Religious leaders meeting in Alexandria

By Haim Shapiro

JERUSALEM (January 21, 2002) – An historic meeting of top Jewish, Christian, and Muslim leaders from the Middle East began without rancor in Alexandria yesterday, despite the presence of clerics who have attacked Israel and even Judaism in the past, a Foreign Ministry source said.

Among the Jewish figures taking part are Sephardi Chief Rabbi Eliahu Bakshi-Doron and Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior. The delegation also includes Rabbi David Rosen, interfaith director for the American Jewish Committee; Rabbi Menahem Froman of Tekoa, a pioneer in forming links with Muslim clergy; and Rabbis David Grossman and Yitzhak Ralbag, both members of the Chief Rabbinical Council.

Muslim participants include Sheikh Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, head of Egypt's Al-Azhar University, the supreme Sunni Muslim religious institution. Heading the Palestinian delegation is Sheikh Taysir Tamimi, head of the PA's religious courts. During the visit of Pope John Paul II in March 2000, Tamimi participated in a public interreligious forum in which he castigated Israel. Also taking part is Sheikh Talal Sidr, a member of the PA cabinet.

Among the Christian participants are Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah and other heads of churches in Jerusalem. The head of Egypt's Coptic Church is also attending. Archbishop of Canterbury David Carey, who together with Melchior initiated the gathering, is due to arrive tomorrow, when the participants are also to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The organizers, who hope that this will be the first in a series of such religious meetings, are confident they can succeed in keeping the discussion on a spiritual plane and not become involved in politics.

What they strive to achieve is a joint declaration condemning violence and the use of religion as a means of inciting violence.

According to the Foreign Ministry source, it took months to organize the gathering, with many delays and obstacles along the way. It was arranged in great secrecy, with fears that any publicity would cause some of the participants to shy away.

Religious leaders call for implementing Mitchell, Tenet plans

By News Agencies

Leading clerics of the Jewish, Muslim and Christian faiths called Monday for an immediate cease-fire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the implementation of the Mitchell and Tenet recommendations.

At the end of a two-day conference organized by Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, the clerics issued a seven-point declaration that included a pledge to establish a permanent committee of representatives of the three religions that would work for peace in the Holy Land.

"We will not accept [the bloodshed] anymore. There cannot be peace if we don't have a new language between religions and we have started this new language here," Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior, leader of the Israeli delegation, told reporters at the end of the conference.

The conference, at an old seaside palace in Alexandria, was also attended by Sephardi Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron, Al-Azhar Grand Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi of Egypt, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem and clerics from the Palestinian Authority, including cabinet minister Sheik Talal Sidr and Palestinian Chief Justice Sheikh Taysir al-Tamimi.

It received the support of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who was due to meet some of the participants in Cairo on Tuesday.

Reporters were barred from the conference sessions, reflecting concern about how the meeting would be received. Five years ago, the grand sheik of Sunni Islam's prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo, who was hosting Sunday's conference, came under fire in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world when word leaked out he had met with a top Israeli rabbi.

"As a first step now, we call for a religiously sanctioned cease-fire, respected and observed on all sides, and for the implementation of the Mitchell and Tenet recommendations, including the lifting of restrictions [on the Palestinians] and a return to negotiations," the declaration said.

Drawn up by an international panel chaired by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, the Mitchell recommendations call for an unconditional end to violence, a serious Palestinian effort to prevent attacks on Israelis, a freeze of all construction in Jewish settlements and the lifting of Israel's travel bans on Palestinians. The recommendations of CIA director George Tenet set out plans for a lasting cease-fire.

Carey told reporters that "no declaration could be a magic wand to end the fighting between Israelis and Palestinians, but it is our duty and our desire to do what we can to bring forth good from evil – hope from despair."

Carey described the conference Sunday as an unprecedented gathering of leaders of the three faiths at a time of crisis.

The Holy Land is holy to us all, Christians, Muslims and Jews. We have a shared duty therefore to do all we can to make it a land of peace and harmony," Carey said in remarks issued at the end of the conference.

"I hope this conference and declaration the religious leaders have concluded may become a landmark in the quest for that peace and harmony. I hope, too, it will come to be seen as a historic moment for the cooperation of our three faiths in the region," he said.

Multi-faith accord on violence signed in Egypt

By Joseph Algazy

Alexandria, Tuesday, January 22, 2002 - Shvat 9, 5762

Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders jointly signed an accord here last night condemning violence in the Middle East. The text received the blessing of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.

"According to our faith [and] traditions, killing innocents in the name of God is a desecration of His holy name, and defames religion in the world. The violence in the Holy Land is an evil which must be opposed by all people of good faith. We seek to live together as neighbors, respecting the integrity of each other's historical and religious inheritance. We call upon all to oppose incitement, hatred and the misrepresentation of the other."

This is the text of a declaration signed by Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders from Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Egypt.

The gathering, convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. George Carey, received the blessing of Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, the head of Al- Azhar Islamic University in Cairo. It was the brainchild of Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior.

The Israeli delegation is being headed jointly by Chief Sephardi Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron and Rabbi Melchior. Other members are Rabbi Menachem Froman of Tekoa and Rabbis David Rosen, David Brodman and Yitzhak Ralbag.

The Palestinian delegation includes Sheikh Taisir Tamimi, chief justice of the Sharia courts, Sheikh Talal Sider, Minister of State for the PA, and the muftis of Bethlehem and the PA police forces.

The Christian delegation includes the Latin Patriarch, Michel Sabbah, the Melkite Archbishop, Boutros Mualem, the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, Rt. Rev. Riah Abu El-Assal, and representatives of the Greek and Armenian patriarchs.

The two-day meet is due to end today.

At a press conference held after the signing of the declaration, Carey said that the event was of historical significance since the gathering and declaration emphasize the commitment of senior leaders of the three faiths to throw their moral weight behind attempts to stop the violence. Carey announced that a permanent committee would be set up to carry out the recommendations of the declaration.

Sider said that the three religions outlaw the killing of innocent persons. He called on the Israeli delegation to demand of the Israeli government to stop the Israel Defense Forces' action in Tul Karm and in the territories.

Melchior expressed regret that the leaders of the region had so far ignored religion. Religion has sometimes been used to justify killing innocent people, he said. Instead, politicians should use it to stop bloodshed and move the peace process forward. If this declaration had been in force earlier, he said, perhaps terrorist attacks of the type seen in Hadera last week and the IDF action in the territories could have been prevented.

Bakshi-Doron said that "terrible crimes are committed in the name of God and religion and it is our obligation to condemn this and to announce in the name of all religions and believers that there is no greater desecration than doing dreadful deeds in the name of the Lord."

Several months of preparatory work preceded the holding of the gathering, and there were talks between representatives of all three faiths in different parts of the world, Ha'aretz has learned. Among those who sent greetings were British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

However, it was clear that the most important players in the game were the Americans and President George W. Bush, even if they did not participate. The Americans regard this as part of the global war against terror.

Behind the closed doors of the conference, other issues were raised such as maintaining the religious status quo in Jerusalem and the dispute over the building of a mosque next to the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth.

Religious parley in Egypt decries killing of innocents

By Herb Keinon

A dozen prominent Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religious leaders issued a joint declaration here yesterday declaring the killing of innocents a desecration of God's name and defamation of religion.

The three-day gathering, organized by Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, was billed by Carey and Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior, another driving force behind the conference, as "historic" and "unprecedented."

The declaration, which Carey imbued with weight by calling it the "First Alexandria Declaration of the Religious Leaders of the Holy Land," included a seven-point pledge by the leaders to use their "religious and moral authority to work for an end to the violence and the resumption of the peace process."

The final draft of the declaration was sent to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat yesterday afternoon for his approval before the Palestinians in the delegation signed it.

Although representatives of the three religions signed the document, different clauses in it are open to different interpretations.

For instance, the first clause includes a sentence that reads: "The sanctity and integrity of the holy places must be preserved, and freedom of religious worship must be insured for all."

When Sheikh Abdulsalam Abu-Shkhaidem, mufti of the Palestinian Police, was asked by The Jerusalem Post if this means Jews should be allowed access to the Temple Mount, he replied: "No, no, no. I am not going to pray in the church, I am not going to pray in the synagogue. That is what it means. I pray in my place, and they pray in their place. That means give me access to go to my mosque, and I am not stopping you from going to your church or synagogue."

Reminded that Jews are being stopped from going to the Temple Mount, Shkhaidem said, "They have no right to go there, this is a mosque – the whole Temple Mount."

Regarding whether the Western Wall is also part of the mosque, Shkhaidem – who in the list of delegates handed out at a press conference was referred to as "mufti of the armed forces" – said, "This is another matter, I don't love to talk about it."

Carey, at a press conference at the Alexandria Sheraton to unveil the declaration, said a permanent committee would be set up to work out questions such as those regarding the Temple Mount and the dispute over the construction of the mosque in Nazareth.

Carey sidestepped questions about the issues, saying it is first of all important not to "underestimate the significance of getting such a body together." Secondly, he said, "We are starting out on the journey together. We don't have to do everything in the first 36 hours."

"Of course, no declaration by religious leaders or anyone else can act as a magic wand, a panacea for all the ills and injustices, the savagery and inhumanity that have scarred and continue to scar the Holy Land," Carey said. "We are realistic people, not naive people. But it is our duty and our desire to do what we can to bring forth good from evil, hope from despair."

Among the Jewish representatives, in addition to Melchior, were Sephardi Chief Rabbi Eliahu Bakshi-Doron, Rabbi Yitzhak Ralbag of the Chief Rabbinical Council, and Rabbi David Rosen, the American Jewish Committee's director of religious affairs.

The Muslim delegation included Sheikh Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, head of Egypt's Al-Azhar University, the supreme Sunni Muslim religious institution; Sheikh Taysir Tamimi, head of the PA's religious courts, who blasted Israel during a public interreligious forum with the pope two years ago; and Sheikh Tallal Sidr, a minister without portfolio in the PA cabinet.

The Christian representatives included Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah, Bishop of Jerusalem Riah Abu el-Assal, and Archbishop Aristichos of the Greek Patriarch.

Melchior, speaking at the press conference, said the gathering brought together "some of the greatest religious leaders of this area" speaking in a language people are not accustomed to hearing.

"For many years we have heard how religion is used to blow people up," Melchior said. "Because of this, many of the leaders have wanted to ignore religion, thinking it is a kind of demon."

Melchior argued, however, that "there cannot be peace between the Palestinians and Israelis if there is not a new language between our religions." The purpose of the conference he said was to begin creating this new language.

Mubarak backs multi-faith accord

By Joseph Algazy and Anshel Pfeffer

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak yesterday expressed his support of a joint declaration issued by Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders, in which they condemned "killing innocents in the name of God" and committed themselves "to throwing their moral weight behind attempts to stop the violence."

Mubarak met with the religious leaders in Cairo, following a two-day conference in Alexandria, which was attended by Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders from Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Egypt.

Mubarak called on both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute to return to the negotiating table in order to put an end to the violence. He also urged the Israeli government to end the siege imposed on Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat and to allow him to attend the forthcoming Arab League conference in Beirut. According to Mubarak, keeping Arafat off the international stage would only worsen the situation and harm Israel.

Mubarak rejected a suggestion by Chief Sephardi Rabbi, Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron, to meet with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, saying, "How can I meet with Sharon while houses are being blown up and people are being evicted from their homes? I had good working relations with other Israeli premiers, including Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, but that is not possible with Sharon since he does not keep his promises, even promises made to my emissaries to Israel."

The conference, convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. George Carey, received the blessing of Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, the head of Al-Azhar Islamic University in Cairo.

Among others, it was attended by Rabbi Bakshi-Doron, deputy Foreign Minister Rabbi Michael Melchior, Sheikh Taisir Tamimi, chief justice of the Sharia courts, Sheikh Talal Sider, Minister of State for the PA, as well as the Latin Patriarch, Michel Sabbah, the Melkite Archbishop, Boutros Mualem, the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, Rt. Rev. Riah Abu El-Assal, and representatives of the Greek and Armenian patriarchs.

After their meeting in Cairo with Mubarak, participants in the conference held a press briefing, at which Sheikh Tamimi said that the joint declaration could make an important contribution to the peace and security of all the region's peoples. Other participants said that the Alexandria conference and the declaration were a good start toward the goal of regional peace.

Conference participants continued their discussion of ways to implement their joint declaration late into Monday night. Ha'aretz learned yesterday that, at these discussion, Rabbi Bakshi-Doron stated that Jews do have the right to visit Temple Mount. The Chief Sephardi Rabbi added, however, that as a religious Jew, he objected on the grounds that Jewish law prohibited it and that he therefore supported the continuation of the status quo in the capital.

Leaders agree to open permanent dialogue

Members of the Palestinian delegation to a multi-faith conference in Alexandria held a private meeting Monday with Chief Sephardi Rabbi, Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron, and agreed on the establishment of a permanent channel of dialogue.

The Palestinian participants requested the special meeting with Rabbi Bakshi-Doron at the end of the discussions in Alexandria, which were attended by by Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders from Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Egypt.

The Palestinians asked Rabbi Bakshi-Doron to ensure that discussions between Jewish and Muslim religious leaders become a permanent fixture, in order to address future religious problems that may arise, such as access to holy places, without having to resort to the various political and diplomatic channels.

Rabbi Bakshi-Doron has participated in the past in inter-faith meetings abroad, but there is currently no infrastructure in place which would allow dialogue between the rabbinate and religious leaders in the Palestinian Authority.