The World Council of Churches (WCC) is to launch an international, inter-church advocacy initiative for peace in Israel and Palestine - the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum - at a conference June 17-21, 2007, in Jordan.

The initiative is a major step toward WCC's goal of mobilising churches around the world for peace and justice in the Middle East. Its launch will take place during this year's observances of 40 years under occupation for Palestinians. The plan was approved by the WCC Executive Committee in early March.

WCC member churches and related organisations from different regions of the world and especially churches from the Middle East will take part in the inaugural conference. The forum they launch will coordinate existing church advocacy work and promote new joint efforts for peace.

Middle Eastern churches at the meeting will lay out their expectations of a just peace and their experiences of conflict. Churches from other regions will share lessons learned during other deeply rooted conflicts, for example, in South Africa, Sudan or Sri Lanka. The churches together will launch the new ecumenical advocacy forum for peace in Israel and Palestine.

At the time of the conference churches and civil society groups around the world will be marking the anniversary of the start of the occupation of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 and the 40 years of suffering, dislocation and loss that ensued. The WCC said the occupation and its violence had caused massive emigration, destabilised the region, generated strife in distant places and kept Israel from achieving security through peace.

Although their living roots in the region go back to Bible times, WCC member churches in the Middle East have increasingly linked their prospects for a continuing presence and witness in the region today to a just and lasting resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a WCC press statement has indicated.

[Source: WCC]