PRESS RELEASE - WJC President Lauder and LAJC President Terpins hope for Middle East progress

16 January 2012

Jewish and Palestinian Diaspora communities have role to play in fostering better understanding, WJC leaders tell Mahmoud Abbas.

LONDON – The presidents of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), Ronald S. Lauder, and Latin American Jewish Congress (LAJC), Jack Terpins, on Sunday expressed hope for progress in the Middle East. At a meeting with the president of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and chairman of the PLO, Mahmoud Abbas, in London, the Jewish leaders emphasized the urgent need for a permanent solution to the conflict in the region and underlined the role Jewish and Palestinian communities in the Diaspora can play in this respect.

“Reaching peace with one’s neighbors is part of Jewish yearning, and I am convinced that better cooperation between Jewish and Palestinian communities around the world can help to build the peaceful future both our peoples want”, WJC President Lauder declared.

LAJC President Jack Terpins informed Abbas about the positive experience of Arab and Jewish communities’ coexistence in Latin America, where they often live side by side harmoniously. He said that this was a model that should be replicated everywhere in order to lower tensions.