Rev. Dr Mae Elise Cannon is the executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) and a friend of Embrace the Middle East. Through events, resources, and trips to the region, CMEP provides opportunities to learn about the Middle East as they work to elevate diverse voices advocating for equality, security and human rights for all people in the Middle East. Here, Dr Cannon and CMEP call for new policy under the Biden Administration to help bring about a just peace for the Holy Land. 

As an evangelical pastor, I join Christians around the world in the belief that many places in the Middle East are holy. Consider the sacred city of Bethlehem in the Palestinian territories where our Savior Jesus Christ was born; Nazareth in Israel where Jesus spent his childhood years; Jerusalem where Christ died on the cross and was buried.

The Middle East is not only full of sacred places, but also sacred people. One of our commitments at Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) is to promote a shared Jerusalem for Palestinians and Israelis, as well as full access to Holy Sites of the three religious communities - Jews, Christians, and Muslims - and for all those who call them holy.

The foreign policies of the United States greatly impact the people of the Holy Land, in both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. At CMEP we are encouraged by the initial steps made by the Biden Administration in reaching out to Palestinian leadership. After nearly four years of no public contact between US and Palestinian leadership, CMEP was encouraged to hear of the call between the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs and the Palestinian Authority Civil Affairs Commission chairman. Yet, we are aware that much more must be done to build a truly diplomatic relationship with Palestinian leadership based on trust and mutuality.

CMEP therefore calls on the Biden Administration to make the reopening of the Consulate General in East Jerusalem a top priority. Closed under the previous administration and merged to become the Palestinian Affairs Unit (PAU) in the newly opened Embassy in Jerusalem, the Consulate General in East Jerusalem provided a connection point between Palestinians and the US Government. It is important that the US reopen this consulate to meaningfully engage with Palestinians.

CMEP also calls upon the Biden Administration to strengthen diplomatic ties with the Palestinian leadership by reopening the Palestinian Liberation Organisation Representative Office, which closed under the Trump Administration. The office helped provide services to the Palestinian-American community and strengthened the relationship between Palestinian leaders and US officials.

The lack of entities through which the United States might develop its relationship with the Palestinians seems to indicate a shift in direction away from the long-held two-state solution as a resolution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.  

While it looks like some doors have been opening between the US Administration and Palestinians, grave concerns remain. The US Government has never fully lived up to its promise of engaging as a partner in helping to bring about an end to the conflict in Israel-Palestine. Issues remain around increases in home demolitions in the West Bank, ongoing settlement growth, and limitations on the rights of free speech when it comes to advocacy in the US.

We ask the Biden Administration to call for an end to the ongoing occupation and to continue to strengthen diplomatic ties with Palestinian leadership so that both sides can work together to serve human rights and equality for all in Israel-Palestine.         

These are just some of the ways US foreign policy might constructively contribute toward peace and be a blessing to all of the people of the Holy Land.

Rev. Dr Mae Elise Cannon is the executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP). She is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) and author of several books including A Land Full of God: Christian Perspectives on the Holy Land and the most recent Beyond Hashtag Activism: Comprehensive Justice in a Complicated Age.