11 August 2011, Ma'an News Agency http://www.maannews.net (Palestine)
Bethlehem (Ma'an) -- The sixth international theological conference opened Monday in Bethlehem, as theologians and intellectuals gathered from more than 17 countries and various Christian denominations.
The mayor of Bethlehem, a representative of President Mahmoud Abbas, and the minister of tourism arrived on behalf of the government, and clergymen Munib Younan and Atallah Hanna welcomed participants.
They stressed that the visit to the holy land reflected a desire to return to the roots of the Christian religion. Such pilgrimages motivate members of their faith to defend their values, they said.
A common theme of the opening statements was the organizers' call for participants to refute "false interpretations" of the Bible which justify "unethical procedures against the Palestinian people."
Christianity in its most pure interpretation rejects violence, tyranny, and violations of human dignity; consequently, the texts of the Bible cannot contain such interpretations, the clerics insisted.
The week-long conference is expected to host discussions about the role of theology and biblical research as well as what both subjects offer as messages to refute Zionism and its proponents around the world.
Delegates representing Orthodox, Catholic and Anglican interpretations are in attendance.
In 2009, Palestinian Christians from all denominations gathered in the same West Bank city to demand sanctions on Israel and to jointly reject Christian Zionism.
Clergy have termed their movement the Palestine Kairos Initiative, modeled after black South Africa's 1985 Kairos Document, a theological statement that called on churches to join the fight against apartheid.
In the same theme, over a dozen leaders of the region's Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican and Baptist traditions co-authored "A moment of truth", a point-by-point rejection of the occupation and a call for action against it.
The initiative urges the international community to begin "a system of economic sanctions and boycott to be applied against Israel," and to "engage in divestment and in an economic and commercial boycott of everything produced by the occupation."
The message insists, however, "These advocacy campaigns must be carried out with courage, openly sincerely proclaiming that their object is not revenge but rather to put an end to the existing evil, liberating both the perpetrators and the victims of injustice."
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