P. O. Box 1245
500 S. Main Street
Elkhart IN 46515-1245
T: 574-294-7523
F: 574-293-1892
E: Elkhart@MennoniteUSA.org

April 12, 2002

Dear President Bush,

Our hearts are heavy as we hear daily reports of ever-escalating violence in the Middle East. Because of relief and violence-prevention work in the Middle East through Mennonite Central Committee in the West Bank and Gaza and Christian Peacemaker Teams in Hebron, our staff receive first-hand reports of the situation.

We thank you for sending Secretary of State Colin Powell to the Middle East and for your recent beginning steps toward a more balanced call for the cessation of violence by both Israel and Palestine.

The recent announcement that the Israeli military was pulling out of two Palestinian cities was welcome but it was far from clear that it signaled the start of the full, immediate withdrawal from the West Bank towns and refugee camps as you have repeatedly requested.

We urge you to continue to call for an end to all violence and a sincere willingness to enter into a binding mediation process. We encourage you to make your call more strongly by pressing for immediate negotiation with both sides by Secretary of State Colin Powell, and for respect for the Palestinian people and recognition of its elected leaders, including the release of Mr. Arafat from confinement.

Finally, we urge you to support the introduction of unarmed international monitors, and to act in support of a more significant role for the U.N. in moving toward the vision outlined in the recent Arab League proposal. We urge you to press for a resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict which recognizes the illegality of Israeli behavior in the occupied territories under the Fourth Geneva Convention and which is in accordance with relevant UN Security Council resolutions (242 and 338) that call on Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories in exchange for peace.

We are calling the congregations of Mennonite Church USA to prayer and action. An emergency Christian Peacemaker Team delegation is being sent to the region April 15-29 in answer to the request of Palestinian residents of Hebron. Palestinian residents are afraid that they will face a violent invasion by the Israeli military as has happened in other cities and are urgently requesting an expanded international presence to witness the human rights situation and be present with ambulances, in neighborhood clinics and media centers, and with families in vulnerable neighborhoods. 

The atrocities being committed by both sides must be stopped immediately. International observers must be allowed safe access to all areas of the occupied territories.

We will be in prayer for you, and for all heads of state in the critical days ahead. May God be with you to act with courage for the well being of all.

Sincerely yours,

James Schrag, Executive Director, Executive Board

On behalf of Mennonite Church USA