Holy Land bishop: 'Violence is the tool of the desperate and hopeless'

|PIC1|In the wake of the Jewish seminary shooting, the Holy Land Lutheran bishop has responded with a reminder to the world that violence is the product of desperation and hopelessness.

"We are profoundly and deeply saddened by the recent escalation of violence that killed eight in the Yeshiva last night and 120 in Gaza in the last week," said the Rev Munib A Younan, Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Holy Land and Jordan, in a statement. "We express our sincere condolences to all who are mourning the loss of loved ones."

Yet the bishop pointed out that it is those who see no future that resort to violence to address their problems.

"We in the church have been steady and strong voices for non-violence. As it says in one of our Lutheran schools, 'violence is the tool of the incompetent,'" Younan said. "I believe it is also the tool of the desperate and the hopeless.

"This is not to excuse any violence on any side but to face the hard reality that unless people have something to live for they have nothing to lose."

A Palestinian gunman, a resident of East Jerusalem, killed eight Israeli students and wounded nine when he opened fire in the library of a prominent Jewish seminary on Thursday evening.

The shooting was the deadliest incident in Israel since a suicide bomber killed 11 people in Tel Aviv on April 17, 2006. Moreover, the seminary shooting was the first major attack by Palestinian militants in Jerusalem since a suicide bomber killed eight people on February 22, 2004.

On Thursday, students were gathering for a nighttime study session in the seminary's library when shooting suddenly broke out. Unprepared students scrambled to escape by jumping out of windows and fleeing the attack.

Yehuda Meshi Zahav, head of the Zaka rescue service, described the scene after the attack: "The whole building looked like a slaughterhouse. The floor was covered in blood," he said. "The floors are littered with holy books covered in blood."

The seminary, Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, is one of the most prestigious centres of Jewish studies and is closely tied to the leadership of the Jewish settlement movement in the West Bank. It oversees some 400 high school students and young Israeli soldiers, many of which carry arms.

The seminary shooting comes on the heels of renewed fighting between Israel and Gaza that has resulted in the deaths of more than 120 Palestinians and four Israelis since last week.

|PIC2|Bishop Younan, in his response to the shooting, also called attention to the 1.4 million people in Gaza that are "suffering the worst conditions in 40 years".

Some 80 per cent of Gazans are dependent on food aid, 40 per cent are unemployed, hospitals complain of severe shortages of basic supplies and the electricity, sewage, and water systems are about to collapse.

"We in the church are afraid that this situation will only spawn more retaliation and revenge that benefits no one," Younan warned of Gaza's situation.

"We must not allow the deterioration of the situation to accelerate the vicious cycle of violence," he said. "Lasting peace and security will never come at the point of a gun or in the rubble of the shelling, but only through hard and tough dialogue and the upholding of equal human rights and international law."

The shooting has jeopardised the historic peace talk between Israeli and Palestinian leaders that nearly unravelled earlier this week.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had suspended talks when Israel led a military offensive against Gaza last week in retaliation to missiles that were fired from Gaza, killing one Israeli.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was able to coax President Abbas back to the peace table only on Wednesday before the shooting took place Thursday evening. The United States is brokering the peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

In response, Rice condemned the Jerusalem shooting as an "act of terror and depravity", according to AP. Israel signalled Friday that it is still willing to continue the peace talks despite the attack.

Israel will move ahead with talks "so as not to punish moderate Palestinians for actions by people who are not just our enemies but theirs as well", an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AP.

"Leaders and people in the Holy Land - Muslim, Christian and Jew - it is our duty to our children to show them that there are other ways to solve our problems," urged Younan. "It is our duty to work for the sanctity of all human life and to raise the voices of the moderates who comprise a vast majority of the people on both sides.

"We cannot allow the extremists and the cycle of revenge and counter-revenge to hold the prospects of justice and peace hostage," he continued. "We urge our sisters and brothers in this Land, Israeli and Palestinian, to stop the violence: the missiles, shelling, shooting, rockets and incursions, and to restore basic human rights to the people of Gaza.

"Only through dialogue that represents all parties, including those we deem enemies, will bring a lasting and durable peace based on justice."