US embassy cable - 05TELAVIV498

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 TEL AVIV 000498 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/28/2015 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, KIRF, KPAO, EAID, IS, KPAL, ISRAELI SOCIETY, ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN AFFAIRS 
SUBJECT: (C) RELIGIOUS LEADERS WEIGH MEASURES TO GENERATE 
GRASSROOTS SUPPORT FOR PEACE, THREE YEARS AFTER ALEXANDRIA 
DECLARATION 
 
REF: 04 TEL AVIV 6271 
 
Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission Gene A. Cretz for reasons 1.4 (b 
,d). 
 
1.  (U) This message was coordinated with and cleared by 
ConGen Jerusalem. 
 
2. (C) Summary: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious 
leaders of the Permanent Follow-up Committee for the 
Implementation of the Alexandria Declaration ("the Alexandria 
Group") met in East Jerusalem January 24 to review ways to 
fulfill commitments they made in Alexandria, Egypt three 
years earlier. Renewing their support for the principles 
outlined in the declaration, they decided to take practical 
steps, and focus on ways to take advantage of the current 
opening provided by new Israeli and Palestinian governments 
and other developments since Yassir Arafat's death to 
generate widespread grassroots support for the formal peace 
process within their own communities.  Without blaming any 
one group, many admitted that their efforts and results as a 
group were so far disappointing.  They endorsed in principle 
the creative and positive proposal advocated by Sheikh Imad 
Faluji of Gaza that they should try from now on to speak with 
one voice to the world community and should establish, 
register, and staff NGO offices in the West Bank and Gaza 
that could "shorten the road to peace" by delivering 
much-needed messages of moderation and religious tolerance to 
counter religious extremism prevalent in their communities. 
End summary. 
 
3. (SBU) The "Alexandria Group" of Jewish, Christian, and 
Muslim religious leaders convened in East Jerusalem's 
Christmas Hotel January 24 in a meeting attended by Embassy 
Tel Aviv and ConGen Jerusalem officers, midlevel Israeli and 
Palestinian officials, and NGO representatives.  The occasion 
for the group's plenary meeting, formally known as the 
"Follow-up Committee for Implementation of the Alexandria 
Declaration," was to mark the third anniversary of the 
Declaration, and review and endorse measures proposed at a 
smaller December 5th gathering (reported reftel) to increase 
grassroots support for the formal peace process.  Both the 
December and January meetings were funded under an Embassy 
Tel Aviv grant to the International Centre for 
Reconciliation, Canon White's UK-based NGO for ongoing 
Israeli-Palestinian inter-religious dialogue. 
 
--------- 
Attendees 
--------- 
 
4. (U) Jewish delegates included Rabbi David Rosen (who 
chaired the meeting) Rabbi David Brodman, Israeli Chief 
Rabbinate Director-General Oded Wiener, and Rabbi Michael 
Melchior (Labor-Meimad MK, recently appointed Deputy 
Education Minister).  Muslim delegates included Sheikhs 
Taysir Tamimi and Talal Sidr from the West Bank and Sheikh 
Imad Faluji from Gaza.  Christian delegates included Greek 
Orthodox Archbishop Aristarchos, Syrian Orthodox Bishop Mar 
Sewerios Malki Murad, Armenian Bishop Ariv Shrivanian, and 
PLO Executive Committee and Palestinian Legislative Council 
member Dr. Emil Jarjoui, as well as the Archbishop of 
Canterbury's Special Middle East Representative, Canon Andrew 
White.  ConGen Jerusalem and Embassy Tel Aviv POL and PD 
officers observed, along with Rabbi Ron Kronish of the 
Inter-religious Coordinating Council in Israel, Gita Hazani 
from MK Melchior's NGO Mosaica, Belaynesh Zevadia, counsellor 
from the MFA Religious Affairs Bureau, and visiting George 
Mason University Professor of World Religions and Conflict 
Resolution Marc Gopin. 
 
--------------------------------- 
Plan for Increased Effectiveness: 
One Voice, and Three Offices 
--------------------------------- 
 
5. (C) Sheikh Imad Faluji of Gaza briefed the group on the 
proposals discussed and approved by a smaller group of 
Alexandria participants at a meeting held December 5, 2004 in 
west Jerusalem.  The Alexandria Declaration had not yet lived 
up to its promise, he said, due to "laziness and a lack of 
seriousness." Those shortcomings could be addressed if the 
religious leaders now took concrete actions: 
 
-- (C) First, to be taken seriously, the Alexandria Group 
should speak with one voice at international conferences on 
religions for peace, or not at all. There was no point in 
having three separate statements with each leader speaking 
only for his own religion, he said. "Among ourselves, we can 
argue and dissent and express ourselves openly. But if we 
want world support for our efforts for peace in the holy 
land, we should clearly identify ourselves as one group, not 
three, and deliver one united message at public gatherings." 
Doing this will "shorten the road" to peace. 
-- (C) Second, the Alexandria Group's task is different than 
President Abu Mazen's and Prime Minister Sharon's. As 
religious leaders, Faluji said, "we should address the right 
people - people in our own communities - directly." In order 
to succeed in that public outreach, the Alexandria leaders 
should establish and register NGO offices in the West Bank 
and Gaza that could mirror the existing NGO "Mosaica" in 
Jerusalem founded by Rabbi Melchior and Elie Wiesel after the 
January 2002 Alexandria Declaration. Such NGO offices would 
be public outreach centers for peace and tolerance education 
and moderate religious interpretation to counter the much 
more well-organized and well-financed extremist offices that 
currently spread destructive messages in our region, he 
emphasized. All three could be known by the same name, 
"Mosaica."  One office could be opened in Gaza, under Sheikh 
Faluji's direction, and another in the West Bank, near 
Jerusalem. (West Bank locations being considered are 
Bethany/Azariyah, under Sheikh Tamimi, or possibly Bethlehem, 
under one of the Christian leaders.) 
 
----------------------------------------- 
Agreement in Principle; Debate on Methods 
----------------------------------------- 
 
6. (C) Dr. Jarjoui complained that although he, Sheikhs 
Faluji and Sidr, and Rabbis Melchior and Smadja, had agreed 
in principle of the need for such NGOs on the Palestinian 
side during the December meeting, no one present besides 
Canon White and Sheikh Faluji appeared to have received a 
draft proposal or budget for the creation of such offices. He 
recommended, and all concurred, that written draft proposals 
and budgets be circulated to the group before they give 
formal concurrence to establishing the NGOs and seeking 
international financial support for their work.  After a long 
procedural debate that reflected the leaders' concern for 
maintaining their own relevance as the Alexandria Group, 
participants agreed that a smaller "Executive Committee" of 
five to six specific leaders could serve as the body that 
would formally approve the NGOs' establishment. They also 
agreed to Canon White's proposal to formally empower the 
Executive Committee to serve as a "rapid response mechanism" 
that could resolve and defuse potential conflicts between 
religious communities, in addition to its role of handling 
routine decisions between larger plenary sessions. 
 
----------------------------- 
Sheikh Tamimi: "Choose Life" 
----------------------------- 
 
7. (C) Sheikh Tamimi greeted his Muslim colleagues on the Eid 
al-Adha, and his Christian and Jewish colleagues on Tu 
B'Shvat (the new year for the trees) and the recent Orthodox 
Christian Epiphany and New Year. He said he considered the 
Alexandria Group as friends whose personal relationships 
could help "realize the lost peace in this holy land."  The 
group should continue its implementation of the declaration 
so that history will record that we did something positive 
for the peace process, he said.  He was pleased that the 
leaders could say they were at least on a path toward 
stopping bloodshed and protecting humanity. "We all live 
together, and hurt for any individual among us who is killed 
regardless of their faith," he continued. However, Tamimi was 
"depressed" because the Alexandria Group's efforts were not 
producing any movement in the peace process. He pointed out 
that Abu Mazen had achieved real progress in extensive 
meetings the last seven days, and was close to reaching a a 
cease-fire by all Palestinian factions, dependent on Israel's 
doing its part to help him by declaring a corresponding 
cease-fire from its side.  Such a development could help all 
peoples live in love and reconciliation and give a chance to 
peace. "It's our luck and destiny to live together," he said. 
"We can choose intelligently, and choose to live in peace, 
tranquility, and love, or we can choose the opposite, 
continuing killing and destruction." 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
Melchior Outlines Actions within GOI 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
8. (C) Rabbi Melchior, who was warmly addressed throughout by 
Sheikhs Falouji and Sidr as "our friend, Chacham (Rabbi) 
Melchior," encouraged all present to take heart from, and 
take advantage of, the new opening for peace that was 
presented by the formation of new Palestinian and Israeli 
governments since their December 5, 2004 meeting. He made an 
impassioned plea for the leaders to move beyond the 
theoretical and work toward practical, visible results in 
their communities: through education, humanitarian 
assistance, and getting their messages of peace and tolerance 
out publicly so that citizens at the grassroots would be 
encouraged to demand that their leaders make every effort for 
peace. "I suggest this because I am being practical. As 
religious leaders, we know that a political peace is just 
that -- a political peace. A religious peace would go deeper, 
addressing and healing the sources of the conflict."  He 
mentioned that in his interfaith dialogue work inside Israel 
since the Alexandria Declaration, there is an expanding group 
of rabbis committed to the Alexandria Group's work and to 
implementing what is agreed to on both "the political and 
religious tracks." 
 
9. (C) With Labor back in the government and Melchior back in 
a Deputy Minister position, he promised to work hard to 
resolve the travel permit issue that was causing 
embarrassment and humiliation to the Palestinian religious 
leaders and interrupting their ability to be full players in 
support of the peace process.  He undertook to seek blanket 
permits for Alexandria Group members, adding, "this doesn,t 
depend on us (Labor) alone, but it is a top priority." 
Tamimi remarked, "I am glad you are in the government again, 
because you are a man of peace." 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
Sidr and Melchior Take Dialogue on the Road 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
10. (C) Rabbi Melchior and Sheikh Talal Sidr briefed 
participants on their recent joint trip to Brussels for a 
large conference of Rabbis and Imams organized by a French 
organization under the direction of an individual named Alain 
Michel. Jarjoui protested that the Brussels meeting - the 
location and date of which were changed many times before it 
was finally held in early January - should have included 
Palestinian Christian leaders from the Alexandria Group. 
Melchior said the meeting was not held under the framework of 
Alexandria, but was instead the initiative of a well-meaning 
Frenchman with limited awareness of the intricacies of the 
Israeli-Palestinian situation. It was focused on the need for 
expanding dialogue and understanding between Jewish and 
Muslim populations in Europe, and as such, had its use.  He 
added that he, as a Jew who emigrated from Europe, understood 
how Palestinian Christians feel about being excluded, being a 
small minority in their land.  He committed to continue 
lobbying, as he had before Brussels, for full participation 
by Palestinian Christians in such inter-faith meetings. 
 
11. (SBU) In December 2004, Sidr and Melchior traveled on a 
joint speaking tour in the UK arranged by Canon White, which 
included meetings with the Archbishop of Canterbury and 
senior officials in the British Foreign Office, as well as 
public sessions. White informed Embassy and Consulate PD and 
POL officers January 19 that Congressman Lantos recently 
invited the two to speak jointly at a public Congressional 
hearing March 1, 2005. 
 
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