On the road to nowhere by Giles Fraser -May 15, 2003

The much-heralded Road Map to a Palestinian State was condemned yesterday by the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem as a piece of US propaganda going nowhere.
Speaking to him on a journey to London yesterday, Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal was visibly furious as he attacked George Bush's motives as domestic grandstanding.

The Bishop is right to distrust the US. The dollars and tanks Bush employed to implement Security Council resolution 1441, the resolution used as justification for the invasion of Iraq, stands in stark contrast to the indifference the same administration has for those Security Council Resolutions that Israel continues to ignore: 242, 338, and 194.

The US could have used its veto to stop any of these resolutions from passing, but it chose not to do so. So the mandate for action against the illegal Israeli occupation is absolutely clear. Yet political pressure back home, particularly in key areas like Florida where the presidential election was decided, means that there is no willingness in Washington to push hard for peace.

In an open letter to friends the Bishop argued that "Israel's refusal to cease building settlements, the US reluctance to exert serious pressure on Israel, and the lack of power in Europe and the UN already makes the plan dead in the water".

Bishop Riah believes the Church has an important part to play in the peace process, though he admits that the image of Christianity throughout the Middle East is being tarnished by the Christian gloss Bush has given to the war in Iraq. And the presence of US evangelists in Iraq is 'beyond words'.

Calling on these evangelists to leave the region, he spoke of the need for a very different Christian presence. Bishop Riah pointed to the work done by the two Anglican hospitals in Nablus and Gaza. Here the wounded and dying of the intifada are treated and cared for. In the last few years 2,500 people have been killed and 10,000 injured or seriously disabled. And the killing just goes on and on.

So what hope is there for peace? Back in August 2001 Bishop Riah persuaded the World Council of Churches to call for sanctions on all products from the occupied territories. Calling for sanctions imposed on the whole of Israel is the next step. Indeed, the case for sanctions is even more pressing than it was against the South African of the apartheid era, for increasingly it looks as if the Israelis are edging toward a final solution to the Palestinian problem. Its something you are not supposed to say, though some are now saying it.

“The Palestinians are faced with existential threats: ethnic cleansing (so-called "transfer") or the imprisonment in Bantustan-style enclaves” writes Israeli journalist Uri Avnery. It's the most horrendous déjà vu.

Church leaders have tried to meet with Prime Minister Sharon, but have been denied access. Bishop Riah believes the Church could play an important mediating role and speaks of the involvement of the Vatican and Canterbury.

But Israeli officials are having none of it. For the Church, like the rest of the world (with the exception of the US) recognizes that the solution lies in the creation of a Palestinian state with pre-1967 borders, some sort of power sharing for Jerusalem and the evacuation of settlers.

"It took them six days to occupy the Palestinian territories, they could get out in three." said Bishop Riah.