As the sunset of Sunday January 15th, religious leaders from Jerusalem, Central Israel, and the Galilee gathered in the Arab city of Rama.
Over 200 Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Druze leaders and supporters of the Abrahamic Reunion shared a meal as a symbol of peace and reconciliation between their communities.
This was a meeting with a purpose. In an interview with a PNN reporter, Eliyahu McLean, a Jewish Rabbi and Secretary of the Abrahamic Reunion explained that the meeting was organized to send a specific message: “The goal is to show the wider public that people of faith can work together for peace and reconciliation. We are trying to break the paradigm that our communities are separate and shift the public consciousness.”
When asked how the Abrahamic Reunion planned to bring more Palestinian religious leaders from the West Bank and Gaza into the process, McLean noted that a Palestinian from Mount of Olives and a Muslim Sheik from the Old City of Jerusalem were present.
He went on to explain that it is “virtually impossible to get religious leaders in from the West Bank” because of the coordination of permits. In the future, McLean thinks that the group can “probably work with people over the Green Line”.
Some of the prominent religious leaders who attended the evening included the Greek Catholic Deacon, Jiries Mansour, Chief Rabbi of Ethiopian Jews in Israel, Hadane Yosefe, and Muslim Sheikh, Abdul Aziz Bukhari. Rabbi Yousefe was adamant about his commitment to peace: “If you take all the other commandments and compare them, they are the same as peace. For peace, I am ready to do anything that is possible.”
