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Two Church Groups
Condemn Israel Policy
New York (JTA) — Two
American Christian organ-
izations recently called on
Israel to reopen Jerusalem
to the Palestinians of the
West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel sealed the ter-
ritories and barred entry to
Palestinians living there on
March 30 in response to a
spate of attacks on Israelis
civilians and soldiers.
Churches for Middle East
Peace, a consortium of 14
Protestant and Catholic
agencies, and the General
Synod of the United Church
of Christ, have now issued
separate calls protesting the
policy and asking the Clin-
ton administration to con-
demn it.
Churches for Middle East
Peace issued a statement
July 16 "protesting the in-
clusion of east Jerusalem in
the closed area.
"This action of the Israeli
government is widely
perceived as a unilateral
pre-determination of the sta-
tus of Jerusalem in defiance
of United Nations Security
Council resolutions and
stated U.S. policy."
The organization's mem-
ber groups include: Ameri-
can Baptist Churches;
American Friends Service
Committee; Episcopal Chur-
ch; Mennonite Central
Committee; National Coun-
cil of Churches; Roman
Catholic Conference of
Major Superiors of Men;
United Church of Christ and
United Methodist Church.
In addition, the General
Synod of the United Church
of Christ, the denomina-
tion's leadership, passed a
resolution while meeting in
St. Louis earlier this month,
asking the administration to
request that Israel reopen
the city to all Palestinians.
"Just as Jerusalem is of
central importance to the
Jewish people, so is east
Jerusalem the cultural,
economic and religious
center of the people of
Palestine, both Christian
and Muslim," the resolution
said.
The United Church of
Christ has 1.6 million mem-
bers in 6,300 congregations.
The resolution stated that
the travel ban is causing the
Palestinians an economic
loss of $3 million a day.
The two groups join the
National Conference of
Catholic Bishops in condem-
ning Israel's policy. That
William Keeler:
Heads protesting group.
group's president, Ar-
chbishop William Keeler,
has written to Israeli For-
eign Minister Shimon Peres
asking him to lift the restric-
tion.
Avi Granot, counselor for
church affairs at the Israeli
Embassy, said that "We
realize the closure has cre-
ated some difficulties for the
residents of the West Bank
and we have tried to alle-
viate whatever difficulty
they had so they could par-
ticipate and worship at all
the holy sites of Jerusalem.
"We have provided passes
and transportation to make
Closure has
created
difficulties for
residents of the
West Bank.
it easier for Palestinians to
enter Jerusalem and go and
pray. The fact that so many
Muslims have participated
in Friday prayers shows this
has made an impact," he
said.
"Anyone who wants to get
to Jerusalem should be able
to do so," he said.
Mr. Granot also said that
the territories were closed
off not to punish the Palesti-
nians, but to try and end the
wave of violence which
preceded it.
"The tremendous rise in
violence has all but ended
since the closure, so it has
proven to be very effective,"
he said.
❑