For Immediate Release 18 April 2004 Press Statement

The Fifth International Conference of the Sabeel Ecumenical Palestinian Liberation Theology Center, meeting in Jerusalem during 14-18 April, 2004, registers in strongest possible terms its opposition to the Israeli government’s imposition of a unilateral strategy on the Palestinian Territories.

The theme of the Conference, "Challenging Christian Zionism," discussed this modern theological and political movement that embraces the most extreme ideological positions of Zionism, thereby becoming detrimental to a just peace in the Holy Land. This movement, with its elevation of modern political Zionism, provides a worldview where the Gospel is identified with the ideology of empire, colonialism, and militarism.

The unilateral actions of the Israeli government contradict International Law, undermine previous peace agreements, deny Palestinian participation, and jeopardize a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

Moreover, we wish to express our outrage over the endorsement of the Sharon dictat by the United States and other governments, which repeats the historical errors of colonial empires in the past, such as Britain’s Balfour Declaration of

2 November, 1917. Such unilateral decrees perpetuate the ongoing dispossession of Palestinians of their national and human rights and property.

The Sabeel Conference assembled local and international theologians, bishops and clergy, political scientists, and legal experts to analyze the role of Christian Zionism in advancing hard-line Israeli and U.S. policies in the region.

Over 600 participants from over 30 countries participated in the Conference and committed themselves to return to their countries to pursue a political solution to the conflict in the Holy Land that is based on the enforcement of International Law and existing United Nations resolutions. Palestinian participants from the West Bank were unable to attend the Conference due to Israeli military closures.

The attached statement was issued by the Conference to assert the will of the participants in rejecting the theology of Christian Zionism and the unilateral policies now being advanced by the Bush and Sharon governments. Unless we return to international legitimacy the Conference participants fear that an even more dangerous phase of the occupation lies ahead.