CMEP’s “Peacemaking” Used to Buttress Incitement
An article in the Turkish Daily News, provides another bit of evidence that “peacemaking” statements by church organizations in the U.S. have unintended consequences.
The article, which recyles the false charge that the excavation near the Mughrabi Gate of the Temple Mount “a threat to the foundations of the Al-Aqsa mosque,” uses a Feb. 9, 2007 letter from CMEP to counter Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s complaints about extremists attempting to use the excavation as a pretext to incite violence.
CMEP’s letter, signed by Executive Director Corinne Whitlach and the group’s chair, Maureen Shea, asked officials from the U.S. Dept. of State to pressure Israel to stop the excavation approximately 60 meters from the Temple Mount but failed to insist that the Palestinian officials work to promote calm amongst their followers and deal with the issue in a peaceful manner.
The article, written by Nicola Nasser from Ramallah, states:
Islam’s third holiest site in Jerusalem is the heart and soul of the Arab and Palestinian national, religious, historical and cultural heritage and the symbol of their more than 5,000-year uninterrupted existence on the land, long before the Hebrews swept into Palestine on the blood of butchered men, women and children of the completely destructed Jericho, according to the Old Testament. The destruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque would, God forbid, crown the Israeli cleansing of the Palestinian cultural structure after obliterating their existential infrastructure.
Wiill the CMEP respond to this obvious attempt to incite hostility toward Israel? Will the CMEP call for calm in the Muslim world? Will it call upon Palestinian leaders to behave responsibly?
It all depends on whether the CMEP is interested in promoting peace and responsible behavior by all parties involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict, or if it is interested in continuing its habit of handing propaganda victories to Israel’s adversaries.
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