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JEWISH, CHRISTIAN AND MUSLIM LEADERS CALL FOR PEACE TO FOLLOW-UP THE ANNAPOLIS CONFERENCE
For Immediate Release - December 18, 2007 For More Information Contact:
Attn: RELIGION EDITORS/WRITERS Ron Young at (360) 652-4285
In This “Season of Peace” Jewish, Christian and Muslim Leaders Call For Determined U.S. Leadership for Peace To Follow-up the Annapolis Conference
In this season of Hannukhah, Christmas and Eide Al Adha, holidays in the Abrahamic religious traditions that all honor peace and in light of hopes raised by the Annapolis conference, Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders of the unprecedented National Interreligious Leadership Initiative (NILI) are calling for active, determined leadership by Secretary of State Rice and President Bush to help Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations succeed in 2008. NILI leaders include H.E. Theodore Cardinal McCarrick, Rabbi David Saperstein, Dr. Sayyid Syeed and heads of twenty-five national organizations. NILI is urging public support, including Congressional support, to achieve the following results.
(Statement at: http://nili-mideastpeace.org/advocacy.html.) Consistent with the Road Map, the United States should press urgently for reciprocal steps by Israel and the Palestinian Authority to improve conditions on the ground and restore hope that a peace agreement is possible. Steps should include a comprehensive cease fire; the Palestinian Authority developing effective coordinated security, ending illegal arms shipments and militias; and Israel freezing expansion of settlements, releasing Palestinian prisoners, and easing movement for Palestinians. Public monitoring of these steps is essential.
On principles for resolving final status issues, including borders, security, settlements, refugees, and Jerusalem , NILI is urging the Administration to support benchmark ideas developed by Israelis and Palestinians in official and unofficial negotiations over many years, and reflected in the
Geneva Accord. Public opinion polls report majority support among Israelis and Palestinians for a peace agreement along these lines.
NILI is concerned that the split in Palestinian governance between the West Bank and Gaza is incompatible with a durable peace. Acknowledging the sensitivity of this issue, NILI advocates quiet U.S. support for efforts to form a new unified Palestinian government capable of representing the West Bank and Gaza , and committed to rejecting violence and negotiating a two-state solution with Israel .
Appreciating the importance of the Arab Peace Initiative and Arab states’ participation at Annapolis for comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace, NILI is urging the Administration to help restart Syrian-Israeli and Lebanese-Israeli negotiations for peace.
NILI religious leaders believe our nation has an inescapapable responsibility and indispensable role to play, and that achieving Arab-Israeli peace will have important positive reverberations in the region and worldwide.