Beirut: July 17, 2006

The Arab Group for Christian-Muslim Dialogue has published the following statement (in Arabic on July 17, 2006):

Israel is committing a collective crime against Lebanon — all Lebanon in all its groupings and confessional communities. It is destroying towns and villages, ports and infrastructure that, following repeated destruction by the Israeli war machine, the Lebanese have rebuilt three times since 1982.

What Lebanon faces in this criminal, well-programmed and carefully planned aggression takes on more ominous dimensions in light of the United Nations’ delay in taking initiative to bring about a ceasefire, and in light of the fact that Arab foreign ministers are crippled, unable to rise in Arab solidarity to the level needed in the face of this barbaric aggression. Then too there is the political and moral cover that the United States of America provides to Israel and to the crimes it is committing.

The Arab Group for Christian-Muslim Dialogue bears witness to what has befallen and continues to befall both the people and institutions of Lebanon — the dreadful slaughter and widespread savage destruction. It also bears witness to the human suffering of tens of thousands of families forced to flee from their homes and villages. Finally it bears witness to Israel’s firm resolve to persist in its transgression of killing, uprooting and destroying.

The group therefore hails the innocent martyrs and prays that God Most High, in his enfolding mercy, will acquit their souls, that he will heal those who have been stricken, and sustain those overtaken by disaster.

The group hails the steadfast Lebanese people who, God willing, and because of their heroism, unity, and solidarity, will pass through this tribulation that has befallen them.

The group passionately calls upon churches throughout the world, upon ecumenical bodies, upon international humanitarian organizations, and institutions of civil society to bring moral and spiritual pressure to bear upon their countries’ governments to halt the Israeli killing machine, and to take immediate action to provide humanitarian assistance to the disaster-stricken Lebanese.

Similarly it calls upon community-based and official Islamic bodies, particularly the Organization of the Islamic Conference, to stand in support of the State of Lebanon, affirming its government’s policies, and extending to the Lebanese the kind of assistance that will enable them to overcome the severe trial that has overtaken them like a storm.

The group is also resolved to contact these same Arab and international Muslim and Christian bodies to brief them on this dreadful disaster that has overtaken the Lebanese, urging them to take up their responsibilities seriously and quickly to move to rescue Lebanon and all it represents as a model for national life in its vocation for freedom and democracy.

Judge ‘Abbâs Halabî
President of the Arab Group for Christian-Muslim Dialogue

Rev. Dr. Riad Jarjour
General Secretary of the Arab Group for Christian-Muslim Dialogue