December 5, 2007

GENEVA – The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) General Secretary Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko has called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to urgently pursue their objective to conclude a peace treaty between both sides, as agreed at the recent Middle East peace conference held in Annapolis, Maryland, United States.

In letters addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas respectively on 4 December, Noko said the LWF and its member churches worldwide welcomed "wholeheartedly ... the revival of the fresh hopes for peace in the Holy Land" following the 27 November US-sponsored talks in Annapolis. "We urge you to the haste that you have appropriately committed to in Annapolis, since in this case, time is not on the side of peace," he wrote.

Quoting an open letter from Palestinian Lutheran Bishop Dr Munib A. Younan to the world leaders ahead of the Annapolis meeting, Noko said churches were "called to be a people of hope and choose not only to see the cup as half full [rather than half empty] but to commit ourselves to whatever it takes to make the cup overflow."

The general secretary noted that although the end 2008 deadline for a conclusion of the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations was short and "incredibly ambitious, [it] is entirely necessary." He urged both sides to take urgent measures to build bridges of trust between the two communities "in order to create an environment in which peace can flower."

Noko said the LWF will be accompanying "with constant and fervent prayers" the negotiations that begin on 12 December this year, and urged Olmert and Abbas to play their part in the conclusion of a peace treaty "resolving all outstanding issues and resulting in two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security – and the establishment of peace with justice in the Holy Land."

He affirmed the LWF's commitment to working with other faith communities in the region to "counter despair and desperation," and encouraged both leaders to draw upon the resource represented by the Council for Religious Institutions of the Holy Land. The Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders participating in the Council have affirmed their "responsibility to find the right way to live together in peace rather than to fight and kill one another," Noko noted, citing the Council's statement after an early November visit to Washington DC.

Younan, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL) and LWF vice-president for the Asian region is a member of the interfaith Council.

Noko underlined the LWF's commitment to providing essential health, education and other humanitarian services in the occupied Palestinian territories through its member church, the ELCJHL, and the Department for World Service field program in Jerusalem.

Lutheran World Information