Only Islamic press is favorable to PCUSA statement on Israel
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, October 27, 2004
The fallout over the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s resolution calling for divestment of funds in corporations doing business with Israel and pro-Palestinian statements by Presbyterians meeting with Hezbollah in Beirut continues in the media – with the only support apparently coming from the Islamic press.
But the National Council of Churches, which is bankrolled chiefly by the PCUSA and other mainline denominations, said it supports the divestment resolution.
Al-Jazeera, an Islamic newspaper published in Saudi Arabia, has commended the Presbyterian Church (USA) for resolutions and actions that favor the Palestinian cause.
The Islamic publication reprinted on its Web site a letter written by Stated Clerk Clifton Kirkpatrick to members of Congress who expressed their concern over the denomination’s resolution to withdraw funding from multinational corporations that do business with Israel. Al-Jazerra also used the letter as a tool to raise money for its lobbying activities in the United States.
Al-Jazeera called Kirkpatrick’s letter a “powerful response” and said it is “particularly important for what it says about Congress’s habitual bias in favor of Israel and its refusal to address the quest of the Palestinian people to end the occupation and establish a state of their own.” In his letter, Kirkpatrick accused Congress of failing to work for peace in the Mideast.
At the conclusion of the letter, Al-Jazeera invited readers to send a contribution to the “Council for National Interest Foundation,” the U.S. group lobbying on behalf of the Palestinians.
The Philadelphia Inquirer published a story in Tuesday’s edition about a closed-door meeting attended by Presbyterians and Jews.
“With tensions between their communities on the rise, about 175 Jews and Presbyterians attended a two-day, closed-door convocation ending yesterday to ‘reexamine and strengthen’ their interfaith ties,” reporter Jim Remsem wrote. “The Presbyterian Church (USA) infuriated many American Jews this summer when it began exploring selective divestment from companies doing business in Israel and the occupied territories.”
The Rocky Mountain News in Denver published a commentary calling the Presbyterian delegation’s meeting with Hezbollah “More evidence that some of our liberal-religious elites are morally confused about terrorism and the debate about Israel.”
It added: “Unfortunately, this was no momentary lapse of good sense. Last summer, citing Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the Presbyterians called for a resolution to divest from U.S. companies doing business with Israel, which the 3-million-member church’s General Assembly passed by a lopsided 431-62 vote.”
While the Presbyterian Church (USA) was the first to call for divesting funds in corporations doing business with Israel, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that other mainline denominations are considering similar tactics – despite the furor directed at the PCUSA by many Presbyterians, Jewish groups and the secular press.
“The concept now is gaining ground in the heart of American Protestantism, pitting U.S. Jewish and Christian leaders against each other,” the Post-Gazette reported on Oct. 24. Leaders of both faiths say the trend is born of deep frustration, as the Palestinian intefadeh enters its fifth year and prospects for a settlement dim.”
The newspaper quoted Antonios Kireopoulos, an international affairs officer at the National Council of Churches, as saying, “I think, at this point in time, the frustration is reaching such a high, that things like this get traction.”