Christians for Fair Witness Condemns Israeli Settler Attack on Palestinians

NEW YORK, Aug. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --On August 16, five members of one Palestinian family were seriously injured near the al-Arrub refugee camp near Bethlehem when a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the taxi they were traveling in. Both the police and the family believe that the act was perpetrated by extremist Israeli settlers.  According to a Red Crescent official, the injured family members include four-year-olds Iman and Muhammad, their father and mother Ayman and Jamila Hassan, and Hassan Hassan who was driving. All family members suffered severe burns and Ayman Hassan is in a coma. The family is being treated at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. 

"Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East unequivocally condemns this terror attack," said Rev. Dr. Scott Ickert, Senior Pastor of Resurrection Lutheran Church in Arlington, VA  and Fair Witness Executive Committee member. "The Israeli government must take immediate measures to ensure an end to settler violence.  This should also be a wake-up call to both the Palestinian and Israeli leadership that the status quo is not sustainable and that they must sit down together and negotiate a final status agreement.  The occupation must end and the settlers moved to the Israeli side of a negotiated border."

"This is indeed a stark reminder of the urgency of the need for a final status agreement," according to Fr. James Loughran, S.A., Director of the Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute and Fair Witness Executive Committee member. "Israelis and Palestinians both need security, justice, sovereignty and the freedom to live undisturbed in their own homelands. Israeli Prime Ministers Barak and Olmert agreed to or made final-status offers, respectively. These offers would have ended the occupation had they been accepted by the Palestinian Authority. Prime Minister Netanyahu must show the same courage that these two of his predecessors showed and President Abbas must match that courage. Both parties must put aside their excuses and return to the negotiating table in good faith immediately."

Please visit Fair Witness' website: www.christianfairwitness.com 

SOURCE Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East

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