In January, 1999, over 1,100 clergy, including 160 Protestant and Catholic bishops, as well as numerous lay religious leaders, called on the Clinton Administration to press the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinian Authority, headed by Yassir Arafat, to cease violating the human rights of Palestinians.

The petition received widespread coverage by major secular and religious news services, newspapers, and periodicals.

The human rights petition called on President Clinton to publicly urge Israel and the Palestinian Authority to abide by international law and human rights conventions and to link US financial aid to Israel and the Palestinian Authority to their compliance with human rights covenants.

In Israel?s case, the Clinton Administration was asked to adhere to US law which prohibits economic or military aid to nations engaging in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.

The US government was asked to urge Israel to dismantle all settlements except where settlers are willing to live as equal citizens within a Palestinian state, and to return all land and water resources confiscated from Palestinians since 1967.

The religious leaders cited Israeli violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Fourth Geneva Convention, both signed by Israel and the US. These violations continue despite Israeli-Palestinian agreements at Oslo and Wye, and include torture, settlement expansion, destruction of homes, confiscation of land and water resources, prevention of family reunification, and collective punishment. The petition also deplores the use of torture, secret trials, and press censorship by the Palestinian Authority.

Charges of human rights violations by Israel and by the Palestinian Authority are based on reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Physicians for Human Rights, the State Department, the International Committee of the Red Cross as well as Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups.

In seeking a nonviolent, just settlement, the signatories called for an end to violence against civilians, whether by Palestinians, Jewish settlers or the Israeli state, and asked the US government to support the rights of Palestinians as well as Israelis. The petition calls for an undivided Jerusalem where Israel and a Palestinian State will have their respective capitals in West and East Jerusalem.

At a time when the world had just observed the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the signatories urged Washington to realize that Palestinian (and Arab)-Israeli peace is only possible if based on justice, human rights, and self-determination for Israeli Jews and Palestinian Christians and Muslims.

SEARCH?s Executive Director Edmund R. Hanauer noted that past resolutions of the major mainline Protestant and Orthodox churches as well as the Roman Catholic church agree with many, if not all, of the statement?s concerns for Palestinian rights, including a halt to Jewish settlements, self-determination for Palestinians, and religious and political equality in Jerusalem.

If President Clinton heeded Judeo-Christian values and international law, Hanauer said, his policies would reflect the positions of US religious leaders and Israeli human rights groups, not those of the Israeli government and the Israeli lobby in the US.

Signatories (affiliations for purposes of identification only) include Antiochian Orthodox Archbishop Philip Saliba; Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, past president of the Catholic peace group Pax Christi; Bishop Edmond L. Browning, past Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church; Bishop Herbert W. Chilstrom, past Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Bishop Paul Moore, Jr.; as well as over 160 bishops from the Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopal, Antiochian, and Catholic churches.

Also signing: Salam Al-Marayati, Director, Muslim Public Affairs Council of Los Angeles; peace activists Philip Berrigan and Daniel Berrigan, S.J.; Dr. Dale L. Bishop, General Secretary for Mission Program, United Church Board for World Ministries; Richard Deats, editor of Fellowship; Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb; Joe Hale, General Secretary, World Methodist Council; Rev. J. M. Lawson, Jr., Chair, National Council, Fellowship of Reconciliation; Rev. Ken Sehested, Executive Director, Baptist Peace Fellowship; Rev. Patricia Tucker Spier, President, Division of Overseas Ministries, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); Gene Stoltzfus, Director, Christian Peacemaker Teams; Rev. Donald E. Wagner, Director, Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding; Rev. William Wipfler, former Director, Human Rights Office of the National Council of Churches; five past Moderators of the Presbyterian Church, USA: Robert Bohl, John Fife, Clinton Marsh, Herbert D. Valentine, and Benjamin Weir; and theologians John Cobb, Harvey Cox, and Rosemary Ruether. The statement has been endorsed by the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Catholic, Brethren, Disciples, Muslim, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Buddhist, and Church of God Peace Fellowships, the Methodist Federation for Social Action, and the Office of Social Witness, Reformed Church in America.

  Text of the Human Rights Petition 1999

"If you want peace, work for justice.” ? Pope Paul VI“Good men must seek to bring into being a real order of justice." ? Martin Luther King, Jr.“Some are guilty; all are responsible." ? Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
"My Lord hath commanded justice." ? The Holy Koran