Letter from the Coordinator 2007-04-12

This quarterly letter comes with warmest greetings of peace and solidarity in the midst of escalating violence in many parts of the world and specially in the troubled, war-torn region of the Middle East. Peace for Life (PfL) is embarking on a major engagement in Middle East issues this year, having always recognized the centrality of the Middle East question in its agenda to mobilize faith-based resistance to the US empire and its allies and instrumentalities.

International Week of Action for Peace in Palestine and Israel

This year’s main activity of PfL slated for November, the Interfaith Peace and Solidarity Mission to Palestine-Israel (also referred to as Interfaith Peace Pilgrimage and Solidarity Visit), has proven to be a very timely and urgent initiative. In June this year the world observed the 40th year of Israeli occupation of Palestine, in relation to which the World Council of Churches (WCC) convened a joint advocacy initiative, the “International Church Action for Peace in Palestine and Israel (ICAPPI), 3-9 June. 2007.” The main call of the international week of action was: “End 40 Years of Illegal Occupation. Negotiate a Just Peace Now”. Several churches and church-based organizations the world over responded to the WCC appeal by holding high-level ecumenical visits to government offices, peace walks, prayer vigils, solidarity forums and stepping up campaigns to further the cause of Palestinian people through economic boycotts, divestment and sanctions specially targeting companies operating in the occupied territories.

WCC International Peace Conference in Jordan

A major international conference to launch the Palestine-Israel Solidarity Forum, a new ecumenical vehicle for peace in the Middle East, was likewise organized by the WCC on June 17-21 in Amman, Jordan on the theme: “Churches Together for Peace and Justice in the Middle East”. PFL was represented in the gathering by PfL co-moderator Kim Yong-Bock and myself. Known for his minjung theology, Yong-Bock gave a provocative and well-received bible study on conflicts and religion, while I spoke about civil resistance and political repression in the Philippines as part of the sharing of experiences. Both presentations highlighted the whole issue of global empire in today’s context of imperial wars and religious conflicts. Another PfL Continuation Committee (CC) member David Wildman served as resource person on economic actions, sharing his extensive experience as a member of the steering committee for the US Campaign to End Israeli Occupation (a broad-based interfaith and human-rights campaign), in organizing advocacy campaigns for divestment and boycotts to help strengthen Palestinian civil resistance.

Also present was another CC member and part of the WCC staff, Chris Ferguson, who helped draft the powerful statement issued at the end of the conference. Chris who, before serving with the New York office of WCC was deployed to Jerusalem to head the WCC office for Palestine-Israel, helped convene a PfL meeting with members of the local organizing committee for the Palestine program who were also invited to the WCC gathering. Local partners, including representatives from the Jerusalem Interchurch Center (also the Jerusalem office of WCC), East Jerusalem YMCA/YWCA of Palestine and the Sabeel Center for Palestinian Liberation Theology, expressed great enthusiasm for our upcoming peace and solidarity mission. Together they make up the Coalition of Church Related Organizations (CROs) which will serve as PfL’s local host and organizing committee for the Palestine-Israel mission.

Following the conference, our PfL team had a fruitful meeting with the president and staff of the Ecumenical Studies Center in Amman, which has so graciously accepted our request, initially coursed through Working Group (WG) member Gabriel Habib, to serve as our contact for local arrangements in the Jordan phase of our activity. The Jordan program, which caps the mission, will include a two-day conference or strategy workshop and a one-day internal meeting of the Continuation Committee.

Philippine Action in Support of ICAPPI

In response to the WCC call for a week of International Church Action for Peace in Palestine/Israel (ICAPPI) to mark the 40th year of the illegal occupation of Palestine, PfL and the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) held the Ecumenical Prayer in Solidarity at the Ecumenical Center, NCCP Compound in Quezon City on June 13. The early morning activity started with the reading of the message from the patriarchs and heads of the churches in Jerusalem by Catholic Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez of the Ecumenical Bishops’ Forum. It was my task afterwards to give the opening remarks and explain the purpose of the gathering.

The whole program was conducted in a liturgical form using the worship materials prepared by the heads of churches in Jerusalem, as issued by the WCC. For educational purposes, it also included informative presentations detailing the historical/political background of the conflict and a personal experience on the day-to-day life in occupied Palestine, given, respectively, by PfL-WG member Kathryn Poethig and Reginald Pumagas, a medical doctor from the Health Workers Alliance for Human Rights in the Philippines. Kathryn, who was on a visit in Manila, gave a compelling account of the Palestinian struggle for justice and freedom from occupation.

CC member Sharon Rose Joy Ruiz-Duremdes of the NCCP gave the closing remarks where she drew the parallels of Palestine occupation and its struggle for liberation and that of the Philippines, the occasion being as much for Palestine as it was for the Philippines, which commemorated its 109th declaration of Independence from Spain on June 12th. Also gracing the occasion was CC member Lee Hong-Jung who, after leaving the Christian Conference of Asia last year, assumed the post of president of the Asia-Pacific Christian College and Seminary based in Manila.

International Peace Conference on Iraq in Manila

Another Middle East issue that occupied the Manila-based secretariat was the US war of occupation in Iraq. On April 28-29, Manila was host to the “2007 International Peace Conference in Manila: A Philippine-Japan Citizens’ Gathering in Support of the Iraqi People’s Call to End the US Occupation of Iraq”. The main organizer was the National Assembly for Peace and Democracy (ZENKO) of Japan together with a Philippine community-based citizens’ peace initiative, Magulang at Paslit Laban sa Digmaan at Karahasan (MAPALAD KA) or Parents and Children against War and Violence.

PfL played a key role in the activity by organizing local participation from mass organizations and NGOs and helping in the preparation of the program and related activities. With the slogan “People’s Welfare, not War”, the gathering was attended by 72 Japanese activists and peace advocates mostly affiliated with the Movement for Democratic Socialism-Japan, some 100 delegates from Philippine groups, and one from Solidarity without Border, Indonesia. Special guests included representatives from the Iraq Freedom Congress (IFC) and US Labor against War (USLAW). The two-day activity was capped by a children’s program and a peace concert that lasted until late into the night.

People’s Charter on Peace for Life

We are also making definite progress in the drafting of a People’s Charter on Peace for Life, a joint initiative of PfL and the Advanced Institute for the Integral Study of Life, headed by Kim Yong-Bock. I have just in fact returned less than two weeks ago from Hong Kong, where we held a meeting of the core group for the Peace Charter project, composed of Yong-Bock, CC member Ninan Koshy and myself. During the two-day workshop we thoroughly reviewed the draft prepared by Ninan which was based on an outline produced at the drafting workshop in Hwacheon, South Korea in October, last year.

We also firmed up plans for another workshop to be held again in Hwacheon, in October this year and discussed the prospects for a people’s tribunal and hearings next year. An informal proposal was floated to explore the possibility of holding the second people’s forum of Peace for Life slated for 2008 also in Hwacheon, with local hosting provided by the county. It is expected that the Peace Charter will be presented for adoption by the forum.

After the meeting, I had occasion to catch up with PfL network participants, including Cynthia Abdon of the Mission to Filipino Migrant Workers in Hk and Alice Ho of the HK Polytechnic University. We had encouraging conversations regarding the possibility of setting up a PfL network or chapter in HK. I was also privileged to join them in a massive demonstration to mark the anniversary of the British handover of HK.

Looking Forward to the Upcoming Interfaith Mission to Palestine-Israel

As part of the preparations for the Interfaith Peace and Solidarity Mission to Palestine-Israel scheduled on November 4-14, 2007, I convened a meeting in New York of our Middle East subgroup, tasked with the responsibility of planning for the mission, during my extended visit to the US in April following my participation in an international conference on peace and human rights in the Philippines convened by US churches. David Wildman offered the facilities of the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church for our accommodation during the one-day meeting, which was attended also by Chris Ferguson and Gabriel Habib. Because of flight delays due to heavy floods in the East coast, Farid Esack had to cancel his plans to attend at the last minute. The meeting firmed up the general plans which served as basis for the final draft of the project proposal submitted to partners and other agencies. The meeting also proposed a possible theme for the mission, “Middle East Peace: the Global South Forging Links of Solidarity with Palestine-Israel in Resistance to Empire.”

Preparations for our mission project are now in full swing. Our secretariat has been busy with fund-raising for the activity and mobilizing participation not only from our traditional network but also from new contacts and non-Christian faith communities. We have so far received positive responses to our invitation from some 25 people, most of whom are members of our CC. They are church leaders, theologians, interfaith activists and peace advocates. We look forward to receiving more responses from CC members and network participants, and also ideas for fund-raising.

In closing, let me just express the hope that this account has updated our readers on the various involvements of PfL in the common endeavor to work for the realization of God’s reign of peace and justice.

Yours in solidarity,

Carmencita

CARMENCITA P. KARAGDAG

Coordinator

Peace for Life