An appeal for a just settlement of the Middle East crisis which lists a series of issues requiring immediate action and warns of the possibility of renewed armed conflict has been issued here by a group of 150 Protestant, Catholic and Jewish clergymen.
The appeal was initiated by a Jesuit priest, the Very Rev. Charles S. Cassassa, president of Loyola University; Dr. Carl W. Sagerhammer, president of the Pacific Southwest Synod of the Lutheran Church of America; and Dr. Alfred Gottschalk, dean of the Hebrew Union College.
The statement urged support for the right of the Jewish people to exist in a sovereign state; consideration of the plight of the Arab refugees and persecuted Jewish nationals of Arab countries; the need for guarantees to all nations of free access to international waterways in the Middle East; and peaceful settlement of territorial disputes in the area through direct negotiations.
The appeal also urged an end to the Middle East arms race; concentration of available resources on the social and economic rehabilitation of the region; and assurances of universal and unrestricted access to the holy places in Jerusalem by arrangements for direct supervision of the shrines by the appropriate Catholic, Protestant, Moslem and Jewish authorities.
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