from the region.
"We need the help of America's government and we need help from American
churches," he told the NCC staff. The main stumbling block to peace in
Israel and Palestine, he said, is the Israeli occupation. Justice for
Palestinians, said Bishop Younan, means ending the occupation.
"Don't leave us alone in this struggle," he said, passionately. "We need
you now more than ever to stand with us" in the cause for a just peace
in Israel and Palestine. "We need you to help us liberate Israel from
the sin of occupation."
Bishop Younan made his comments on his last day in the United States
before heading home to Jerusalem. He had appeared at Evangelical
Lutheran churches, at universities and colleges and other venues during
his two weeks here telling the story of Palestinian Christians.
America's Christian Zionists are also a great concern of the bishop. He
has confronted them directly on their unflagging support of Israel's
policies toward the Palestinians.
"I met with an a Christian Zionist. I told him I was baptized in water
and the Spirit," said the bishop. "Palestinian Christians were new for
him," he recalled. The visitor told the bishop we should be supporting
your schools and your ministry here and promised to contact him after
his return to the U.S.
"Three months later he wrote me that no support would be coming," said
Bishop Younan. "He told me, 'my people believe more in Israel than they
do in Jesus.'"
Bishop Younan told the NCC staff of a new Council of Religious
Institutions in the Holy Land that includes Jewish, Christian and Muslim
leaders. He said he has great hope for that interfaith group.
Bishop Younan made the first translation of the Augsburg Confession into
Arabic and was the initiator of dialogue among the three monotheistic
religions in Palestine.
The NCC is the ecumenical voice of America's Orthodox, Protestant,
Anglican, historic African American and traditional peace churches.
These 35 communions have 45 million faithful members in 100,000
congregations in all 50 states.
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