Churches for Middle East Peace will urge a shared, peaceful Jerusalem

Some members of a 2006 Churches for Middle East Peace delegation to Jerusalem and the Occupied Territories. They stand in front of a section of the separation barrier that walls off Palestinian areas, including Bethlehem, from Jerusalem. Photo: CMEP

Lead drafters of a plan to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will address a conference next month advocating peace in the Middle East.

Daniel Levy and Ghaith al-Omari, former members, respectively, of the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams, will speak at the Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) conference in Washington, D.C., May 6 to 8. CMEP is a Church World Service partner organization.

The conference, “For the Peace of Jerusalem,” will focus on U.S. policy and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. To be held at the National City Christian Church and the Lutheran Church of the Reformation, the conference will include workshops and advocacy preparation and conclude with a day of lobbying elected officials.

Al-Omari and Levy are lead drafters of the Geneva Initiative, a joint Israeli-Palestinian effort detailing a model for a peace agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They will give their perspective on Jerusalem as Geneva Accord negotiators.

Christian perspectives urging a shared Jerusalem will be addressed in another plenary by Armenian Orthodox Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, Auxiliary Bishop of Baltimore Denis Madden, and former Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church Frank Griswold.

A third plenary session will feature a member of Congress discussing the current situation and what's next for U.S. policy.

Several workshops will be held on Monday, including “The Vatican, U.S. Catholics and sharing Jerusalem,” by Fr. Drew Christiansen; “U.S. policy on Jerusalem,” by Ambassador (ret.) Philip Wilcox; “Jewish perspectives on sharing Jerusalem,” by Lara Friedman of Americans for Peace Now; “What Jerusalem means to Palestinians,” by Rafi Dajani of the American Task Force on Palestine; and the “Humanitarian situation of Palestinians,” by Tom Garafalo.

Churches for Middle East Peace is a coalition of 21 public policy offices of Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant national churches and agencies. CMEP advocates for two viable states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side within secure and recognized borders, and promotes the sharing of an undivided Jerusalem by the two peoples—Israelis and Palestinians—and by the three religious communities that call it sacred.

Registration and detailed information on the “For the Peace of Jerusalem” conference is available at http://www.cmep.org/2007_conference/conference_mainpage.htm .