JERUSALEM (WJC) – A delegation of 43 Argentinean Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders and politicians has arrived in the Middle East for a goodwill tour to the region to promote peace and mutual understanding. The group met on Thursday, Feb. 20, with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Ramallah, who expressed his belief that peace between Israelis and Palestinians was possible. In the coming days, meetings of the delegation with Israel’s President Shimon Peres, Latin Patriach Fouad Twal, senior officials in Amman, Jordan, and with Pope Francis at the Vatican are planned.
The trip is being organized by the Latin American Jewish Congress, the regional chapter of the World Jewish Congress. Visits to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, the Western Wall, the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, to Bethlehem and to Petra are also on the agenda.
“We are undertaking a similar journey as Pope Francis will do in May. We want to show that Argentina can export our model of coexistence and interreligious experience to this part of the world,” Claudio Epelman, the LAJC’s executive director, said. Prior to his election as pope, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as archbishop of Buenos Aires undertook great efforts to build better relations among the Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities of his native Argentina.
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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress
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