May 12th, 2023
Over 100 Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Druze demonstrated for peace, walking through Jerusalem into the Old City for an interfaith peace rally full of songs, solidarity, and condemnation for the violence between Israel and Gaza.
The march took place amidst an outbreak of conflict between Israel and Gaza, which broke out just the day before the march took place. The Abrahamic Reunion, along with Hartman Institute and many other organizations, had already organized an interfaith peace march through the Old City of Jerusalem for May 10th, to promote “Peace, Justice, and Equity.”
“It was a big statement, standing, singing songs with Christians and Muslims and Jews,” said AR Administrative Assistant Roie Kleitman, who attended with a group of AR young peacebuilders.
“The interfaith march was very exciting – around 100 people – very powerful to march in the middle of Jerusalem especially these days. It was not easy to march, lots of people around us that tried to not let us march, and demonstrated against us, but this was the year that it was important that it happened.”
Dr. Khalid Abu Ras, AR Amutah Board Member, and Fellow with the Hartman Institute, was a featured speaker, alongside other leaders including Rabbanit Tamar Elad-Appelbaum, Ghadir Hani from Women Wage Peace, Rabbi Art Green, and Ahmediyya Sheikh Amir Mahmoud Sharif Odeh.
The march was organized by a coalition of dozens of interfaith groups, including The Abrahamic Reunion: The Shalom-Hartman Institute, Rabbis for Human Rights, Israeli Rabbis Network, the Reform Movement in Israel, the Scottish Church, Churches for Peace in the Middle East, the Ahmadiyya Islamic Community, the Interfaith Encounter Association, Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development, Interfaith Initiative in the Negev, the Interfaith Group in the Galilee, Midreshet Hannaton, Masorti Movement, Spirit of the Galilee Leadership Group and the Swedish Theological Institute.
Media Coverage:
- Article in the Jerusalem Post, click here
- Article in the Tablet, click here
- Snapshot from Haaretz.com:
Quote from coverage by The Tablet:
As dusk fell over the skies in Jerusalem’s Old City, Sheik Ameed Adin chanted the prayer for peace of Abraham, the common patriarch of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, from the Ahmadiyya Islamic tradition.
“Our message is love for everyone, not hate,” he told the group of some 100 people who had taken part in the march from the center of Jerusalem to the Old City. They said it was to show their leadership in a time of strife, in the footsteps of the interfaith civil rights march of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “We believe in this with all our heart and we have to sacrifice for this motto. It is not just an Ahmadiyya belief, it is in the Koran, in Islam, in the Bible, in all religions. We have to work for this together.”
Muslim peace activist Ghadir Hani, from the northern Israeli city of Acco, and Rabbi Lana Zilberman Soloway from the Jerusalem area said their prayers — recited in both Hebrew and Arabic — took on a special urgency now, and that it was important to see Arabs and Jews marching together at these very tense times, with the missile attacks continuing even as they prayed.
“Today we are praying for all the children in Gaza and for all the children living along the Gaza border in Israel. We are one, and we are the ones bringing light to all the people of this land,” Hani said. “This march is a very important statement.”
Father Piotr Zelazko, who is patriarchal vicar for the Hebrew-speaking Catholics in Israel, and who participated in the prayer march, said his own community views their numerous interfaith activities with Muslims and Jews as an important undertaking.
“Interfaith Leaders March For Peace In Jerusalem As Spiral of Violence In Israel, Gaza Erupts”
“This makes us experience that we, human beings, can live together in peace and understanding despite the painful and unresolved political problems,” he said. “The meeting in Jerusalem was addressed to the local community of Jerusalem as a message of hope that common life despite the differences is possible. There are many people who want peace, among them the religious leaders — Jews, Christians and Muslims.”
May 11, 2023, https://thetablet.org/interfaith-leaders-march-for-peace-in-jerusalem-as-spiral-of-violence-in-israel-gaza-erupts/, accessed May 12th, 2023.
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