Palestinian Bishop Urges Swedish Prime Minister to Play Mediating Role
Episcopal News Service. January 29, 2003 [2003-018-5]
Giving hope in a hopeless situation is a must for the church, believes Palestinian Bishop Munib Younan, who told Swedish journalists: 'The church is not only a building where you sing hallelujah. We have a political responsibility.'
Younan, bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jerusalem, which works in Palestine, Jordan and Israel, met a large group of journalists January 22 after talks with Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson.
'The world is deaf,' rued Younan. 'The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is incompatible with international and humanitarian law, [yet] schools and universities are closed down as a consequence of Israeli curfews.'
Israelis argue they only take military action to stop acts of terrorism being committed against them, but Younan said the occupations and its consequences snuff out the hope of Palestinians who see constant curfews that shut down their educational institutions as an unjustified collective punishment. 'The schools and the universities are the only places where hope can grow. The Israelis now have closed our schools and imposed curfews on us. Thus the hope and the belief in the future that we try to give our children break into pieces,' Younan said.
He urged Sweden to take the lead as a peace mediator in the Middle East conflict, saying he believed the European Union was too passive. Younan was invited to Sweden by Church of Sweden Archbishop K.G. Hammar, a member of the council of the Lutheran World Federation.
Hammar noted that a war in Iraq could transform the Middle East into a backwater, removing it from the spotlight of world media attention, giving the Israeli army the opportunity to act as it liked.
Younan reminded journalists of a Swedish tradition of defending human rights established by assassinated former prime minister Olof Palme, who, he said, was an international giant in fighting injustice.