Lutherans Return Home after Meeting with Arafat, Peres

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- A Lutheran World Federation (LWF) delegation was in Palestine and Israel meeting with prominent leaders and visiting Lutheran schools June 7-10. The delegation included members of the LWF executive committee, LWF staff, and representatives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan (and Palestine) (ELCJ).
The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. The LWF has 133 member churches in 73 countries representing more than 60.5 million of the 64.3 million Lutherans worldwide. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is an LWF member.
The delegation members visited Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat first, following a recent attack on his Ramallah headquarters. They drove past demolished buildings, walked up an outside staircase of sandbags and passed through heavily guarded hallways to reach the meeting place, according to an LWF news release.
"Your delegation is the first one to visit me since our Palestinian Authority (PA) compound was bombed and nearly destroyed," said Arafat.
Early in the morning of June 6, Israeli troops moved into Ramallah with F-16 fighter jets, tanks and armored personnel carriers, targeting the PA compound and destroying many buildings and automobiles, Arafat said. Arafat's bedroom was struck and severely damaged, but he was not injured. His office was damaged. The attack came after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and 16 Israelis.
In the meeting with Arafat, "all of us affirmed that violence from any side is not acceptable. We also exchanged ideas about the peace process," said the Rev. Munib A. Younan, bishop of the ELCJ, in a telephone interview with the ELCA News Service.
The Rev. Christian Krause, LWF president and retired German bishop, expressed his gratitude to Arafat for receiving the group and extended his sympathy for the grave situation which the Palestinian leader and people are experiencing.
"Palestinian Christians are part and parcel of the Palestinian people," said Younan. "What happens to Palestinians also happens to us. We are very concerned about a political vacuum if the Palestinian Authority is destroyed."
Arafat agreed and acknowledged the role Lutherans around the world have in Palestine. Younan said Arafat told the group the church can be a positive force for building peace and reconciliation, and it can work for justice. Churches provide important links between local people and their leaders, Younan said. Churches can also help people help themselves and be less dependent on others, he added.
"We are in the midst of a real tragedy," said Arafat. "More than 67,000 Palestinian people have been killed or wounded in this conflict. Our entire infrastructure is completely destroyed and our Palestinian economy is devastated. In the Gaza Strip, 66 percent of the people live below poverty level and 45 percent in the West Bank. The Israeli army has destroyed 50 percent of our farmland, and 60 percent of our olive trees have been uprooted. We call these Roman trees, because many of them were planted when the Romans were in this land, 2000 years ago."
The Rev. Ishmael Noko, LWF general secretary, assured Arafat that people around the world support the Palestinian people.
"I have lived in South Africa and I have experienced the apartheid system which existed there," said Noko. "But I have never seen anything like this."
Arafat showed the representatives pictures of broken crosses that had been destroyed in a Lutheran school in Bethlehem during the recent Israeli incursions. He deplored such actions, including the recent destruction of the Santa Barbara shrine in the Palestinian village of Aboud.
Members of the LWF delegation expressed solidarity with Arafat, saying they indeed would speak in many countries on behalf of the Palestinian people and society.
"You have to push and do it quickly," said Arafat. "There is not much time."
Younan told the ELCA News Service he is still greatly concerned about the "hemorrhage" of the Palestinian Christians living in the Middle East who continue to leave for other parts of the world. U.S. Lutherans should be concerned about continuing a Palestinian Lutheran presence in the Middle East, and should be concerned about the eroding infrastructure in the region, Younan said.

LWF DELEGATION MEETS WITH SHIMON PERES
Krause led a smaller LWF delegation that met with Israeli Minister for Foreign Affairs Shimon Peres June 10 to discuss the imposition of employment taxes on Augusta Victoria Hospital (AVH), located on the Mount of Olives in Old Jerusalem. The tax case is now in an Israeli court. The group met earlier with AVH chief executive officer Dr. Tawfiq Nasser, who introduced the LWF delegation to many medical services provided to the community, including a kidney dialysis unit and a cancer treatment center nearing completion.
AVH is operated by the LWF and is open to all people but most of its patients are Palestinian.
"The discussions were cordial, open and frank," said Noko of the meeting's outcome in an LWF news release. "In the context of these discussions, the LWF requested, through Peres, the State of Israel to uphold the present agreement between the LWF and the State of Israel. This agreement grants the LWF blanket tax exemption among which is the employer's tax, and secondly, that the two parties should agree on suspension of the pending court case. The LWF also raised the issue of recent destruction of Lutheran church property by Israeli military forces, amounting to 1 million U.S. dollars. Peres promised to convey all these concerns to the relevant government ministers and ministries."
After meeting with Peres, Younan made a request; "I ask local and international Lutherans to be united on the legal status of local churches in general and the local Lutheran church and communion in particular with regard to their rights. If not, we run the risk of losing those rights, being only narrow-minded in our own selfish interests."
Younan said he felt the meeting with Peres went about as well as he expected, adding there is much work to be done, especially in partnership with other Christian bodies in Jerusalem, such as the Roman Catholics. -- -- -- *Amy Wineinger is a junior at Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa. This summer she is an intern with ELCA News and Media Production.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html