However, Mr. Chairman, the experience of this Commission through the work of the Special Rapporteur, and of the United Nations General Assembly through its Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People is not encouraging. These have been efforts to ascertain the truth, but that truth has not been acknowledged and shared by the Occupying Power. Thus we appeal to Israel to cease withholding its cooperation and to use the occasion of the creation of a new mechanism to show its firm will to deal with the past in order to build a new future for themselves and their neighbors. Mr. Chairman, reference has been made to intemperate statements of religious leaders in the course of the recent violence. We grant that some religious figures on both sides have given in to passion and expressed views that demonize the other.
Religion can indeed be susceptible to misuse by political forces that aim to divide.
But true religion is a resource for peace, harmonious living together, and of hope for a better, more just day. Christian churches around the world have over the years, and especially now been constant in prayer for peace with justice in the Holy Land. This strength does not reside in sectarian ideas or exclusivist claims, but rather in the promises shared by those who place their trust in one God. Late last week, at a service of Ecumenical Prayer for Peace organized on the initiative of His Beatitude Diodoros, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, Latin Patriarch Michael Sabbah spoke on behalf of his fellow Patriarchs and heads of the thirteen churches in Jerusalem who were present. Violence as long as it lasts for these reasons, is neither our goal, nor our destiny.