c. 1996 Religion News Service

(RNS)-Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders affiliated with the U.S. Interreligious Committee for Peace in the Middle East Monday (Feb. 26) condemned Sunday’s two terrorist bombings in Israel that killed 25 and injured nearly 80 others.

A committee statement said,”No matter what the cause, there is absolutely no moral justification for such violent attacks on civilians.” Hamas, the militant Islamic group that rejects the peace agreement between Israel and Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization, claimed responsibility for the suicide attacks. Hamas said the attacks were in retaliation for the assassination, presumably by Israeli agents, of Palestinian militant Yahya Ayyash, who was believed responsible for several earlier bombings.

The committee-which represents 2,300 Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders-also praised Israeli President Shimon Peres and Arafat for their continued commitment to the peace process.”Confronted by extremist attacks on the peace process,”the committee added,”American Jews, Christians and Muslims must be no less active and steadfast in our commitment to supporting Israeli-Palestinian negotiations than Israeli and Palestinian leaders are to making them work.” The committee’s statement was signed by its three co-chairs: Dawud A. Assad, president of the Council of Mosques; the Rev. Joan B. Campbell, general secretary of the National Council of Churches; and Albert Vorspan, vice president emeritus of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

In separate statements, several other Jewish and Muslim groups also condemned the bombings.

Officials at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, Penn., called the bombings”a heinous crime against humanity”that showed”callous disregard for the infinite worth of human life.” The American Jewish Committee, meanwhile, called on Arafat to”redouble efforts to root out those who wish to destroy the hope for peace between Palestinians and Israelis.” And the Muslim Public Affairs Council, based in Los Angeles, said the loss of lives resulting from the bombings”is unjustifiable regardless of the circumstances.”

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