World Jewish News

Conference of Rabbis and Imans Denounce Calls to Eradicate Israel

Jewish and Muslim religious leaders concluded an emotional and occasionally heated conference on Wednesday the 22nd March by issuing a surprisingly strong declaration, denouncing "any incitement against a faith or people, let alone a call for their elimination."
According to the Jerusalem Post, Jewish and Israeli representatives at the four-day "Second World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace," held in the Spanish city of Seville essentially took this joint statement to be a veiled rebuke of Hamas? calls for the elimination of Israel as well as of the Iranian President?s comment that Israel should be ?wiped off the map.?
Yet the run-up to this important statement was wrought with difficulties, as the some 200 influential Rabbis and Imans attending the conference discussed how to end conflict and misunderstanding between their flocks. Disputes and initial doubts about the conference abounded.
But the final declaration, that also declared that ?there is no inherent conflict between Islam and Judaism,? shows that the delegates were able to reach a promising compromise - even the Imam of Gaza Imad al-Falouji, who had earlier accused Israel of systematically ?killing? his people, joined the other seven members of the conference?s steering committee to issue the closing statement. He later stated in a press conference that the statement was in fact not a criticism of Hamas.
The Seville event, organized by the Paris-based Hommes de Parole organization, brought notables such as the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger together with the Imam of Gaza, and other religious leaders from the Middle East, Europe and North America.
Addressing the conference, the chairman of the Policy Council of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), Rabbi Israel Singer, urged moderate Muslim and Jewish leaders to stand up against the extremists within their own ranks and to create a network of mutual trust. Rabbi Singer also rejected the idea that Jewish-Muslim tensions lie at the root of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Among the other steps taken by the conference :
To examine textbooks used by Jewish and Muslim schools in Jerusalem to ensure that intolerance is not propagated
Chief Rabbi Metzger called for formation of an international association of religious groups, a ?United Nations of religious groups?
Israeli representatives, including Haifa Chief Rabbi She?ar Yashuv Hacohen, agreed to language calling upon governments to show respect for "holy sites, houses of worship and cemeteries," according to the Jerusalem Post
Various workshops and seminars on encouraging tolerance between religions
Hommes de Paroles deployed innovative and at times bizarre tactics to initiate dialogue between the religious figures, some of whom had never participated in such a large and rare Judeo-Muslim dialogue - an American communications specialist in a cowboy hat took the microphone and demanded loudly that participants write their issues down on a large piece of paper placed on the floor. Apparently, after a Monday night dinner, rabbis and imams sang religious verses and even danced together.
"If we can sing and dance together in Seville, why can?t we walk together in the land we love? an attendee told the Associated Press.
The first meeting of imams and rabbis was held in Brussels in January 2005.

Источник: eurojewcong.org