Watch for ‘Signs of Peace’ during Gaza Strip Pull Out, warns WCC

The international affairs unit of the World Council of Churches (WCC) has said it will be necessary to watch for a number of ‘signs of peace’ in order to fully evaluate the Gaza pullout.

Over 40,000 Israeli troops and police were deployed last week to coerce some 9,000 Israeli settlers from what had previously been their homes.

Peter Weiderud, Director of the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, said in an information brief to WCC constituencies that it was not possible to determine whether the Gaza withdrawal, which involves “high personal costs for those involved”, would enhance prospects for peace if viewed in isolation.

According to the brief, there are seven signs of peace, including the opening of secure land, sea and air links from Gaza to the outside world and how many of the Gaza evacuees are re-settled within Israel’s pre-1967 borders.

The WCC brief described events in Jerusalem as critical and warned that “any good that comes out of the Gaza withdrawal will pale in the long term unless current trends in and around Jerusalem are reversed.”

Further signs for peace included equitable negotiations between the two sides in the conflict. The brief said that an “undeniable sign of peace” would be if decisions affecting both sides were to be “negotiated equitably between the two sides” from now.

It also said that both sides should “treat Jerusalem as a shared and open city”. The WCC urged its constituents to check to see if Palestinian residents of greater East Jerusalem were able to live and work there again, as well as travel freely in their own communities and visit their own holy sites. Sharing Jerusalem would also mean giving Palestinian residents the right and ability to receive visitors from the West Bank as well as be able to visit the West Bank themselves.

The WCC also said the international community itself had a responsibility to ensure a peaceful settlement in the conflict. It said: “The world’s leading nations bear central responsibility to enforce international law and have the essential third-party role of ensuring progress toward peace.”

It added that not just the US but other countries and indeed churches have “considerable capacity for promoting international law as the basis for peace.”

The WCC criticised Israel’s policy of encouraging settlement in occupied territory, saying that it had “caught people up in a policy of control and conquest that will not bring peace”.

Religious leaders last week expressed their hope for peace after the evacuation of the Gaza Strip. Deputy director of the Christian Friends of Israel, Geoffrey Smith said: “I hope this will prevent violence against Jews.”

Middle-East campaigner, the Rev Steven Sizer of Virginia Water welcomed the move with caution, saying, “If this causes fewer deaths then in this respect I welcome it.”

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced they would work together towards peace as the last Jewish settlers were pulled out of Gaza on Monday, two weeks ahead of schedule.