ELCA NEWS SERVICE

April 8, 2008  

New DVD Illustrates Lutherans Working for Peace in the Middle East
08-040-MRC

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "Peace Not Walls: Making a Difference
in the Holy Land" is a new DVD that illustrates the ways
members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
are working for "peace with justice" in the Middle East.
Made available April 7, the 28-minute video examines the ELCA's
engagement with Christians, Jews and Muslims working for peace,
accompaniment with Palestinian Lutherans, the Israeli
separation barrier and settlements, Christian Zionism and more.
     "Peace Not Walls is an ELCA campaign dedicated to peace
with justice in Israel and Palestine," said Carol LaHurd,
campaign coordinator, ELCA Global Mission.  She said the
team that produced the new DVD endeavored to include "many
voices" since the social, political, economic and religious
situation in the Holy Land is complex.
     "Jerusalem is a place where Christians, Muslims and Jews
have lived for centuries. It is a place that is holy for all
three faith traditions. And when you talk to Palestinians
they tell you, 'We want this place to be a place where we can
live together in peace.  Jerusalem is a city of peace,'" the
Rev. Said Ailabouni, Grace Lutheran Church, LaGrange, Ill.,
said in the video.
     The DVD includes images from the Holy Land, interviews
and examples of interfaith peacemaking activities.
     Faraj Lahti, a Palestinian Christian, built his home on
Palestinian land.  After the construction of the Har Homa
settlement began, Israel rezoned his property and informed him
that his home would be demolished without a building permit
from Israel.
     "They tell us that this house is illegal," said Lahti
in the video. "And as you know, we can't go to Israel without
entry permission. I don't have it, and they won't give it
to me.  Demolition means they come with their bulldozers" and
"destroy the house." 
    Settlements are communities inhabited by Israelis inside
occupied Palestinian territory and are viewed as illegal by
Palestinians, the United Nations, the United States and many
other governments, according to the video.  In the territories
occupied by Israel since the 1967 war, a wall or barrier is
being built on Palestinian land. Israel says it is for security,
and Palestinians say the wall is a "land grab" and serves to
divide Palestinians.
     "Approximately 80 percent of the route of the barrier
is inside the West Bank itself or in and around East Jerusalem.
Israel has the right and, in fact, Israel has the duty to
protect its citizens against attack, suicide bombings.  But
what the International Court of Justice has said in its
advisory opinion, July 2004, (is that) the barrier, where it
goes through the West Bank and East Jerusalem, is contrary to
international law," Ray Dolphin, author and consultant for the
United Nations, said in the video.
     The video includes a brief discussion on Christian Zionism,
"a politically mobilized strand of Christian fundamentalism
committed to preserving Jewish control over all of historic
Palestine to ensure the realization of the movement's own
end-times," said the Rev. Robert O. Smith, director,
Europe/Middle East Continental Desk, ELCA Global Mission.
In the video he said Christian Zionism "is highly skeptical
of any peacemaking efforts in the Middle East" and that
"Christian Zionism believes that any person or country that
attempts to force Israel into a peace treaty with its Arab
neighbors is acting as an agent of the Antichrist."
     The DVD features footage from the 2007 ELCA Churchwide
Assembly, which reaffirmed the church's commitment to its
"Strategy for Engagement in Israel and Palestine" approved
by the 2005 ELCA Churchwide Assembly.
     In a debate at the 2007 assembly about a proposal to
include economic incentives to foster a just peace in the
Middle East, the Rev. Margaret G. Payne, bishop of the ELCA
New England Synod, Worcester, Mass., said it is "important
to advocate for whatever a hopeful political solution might
be to produce a two-state solution to the problem there.  But
I believe that we also have to embody our accompaniment with
our brothers and sisters there in a physical and a financial
way," said Payne.
     Interfaith dialogue is explored in the DVD.  For Rabbi
David Rosen, director of interreligious affairs, American Jewish
Committee, Jerusalem, interfaith encounter "allows me to
experience the presence of the divine in the life of another
from a tradition that is not mine."
     He said, "Everybody here feels threatened.  Everybody here
feels vulnerable.  Everybody here feels that they are a victim.
And everybody else is expecting the other to take the first
step or for others to initiate what needs to be done.  Nobody
here sees themselves as essentially responsible for any of the
mess we are in."
     "It's now time to make justice in the Middle East in order
that extremism will not find excuses to mushroom and to grow
here and there.  It is now time to bring justice so that
moderation will be stronger," the Rev. Munib A. Younan, bishop,
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, said
in the video.
     The DVD includes a brief discussion guide for "Peace Not
Walls: Making a Difference in the Holy Land," a PowerPoint
presentation called "The Holy Land: Recent History and the Quest
for Peace," and more.
- - -
     "Peace Not Walls:  Making a Difference in the Holy Land"
is available at
http://ELCA.org/peacenotwalls/educate/2008video.html on the ELCA
Web site.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news
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