Meeting in Washington DC on October 4, 2003, the Middle East Network of United Methodists (MENUM) steering committee expressed regret and sadness for the recent suicide bombing in Haifa, Israel that killed 19 Israeli Jews and Arabs. “It is tragic that 19 innocent people lost their lives while eating in a restaurant that has been owned by a Jewish family and managed by an Arab family for nearly 40 years,” said MENUM Co-Chair, Jim Vitarello. “It is also tragic that a young professional woman from Jenin apparently saw this bombing as her only option to avenge the assassinations of her brother and cousin who were killed by Israeli soldiers last June.”

The Steering Committee wrote a letter to President Bush calling on him to take action immediately to pressure the Israeli government to stop building the wall they are constructing inside the West Bank. It asks the President to deduct the entire cost of the wall from U.S. backed loan guarantees if Israel continues to build the wall in Palestinian territory.

“The ‘security’ wall undermines the chances for a just peace based on a viable and independent Palestinian state and a secure Israel,” according to Vitarello. “Israel is free to build border structures within its territory. However, the wall that Israel is constructing runs deep into the West Bank and is being built on illegally confiscated Palestinian territory. The wall is creating tragic humanitarian consequences by cutting off access to precious water resources and at least 40,000 acres of prime agricultural land in the West Bank. Entire villages and cities are being completely enclosed or trapped between the wall and the Green Line and neighbors and even family members are being cut off from each other.”

Vitarello noted that Congress mandated that the $9 billion U.S.-backed loan guarantees to Israel, authorized in April 2003, may be issued "only to support activities in the geographic areas which were subject to the administration of the Government of Israel before June 5, 1967." The legislation also stipulates that the amount of the loan guarantees shall be reduced "for activities which the President determines are inconsistent with the objectives and understandings reached between the United States and Israel regarding the implementation of the loan guarantee program."

Other actions coming from the Oct. 4 meeting included:

• Calling upon Christian leaders in the Holy Land to assume a leadership role toward peaceful resistance and reconciliation if the conditions in the Occupied Territories begin to improve and the “security wall” is re-directed along the 1967 Green Line.
• Calling upon all United Methodists and persons of faith to observe the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall by joining in an International Day of Solidarity with Palestinians on November 9 and demand that the “Israeli Apartheid Wall” must fall.
• Drafting a resolution on the Middle East to send to General Conference that calls for an end to suicide bombings and an end to the Israeli occupation.

The National Steering Committee of MENUM, a network of United Methodists affiliated with the Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA) meets quarterly to guide the work of promoting justice and peaces in the Middle East.

The MENUM Steering Committee will meet again in January.

For further information, contact 202-546-8806 or email at: mfsa@mfsaweb.org.

MENUM’s website is: http://www.mfsaweb.org (Middle East News)