Interfaith Statement on Jerusalem’s Holy Sites and U.S. Secretary Rubio’s Visit

As faith-based organizations, we condemn Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s attendance of the inauguration of a settler-run tourist tunnel in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, East Jerusalem.

The tunnel project, funded and promoted by the Israeli government and the settler organization Elad, runs beneath Palestinian homes and ends at the foundations of the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount, just meters from al-Aqsa Mosque. By attending this event, Secretary Rubio lent US legitimacy to a settlement enterprise designed to entrench Israeli control over Jerusalem’s Holy Basin, one of the most sensitive and contested places in the world.

For decades, bipartisan US policy has been clear: the future of Jerusalem, and especially its holy sites, must be determined only through final status negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians as part of a two-state solution. Successive administrations of both parties have recognized that unilateral moves in this area threaten to inflame tensions, destabilize the city, and close the door on peace.

This visit represents a dangerous departure from that longstanding approach. It ignores the lived reality of Palestinians in Silwan whose homes and neighborhoods are undermined by excavations, and it privileges one community’s narrative over Jerusalem’s shared and diverse heritage.

We call on members of Congress and the broader faith community to reject this harmful endorsement of settlement expansion and reaffirm the principle that Jerusalem’s holy sites belong to people of all faiths and must be preserved as part of a negotiated peace.

Churches for Middle East Peace

Friends Committee on National Legislation

Muslim Public Affairs Council

New Jewish Narrative