Jerusalem – United Nations Security Council Resolution 2803, which led to a precarious ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, contains positive aspects, but these are also accompanied by weaknesses. The new phase initiated by the Resolution has led to a decrease, but not an end, of the violence. In some respects, it “smacks of colonialism,” demonstrates a “lack of global vision,” fails to consider current developments in the West Bank, and does not even attempt to challenge the ethnocentrism and discriminatory factors that structurally sabotage the path to peaceful coexistence among the various population groups in the Holy Land.
This mixed assessment is contained in a statement published in recent days by the ecumenical think tank “A Jerusalem Voice for Justice” regarding the latest UN Resolution on Palestine, based upon a draft of the United States administration. The resolution was accepted by thirteen of the Security Council member states while two abstained.
The resolution aims to establish a “Board of Peace” headed by President Trump, that would oversee an International Stabilization Force.
“Less genocide, less domicide, less displacement, and less dismantling of the few Palestinian institutions” are among the positive effects of the resolution, according to the Christian signatories of the statement. At the same time, they noted that hundreds of Gaza residents have been killed and injured since the “ceasefire” came into effect.
The UN Resolution—the signatories of the document add—subordinates self-determination to the “reforms” demanded of the Palestinians. But one must ask whether these reforms truly aim to end corruption and mismanagement, or whether they instead seek to impose conditions set by Israel and the United States on Palestinian self-determination.
Among the Resolution’s “negative aspects,” the document published by “A Jerusalem Voice for Justice and Peace” highlights its colonialist features and cites “the administration of the Gaza Strip by foreigners under the leadership of the President of the United States.” Furthermore, “the most negative aspect of the resolution is its lack of a global vision.” The resolution “ignores the realities in the West Bank ” as well as “the violent dismantling of Palestinian refugee camps and villages, the extreme violence of the Israeli army and police, and especially Jewish settler vigilantes.”
According to the document’s authors, “there is no way forward unless we are willing to rethink the global situation in Palestine/Israel. Since the British Balfour Declaration ,” the text states, “the discourse has been based upon a division into Jew and non-Jew, establishing the inequality that has emerged since then.” The document also states that “the 1947 UN partition plan was in direct continuity with British colonial rule.”
Jews, the document continues, “are connected to this land and are not simply colonial settlers. However, their link with the land is not exclusive, and it does not give them a right to dispossess and displace, repress and occupy, destroy and commit genocide.” To overcome the “system of ethnocentricity, discrimination, and occupation,” efforts must be made to integrate Jewish Israelis “into a new reality that opens up on the horizon – a multi-cultural and pluralist society that ensures equality, justice and peace for all who live in Palestine/Israel today.”
The ecumenical group “A Jerusalem Voice for Justice,” which came together spontaneously, was recently formed in response to the new outbreak of violence and terror in the Holy Land, to share and offer insights into the facts and processes that affect and torment the lives of people in the land of Jesus. The network includes, among others, Latin Patriarch Emeritus of Jerusalem Michel Sabbah, Lutheran Bishop Munib Younan, Greek Orthodox Bishop Attallah Hanna, the coordinator of the Sabeel Ecumenical Center, Sawsan Bitar, Palestinian theologian John Munayer, Jesuit Father David Neuhaus, Father Frans Bouwen of the Missionaries of Africa, and Father Alessandro Barchi, a monk of the Piccola Famiglia dell’Annunziata, founded by Father Giuseppe Dossetti.
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